Ann Barbour

[Ann Barbour @AnnBarbour1]

@troydolin What did I miss? is it👽,🌮, or market advice 🤣

[FSMN @faststocknewss]

Trump Media $DJT considering spinning out Truth Social and Truth+ into a separate listed company, while also pursuing a merger with nuclear fusion firm TAE Technologies, per WSJ.

New interim CEO Kevin McGurn, replacing Devin Nunes, tasked with figuring out how to integrate or separate the company's social media, cryptocurrency, and nuclear fusion ventures.

[stock setter @MarcJacksonLA]

$KR
Kroger Stock Drops After CEO Plans Big Price Cuts To Tackle Competition

Price cuts to be the highest in years to tackle Walmart $WMT and Costco $COST.
https://t.co/0OEQ8ziIds

[dylan ツ @demian_ai]

What is the smallest object that, if it stopped being made tomorrow, would freeze the entire AI industry by Friday?

Not a chip. Not a GPU. Not a model.

A polished piece of indium phosphide the size of a coaster, grown in a furnace over two weeks, made by exactly two companies in the world that are not Chinese.

I learned that around 4 a.m. one night about two years ago. I have not really stopped thinking about it since.

To understand why a coaster of crystal can hold up a trillion-dollar industry, you first have to understand that almost nothing about modern computing is normal.

A leading-edge AI chip travels through roughly a thousand process steps over three to four months. The cleanroom it lives in is thousands of times cleaner than a hospital operating room. The fab itself draws as much electricity as a small city. The single lithography machine that draws the circuits has five thousand suppliers of its own, spread across six countries, and not a single nation on Earth could build one alone. By the time a finished chip pops out the other end, more humans have had a hand in its production than live in most American towns. Most of them will never meet.

From the highway, a TSMC fab looks like a beige warehouse with a parking lot. Inside, it is the closest thing humans have ever built to alien technology.

I find that genuinely moving. And I find it terrifying. Because a miracle that complicated has a lot of single points of failure, and almost nobody in mainstream coverage is mapping them.

Two years of pulling on this thread keeps bringing me back to the same conclusion. The 2026 to 2030 AI buildout is gated by four physical constraints, and almost nothing else.

1. Indium phosphide wafers. Two credible non-Chinese suppliers in the world.
2. Advanced packaging. Four companies on Earth that matter.
3. Power. Industrial gas turbines sold out into 2030. Three vendors at scale.
4. Critical minerals. China's pause on gallium, germanium, and antimony export controls expires November 27, 2026.

By the time a chokepoint is on the front page, the move is largely over. The prize goes to whoever was patient enough to map the chain when it was boring.

So I built a dashboard

A free public dashboard. The chokepoints, the names that own them, the live prices, the catalysts, and the written thesis all on one screen. No login. No newsletter. Not a portfolio. Not a recommendation. A prism.

I wanted it free because the people I would have wanted to read this when I was younger could not have afforded a Bloomberg terminal. Students. Engineers. Journalists trying to understand what they are writing about. Retail investors tired of being sold someone else's conviction. Curious teenagers in countries where the local financial press is twenty years behind the actual frontier.

The chain deserves to be walked. That is the whole invitation.

links below 👇

Educational, not investment advice.

[Ann Barbour @AnnBarbour1]

@troydolin Oh boy, now I know why I haven’t heard from you in a few days! You’ve been busy🤑

[💕 Brittany Belle 💕 @BrittanyinTexas]

Kudos to whoever wrote this… 🤭

Presenting: The Ballad of Stephen Miller. 🎶

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

I want to correct one endless piece of misinformation spouted about Iran, that: “Iran funds terror operations around the world”

This is said as if Iran runs ISIS/al-Qaeda, who do target random civilians across continents.

In fact, Iran has CONFRONTED those organisations. And Shia Muslims are threatened and attacked by ISIS/Al-Qaeda more so than Westerners.

Iran funds and arms regional self-described “resistance” organisations and allied militias — most notably Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis — as part of a REGIONAL strategy in the Middle East: confronting Israel, the US, and other allied states.

Yet, it's true that these groups are designated as terrorist organisations by the US/UK/EU. But they are a different category from the kind of transnational Salafi movements who carried out indiscriminate mass-casualty attacks in Western capitals.

And crucially: whatever you think of Iran’s strategy (and you can think it’s disastrous, morally abhorrent, terrorism, whatever) it's simply not the case that Iran "funds terror attacks around the world."

This line is emerging as a key piece of propaganda to justify the war. Iran is indeed a threat to Israel. But it was not, until 3 days ago, a significant threat to Europe or the US. But this is why Israeli propaganda works overtime to try and suggest otherwise.

