Jeff

Husband, father, financial professional. Lover of investing, music, fly fishing, hiking and the outdoors. Sports and motorsports fan. 🎣🏈🎾⚾️🎿🥾🏁🏎️

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

The New York Knicks are NBA champions for the first time in 53 years. They’re also the most unlikely title winners the league has ever seen. https://t.co/A8SioWRm9v

[NEW YORK KNICKS @nyknicks]

for the boroughs and Knicks fans around the world 🏆

[NBA @NBA]

WILLIAMSBURG.
ASTORIA.
EAST VILLAGE.
CENTRAL PARK.

NEW YORK IS CELEBRATING THE KNICKS CHAMPIONSHIP ACROSS THE CITY 🌆🏆

[The Tennis Letter @TheTennisLetter]

THE MOMENT MIRRA ANDREEVA BECAME A GRAND SLAM CHAMPION.

The youngest woman to win this title since Monica Seles 34 years ago.

Only 19 years old, doing historic things.

🥹🥹🥹🥹

[The Tennis Letter @TheTennisLetter]

Maja Chwalinska in press at Roland Garros

“Definitely an unforgettable 3 weeks for me. I’ve had such a great time. I’ll never forget these 3 weeks. Mirra was a much better player today, she deserved to win. But I’m proud of my efforts.”

❤️

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.

They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.

Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.

They lost them for two reasons.

The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.

In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.

Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.

That fight dragged on for years.

The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.

Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.

So now it's all gone.

The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.

Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.

Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.

But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.

Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.

And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.

Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.

Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."

There it is. "Billionaire-owned."

That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.

Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.

Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."

When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.

They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.

Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.

But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."

Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.

Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.

Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.

[Roland-Garros @rolandgarros]

MAJA CHWALINSKA, YOU ARE A ROLAND-GARROS FINALIST 🤯

#RolandGarros

[The Tennis Letter @TheTennisLetter]

Maja Chwalinska has changed her life at this year’s Roland Garros.

Her total career earnings before Roland Garros:

$864,030.

What she’s earned at this tournament:

$1,624,000.

Because the players don’t get the money til after the tournament, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to cover her costs for a hotel as she went further and further in the draw.

Polish company OSHEE had to step in and pay for the rest of her hotel fees.

It’s nothing short of heartwarming to see this happening to such a humble person who has overcome her share of struggles.

She overcame a battle with depression and stopped playing tennis entirely for a period to take care of her mental health.

She wasn’t sure if she’d ever come back to this sport.

Absolutely unreal story. 🥹

🇵🇱❤️

[The Tennis Letter @TheTennisLetter]

Maja Chwalinska has earned more prize money at this year’s Roland Garros than she’s earned in her entire career.

Her total career earnings before Roland Garros:

$864,030.

What she’s earned at this tournament:

$870,000.

She will be the new world No. 30 when the new rankings come out.

She started Roland Garros as the world No. 114.

A life-changing journey that started with a dream from qualifying.

She took a 4 month break after a 2 year battle with depression due to the pressure & stress of playing professional tennis.

She didn’t know if she would ever return to this sport.

Everything she’s earned this tournament and throughout her entire career has been earned the hard way.

The fact that she’s where she is today is nothing short extraordinary. 🥹

🇵🇱❤️

[TheStreet @TheStreet]

Jeff Bezos had something to say to every American worker, and he said it on live television without hesitation. https://t.co/nmKvjopUm1

[INDYCAR on FOX @IndyCarOnFOX]

A tribute to Kyle Busch on Lap 18 of the Indy 500.

[NTT INDYCAR SERIES @IndyCar]

THE CLOSEST FINISH IN INDIANAPOLIS 500 HISTORY!

IT'S FELIX ROSENQVIST! 🏁

[INDYCAR on FOX @IndyCarOnFOX]

FELIX ROSENQVIST WINS THE CLOSEST FINISH IN INDY 500 HISTORY!

[Cathie Wood @CathieDWood]

Impacted by Ryan Hunter-Raey’s unfortunate spinout at the #Indy500, @katherinelegge crashed into a wall at ~200mph and yet, hours later, raced another 600 miles at the #NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte. We admire your grit, tenacity, and determination, Kat!

[The Rational Animal 🤔 @theobjectivist]

Democracy is not freedom. It is a method of selecting leaders. Without a philosophical foundation in individual rights, it is simply a mechanism by which the majority votes itself into tyranny. The American Founders understood this, which is why they created a constitutional republic, not a democracy.

Gad Saad is right about the hypocrisy. Obama celebrates democracy only when his side wins. But the deeper problem is that both sides worship democracy as an end in itself rather than recognizing it for what it is: a process that is only as good as the principles constraining it.

Hitler came to power through democratic processes. So did Mussolini, Chávez, Mugabe, Erdoğan, Lukashenko, Putin, Fujimori, Marcos, Perón, Duvalier, and Orbán. Every one of them used the mechanisms of democracy to destroy freedom. The majority voted and the minority lost everything.

A constitutional republic that places individual rights beyond the reach of any vote, any majority, any government is the only system that protects the individual from the collective. Democracy without that foundation is two wolves and a sheep voting on dinner.

Obama does not understand this. Neither does the side celebrating when their candidate wins. Both treat democracy as sacred. It is not. Rights are sacred. Democracy is just a tool, and history proves it is a tool that tyrants use as comfortably as free men.

[NASCAR @NASCAR]

HIS FIRST CAREER WIN COMES TODAY!

@TyGibbs is victorious at @ItsBristolBaby!

[The Rational Animal 🤔 @theobjectivist]

The average American today lives better than John D. Rockefeller did in 1926. That is not an exaggeration. It is a fact.

Rockefeller could not fly across the country in five hours. You can for $200. He could not video call his family from another continent. You do it for free. He had no antibiotics, no MRI, no air conditioning in July. He could not carry every book ever written in his pocket. You are reading this on a device that does all of that and more.

Americans throw away 30-40% of their food. Not because they are wasteful, but because food is so abundant that waste is affordable. Your car has climate control, navigation, and safety systems that did not exist at any price a century ago. Your home has heating, cooling, refrigeration, and entertainment that emperors could not have imagined.

None of this was voted into existence. None of it was redistributed from the rich. It was created by free minds operating in what remains of a free market. Every comfort you enjoy today is the product of a man who thought, invented, produced, and traded voluntarily.

This is what the remnants of capitalism still deliver, even while it is being dismantled. Imagine what a fully free society could build.

[Tracy Wolfson @tracywolfson]

So many memories in my career but getting the chance to be on the call for my alma mater’s national championship is right up there at the top. #goblue

[Swanky Wolverine @swankywolverine]

Michigan vs. UConn natty game Swanky meme recap

[THE RED RANGER @THEREDRANGER3]

Woke up National Champions

It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine 〽️