Weekend Reading #356

This is the three-hundredth-and-fifty-sixth weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 21st March 2026.

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What we’re thinking.

 Well, the Iran War has dominated everything this week and depending on who you pay attention to, either it’s a disaster for the US and they are losing or it’s going incredibly well, and they are winning. All we know is to trust the market. Two of the best stock markets since the war began are... Yip, you guessed it - Israel and the US. Are the markets more intelligent than the pundits? Time will tell but it probably isn't coincidence. One of the most important things in being an investment manager is to have an open mind. Everyone is expecting the markets to plunge once they work out that global trade in some very important things is about to come to a halt. Well, what if worst case scenario doesn't play out? What if the Israelis pull off immaculate regime change? What if the US economy can handle higher oil prices while the rest of the world cannot? There are SO MANY POSSIBLE OUTCOMES. And that's what markets don't like - UNCERTAINTY. Whenever there is some clarity, whatever it may be, even if it isn't a great outcome, markets can then get back to doing what they do - price accordingly. Once again, we really have no idea what is going to happen, so we stay nimble and monitor the situation as they say. It probably isn't appropriate to admit this, but my goodness we are having fun! Markets hate uncertainty but we love it.

What we’re watching

 I've read a couple of Ashlee Vance's books, and they are rollicking non-fiction and very educational for someone like me. He writes about cutting edge tech and science usually and more recently he launched a media company called Core Memory. I subscribed because the quality of what he does is extremely high. Video, podcasts and a substack of endlessly fascinating content. This week he dropped a story about a Croatian American doctor and his startup, which takes dead brains and uses them to test medication. Now the key here is that the brain isn’t actually dead. When someone dies apparently it takes a while before the brain dies. So, they take the brains before they die and they use them. Does the brain still have consciousness? They don't think so and neither do I. It’s a mechanical instrument which can be used to test all sorts of things which are not possible while someone is still alive. Anyway, the doctor has created a machine which connects to the brain and provides all sorts of readouts and measurements to work out the effectiveness of whatever medication is being tested. Early-stage business and quite basic setup but gosh its fascinating. This is a great article and video segment. Worth subscribing to this if you like this kind of thing. 

 I'm so tired of trying to find good movies to watch and failing that I tried a new approach this week. I decided that non-western film making is probably less evolved which could mean better content is being created. Odd theory but anyway I sat down to watch Dhurandhar on Netflix, an Indian film which goes into the history of India fight against Pakistani terrorist militia. Its fictional but is driven by true events in its setting and context. The main character is an Indian spy who goes undercover to infiltrate a Balochi mafia warlord linked to some of India's worst terror attacks. It’s a 3 hour movie but it is worth every second and is certainly educational too. Excellent film made with elements of Bollywood and also some Tarantinoesque moments. The best thing I learned is that there is a sequel being released this week which I can go watch at the cinema in Cape Town! 

 And rounding things off this week on the watching front, probably the story of the week. Remember Afroman? He became famous for his song, Because I got High, many years ago. Well, he just shot back to fame in hilarious fashion. A few years ago, his house was raided by the cops apparently on suspicion of drugs and kidnapping. The only problem for the cops was that the house was empty. No drugs or kidnapping. And no Afroman, who was driving back from Chicago at the time of the raid. Unfortunately for the cops, Afroman (real name Joseph Foreman) was rather annoyed at this turn of events. Also, unfortunately for the cops, Afroman had surveillance cameras in his house, and they recorded they entire raid. He proceeded to write some songs and music videos using the surveillance footage. And damn they are brilliant. I laughed and laughed. So, the cops then get upset and they sue Afroman for defamation. The court case happened this week and gave Afroman more publicity than he ever could have dreamed of. And he won. Good for him. The best video (they are all good) is called Lemon Pound Cake and features a rather portly copper gazing longingly at Afroman’s "momma's lemon pound cake" in the surveillance footage. Chorus line: "Momma’s lemon pound cake it tastes no nice it made the sheriff wanna put down his gun and cut him a slice". It's all just too much fun. DC

 A new anime video production channel that popped up on Twitter (naturally it also has a Youtube channel) called PsyopAnime literally turns some of the key narratives on social media, largely political, into short anime-style videos – and they are awesome. Everything’s in Japanese, with subtitles of course, and artfully deploys all of the typical traits of anime to perfection: voice, tone, facial expressions, illustration style. Nothing to be taken too seriously given how politicised some of the topics are but they are most certainly fun to watch!

 On a more serious note, this video featuring Cambridge political economist Helen Thompson makes an interesting argument against the common belief that the situation in Hormuz is a shambles, triggered by poor planning and reckless American bellicosity. She counters the common narrative with an interesting idea – that the mess in Hormuz is intentional and that it was all set up to benefit the US, weaponising its energy abundance for geopolitical leverage, with potentially the biggest winner of it all being potentially Russia. On the losing end, China ostensibly as the key adversary, but also Europe which has made itself helpless and potentially increasingly dependent on US energy. As always, we’ll never know what the truth is, certainly not in real time, but it’s always interesting to hear some non-consensus views and keep an open mind. EL

What we’re reading

 One of my favourite sayings is that in life one way or another you get what you deserve. Put good into the universe and you'll get it back. Put bad into the universe the same applies. Nowhere was this more evident this week that in the case of one of our favourite short positions in the market. Box shifter and glorified "AI company", Super Micron Computer's chicken came home to roost late this week as its co-founder was arrested for circumventing US NATIONAL SECURITY REGULATIONS and sending Nvidia chips to China to the total of $2.5 billion. Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, Super Micro’s senior vice president of business development, as well as a company co-founder and a board member was the fellow who got done for his misdemeanours. The stock plunged post market and goodness knows where it will settle today. A company with a history of dodgy things doing dodgy things again? The universe made sure it got what it deserved. Never underestimate what a rotten culture can do to a company. We have been short this company for years and today we cover and move on. The only problem now is we have a Super Micro sized gap in our short book. Pity. But we will find another one. DC