[Earth Hippy 🌎🕊️💚 @hippyygoat]

ALL US wars have been for Israel for the last three decades…
THIS IS THE REAL STORY

[Greg Stoker @gregjstoker]

To all the pro-war goons on this app:

Just know that y’all are the “third world savages” you keep talking about.

You’re impoverished. You can’t go to the doctor. You are uneducated. A tyrannically militant pedophilic elite has taken it all from you and you call for the death of people you don’t even know or understand.

You have more in common with those drowned Iranian sailors than you ever will with the billionaires whose boots you lick.

Good luck on your political journey.

[Global Statistics @Globalstats11]

Countries Bombed by the United States Since 1945 💣 🇺🇸

1. 🇨🇳 China → 1945–1946
2. 🇨🇳 China → 1950–1953

3. 🇰🇵 North Korea → 1950–1953

4. 🇬🇹 Guatemala → 1954
5. 🇮🇩 Indonesia → 1958

6. 🇱🇦 Laos → 1964–1973
7. 🇻🇳 Vietnam → 1965–1973
8. 🇰🇭 Cambodia → 1969–1973

9. 🇱🇧 Lebanon → 1983–1984
10. 🇱🇾 Libya → 1986
11. 🇮🇷 Iran → 1987–1988

12. 🇳🇮 Nicaragua → 1980s

13. 🇮🇶 Iraq → 1991
14. 🇰🇼 Kuwait → 1991
15. 🇮🇶 Iraq → 1993
16. 🇸🇴 Somalia → 1993
17. 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina → 1995
18. 🇮🇶 Iraq → 1996
19. 🇸🇩 Sudan → 1998
20. 🇦🇫 Afghanistan → 1998
21. 🇮🇶 Iraq → 1998

22. 🇷🇸 Yugoslavia / Serbia → 1999

23. 🇦🇫 Afghanistan → 2001–2021+
24. 🇵🇰 Pakistan → 2004–2018
25. 🇸🇴 Somalia → 2007+
26. 🇮🇶 Iraq → 2003–2011
27. 🇾🇪 Yemen → 2002+
28. 🇮🇶 Iraq → 2014+
29. 🇸🇾 Syria → 2014+

30. 🇱🇾 Libya → 2011

31. 🇾🇪 Yemen → 2024–2025
32. 🇮🇷 Iran → 2025
33. 🇸🇴 Somalia → 2025
34. 🇸🇾 Syria → 2025
35. 🇳🇬 Nigeria → 2025
36. 🇻🇪 Venezuela → 2026
37. 🇮🇷 Iran → 2026

Note: The list includes direct U.S. bombing, airstrikes, drone strikes, and missile attacks.

NATO or coalition operations are included only when the United States played a primary or leading role.

Source: William Blum (Rogue State, Killing Hope), Maurer. ca US Bombing List, Wikispooks (US bombing campaigns), ACLED (2025), Al Jazeera, Reuters, Antiwar. com, Newsweek

[GRITCULT @GRITCULT]

This guy predicted Trump and the Iran war last year.

Is a high school history teacher.

He had no views and no subscribers a few days ago. Has over 100k subs in like 3 days. Has entire playlists on what’s gonna happen. Has been right so far.

Absolutely insane.

[Surmount @SurmountInvest]

The $3 trillion private credit bubble just cracked.

And retail investors are trapped inside.

February 20, 2026: Blue Owl Capital permanently BLOCKED withdrawals from one of its funds.

$1.4 billion in assets liquidated.

Stock crashed 6%.

Investors who thought they had "quarterly liquidity" just learned what illiquid really means.

But here's the part that should terrify you:

Blue Owl isn't alone.

This is happening across a $3 trillion market that retail investors have been piling into for years.

And most people have no idea they're sitting on a ticking time bomb.

Let me show you what's really happening in private credit:

Private credit sounds boring.

It's not stocks. It's not crypto. It's just... loans.

Direct loans to mid-sized companies that can't or won't borrow from banks.

For years, Wall Street has been selling these loans as the perfect alternative investment:

"Higher yields than bonds."

"Less volatile than stocks."

"Uncorrelated to public markets."

The pitch was simple: Banks are overregulated. Private lenders stepped in. Everyone wins.

Retail investors bought it.

Hard.

By 2023, institutional investors owned just 25% of private credit funds.

Retail? 75%.

Mom and pop investors now carry most of the risk in a $3 trillion market.

And that market just started breaking.

Here's what happened at Blue Owl:

Blue Owl Capital manages $307 billion.

