A practical guide to maintaining liquidity, reducing dangerous debt, and preserving financial choices when credit and real estate come under strain.
25 · v · 2026
China controls the exit door for money through FX quotas, banks, SAFE, the QDII/Stock Connect channels, and a distinctive structure: onshore CNY versus offshore CNH. When capital cannot easily flow out, trapped money doesn't automatically become a stock market bull run; it can sit in deposits, run into gold, or wait for an asset channel it trusts enough.
23 · v · 2026
The Fed doesn't just steer markets through interest rates. This piece explains QE, QT, repo, reverse repo, IORB, ON RRP, TGA, and the leverage ratio in plain language: is the Fed making money cheap or expensive, and is the system flush with cash or running dry.
23 · v · 2026
Better Call Saul: The U.S. Judicial System - Bus Benches, Plea Bargains, and the Incentives That Shape Justice
→Jimmy McGill takes on 100 public defender cases in a single morning. ADA Oakley pleads out 12 cases in 90 seconds. Twelve randomly selected jurors decide who is guilty. This is a three-tier system - local, state, federal - driven by KPIs and incentives, where 97% of cases end in pleas, DAs face almost no accountability, and $300 billion in tax money flows in every year.
20 · v · 2026
Michael Burry was right about subprime but nearly broke because he was too early. Long max loss = -100%; short max loss = -∞, even without leverage. VW 2008 ran 5x in two days; GME 2021 ran 28x in four weeks and destroyed Melvin Capital. Correct pessimism needs the right trade structure.
20 · v · 2026
A pho restaurant borrowed 1 billion, but when it was due to pay 100 million interest, there was no money. Banks have two options - and the one that looks better is much worse in the long term. The article explains the evergreening mechanism, why it took Japan 20 years, and why post-COVID East Asia is in a place worth watching.
18 · v · 2026
McKinnon & Shaw (1973): keep interest rates below inflation + control capital flows = a hidden tax on savers. The U.S. used it to reduce war debt. China used it for 30 years to finance industrialization. And those same tools still matter today.
18 · v · 2026
Happiness doesn't live only in the experience itself, but in whatever it's placed next to. Hedonic contrast explains why breaks, plain experiences, and just enough scarcity can sharpen the emotional palate.
12 · v · 2026
The older we get, the more the years seem to compress. It is not that the clock runs faster - the brain marks fewer new events, memories carry less detail, time pressure changes how we recall the past, and the brain's own timing systems age too.
11 · v · 2026
A stablecoin isn't stable because of blockchain magic. It's stable when there's a 1:1 redemption right into real money, high-quality liquid reserve assets, regular verified reporting, and law that stops the issuer from treating reserves as its own capital. USDT, USDC, and XSGD differ mainly in reserve asset quality, transparency, oversight, and redemption rights.
5 · v · 2026
Folio III of VIII