Top 10 Must Reads

Top 3 Funk Songs - Commodores, Parliament, and Earth, Wind & Fire

Nov 24, 2025

Top Ten

Walter Isaacson in The Free Press: Things Worth Remembering: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

Two hundred and fifty years ago, one sentence became our common creed and mission statement, binding a diverse group of pilgrims and immigrants into one nation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The resentments and polarization that afflict us today should lead us to ask a basic question: What is the purpose of an economy? To increase wealth? Yes, that’s good. Growth? Yes, also good. But the purpose of an economy is also something deeper. Its purpose is also to create a good society.

Reflection: Excellent essay. Should be required reading.

George Friedman - Geopolitical Futures: On the 28-Point Plan to Resolve Ukraine
An entirely too sober look at the recent offering to end the war in Ukraine.

Any discussion on resolving the war in Ukraine must begin with two fundamental realities: Russia is unable to achieve its military objective to defeat and occupy Ukraine, and Ukraine cannot fully expel Russia from its borders. Wars end in either victory for one side or a negotiated settlement. Since neither side can defeat the other, this war will end in a negotiated settlement that neither side will be happy with.

Reflection: No way we can ever welcome Russia back into the global economy.

Bloomberg Report : The Offshoring of America’s Retirement Savings As Apollo reinvents how Wall Street handles insurance and pension funds, firms are shepherding hundreds of billions of dollars to Bermuda entities that lose US protections while making opaque, complex bets

Reflection: Honestly, how our federal government can allow this crap to occur is beyond comprehension. Every elected member of Congress should be taking a piñata bat to this. Literally a heads we win, tails you lose scenario for unsuspecting citizens of this nation.

Bloomberg Editorial on #3 : Key Takeaways From Bloomberg’s Look at Private Equity-Backed Life Insurers
It keeps getting more complicated.
As insurers invest in more sophisticated parts of the market, the route they take to get there is another issue. Many are paying to shift their obligations to offshore entities.
Last year, US life and health insurers leaned on entities in Bermuda for $928 billion of reinsurance in various forms, up from $205 billion in 2014. The benefit for insurers is that taxes are lighter and rules looser.

But if things do go wrong there, it can take years to untangle and parcel out what’s left to policyholders.
Reflection: Imagine being able to go to a casino and placing bets with other people’s money (OPM) without losing any of your own.
Speaking of Congress and the federal government looking out for us…
The American Prospect’s David Dayen: The AI Bubble Is Bigger Than You Think It’s not just OpenAI that looks overhyped. There’s a whole mountain of sketchy financial engineering underneath.
The speculative financing of the artificial intelligence buildout is happening mostly in private credit, where assets under management hit $1.6 trillion in February and are likely higher today. The deals being made are perverse and irrational; there are huge mismatches between the life cycle of the assets being funded and the amount of time it will take to pay them off. Experts have been doing everything but picketing the stock exchange with signs that say “BUBBLE IN PROGRESS,” yet the country has so much sunk cost in the AI boom that the pathway feels inevitable. “We have sealed the deal on another financial crisis—the question is size,” said one former congressional staffer.
Reflection:
Axios - Shapiro's climate program exit raises questions about 2028 politics
Let’s size up Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) latest energy move through 2028-tinted glasses.
Catch up quick: He just agreed to a state budget that includes pulling Pennsylvania out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
- That’s the power plant cap-and-trade system among Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, and Wednesday’s move angered environmentalists.
- Pennsylvania’s participation has long been tied up in court.
State of play: Shapiro blamed state Republicans for using RGGI as an “excuse to stall substantive conversations about energy.”
- He’s pushing his own state energy plan that supports renewables, nuclear and fossil fuels. It includes a state-based cap-and-trade program.
Reflection: Potential talking point for Republicans wanting to make hay on RGGI and cost to rate payers vis a vis affordability.
Reps Roy (R-TX) and Magaziner (D - RI) - Reps. Roy, Magaziner Introduce Historic Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Members of Congress from Trading Stocks

Representatives Chip Roy (R-TX-21) and Seth Magaziner (D-RI-2) introduced new historic bipartisan legislation today, H.R. 5106, the Restore Trust in Congress Act. This legislation aims to ban Members of Congress and their families from engaging in insider trading and reconciles several previously introduced bills on the subject.

Reflection/Devil’s Advocate: Jeff Yass LTE to WSJ 9/16/25

As Friedrich Hayek observed, politicians tend to be wildly overconfident in their beliefs, arguably the worst trait a trader can possess. Should we ban politicians from trading? As a market maker in stocks and options, I say: Don’t ban it. Subsidize it.

Reflection Part Deux:

8. Axios Holly Otterbein: Scoop: Dems eye ranked-choice voting for primaries

Zoom in: Supporters of the change — which would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference — told those at a DNC breakfast gathering in D.C. that it would strengthen and unite the party.
They said it would prevent people’s votes from being “wasted” after presidential candidates drop out, and encourage coalition-building among contenders — an attention-grabbing pitch in light of the party’s divisive primaries in 2016 and 2020.

Reflection: Duh. It’s called WINNING. Just ask the Virginia GOP in 2021.

Take the Political Tribes Quiz to figure out where you are these days.
Reflection: This is where I landed.

10. Thessalonians 5: 16-18:
In all circumstances give thanks.