One of their flagship products: Blue Owl Capital Corporation II.

A "semi-liquid" private credit fund sold to retail investors.

The promise? Quarterly redemptions.

You can get your money out every 90 days.

Sounds safe, right?

Wrong.

Because here's the problem with private credit:

The loans are ILLIQUID.

When you lend money to a private company for 5-7 years, you can't just sell that loan tomorrow.

There's no market for it.

No exchange.

No buyers lining up.

But the fund promised QUARTERLY withdrawals.

So how does that work?

It doesn't.

It's a liquidity mismatch.

You're promising investors they can leave every 90 days.

But the underlying assets are locked up for years.

As long as redemptions are small, you're fine.

Cash from new investors covers the exits.

But when everyone tries to leave at once?

The whole thing breaks.

And that's exactly what's happening.

In Q4 2025 alone, investors requested nearly $3 BILLION in redemptions from semi-liquid private credit funds.

That's a 200% increase from the previous quarter.

People are running for the exits.

And the funds can't keep up.

So Blue Owl did what desperate funds do:

They sold $1.4 billion in loan assets.

At fire-sale prices.

To generate cash for redemptions.

And then they pulled the plug.

No more quarterly redemptions.

Your money is LOCKED.

Permanently.

Blue Owl co-founder Craig Packer tried to spin it:

"We sold assets at 99.7% of face value."

"30% of investors will get their money back in 45 days."

Translation: 70% of investors are stuck.

And even the ones getting out are only getting SOME of their money back.

The rest? Frozen.

But this isn't just about Blue Owl.

This is about the entire private credit market.

And the cracks are spreading.

Let's talk about WHY this is happening:

For over a decade, interest rates were basically zero.

Investors desperate for yield moved into riskier and riskier assets.

Private credit offered 8-11% returns.

Way better than the 2% you'd get on a Treasury.

So money flooded in.

Pension funds. Insurance companies. Retail investors.

Everyone wanted a piece.

But here's what nobody talks about:

Those high yields weren't free money.

They came with RISK.

Real, serious, hide-in-the-fine-print risk.

The companies borrowing from private credit funds aren't borrowing privately because they're great credits.

They're borrowing privately because BANKS WON'T LEND TO THEM.

Think about that.

These are companies that are too risky for traditional banks.

But retail investors are buying them as "safe alternatives."

It gets worse.

Because as more money poured into private credit, lenders started competing.

And when lenders compete, they make stupid loans.

Covenant-lite deals.

Payment-in-kind toggles (PIK).

Higher leverage.

Weaker protections.

Dan Rasmussen from Verdad Capital called it "fool's yield."

High returns that don't translate into actual profits because the borrowers are too risky.

And now those chickens are coming home to roost.

The headline default rate in private credit is under 2%.

Sounds great, right?

Wrong.

That number is FAKE.

When you include "selective defaults" and "liability management exercises", fancy terms for "we're struggling but haven't officially defaulted yet", the REAL default rate is closer to 5%.

And it's rising.

Here's what's driving the collapse:

PROBLEM #1: AI is killing software companies.

Blue Owl's portfolio is 70% concentrated in SOFTWARE.

And AI is eating software alive.

PROBLEM #2: First Brands Group.

September 28, 2025.

A company called First Brands Group filed for bankruptcy.

$10 BILLION in liabilities.

The company had gone on a decade-long debt-fueled acquisition spree.

Buying up auto parts manufacturers.

Financing it all with private credit loans.

Then the business imploded.

PROBLEM #3: The liquidity mismatch.

Semi-liquid funds promised quarterly redemptions on ILLIQUID loans.

That only works if redemptions stay small.

But redemptions aren't small anymore.

They're SURGING.

Fitch reports that semi-liquid fund inflows are down 15%.

Redemptions up 200%.

When outflows exceed inflows, the fund has to sell assets.

But private credit loans don't have a liquid market.

So they sell at discounts.

Which lowers the fund's NAV.

Which triggers MORE redemptions.

It's a death spiral.

PROBLEM #4: The Fed stopped helping.

For years, low interest rates made private credit attractive.

11% yield when Treasuries paid 2%? Easy decision.

But now?

Treasuries pay 4%.

And private credit yields are FALLING.

Not because the loans are safer.

But because so much capital is chasing deals that borrowers can demand better terms.

The "spread" over risk-free rates has compressed from 6% to 3%.

So you're taking MORE risk for LESS return.

That's the definition of a bad trade.

Here's who saw this coming:

Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital.

He's been warning for months:

"Private credit may be the top candidate to start the next financial crisis."

