Rob Cyran
@robcyran.bsky.social
More fox than hedgehog - financial columnist/editor Reuters Breakingviews (healthcare, energy, some tech, climate risk)
TIL - Karl Lagerfeld left $1.5m in his will for the upkeep of his cat, Choupette.
December 29, 2025 at 6:35 PM
TIL - Karl Lagerfeld left $1.5m in his will for the upkeep of his cat, Choupette.
This is the equivalent of a Fed chair claiming too much semiconductor investment caused the Great Depression. It’s actually sort of impressive how impossibly wrong RFK’s claim is.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that the 1918 flu pandemic was caused by a lab virus from vaccine research, a defective influenza vaccine. Let’s analyze what a lie this is. First, in 1918, 107 years ago, virology was in its infancy
December 28, 2025 at 6:28 PM
This is the equivalent of a Fed chair claiming too much semiconductor investment caused the Great Depression. It’s actually sort of impressive how impossibly wrong RFK’s claim is.
Reposted by Rob Cyran
CW: straw-goat carnage
December 27, 2025 at 7:09 PM
CW: straw-goat carnage
One thing I’m paying attention to - do people qualify a car as an EV or gas (or both). When a replacement tech takes off, people qualify the new one, when it’s standard they qualify the old one (when I was a kid people said color TV, later they said black and white because that was unusual)
December 27, 2025 at 2:59 PM
One thing I’m paying attention to - do people qualify a car as an EV or gas (or both). When a replacement tech takes off, people qualify the new one, when it’s standard they qualify the old one (when I was a kid people said color TV, later they said black and white because that was unusual)
Good example of unevenly distributed knowledge and crutches. I have no idea which side the intake is on and use the arrow whenever I fill up our gas car. My wife did not know this arrow existed and was kind of confused why anyone wouldn’t remember which side it’s on.
December 27, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Good example of unevenly distributed knowledge and crutches. I have no idea which side the intake is on and use the arrow whenever I fill up our gas car. My wife did not know this arrow existed and was kind of confused why anyone wouldn’t remember which side it’s on.
TIL - immune systems get messed up in space. Latent viruses like EBV become activated in astronauts. Would be interesting to study dementia and autoimmune diseases in them, and see how much higher they are.
December 27, 2025 at 1:27 AM
TIL - immune systems get messed up in space. Latent viruses like EBV become activated in astronauts. Would be interesting to study dementia and autoimmune diseases in them, and see how much higher they are.
Big tech firing execs that can’t secure HBM is an interesting dynamic. You simple have to assume massive double and triple ordering taking place. Going to be a huge overshoot in supply at some point.
December 27, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Big tech firing execs that can’t secure HBM is an interesting dynamic. You simple have to assume massive double and triple ordering taking place. Going to be a huge overshoot in supply at some point.
My colleague Anthony Currie with a good piece on the coming LNG glut. I'm 100% aboard, as capacity additions are ridiculous, and I think demand will be nowhere near as high as people think due to substitution. www.breakingviews.com/columns/cons...
Renewables turn LNG glut into a sinkhole
Drillers from Exxon to Shell aim to boost global supply of the fossil fuel by 50% by 2030. Yet demand in key markets like China is falling. And hopes of gas replacing coal power look misplaced as sola...
www.breakingviews.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:18 PM
My colleague Anthony Currie with a good piece on the coming LNG glut. I'm 100% aboard, as capacity additions are ridiculous, and I think demand will be nowhere near as high as people think due to substitution. www.breakingviews.com/columns/cons...
Nvidia paying up to license Groq tech and acqui-hire the founders reminds me of how the Byzantine Empire stayed in power by paying off and assassinating rival powers. Zuck may idolize Augustus, but the Eastern branch stayed in power about 1,000 years longer than the boys in Rome.
December 26, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Nvidia paying up to license Groq tech and acqui-hire the founders reminds me of how the Byzantine Empire stayed in power by paying off and assassinating rival powers. Zuck may idolize Augustus, but the Eastern branch stayed in power about 1,000 years longer than the boys in Rome.
