Consider, The Lobster

Today's regulatory arbitrageurs have gone far beyond David Foster Wallace - and even Jordan Peterson (a literary joke about lobsters).

A. The New Yorker’s John Cassidy asks: What happens when AI becomes abundant?

B. The Adelaide Writers Week is cancelled for 2026. The noted publisher Louise Adler resigned as its director - and wrote an on-point critique. Waves of political and social repression can occur in response to terrorist attacks as mutual polarisation occurs. Paul Wilkinson noted this about United Kingdom democracy during the Troubles in Northern Ireland - see the second edition of his book Terrorism and Democracy: The Liberal State Response (London and New York: Routledge, 2001).

C. I watched the PBS American Experience special Kissinger last night on the German-American diplomat and realpolitik academic Henry Kissinger. It deals with his early life up to the Vietnam War’s end in 1975 - with a very brief summary of the rest of his life’s impact. If you are interested in geopolitics and negotiation - this is well worth viewing (you may need a VPN).

D. On the King Crimson album Discipline (1980) - and the circumstances of its recording.

E. A lobster heist has revealed how regulatory arbitrage and convenience / opportunity-driven crime may intersect.

F. How David Orr transitioned from being a professional poker player to becoming a hedge fund manager.

G. New York University’s Professor Aswath Damodaran explains how valuation works.

H. Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu on the second Trump administration.