Charlie Ormond

Google’s new protocol has all the ingredients to turn shoppers into digital serfs.

These aren’t isolated currency wobbles. They’re stress gauges for global leverage and a referendum on whether the US dollar stays dominant through higher rates, or loses ground through political chaos at the Fed.

Rio Tinto and Glencore begin discussions to form a copper behemoth. Should the deal proceed, it would forge one of the largest mining companies in the world. But is everyone happy?

The macro regime has shifted. Fiscal dominance, sticky inflation, and constrained central banks create a structural case for real assets. This isn’t a rotation. It’s a regime allocation.

2025 was dominated by political theatre, but the structural story was unfolding in technology. AI capex driving growth while application-layer delivery lagged. That tension will define 2026.

Whether you’re lounging poolside or hiding from your relatives, here are the books, podcasts, and long-form videos that shaped my thinking this year.

If we see a Trump ‘yes man’, short-term US rate cuts might juice American stocks, but they could also send long-term bond yields flying. That ripples straight to our shores.

Bloomberg breaks the biggest IPO news in years, Charlie and Ray explore what it means for early investors in the latest space race.

In my opinion, Tesla has become a symbol of blind AI optimism for retail investors. Whether that’s their promised full self-driving (FSD) or mass-scale robotics in 2026, investors should be ready for another harsh dose of reality.