Good article on how Permian costs increasing because of water disposal. Wells deplete oil quickly and become more gassy and wet, raising costs as drillers burn through good land. Breakeven WTI price for new well was ~$50 in 2019, now over $60 according to Dallas Fed surveys
December 26, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Good article on how Permian costs increasing because of water disposal. Wells deplete oil quickly and become more gassy and wet, raising costs as drillers burn through good land. Breakeven WTI price for new well was ~$50 in 2019, now over $60 according to Dallas Fed surveys
Reposted by Rob Cyran
This story is absolutely wild. Did you know that avocados change sex over the course of a day? And that it's controlled by a single ancient balanced polymorphism? This is flat our crazy
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies an ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.695989v1
December 25, 2025 at 6:33 AM
This story is absolutely wild. Did you know that avocados change sex over the course of a day? And that it's controlled by a single ancient balanced polymorphism? This is flat our crazy
TIL - there was once a 150 mile logjam on the lower Mississippi that lasted for over 1,000 years. The US cleared it in a campaign lasting from 1833 to 1838 to make the river navigable. The guy who led the effort was named Shreve (hence Shreveport)
December 24, 2025 at 6:39 PM
TIL - there was once a 150 mile logjam on the lower Mississippi that lasted for over 1,000 years. The US cleared it in a campaign lasting from 1833 to 1838 to make the river navigable. The guy who led the effort was named Shreve (hence Shreveport)
Fascinating that Otzi had HPV, and A) get your kids vaccinated against this ancient scourge B) interesting that there was enough population and opportunity to keep an STD around then. I guess long duration viruses will have a better shot at spread in a small population compared to colds etc
December 24, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Fascinating that Otzi had HPV, and A) get your kids vaccinated against this ancient scourge B) interesting that there was enough population and opportunity to keep an STD around then. I guess long duration viruses will have a better shot at spread in a small population compared to colds etc
This is the way - tax every negative externality and use the money for the common good.
“Pairing free buses with paid parking says we value people in motion more than cars at rest,” writes Nicolas Rohatyn.
Opinion | The Way to Pay for Free Buses Is to End Free Parking
Free buses would be transformative not only for riders, but for the ecosystem of the city as a whole.
nyti.ms
December 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
This is the way - tax every negative externality and use the money for the common good.
Trump’s lawyer offering Belarus dictator a GLP-1 brochure and supply in hopes of ending sanctions against that nation is just the most absurd example of US soft power wasted. www.wsj.com/world/belaru...
The U.S. Offered Putin’s Closest Ally Sanctions Relief—and a Weight-Loss Drug
Engaging one of the world’s most repressive regimes, Trump envoy bonded with Belarusian dictator over Zepbound and obtained the release of hundreds of prisoners.
www.wsj.com
December 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Trump’s lawyer offering Belarus dictator a GLP-1 brochure and supply in hopes of ending sanctions against that nation is just the most absurd example of US soft power wasted. www.wsj.com/world/belaru...
Good article on China - every developing Asian economy has gone through an economic crisis as they reach the limits of growth via heavy investment and exports. I guess the question is how fast the switch to consumption is and therefore how deep the recession is. www.wsj.com/world/china/...
China’s Sprint for Tech Dominance Can’t Hide an Economy Full of Holes
A self-sufficiency push has made China a tougher competitor to the U.S., but it comes with enormous waste.
www.wsj.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Good article on China - every developing Asian economy has gone through an economic crisis as they reach the limits of growth via heavy investment and exports. I guess the question is how fast the switch to consumption is and therefore how deep the recession is. www.wsj.com/world/china/...
The last USN ship class came in six-times over budget, couldn’t fire the gun the ship was designed around because the ammo was too expensive, and was cancelled after three were made. But I’m sure a giant ship the navy doesn’t want in the age of drones and designed for aesthetics will be awesome
December 23, 2025 at 12:58 AM
The last USN ship class came in six-times over budget, couldn’t fire the gun the ship was designed around because the ammo was too expensive, and was cancelled after three were made. But I’m sure a giant ship the navy doesn’t want in the age of drones and designed for aesthetics will be awesome
136 SPAC IPOs have raised $29 bln YTD according to Dealogjc - and this is just part of a bigger pool looking for deals. So the space nonsense will probably just increase from here as ridiculous ideas receive funding.
