9 Developments Everyone Should Know
291: How up to speed are you vs. normies?
Happy Thursday kings and savages.
Wild week in markets so far as Apple crosses 200+, Gamestop continues to play out, and crypto looks a bit shaky in the short term.
Today I want to try a new format — we’re going to be covering 10 Essential News/Development Updates that every man and woman should be able to talk about at a high level if they consider themselves “informed”.
I was laughing to myself when I spoke to a normie coworker the other day who lives in South Florida. I mentioned the Russian Fleet and Submarines that have been lurking off the coast on their way to Cuba and the guy looked at me like I had 4 heads. ZERO clue.
Had no idea this was happening.
Staying informed about global events is crucial, especially amid geopolitical turmoil in Ukraine and the Middle East, rampant inflation, and an upcoming critical election. These issues directly impact financial markets, economic stability, and international relations. More importantly — they can impact your ability to make money in markets, hedge downside risk, and generally sound competent in your interactions with coworkers, people, and friends.
Understanding the broader context helps individuals and businesses make informed decisions, anticipate risks, and navigate uncertainties. In a world where financial conditions are increasingly volatile, being aware of current events is essential for safeguarding interests and making longer term strategic plans for yourself or your business.
Information is power as they say.
There are wild things happening and the mainstream media either ignores them or actively chooses to not touch on the material for fear of falling “out of line” with the accepted narrative. These are edgier and sometimes more uncomfortable topics — but without a basic grasp on them you really have no business having larger opinions on politics or policy.
One thing I take pride in is having the ability to recount major news stories or happenings each and every day — and while I never expect everyone I speak to or come into contact with to be THAT on top of things, you’d be surprised how many are utterly clueless to what’s happening around them.
Does this mean you need to hopelessly drown yourself out in a news feed of negative cycles and updates? No.
But if you’re running your mouth about endless support for Ukraine or if you think we should be striking Russian targets inside their interior, you better fully understand that the Russian’s could wipe out the Eastern Seaboard tomorrow if they wanted to.
Today I want to play a little game with all subscribers to see how up to speed you are with world events and some more serious developments that impact all of us around the world and within the US.
A rough guide for today’s post to grade yourself. Look at each topic in today’s post — if you knew SOMETHING about it (and be honest) you can consider that a point. Do this for all 9 items in today’s post to come up with your final score. Rubric is below:
0/9 - You are a barely sentient life form
1/9 - You emerge from your bedroom once a day for cereal
2/9 - You see flashes of news on Tik Tok but keep scrolling
3/9 - You repeat talking points from CNN and Fox News without context. You still think Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK.
4/9 - You scan newspapers in bodegas and CVS stores for “talk points” and have one topic you love to bring up in discussions since you remember that class in college
5/9 - You know more than the average normie and only care about knowing “some” things because it makes you feel smarter than your dates
6/9 - You were a 3.5 gpa student, you don’t care for news but ingest it semi regularly and read more than most people
7/9 - You work in business, finance, or a role that forces you to keep up — you can articulate your own opinions well on issues
8/9 - You regularly use multiple news sources like Twitter, websites, and have read extensively about history. You have a general sense of everything going on and how it impacts your life directly (or doesn’t)
9/9 - You are a true geopolitical size lord. You can hold a conversation with a Portfolio Manager or a journalist with ease. You can reference history, world events, and speak to trends in all regions and countries globally. You can rattle of statistics, high level trends, and data points relatively easily on many subjects. Women (or men) throw themselves at you, guys/other women want to be you, and your study is probably decorated with Bronze bull bear statues and expensive oriental rugs.
If you got above a 5/10 go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back as you likely know more than 90% of the population.
Without further adieu let’s get into #1. My guess is 25% of the population actually knows this is going on.
Russian Naval Exercises off Cuba and Florida
In a move reminiscent of the height of the Cold War — Russia has been making sure the US is well aware of their sentiment towards the West at the moment.
The Russian Navy's new frigate named the Admiral Gorshkov boasting an armament of Zircon hypersonic missiles arrived in Havana, Cuba this week.
They’ve also sent submarines including a Kazan nuclear submarine that carries a range of different missiles.
The distance from Havana to the southern tip of Florida is not far at all — roughly 90 miles to Key West.
This posturing by the Russians has happened throughout history post Cold War — but this trip is definitely symbolic for Putin. Sometimes I feel people forget we are essentially living on one giant board of the game Risk.
Nation States and superpowers are active right now — while the world watches the increasingly violent campaigns in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, there are other things happening all around us.
The Russians — are clearly sabre rattling. They have the nuclear arsenal to easily annihilate cities within the US from the Caribbean. They can do it from Russia, but these naval movements are a clear sign of the tension between Russia and the United States’ ongoing support for Ukraine and NATO.
In news Thursday Insider Paper reported that NATO countries have “comfortably exceeded” a target of placing 300,000 troops on high-readiness as the alliance grapples with the threat from Russia, a senior alliance official said Thursday.
A ground conflict in Europe outside of Ukraine isn’t far fetched at this point.
Number two may or may not be a give me depending on where you work and what your job entails….