Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads June 1st, 2025
“There is no sin except stupidity”--Oscar Wilde
What an interesting idea. A Militarized REIT.
"The problem for our dying towns and cities, therefore, isn’t that recovery is impossible. Rather, it’s that they often can't afford the investment levels and police presence necessary for a Greek Town-style rebuilding, and because of that have trouble attracting new residents that would spark a revival of sorts by providing the resources necessary for it. It only works in a sliver of Detroit because a few wealthy company owners bought up real estate and demanded employees move back to town, which generally isn't replicable.
That gets to the militarized REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust, or a company focused on developing and running a specific sort of real estate) idea: what if you had an East India Company-style, well-capitalized company that provides security and government services in the Western manner, in exchange for rents and limited liability for its owners.
Such a company could take advantage of situations like that in Baltimore, where the city government is willing to sell abandoned homes for a nominal fee if buyers will move in. Right now, buyers won't, because of the danger; if you could provide safety for the purchased area, and subsidize the cost of living in such a situation, people could move back. So, the problem is not finding opportunity, but how to provide security, and make it desirable and profitable?
Providing that opportunity and security is what a militarized REIT could do."
https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/what-about-a-militarized-reit-that
2. "In other words, neither investors nor manufacturers themselves believes in the long-term reindustrialized future that Oren simply assumes will come about. Instead, it appears that tariffs are dramatically accelerating America’s deindustrialization.
And if that’s true, Cass’ other arguments all go up in smoke. Who cares if people like working factory jobs when there are fewer factory jobs to work in? And so on. Every defense of the tariffs is based on this assumption of reindustrialization; if, as looks very likely, that turns out to be a fantasy, the whole edifice collapses.
Oren Cass and other tariff-defending pundits have thus hitched their wagons to a stagecoach that is driving straight off a cliff. They have managed to remain inside the favored circle of the MAGA movement, but this required them to make a terrible sacrifice — they lost their freedom to look out the window and see the calamity unfolding."
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-pundits-dilemma
3. "The new normal is a market environment where every unit of inventory carries an opportunity cost. The winners will be those who can squeeze even just one more dollar from their inventory. The operators who can maximize the value of inventory to accrue as much cash as possible are best positioned to weather the storm."
https://newsletter.equal.vc/p/inventory-apocalypse-20
4. "When it comes to worshipping mammon (money), I suspect that investors will stay true to their religion. They will buy yield. US Treasuries may temporarily sell off while all this restructuring of cash flows, assets, and liabilities, and overall rules of the game are going on.
But America is a master of restructuring a deal that has gone wrong. Americans are masters at reinventing themselves and launching new businesses. Everywhere I go, I hear of new ventures being launched as people seek to take control of their future in the US. Notice what The WSJ points out: Trump is a disaster in the headlines everywhere, but not in the data.
The moral of the story is to know your schisms, be surer of your chosen catechisms, and hold onto some gold."
https://drpippa.substack.com/p/schisms-and-gold
5. "Ignorance of the macro is not a virtue." Macro helps your micro. Bridging the gap between science fiction and science fact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us58WjbknsI&t=2031s
6. Billionaire Defense Builders. Don't say Dual Use. The story of Anduril. It's a really insightful convo here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPOjD0RxX_k
7. "The next time Trump presses the tariff button – which he will do, to ensure nations respect his authority – he will be able to ask for additional concessions, and Bitcoin won’t get crushed alongside certain equities. Bitcoin knows that the deflationary policies cannot be sustained for long, given the insane levels of current and future debt the filthy financial system requires to operate.
The ski cut of Mt. Sharpe World, produced a category 2 financial markets’ avalanche that could have quickly escalated to category 5, the highest level. But team Trump reacted, changed course, and put the Empire on a different aspect. The slope’s base was solidified upon using the driest dankest pow pow made of crystalline dollar bills provided by treasury buybacks. It’s time to transition from the slog up the mountain carrying a backpack filled with uncertainty, to jumping off powdery pillows, yelping with delight at how high Bitcoin shall levitate.
As you can tell, I’m very bullish. At Maelstrom, we have maxed out our crypto exposure. Now it’s all about buying and selling different cryptos to stack sats. The coin purchased in the largest quantity was Bitcoin during the dip from $110,000 to $74,500. Bitcoin will continue to lead the way as it is the direct beneficiary of more fiat dollars sloshing about due to future monetary liquidity injections provided to soften the impact of a Chi-Merica divorce. Now that the global community believes Trump is a madman crudely and savagely wielding the tariff weapon, any investor with US stocks and bonds is looking for something whose value is anti-establishment. Physically, that’s gold. Digitally, that’s Bitcoin.