Private company wants to put up space mirrors that can beam 'full noontime sun' to anywhere on the night side of Earth. I might be OK with preemptive shoot downs of these satellites rather than allow this to become an unregulated real industry
December 20, 2025 at 10:20 AM
136 SPAC IPOs have raised $29 bln YTD according to Dealogjc - and this is just part of a bigger pool looking for deals. So the space nonsense will probably just increase from here as ridiculous ideas receive funding.
Among other things, Denmark doesn’t vaccinate for rotavirus. The med school mnemonic for Rota is “right out the ass” (really) because kids produce an unbelievably prodigious (and sometimes dangerous) amounts of diarrhea. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/h...
R.F.K. Jr. Likely to Swap U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule for Denmark’s
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Among other things, Denmark doesn’t vaccinate for rotavirus. The med school mnemonic for Rota is “right out the ass” (really) because kids produce an unbelievably prodigious (and sometimes dangerous) amounts of diarrhea. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/h...
Reposted by Rob Cyran
a useful spectrum to think about puts solar at one end of the volume scale, tight oil in the middle, and nuclear at the far end. You don't need hundreds of millions of units to get learning curves but you do need tens or hundreds of thousands.
December 19, 2025 at 1:05 PM
a useful spectrum to think about puts solar at one end of the volume scale, tight oil in the middle, and nuclear at the far end. You don't need hundreds of millions of units to get learning curves but you do need tens or hundreds of thousands.
The reason we don’t build nuclear is fixed costs are high. Proponents say repetition will lower costs dramatically. Snag is the reductions aren’t as reliable as solar - newest French plants 40% above initial estimates but lower than a recent problematic project. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
France's EDF raises cost estimate for six reactors to 72.8 billion euros
France's state-owned utility EDF will cap the cost of building six new nuclear reactors at 72.8 billion euros ($85.29 billion), it said on Thursday, as it pledged to significantly improve both the cos...
www.reuters.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
The reason we don’t build nuclear is fixed costs are high. Proponents say repetition will lower costs dramatically. Snag is the reductions aren’t as reliable as solar - newest French plants 40% above initial estimates but lower than a recent problematic project. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
Something I wrote on Trump Media’s merger with a fusion (and biotech) company. www.breakingviews.com/columns/brea...
Trump fusion sets deals dial to ludicrous mode
The US president's unprofitable, crypto-hoarding, social-media venture is merging with a firm chasing unproven nuclear technology. It puts a fitting $6 bln bow on a wild year of M&A and previews the f...
www.breakingviews.com
December 18, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Something I wrote on Trump Media’s merger with a fusion (and biotech) company. www.breakingviews.com/columns/brea...
This story on the WSJ newsroom subverting AI-powered snack machines is my favorite story of the year - cannot recommend it enough: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.
www.wsj.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:56 PM
This story on the WSJ newsroom subverting AI-powered snack machines is my favorite story of the year - cannot recommend it enough: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
Emperor: Can you draw me a tiger, the most noble beast?
Artist (who has never seen one): Sure thing boss!
Artist (who has never seen one): Sure thing boss!
December 18, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Emperor: Can you draw me a tiger, the most noble beast?
Artist (who has never seen one): Sure thing boss!
Artist (who has never seen one): Sure thing boss!
US asks oil firms - returning nearly all surplus cash to investors, facing oversupplied market with long- term demand destruction - hey you want to invest billions to repair shut-in fields in a chaotic country to pump sour oil the consistency of tar? www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Trump administration asking US oil industry to return to Venezuela — but getting no takers
The administration’s outreach to the industry, previously unreported, is the latest sign the White House is dreaming of a post-Maduro future for Venezuela.
www.politico.com
December 17, 2025 at 9:54 PM
US asks oil firms - returning nearly all surplus cash to investors, facing oversupplied market with long- term demand destruction - hey you want to invest billions to repair shut-in fields in a chaotic country to pump sour oil the consistency of tar? www.politico.com/news/2025/12...