Jim Barrineau

With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules

The unanticipated negative consequences of Trump policies are many, but happy to see this article highlight how rolling back climate policies will help kill the US auto industry. China auto sales to rest of world are skyrocketing; US export opportunities are dying.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/c...

He’s what I imagine an alien would look like if they took over a human, but maybe that’s what makes him fun to watch

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Liquidity is Not Coming to Save Tech This Time.

barrineau.substack.com/p/follow-a-f...

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Liquidity is Not Saving Tech This Time.

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What they mean is he would be praising veterans if it were not for the dementia and lack of ability to process thought

Great analogy. And everyone will have to use it because everyone else is, and everyone will wonder if they are the only ones who see marginal benefit in most areas

Sounds like he is looking for an exit plan on his BTC—just sell it all to the US….

The Big Money in Today’s Economy Is Going to Capital, Not Labor Soaring profits and stocks funnel more of GDP toward companies, their top employees and shareholders. AI will intensify this trend.

I continue to think Greg Ip is a star at WSJ who is extremely fact-and reality based in his reporting in a surprising way given the platform.
This piece pretty much shows what happens when you financialize your economy over decades.
www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...

Ratio of value stocks to SPY--strong outperformance with a big leg up over the past month as the market caught on. Over last couple of days though, some signs that we might get at least a pause in that trend.

It’s all ego…. Then sometime in the future, the sickening realization that everything Trump touches dies…

Energy has out-performed tech by 20% over the past three months!!! Valuations seem high but not egregious now and we are through the core of earnings season. Maybe the last two days bounce for the sector will have legs.

As the market recognizes that value in the US is staging a comeback, where is the best place to express a value preference?
International still wins.
But your out-performance is more pronounced in the US--thanks to the tech heavy index you are probably comparing yourself against.

Things we will wonder for decades: Didn’t they know how history would judge them? Didn’t they stop and think whether they wanted their children to live in the type of world they actively tried to create?

That’s a guy I want at my Super Bowl party

Still boggles my mind how advisors and other investors are not laser focused on this. The US has changed. You will express a home bias in your investing at a great opportunity cost.

And on top of that our new national security strategy is cede Europe to Putin and Asia to Xi. So why spend more? To invade Cuba?

This chart from the WSJ this morning explains a lot about sour consumer sentiment. The aggregate GDP numbers are being driven by incredible tech spending. The rest of the economy is hurting, badly.

One Generation Runs the Country. The Next Cashed In on Crypto. Sons of top Trump administration officials made billions for their families, but their investors didn’t always fare so well.

WSJ is simply doing an excellent job chronicling the massive corruption of Trump and his family. It's a shame the editorial page doesn't read the rest of the paper.

www.wsj.com/finance/curr...

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The Discipline of Price in Investing. Free subscribe.

open.substack.com/pub/barrinea...

Opinion | How the Capitalists Broke Capitalism

As a former Wall Street guy, this article is exactly what I have been thinking since about midway in my career about the finance sector writ large.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/o...

Highest number of announced job cuts in a January since 2009

That’s not just another day in Florida?

Have the utmost respect for Howard but so many great investors have a handful of great insights and then just repeat versions of that for decades.

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1. Warsh Pick Didn't Really Move Markets
2. We See Market Cockroaches

I propose GM roll out “Trump vans” in exchange for a subsidy. Waste Management can do “Trump dumps”. Only our imagination limits the grift

Great satire

What % of our financial system is now pure gambling on assets with no intrinsic value?

I’m glad we will forever have the sign that financial markets have truly jumped the shark

Everyone is going to have their favorite parts of this insanity. Mine is factories on the moon…which I guess are more efficient than the silly ones on earth??

Follow a Foundation Investing 5 minute read. Transparent performance and market observations.

1. Warsh Pick Didn't Really Move Markets
2. We See Market Cockroaches