Gold never held the narrative as a high-beta version of US tech stocks; therefore, as the general market collapsed, it performed well as the longest-standing anti-establishment financial hedge. Bitcoin will shed its association with said tech stocks and will rejoin gold in the ‘Up Only’ cuddle puddle."
https://cryptohayes.substack.com/p/ski-cut
8. "Japan’s corporate governance reforms, which began with Abenomics about a decade ago, have made notable strides. But the TSE’s recent directive signals a meaningful shift—from procedural compliance to outcomes-driven accountability—and the momentum is clearly taking hold. The durability of this corporate renaissance now hinges on whether more companies are willing to break from outdated norms and adopt a capital allocation mindset aligned with shareholder value.
Ultimately, the TSE’s initiative isn’t about valuation multiples for their own sake. It’s about prompting a reckoning in Japanese boardrooms—about what it truly means to be a public company, the responsibilities that come with access to investor capital, and the role listed firms play in the broader allocation of financial resources across the economy. The P/B ratio may be a blunt instrument, but it remains a telling one. And the market has made clear: it stands ready to reward those who rise to the challenge."
https://mailchi.mp/verdadcap/diverging-destinies-in-corporate-japan
9. "I suspect that Trump’s ultimate agenda could be aimed at returning the United States to Alexander Hamilton’s American System of political economy and away from the British free trade system. The difference is that the American System allocates credit for industrialization and productive ends while the British free trade system credits nonproductive uses aimed at inflating, then bursting asset bubbles. Abraham Lincoln's chief economic advisor Henry C. Carey contrasted the two systems in his 1851 work, "The Harmony of Interests"
https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/is-trump-actually-taking-on-the-bankers
10. How Great powers self destruct.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT3hoxOwtgQ
11. "It is right and proper to revere and venerate our ancestors — not because they were wiser than us, or because they ruled over great empires, but because they struggled up out of the animal muck into which they were born. They put their shoulder to the wheel and kept going, day after day, through all the sorrow and hardship, and they never quit.
Our ancestors were not wise kings and majestic emperors. They were filthy apes who dared to look up at the stars. That struggle is your blood and your heritage, and it is greater than any empire that has ever existed.
The proper way to honor that legacy is to emulate it — to build more, to keep struggling upward in the present day. To believe that we live in a fallen world is to disgrace every one of our forebears who worked to give us a better future. Instead, we should stay on the path they set out for us, looking forward instead of back.
Squabbling over whose people “built America”, and trying to keep out anyone who doesn’t spring from that stock, is a fool’s errand; instead, we should be welcoming and encouraging the people who will keep building America tomorrow, no matter what part of the globe they hail from. Fighting over whose ancestors were greater is useless; instead, we should resolve to create a great line of descendants. Rather than restoring our societies to the (real or imagined) glories of the past, we should expect to build our societies to peaks never imagined.
That task is what we should take pride in. That is what we owe to the future, and to those who came before."
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/you-are-the-heir-to-something-greater
12. "The database that records your financial transactions might seem like an invisible technical detail, but as assets move to blockchain databases, the implications for investors, startups, & the entire financial system will be profound & hugely positive."
https://tomtunguz.com/tokenization-ipo/
13. Lessons from building Mischief VC, a true founder driven VC fund.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Ym_n9fhSk
14. George Friedman has been right more than wrong on geopolitics. Worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmmyLzlELz0
15. "The autocrats have a simple plan: tear everything down and give them control. Let them use technology and artificial intelligence to optimize our lives, realizing efficiencies through the consolidation of power. They decide who's a terrorist and who goes to globally centralized prisons and concentration camps. Indeed, are we not already here?
While it is possible that we may, through some combination of luck and leadership, throw off the convergence infection for a short time, we are unlikely to vanquish it permanently. The only solution is to outflank it with a new vision for global democracy. This is so far outside the Overton window as to be unthinkable crazy talk — for now. But will that still be true in a month, a year, a decade?
Convergence starts slow, and then gains speed as the poles begin to meet. Things are moving so rapidly now, it's likely we will face a series of destabilizing events such that won't know what has happened until after it's occurred.
Consider this a warning, and a call to action: we must start thinking about what comes after the United States in its current configuration — indeed, we must start to design America 2.0, and be ready to counter authoritarians with a truly better vision of a democratic global future."
