February 19, 2026 • Addison Wiggin
According to Global Markets Investor, U.S. dominance peaked in late 2024. The relative line has trended downward for fifteen months. Leadership has dispersed. Even though we’ve been writing about the alarming, historic, high concentration in the Mag 7 at the very top of the indexes, large amounts of capital moved before the financial media headlines caught up.
February 19, 2026 • Addison Wiggin
The “real” annual return on bonds – net of inflation – is 2%. That’s before high transaction costs to buy and sell bonds or paying taxes on your bond income.
The return for investors, even for a safe-haven investment, is too low. Bonds will only assert their vestigial “safe-haven” status if there’s a stock market crash. (At that point, trust in everything else will have disappeared.)
February 18, 2026 • Addison Wiggin
U.S. aircraft carriers and air defense systems continue arriving in the Gulf. Iran conducted drills that briefly disrupted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and warned of retaliation for any strike.
February 18, 2026 • Addison Wiggin
It’s pretty clear from the leaderboard year-to-date that investors are moving their money out of AI stocks into real-world “stuff” – the energy and commodities, natural that are the building blocks of an economy.