He called semi-liquid private credit ETFs "the ultimate sin."

Because you can't have instant liquidity on illiquid assets.

It's structurally broken.

The Department of Justice just warned about "creative marks" in private credit portfolios.

Translation: Funds are lying about what their loans are worth.

The SEC is investigating Egan-Jones Ratings for conflicts of interest in how they rate private credit deals.

And a BlackRock private-credit CLO just FAILED its over-collateralization test.

That's a technical way of saying: "The loans are worth less than we thought, and we don't have enough collateral."

These are all canaries in the coal mine.

And retail investors are still sitting in the mine.

Now here's the part that should keep you up at night:

Most investors don't even realize they own private credit.

It's buried in:

- Target-date retirement funds
- Multi-asset income funds
- Alternative investment sleeves

Sold as "diversification."

But diversification into what?

Illiquid loans to companies that banks won't touch.

Valued by the same funds that own them.

With redemption terms that only work until they don't.

And now the exits are closing.

So what happens next?

Best case: This is contained to a few bad funds.

Blue Owl takes the hit.

Investors lose some money.

The rest of the market stabilizes.

Life goes on.

Worst case: This is 2008 all over again.

More funds freeze redemptions.

Fire sales accelerate.

Prices collapse.

The "shadow banking system" that grew to $3 trillion breaks.

And it spreads to the rest of the financial system.

Because guess who owns a lot of this private credit?

Insurance companies.

Pension funds.

The same institutions that are supposed to be SAFE.

If private credit blows up, it doesn't stay contained.

It ripples through the entire system.

[💗 @ma1ybe]

My classmate was raped on her way back home from university and got pregnant, but couldn’t get an abortion due to the laws. She had to drop out of university where she was studying medicine. Because of pregnancy and childbirth expenses, she couldn’t continue her studies, left college, started working at a coffee shop, lost the fun of her early twenties, and lost the chance to attend international medical conferences she once dreamt of… all just to give birth to a child she never wanted.
People say, “What if the baby you abort grows up and cures cancer?”
Okay — but what if the 19-year-old you deny an abortion to grows up and cures cancer?
Now she can’t afford to get an education. Instead, she has to take care of a baby. What about her? An actual living human being???
“Abortion ends potential life”… So do property disputes, war, and genocide. You only seem to care about lives when women don’t give birth to them.

[Maryam @hell_line0]

There is a nine year old CHILD in Louisiana being forced to carry a pregnancy that was the result of SA.
A nine year old CHILD. Who cannot give birth naturally because she is a CHILD and will have to undergo a C Section if she or the fetus even survive.
This should enrage you. This is not pro life. I will not argue

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

I agree with you on the drip.

They are not just hiding names.

They are calibrating the dosage.

Show you an island.

Nothing breaks.

Show you flight logs.

Nothing breaks.

Show you "suicide in custody" under cameras that magically stop working.

Nothing breaks.

After that, the content almost does not matter.

It can be satanic rituals, child torture, bio labs, blackmail, whatever version you believe.

The core experiment is always the same:

How much horror can you watch and still go back to work on Monday.

It is not just about normalizing depravity.

It is about teaching you something deeper:

That nothing you learn will ever change who rules you.

You are being trained to live with cognitive dissonance as a permanent condition:

Yes, your elites rape and traffic children.

Yes, your intelligence services run cover.

Yes, your media launders it as gossip.

And yes, life goes on, stocks go up, elections continue, the same surnames stay on top.

Once that lesson sinks in, mass surveillance and open authoritarianism are not a shock.

They feel like a natural continuation of a world where evil is public and untouchable.

1984 was about torture in a basement.

Our version is softer:

Reality shows, late-night jokes, "leaks", FOIA drops, redacted pages.

You are not beaten into submission in Room 101.

You are entertained into numbness on every platform.

For me the key point is this:

The drip is not only testing outrage.

It is measuring obedience.

They want to know:

Can you know this and still pay your taxes,

Still send your kids into their schools and armies,

Still treat their courts and ballots as legitimate.

If the answer is yes, then they do not fear exposure.

They have discovered something more powerful than secrecy:

A population that has seen the monster and decided to live with it.

That is the real Black Mirror.

[Maryam @hell_line0]

A girl is pregnant at 13 and everyone debates abortion. Nobody debates why a grown man felt entitled to her body.

[Joe G @EastEndJoe]

This video explains it all! 👇

[The Onion @TheOnion]

Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage https://t.co/jZ558lWGra

[Ann Barbour @AnnBarbour1]

@SteveUrkelDude 🤣🤣🤣