Recent content by Alistair

I 100% agree. That doesn't however have anything to do with the government just arbitrarily taking on debt to gift every baby with a $1000 starter fund. Earn some money, invest some money, enjoy the rewards. Simple stuff really... and if the government needs to mandate some financial...

Social Security generally isn't invested at all. It's immediately paid out to cover current retiree payments. When a surplus does occur, which it hasn't since 2020, it's invested into US Treasury securities. That's an entirely different problem, because in theory social security contributions...

There is another economic consideration to the Trump accounts, which is either positive, or negative depending on your worldview. That $3bn a year is required to flow into US stock markets. Those are the only investment vehicles allowed; passive ETFs tracking US markets. Typical capital...

Plus of course per SpaceX's own S1 filing, Starlink, the rockets, all the space stuff... is irrelevant to the supposed valuation. 93% of their claimed future revenue streams are just from their AI business unit. Per their own Total Addressable Market summary. A TAM summary which...

I encourage you to read the S1. It's... enlightening to say the least. Pretty funny too honestly. If that's too much effort, which fair enough, this is an entertaining, if rather brutal summary. Thoroughly worth a watch: Easy enough to fact check everything he says as well, it's all in the...

It's certainly marketed and sold as a luxury watch. People believe it is one. So it is.

That checks out. Rolex does a great job of advertising their watches to the masses, so whenever someone finally accumulates a bit of wealth or a relatively well paying job and wants to impress their friends (and random strangers), it's the go to. It's why they're so popular with influencers...

Hmm. A couple of questions: - Perhaps an obvious one, but you say the rifle shoots factory just fine. Have you tried using some since you started the reloading stuff? Want to rule out a recently dinged crown or a lost land or something as a root cause. - What primers are you using? - Are you...

Yeah, I think the IPA thing has run its course a little. There's nothing wrong with IPA, it's great beer when done well, and when it's done badly it hides a lot of sins. I used to work in a brewery in Burton on Trent, UK. I appreciate the history too. The US craft seen did a really great job...

The only times I've gone, it was jeans and a hoodie. I actually find this a good test for luxury brands. Show up looking like a homeless person. Do they still treat you with respect? Do they still take the time? Do they care to get to know you? It tells you a lot about their brand; is it the...

To point 1, there's a more obvious benefit to a bit of inflation. The US is hopelessly indebted as a nation. There's no way in hell any administration can meaningfully pay it down, or cut costs, or mitigate the interest payments. That'd take both competence, and a long term strategy, things...

Full disclosure, this is a biased source, no doubt about it. However, it is well referenced, and ignoring the spin in the commentary, the figures do check out (at least the ones that I bothered to spot check did). If you have a spare 20 minutes, you might find it an interesting read. If you...

One point of clarification on the solar system thing. It is subsidized, to the tune of about 30%, but it's subsidized in the same that that having a mortgage is subsidized; tax write offs. If you took out a mortgage and did itemized deductions at any point to claim back on that interest, you...

Which begs the obvious question: Who ultimately pays them? The consumer. There's a bit of a lag in shifting the impact over to them, but it is happening. Annual cost increases were higher this past year than they would have been due to tariffs. Next year, same thing. Until eventually 100% of the...

I mean, fair enough I guess. But saving a freezer full of food and a week or 2 in a hotel maybe once every couple of years (if that) is not going to yield enough savings to pay for a 15k generator. Especially as the generators are only expected to have a 15 - 20yr useful life.