Tuesday, August 18, 2026

"SoftBank plans $6.3bn retail bond issue, largest by Japanese company"

›
From Nikkei Asia, August 18: Funds to be used for more acquisitions in physical AI   TOKYO -- SoftBank Group is planning to issue around 1 t...

Capital Markets: "The Dollar is Mostly Firmer but in Narrow Ranges"

›
 From Marc to Market: The US dollar is mostly firmer against the major currencies.   The Australian and Canadian dollars are the exception, ...

"Bond Yields Are Hitting Multidecade Highs Around the World"

›
From Bloomberg, August 18:  Everything from inflation to the AI boom is pushing borrowing costs higher. Market data as of 06:18 AM ET. Data ...
Monday, August 17, 2026

"China Is Opening the First Regular Cargo Route Through the Arctic"

›
From the Wall Street Journal, August 14: Sending containerships through northern passage now makes financial sense because of high oil price...

"Nvidia Rows Back on $250 Billion OpenAI Pledge and the Stock Rises" (NVDA)

›
Good. From Barron's, August 17: Nvidia stock was edging up early Monday. Shareholders might be reassured the chip maker is moderating ...

"'US Can't Bomb Its Way To Victory': Scotiabank Maps Bessent's Coming Economic Hammer On Iran"

›
From ZeroHedge, August 17: Brent crude futures ended last week near $88.50 a barrel as traders awaited details of Treasury Secretary Scott B...

On Iran, The Atlantic Council Has Some Advice For President Trump

›
From The Atlantic Council, August 12: Iran is draining its leverage in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s best move is to let it happen.   Landon...

Capital Markets: "Dollar's Losses Extended, but Stabilizing Ahead of the North American Session"

›
From Marc Chandler at Bannockburn Global Forex: The US dollar continues to trade heavily after the series of softer than expected data since...
Sunday, August 16, 2026

"Why Microsoft’s boss is reading up on the 1873 financial crash"

›
From the London Times, August 5: We are currently experiencing a reminder of the challenges that are familiar to multiple economic meltdowns...

"Ukrainian drone regiment ‘decimates’ 3,500-strong U.S. armored brigade combat team in war game — High drone kill-rate forced continuous 'respawns,' reveals shortcomings in American response as drones easily spotted and destroyed tanks and armored vehicles"

›
From Tom's Hardware, August 16: These wargames are designed to "defeat" visiting forces so that they learn something new in th...

"Terafab could become the largest factory on the planet—or Elon Musk’s biggest failure" (SPCX; TSLA)

›
"At SpaceX, we specialize in converting things from impossible to late."*   – Elon Musk   I think he paraphrased the quote from th...

SCMP: "Why China’s military is laser-focused on ‘disruptive’ technologies"

›
From the South China Morning Post, August 5: From artificial intelligence to quantum technology and hypersonic weapons, the PLA is in a race...
Saturday, August 15, 2026

And Now, A Marxist Perspective: "AI Shock and Central Bank Trap"

›
From one of our three go-to Marxists. Two are economists* and then there's Fabio.  As noted in the introduction to June 2024's ...

More On Physical AI: "How world models became AI's next frontier"

›
From The Deep View, July 3: Large language models can do a lot of things, as long as those things exist on a screen. Having consumed practi...

"Japan’s Underground Lab Wants to Solve the World’s Nuclear Waste Problem"

›
From The Diplomat, August 13: A rare visit to the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory, where Japanese researchers are testing options f...

"Nvidia’s new $500B plan is risky but brilliant, especially for aging GPUs" (NVDA)

›
From TechCrunch, August 13: Nvidia announced this week that Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR were willin...

"The Plague That Broke English (And Why the Founding Fathers Didn’t Sound British)"

›
From the Past Life, Present Cleavage substack, April 3: So. Did the founding fathers sound British. The short answer is no. The longer answ...

Followup: "Tapes Hidden in an Ice Cream Box Lay Bare a Maltese Journalist’s Assassination"

›
From the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, August 13: In the trial of business magnate Yorgen Fenech, a middleman’s secret r...