His little shoulders

October 06, 2025 |Mark Ryan
The Spendemic: Based on the menus of the various streaming services, it seems that baking shows are all the rage. Today we imagine new one: It’s called “The Little Shop of Uncut Budgets.” It’s about a freaky little bakery in (name your capital city) where...
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Brick Chucker

October 01, 2025 |Mark Ryan
Good afternoon, We start out with a long read (about 20 minutes), comprising an in-depth analysis of the potential for BRICS nations to develop a political/economic block of sorts. It’s worth a look if you’re feeling inquisitive about the potential for...
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Gracious Again

September 12, 2025 |Mark Ryan
This week hit hard, though markets lumbered well enough, largely inched forward by rate cut expectations and still more favorable big tech news. Too Close and So Very Sad: We have some close personal ties with Utah Valley University, (where the Charlie...
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September update

September 08, 2025 |Mark Ryan
Good afternoon, I’m passing along a few updates after a bumpy but not terrible week (as of noon Friday), which more or less describes the first 9 months of 2025! First, here’s this week’s latest RBC Wealth Management's investment newsletter. Life reimagined:...
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Site C is for Cats?

August 29, 2025 |Nichole Eggen
Good afternoon, While summer rolls out and September approaches, we inch along bumpily in markets, occasionally touching new highs. The heat goes on, for now at least. More below, but first a quick flashback: Circa June 1990. The old banker they called...
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Oh those Russians!

August 22, 2025 |Mark Ryan
Godspeed Mr. President. But do your (Russian) homework. While the US president deserves credit for seeking to broker a solution, he’s also occasionally bragged about his erratic foreign policy, arguing he could, for example, end the Russia-Ukraine war...
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Avaricious Lunch Ladies

August 15, 2025 |Mark Ryan
Good afternoon! We’ll start today with a quick quote: Socialism-with-power’s Unexamined Legacy: “No cause, ever, in the history of all mankind, has produced more cold-blooded tyrants, more slaughtered innocents, and more orphans than socialism with power...
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There are no free waffles

August 05, 2025 |Mark Ryan
Waffle House Democracy. Mostly Irrelevant quote of the week: “Something joyously democratic surrounds the wayward cross section of humanity that gathers at a waffle house in the dead of night.” Lance McMillan Reminded me of a time when I had belt notches...
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The Robots are Coming

July 25, 2025 |Mark Ryan
Good afternoon, I’m not very familiar with this 1960’s economist, but I liked this twisty quote of his for its loaded nature. Both countries mentioned tell a story of enormous, and even well-proven economic success, followed by decades of systemic mismanagement...
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Lemon Zinger

July 24, 2025 |Mark Ryan
Good afternoon, jumping right in with a “…He said what?!” To the left (so to speak) an AI-assisted image of socialist Utopian Charles Fourier, who envisioned a super-duper equalized world, resulting, inexplicably, a navy of domesticated dolphins, who...
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