Media worth consuming – March 2026

Top five

A 53 minute interview with Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital on why investors in US private credit should redeem from unlisted funds and buy listed BDCs.

A meta-analysis of UBI experiments shows more welfare results in less work, just as basic economics teaches.

NSW Police is establishing an anti-free speech unit with the UK and Germany’s oppressive policing held up as examples of best practice.

A 22 minute podcast on the libertarian anaesthesiologist transforming American healthcare with lower, transparent surgery prices.

Reuters has named David Jones, formerly Robin Gunningham as the artist commonly known as Banksy.

Finance

EBITDA adjustments are getting ridiculous, with businesses increasingly keen to overstate their profitability and inflate their equity value. The argument that low price to book stocks are set to outperform high price to book stocks after a decade of underperformance. China is another example of how strong economic growth in an emerging economy so often fails to lead to share market outperformance.

BlackRock has slashed a second loan’s value from par to zero, again raising questions about the monitoring of its corporate lending. The world’s largest private credit fund recorded a 0.4% loss in February, but that’s half of the 0.8% loss on the leveraged loan index. Leveraged loans overall are doing fine, but software company leveraged loans have seen spreads increase by almost 3% this year. Some thoughts on why investors keep buying century bonds when they have a terrible track record.

A tech start-up used Claude Code to make several high profile software platforms superfluous, cutting $250,000 in licensing costs. Rather than focusing on trying to pick the best stocks, some asset managers are now focusing on how to use index investments to minimise tax, arguably a far easier and more reliable source of adding value. Japan and Germany both standout for having substantial levels of household wealth invested in bank deposits.

$14 trillion of US investment grade debt is forecast to be issued in the next 12 months, with $10 trillion being US government debt. Government bonds are “safe assets” until they aren’t, with wartime often seeing bondholders incur significant after-inflation losses. The US government spends 18% of its tax revenue paying interest on existing debt.

Politics & culture

The recent legal losses for Google and Facebook on childhood addiction are set to be appealed for years due to the tricky legal reasoning in the jury verdicts and the huge sums involved. A Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about dealing with grief after the death of her husband has been convicted of his murder, after a jury accepted the evidence that she spiked his drink with fentanyl. An 80 year old Californian woman has avoided a jail sentence for killing a family of four while recklessly speeding. Trump’s Department of Justice has reached a settlement with Michael Flynn over his allegation that he was prosecuted for political reasons.

The Winter Olympics were a great example of why journalists should stop trying to insert politics into sport. Noting that “the scientific evidence is very clear”, the International Olympic Committee has banned biological males from competing in female sports, putting pressure on sporting codes and countries to follow its lead.

The US Court of Appeals has affirmed free speech in the bizarre case of a first grader punished for being racist over a drawing with the words “Black Lives Matter, any lives”. For over four years, the Swedish Government has taken two teenage girls from their parents and placed them in numerous foster homes due to their supposed religious extremism for attending church three times a week. A Maltese man and two journalists were found not guilty on charges brought against them after discussing his life story, which included ceasing to be gay.

CNN and the New York Times have been mocked for their stories on ISIS inspired teenagers who were foiled in their attempt to throw homemade bombs at an anti-Islam rally. A 64 minute interview with Claire Lehmann of Quillette covering feminism, Epstein and what it means to be Australian.

American food voucher recipients are suing the Department of Agriculture to reverse recent bans that stop them from using the benefits to purchase junk food. Discount UK grocer Iceland has given up its trademark litigation against the country of Iceland.

American intelligence agencies have awarded at least fourteen grants for military research to groups with ties to the Chinese government. American and British intelligence services correctly identified the buildup to the Ukraine invasion, but after the Iraq fiasco, Ukrainians and many others refused to believe them. China is scrambling to develop new energy and foreign policies now that its gamble on Iran has failed.

The UK will eject hereditary members of the House of Lords later this year. An obituary for Alvin Greene, who ran one of the most unconventional campaigns for a US Senate seat, including an unofficial campaign music video.

Economics & work

250 years ago, Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” was published, with its explanation of the enormous benefits of free markets and trade still needed today. Deregulation increases productivity and economic growth, but governments rarely enact it. True socialism involves government ownership of the means of production, but many confuse this with high taxing, high welfare government. Argentina’s Milei inherited an economic mess, but his policies have created the economic equivalent of the biggest comeback since Lazarus.

Net permanent and long-term arrivals to Australia were just under 500,000 for the year to 31 January 2026. A recent survey found that 79% of respondents want Australian net migration to be 100,000 per year or less, well below the 100,000 per quarter recorded under the Albanese government. Both international comparisons and state by state comparisons within Australia show that population growth is a major driver of house price growth.

The wisdom of using Australian taxpayers’ money to encourage first home buyers to take out high LVR mortgages will get a small test with the recent RBA increases, but the real test will come in the next recession when unemployment rises. Allegra Spender’s modest tax reform proposals are directionally correct, but far more ambitious changes are needed if meaningful productivity growth and intergenerational fairness are desired. Among the large Australian states, Victoria stands apart for receiving a larger share of GST revenues than justified by its population, with NSW, Queensland and WA paying the bill.

Miscellaneous

A light-hearted, 65 minute podcast on bad data and scientific fraud. The last 25 years have borne out Bjorn Lomborg’s approach to climate change, which focuses on cost-benefit analysis and welfare maximisation. The ignorance of non-events in economics, finance and sports is a bias few notice.

A baseball player turned down a significantly higher offer from a Californian team because state taxes were too high. A Brazilian soccer team scored a goal 20 seconds after kick-off without touching the ball.