David Merkel (@AlephBlog) header
David Merkel (@AlephBlog) profile picture

The two main goals: teaching investors about better investing through risk control, and tying all of the markets into a coherent whole.

Baltimore, Maryland
Joined March 2010
Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)Photo by David Merkel (@AlephBlog)
Why Meta Platforms’ $27 Billion Data Center Bond Is Slumping barrons.com/articles/meta-pl… I do not get the willingness to invest in companies where governance rights are limited. One day, that will come back to bite.
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Micron Stock Pops as Rival SK Hynix Fuels AI Frenzy With Two Bombshells barrons.com/articles/micron-… Be wary when the forecast horizon gets long, even if the revenues are under contract. Promises can be broken; firms can default.
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It’s the most brutal class at Harvard—and suddenly everyone wants in wsj.com/lifestyle/harvard-cl… It is best to be balanced in your learning. The "classics" are good, but you need history, civics, math, science, etc. And if you haven't read the Bible, you don't know much.
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Behind ‘Mad Money’ was a brilliant writer viewers never saw. We lost him too soon cnb.cx/3UlKUKi Interesting take on Cliff Mason, Jim Cramer's nephew. who boiled down concepts in Jim's tone of voice to make them shorter & punchier. Died at the age of 41.
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California’s Next Insurance Commissioner Faces a Dystopian Future bloomberg.com/news/features/… It's tough, but whatever method you choose either creates subsidies and involuntary subsidy-funders, or it leads to pressure for people to move out of loss-intensive areas.
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There is no getting around this reality (but people don't want to hear it).
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$AVGO Broadcom CEO held 11th-hour talks w/bank executives over the weekend to get them to finalize their commitment to an Anthropic debt deal wsj.com/finance/broadcom-ceo… Really seems like most AI datacenter financing has to have a strong guarantor if they want to get the deal done.
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This implies that the risks are getting concentrated into a small number of creditors.
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The U.S. helped Canada build an aluminum-production juggernaut during WWII. In Trump’s trade war, those smelters are the enemy—and American businesses are paying a price. wsj.com/business/aluminum-ta… More US jobs have been harmed from the Aluminum tariffs than have benefited.
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3 Charts on Anthropic’s Historic IPO Filing morningstar.com/stocks/3-cha… It is technically correct to say Anthropic has free cash flow now, but neglects the many financing commitments that will kick in later. All the cash $ANT has, has already been spoken for.
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The Shoe Leather Edition whyisthisinteresting.substac… How one clever short made money shorting LVMH.
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In Trump's pardon economy, crime victims lost out on at least $119 million in restitution cbsnews.com/projects/2026/tr… Do not forget those who were harmed, and will get little to no compensation for that harm.
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Mbappé sorry for 'ill-judged' Mao remark after backlash in China bbc.com/news/articles/cv62yg… All that said, Mao was very much a villain in many ways. Had he been less clever at retaining power, he would have likely been sidelined many aggressive leftist CCP members were.
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There’s a flip side to Anthropic’s $80.7 billion net loss for the first half: $AMZN and $GOOGL booked large paper gains on many of the same financing deals wsj.com/finance/investing/an… This is one aspect of GAAP that doesn't make sense: do we use entry values or exit values?
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Plan for AI ‘agents’ to run US companies challenged by lawmakers ft.com/content/d5021cdf-816e… There are a lot of legal issues to work out before we can do something like this.
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The reclusive quant billionaire coming into the light (Peter de Putron has spent decades maintaining a low profile. But the scale of his interests is commanding new attention) ft.com/content/bc6bba42-0b33… Size has its own way of revealing secrets.
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