Author: Jim Wang

Last year, I had the pleasure of dining at Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand in Last Vegas. It was an amazing experience.

Our trip was because we were seeing Adele (also an amazing experience) but Joël Robuchon was the highlight of the trip for me. I totally get planning trips around restaurants… so this list provides some fun ideas.

(also, #15 is nearby!)

The Top 15 US Restaurants, According to the Experts [Food & Wine] – “While it’s incredible to travel the world for the best culinary experiences, you don’t have to trek to France or Japan to get great food. For everyone on more of a domestic budget this year, this list celebrates the best dining destinations right here, right now in the United States. Whether you need inspiration for your next road trip, or want to hop on a short flight to get a taste of another region, there’s good eating in every corner of this country.”

The list is interesting, fine, but the thing I found fascinating was the number of billionaires in each city.

66 in NYC. 82 in SF.

The Wealthiest Cities in the World in 2025 [Conde Nast Traveler] – “For the nosy folks among us (or curious, shall we say), Henley & Partners’ latest report, created in partnership with wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth, tells us everything we need to know. The annual report uses expert insights to calculate the total number of millionaires, centi-millionaires (individuals worth more than $100 million), and billionaires living in each of the world’s major metropolises, plus how much the city’s millionaire population has fluctuated in the past year.”

I think tariffs can be a good thing, especially to convince other countries to lower their tariffs. But across the board heavy headed applications seem… lazy? Unsophisticated?

Trump Is Burning Down the House [The Atlantic] – “The Trump plan, however, manages to achieve the opposite of all of these goals, all at once. Rather than build on the CHIPS and Science Act, Trump has called to destroy it. Rather than build a trade alliance with American allies, he kicked off this whole mess by announcing 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, alongside threats to conquer and annex the latter. Rather than deepen our supply-chain resilience in Europe to build a bulwark against China, he’s slapped tariffs on European countries without consultation or guidance. Rather than increase confidence in financial markets to encourage long-term investment in U.S. manufacturing, he’s unleashed chaos. Nobody from the White House can say what the tariff regime will look like in one day, much less one week, much less one year.”

If you thought the Fed might cut interest rates during this whole trade war tariff kerfuffle… sorry, it probably won’t.

Why Crisis-Tested Fed Official Neel Kashkari Doesn’t See Imminent Rate Cuts [The Basis Point] – “Markets are in crisis trying to sort out extreme economic uncertainty born from extreme trade policy uncertainty (see chart). Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari is a market crisis expert — he ran the 2008 crisis-response TARP program for Treasury chief Hank Paulson — and just said the Fed is less likely to cut rates to manage this trade war crisis.”

Oh well.

As it turns out… it depends on the airline!

The Best Airlines To Buy a Last-Minute Ticket [Upgraded Points] – “Conventional wisdom says booking early is the best way to save on airfare, but last-minute fares don’t always follow the rules. When booking with some airlines, delaying your purchase might actually land you a cheaper ticket, while on others, prices climb the closer you get to departure. So, how much does timing really matter when booking a flight?”

This is an interesting question… what’s worse, a recession or a bear market?

Note the date on the article, 4/7, which predates the 90-day pause announced on 4/9. I’d argue the underlying economics of the United States are largely the same and a 90-day pause is not a policy shift, so there’s risk that we go through this rollercoaster ride again… but it’s still an informative article.

Which Is Worse: a Recession or a Bear Market? [Money] – “While both bear markets and recessions are bad news, there are some important distinctions between them to keep in mind as you consider how the fallout of Trump’s trade policy could impact your personal finances.”

Yes.

What Happens to Your Brain When You Retire? [The New York Times] – “For the millions of Americans who retire each year, stopping work might seem like a well-deserved break. But it can also precipitate big changes in brain health, including an increased risk of cognitive decline and depression.”

I guess all those pages of sudoku help?

Technology requires a lot of minerals. And many of these are buried in the ground and given fancy names like “rare-earth metals.”

But scientists are finding ways to “mine” the minerals without digging into the ground!

The weirdest ways scientists are mining for critical minerals, from water to weeds [Grist] – “For more than a century, eccentric scientists have dreamed of wringing precious metals from the Earth’s most vast resource: its oceans. The seas contain millions to trillions of metric tons of gold, cobalt, and other elements, including 17,000 times more lithium than the world’s terrestrial reserves. Unlike more controversial forms of deep-sea mining that require dredging the ocean floor, these dissolved minerals can be extracted directly from the ocean water itself.”

And it’s working.

“As part of an Department of Energy experimental research program, they developed a system to pump seawater into onshore grow tanks full of a type of mineral-loving seaweed called Ulva. From there, they harvested and dried the seaweed, then processed it into the mineral-rich powder, which they dubbed “bio-ore.” This powder contains precious elements like nickel, cobalt, and rare earths at levels thousands of times higher than seawater. For example, concentrations of the rare earth element neodymium — an essential component in wind turbines — can be up to 479,000 times higher than the original seawater.”

This is so cool!

I’ve often said that “staying the course” is the best thing you can do for your finances. And for most people and most situations, that is true.

But I also subscribe to the idea that you need to sleep at night and sometimes it makes sense to do what’s not financially optimal but emotionally optimal.

This post by Callie Cox does a good of explaining how to do this intelligently and react to the market without trying to time it per se.

The investing advice you actually need [OptimistiCallie] – “I’ve had countless conversations with our 30-odd advisors over the past 10 months about how to best guide clients through market drops and recessions. Everybody has their own style, but more often than not, I hear my colleagues discuss short-term portfolio changes when prices start swinging. The opposite of what you’d hear from the “stay invested” crowd.

I’m not talking about major, sweeping decisions. Instead, think thoughtful, precise actions at the margins of the portfolio to help their clients stay the course. Actions like pulling forward a scheduled investment if a selloff reaches a certain level. Raising cash at certain price levels before the storm hits. Converting an IRA to a Roth under certain circumstances – like a drop, plus enough runway in the investment plan to make up for the tax bill.”

I’ve seen videos of Vegas Matt online before. It’s all the same, just big bets on hands of Blackjack or Baccarat or slot machines, and I don’t see the appeal.

I know they are popular because he has loads of followers. Each video is addicting to watch because human beings will almost automatically finish a story and what’s more compelling than a bet?

The Biggest Loser [Slate] – “New videos appear daily, and they all follow the same format: First, Vegas Matt counts out a hefty wager in front of a blackjack table or a slot machine. Then, like so many gamblers, he simply tries his luck. The camera is framed to provide the illusion that the viewer is in the captain’s chair, preparing to immolate $3,000 on the altar of chance. Throughout all this, Vegas Matt displays no elite strategy, acumen, or gamesmanship. He does not claim to have an insider’s edge or an esoteric jackpot-juicing technique. No one watching his videos is going to pick up tips to improve their approach. But that’s the magic: He’s utterly relatable. One of the enduring axioms of the gambling world is that despite anyone’s best efforts, the house always wins. So, in the language of casinos, to be relatable is to eat shit, constantly, and nevertheless crawl back for more. For amateur gamblers like me, these videos are the closest we can get to the intoxicating precarity of a big bet without risking a dent to the checking account.”