Stratagems & Asset Class Reallocation

What might replace the historical "cash nexus" of Thomas Carlyle.

A. In 1982 the leveraged buyout / private equity firm Garfield bought Gibsons Cards, and then after a restructure had a significant Initial Public Offering. Financial Times investigates in a 55-minute podcast episode. In many ways, the Garfield deal which occurred at the start of the United States equities boom and the Drexel Burnham Lambert development of high-yield debt (so-called “junk bonds”) cast the die for what private equity was in the 1990s to further develop into.

B. E. Jean Carroll (who directly influenced me in 1993 to go into freelance journalism, which I did until 2004) is pursuing President Donald Trump for $USD5 million in damages that he owes her. This is a common “shifting the burden” pattern that Trump has used in his position-based negotiation strategy (which others have adopted). What this means in reality - and what Carroll is likely experiencing - is a compellance-based targeting by Trump of her vulnerabilities by trying to block and delay as much as he can having to pay these damages. This stratagem is now central to coercive and compellance based lawfare that is occurring in other industries.

C. Today’s MIT OCW free course is Taxes and Business Strategy created by Professor George Plesko (Google Scholar).

D. Neal the elephant seal has returned to Tasmania. He is putting the disruption back into disruptive innovation (the late Clayton M. Christensen) and “move fast and break things” (Meta / Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg).

E. Data centres for Generative AI are becoming a flashpoint in some Australian towns and cities. James Footh is ready with The Data Center Asset Class (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2026), which is out on 16th December. That shows you that Wiley (which for many years had the leading Wiley Trade imprint for pre-Volcker Rule proprietary traders) is acquiring new titles based on visible social trends and public sentiment, in order to build an audience. Footh is an asset / property / real estate manager - so we see the AI-data-property nexus (as an infrastructure asset) that might replace the historical “cash nexus” of the reactionary philosopher Thomas Carlyle. This stratagem combines ground rent (Karl Marx) with AI (John McCarthy and the early Dartmouth conferences).

F. If you search through the W&L Law YouTube Channel, there are free mock courtroom classes, and specific recorded sessions on topics that range from evidence to negotiation. This is student driven, yet may be useful for self-education.

G. The legendary producer Rick Rubin on finding your life’s work.

H. The now legendary Rage Against The Machine set from Woodstock ‘99.

I. The NTS guide to music from talented Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s novels.