https://america2.news/convergence-is-here-and-were-not-prepared/
16. A wide ranging conversation on the state of venture capital and startups. It's rough out there. Environment really matters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgcrazZ3YmU
17. Grim view of the stalled Re-industrialization process in America. Trump Admin has fallen down here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3UxkOG-wzQ
18. A very sober conversation on tariffs & free trade. USA is shooting itself in its foot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPfE5SS7fc0&t=8s
19. Trump trade deals. What trade deals? What a mess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v25aMhjKqQ
20. Ian Bremmer: Decline of rule of law, Chaos and uncertainty under Trump. Not good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLtb9HVNY0I
21. Fascinating conversation. How to understand how people and the world works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3cdPis--kU&t=11s
22. Be the mountain, not the storm. The what's up in Silicon Valley news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYoEmqM24b4
23. Surviving the DoD Meat Grinder for defense focused Investors and startup founders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlGWpzOxbU&t=1s
24. Always direct and sometimes controversial but always smart takes on venture and startup land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXDrl_yyWJo
25. A very educational conversation on how CCP won China and implications for today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l3Sa8ImGFQ
26. Always sober conversation on geopolitics from one of the best historians of our generation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yot-L8X8XC8
27. "Similar to a mob boss, the president has created an incentive system to keep everyone in line. Donating $1 million to his inauguration fund, nodding politely, publishing a (bullshit) press release about a “massive” investment in domestic manufacturing, and staying quiet is the way to go … if you know what’s best for you and your economic interests. I’ve heard firsthand that CEOs at the biggest companies agree — in private — that Trump’s policies are dangerous and stupid. In public, they cower. They keep their heads down and their knees bent, fearing retribution or hoping to profit.
The fastest-growing, and possibly most dangerous, class in America is what I’d label the Transnational Oligarchs (“Togarchs”). The Togarch has no use for the government once Uncle Sam’s check has been cashed. The charging stations are built, and the government-sponsored technology is already stitched into their offering. The rule of law, regulation, tax system, and public infrastructure that paved the way for their billions is now a liability for their “genius” — an obstacle to paying no taxes or worrying about the damage their product(s) levy on others.
They have little vested interest in the things the government does or why it requires their tax dollars. Their wealth, comparable to that of a nation state, yields its own sub-infrastructure: private schools, health care, security, and rights. Overturning Roe v. Wade or rounding people up poses no threat to them. If shit gets real, and someone in their life becomes pregnant or people show up with pitchforks, no bother. The Togarch will always have access to mifepristone or residency in Dubai, London, or Milan. In sum, they’re no longer Americans. The Togarch class is growing and slowly co-opting Fortune 500 CEOs to join their ranks."
https://www.profgalloway.com/breaking-the-silence/
28. "Everything compounds—from money to relationships to knowledge and beyond. The key is to start investing time and energy now. Build a process through consistent inputs and habits, and after many years, you’ll reap the rewards. The best time to start is today."
https://davidcummings.org/2025/04/26/everything-compounds/
29. Sarah Paine is one of the most erudite historians from the Naval War College. This was a very informative conversation. Learning how to operate geopolitically from history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbkO84MsmyM&t=3800s
30. Solid overview on what it takes to be at the top.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zBa_qEZZe0
31. "Our numbers look about right. If you’re getting punched in the face right now, so is everyone else. We’ve got a rough estimate of 15% for the average decline in demand. There is always some crazy trend (Pistachio chocolate for example) but the general rule is about 15% plus or minus 5%. This means if you’re down about 10% you’re probably gaining market share. If you’re down 5% you’re *definitely* gaining market share.
Vast majority of people are not built to sustain pain and get greedy (as we’ve seen time and time again). This is great news for you as the female buying patterns have already shifted. We already mentioned press on nails, mainstream finally caught up to mushrooms (source) and you already know the step by step on how to test demand.
As usual, people give up at the first sign of weakness. Similar to how they get greedy when things are going up. Do the opposite.
Right now if you can find a product in any of the following that makes money, we’re near certain you’ll be a deca-millionaire. While crypto/tech all have bright futures, thinking that a meaningless $200K in any of those assets will make you rich is comical (at best). Using $25-50K to build into one of these niches could net 8-figures."
https://bowtiedbull.io/p/selling-to-gen-z-women-wtaf
32. "Most prefer to doom post. They won’t even bother trying anything. 90% of businesses fail blah blah. Reality is that $1M is attainable by simply putting in effort. Anyone who disagrees, just do yourself a favor and delete their contact info.
You don’t even need good timing.
People *choose* to be millionaires. Or they choose not to. It’s lack of priorities that set them back. Go into Tech sales, Tech or worst case scenario Wall St (secular decline). Immediately (not later) start a boring side biz that can be a product or consulting. The second you get your first $1 we promise you will already see it.
At this stage, you are no longer shipping all your money back into the business. We’d wager majority end up making $150-200K online. This has been the rough average in the jungle from our glance in the background.
Everyone has a different belief system but the same concept is this, ship into appreciating assets: 1) other e-com/biz flips, 2) Real estate, 3) SaaS or 4) the aforementioned secular trends.
Create that Money Making Machine = Put in $1 get more than $1 back. Keep spending until it is no longer green."
https://bowtiedbull.io/p/how-the-rich-avoid-massive-taxes
33. Short but important discussion. Why we need to utilize AI in our defense industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooMXEwl7N8Y
34. Mercenaries, the world's oldest profession. Expect a major resurgence of their use now.