Robert Smith
@bondhack.ft.com
Corporate Finance Editor at the Financial Times. Have a tip? Email: robert.smith@ft.com / robert.smith.ft@proton.me | Signal: robert_smith_ft.55
Nine days are a long time in the culture wars
James O’Brien@mrjamesob.bsky.social · last wk.Well said, Alan. The Times following the Telegraph in to studied & deliberate ignominy. If there is any case to answer here, it is about Liverpool John Moore’s supervisory failure of an obviously unique PhD student. Something, I imagine, their own exhaustive investigation concluded… 1/2
Nine days are a long time in the culture wars
James O’Brien@mrjamesob.bsky.social · last wk.Well said, Alan. The Times following the Telegraph in to studied & deliberate ignominy. If there is any case to answer here, it is about Liverpool John Moore’s supervisory failure of an obviously unique PhD student. Something, I imagine, their own exhaustive investigation concluded… 1/2
Founding a neobank nowadays makes you enough money to buy a €350m superyacht (but allegedly not enough money to pay the broker) as.ft.com/r/8cb6bc58-9...
Revolut chief Nik Storonsky sued by broker over €350mn superyacht
Cecil Wright alleges billionaire went ‘behind its back’ to avoid paying €17.5mn commission on luxury vessel
as.ft.com
Like all great writers, it's a time to pay tribute to the words they left us with
The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 2d agoBREAKING: Sunday Times and Sun columnist Rod Liddle has died aged 66 after a short illness
Aperol Spritz is already a little on the sweet side for me as spritzes go, but Hugo Spritz is sorority girl slop lol as.ft.com/r/f30455ed-4...
Hugo spritz boom shakes Aperol’s fizz
US sales of Campari’s orange spirit outstripped by Bacardi’s St-Germain elderflower liqueur
as.ft.com
Trevor Philips was born in Islington, educated at Imperial, was a member of the GLA and lived in Kentish Town before moving the NYC this year.
David Higham@oldtrotter.bsky.social · 3d agoDear me.
Such a good thread over on X from Jacob Bard-Rosenberg on the pressures on academic marking that allow plagiarism and AI slop to thrive at universities x.com/prolapsarian...
x.com
RIP Arlene Smith of the Chantels. She was 16 when she wrote this devastating song. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IePT...
The Chantels - Maybe (1958)
YouTube video by 77GhettoD
youtube.com
I can't explain exactly why, but Phil's amuse bouche is doing 2,000 words worth of voter analysis that psephologists could only dream of
Always been mad to me that the Teesside/Houchen story hasn’t been bigger. Richard’s reporting has been phenomenal.
Richard Brooks@rbrooks45.bsky.social · 5d agoA cautionary devolution tale: hundreds of millions of pounds invested in Teesside but benefiting a couple of local businesssmen rather than the region, thanks to mayor Houchen. Full @privateeyenews.bsky.social report from last year online here: www.private-eye.co.uk/special-repo...
A cautionary devolution tale: hundreds of millions of pounds invested in Teesside but benefiting a couple of local businesssmen rather than the region, thanks to mayor Houchen. Full @privateeyenews.bsky.social report from last year online here: www.private-eye.co.uk/special-repo...
Special Report: Stripped Tees
IT WAS to be the UK’s largest regeneration scheme in decades, a model for regional devolution and the flagship post-Brexit freeport. But the redevelopment of the former steelworks on the south bank of...
private-eye.co.uk
The lack of a good El Risitas meme on Situational Awareness is making me sad. Anyone seen any? www.ft.com/content/6136...
El Risitas: the bear-market harbinger cometh
The ultimate sentiment check is a wheezing Spanish guy revelling in your eviscerated PnL.
ft.com
Truly everyone who gave this child billions to make a massively levered single sector bet should have their Capital Markets licenses taken away from them for all eternity.
Robert Smith@bondhack.ft.com · 5d agoWonderfully detailed account from my FT colleagues of how Leopold Aschenbrenner became situationally aware that leverage works just as powerfully on the way down. www.ft.com/content/620b...
“Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness might sound like a show to miss at the Edinburgh Fringe, but what it’s staging is much more entertaining.” @bryce.lol on blistering form as ever in the Alphaville substack open.substack.com/pub/ftav/p/l...
Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone
Also: rent controls, gold hoarding, junk bonds, memory chips, baseball debt, enriched uranium, dead bacteria, and an ETF spaghetti cannon
open.substack.com
Really great data-led column on wealth inequality from the great @jburnmurdoch.ft.com. Much more nuanced than the strident voices on both sides of the recent debate. as.ft.com/r/0bd4ad09-9...
We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
Passive wealth gains increasingly matter more than earnings for one’s standing in society
as.ft.com
Wonderfully detailed account from my FT colleagues of how Leopold Aschenbrenner became situationally aware that leverage works just as powerfully on the way down. www.ft.com/content/620b...
How Leopold Aschenbrenner, the ‘golden child’ of the AI trade, was laid low
The $20bn hedge fund manager’s wild ride ended with a call to Ken Griffin
ft.com
Lotta apt comparisons from financial history being made around Situational Awareness, but it also reminds me quite a bit of SoftBank's shortlived supernova of an internal hedge fund Northstar www.ft.com/content/197c...
SoftBank liquidates most of portfolio at ‘Nasdaq whale’ trading unit
Japanese tech group’s shortlived SB Northstar fund had racked up $6bn to $7bn in losses
ft.com
I feel like PBs should add “Will the hedge fund’s name look ridiculous if things go bad” to their counterparty risk management frameworks
What is it about Effective Altruists that means they absolutely love mixing insane amounts of leverage on volatile assets with stakes in Anthropic?
Haters doubt the power of the new AI economy, but we're now capable of letting a 24-year old kid speedrun Long-Term Capital Management www.ft.com/content/5fb4...
Citadel buys large portion of Situational Awareness equity holdings
Leopold Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund suffered steep losses in recent days from tech sell-off
ft.com
Really sad news. He was really well thought of by colleagues at the FT and was incredibly helpful to many of us over the years. My thoughts are with his family. bondvigilantes.com/blog/2026/07...
Jim Leaviss
We are very sorry to share the news that Jim Leaviss passed away on 23 July 2026, aged 55.
bondvigilantes.com
This is a little 🤨 from Oli Dugmore on Gary Stevenson in the New Statesman www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
Louis Theroux, whose production company Mindhouse made the poorly reviewed documentary HOW TO GET FILTHY RICH: WITH GARY STEVENSON, has a surprising new podcast guest: Gary Stevenson! During the episode, Stevenson opens up about the heavy burden of being able to consistently predict the future.
