Nov 25, 2025

Email Summaries:

1. Subject: New Dialogues, Expansion Headline Pacific Pact CPTPP Talks

   Summary: This newsletter covers recent developments in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), highlighting new regional dialogues forged with ASEAN and the European Union. The discussions focus on expanding geopolitical and geoeconomic cooperation amidst growing global protectionism and supply chain fractures. Key areas include Indo-Pacific ministerial updates, military agreement talks, mineral partnerships, outer space inroads, and energy deals, with attention to the strategic roles of member countries like Vietnam and Indonesia. The article emphasizes the importance of institutional strengthening and capacity-building within the pact, forecasting broader implications for regional and global trade and security.

2. Subject: Need to Know: Why the poverty line should actually be $140,000s

   Summary: Michael Green, a strategist at Simplify Asset Management, argues that the official US poverty line is grossly outdated and should be closer to $140,000 for a family of four, considering modern costs for housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, and other essentials. Based on updated spending patterns, the traditional poverty line (based on food budget multipliers from the 1960s) fails to capture current economic realities. The article discusses the implications of this shift, including how government safety nets inadvertently discourage labor force participation due to benefit cliffs, and how rising living costs contribute to household financial stress.

3. Subject: Axios Pro Rata: Crypto cooldowns

   Summary: This business newsletter reports on the significant recent drop in Bitcoin’s value—its worst monthly decline since FTX collapsed—while suggesting this “crypto winter” may benefit industry innovation by shaking out speculative players. It also covers major M&A activity such as BHP’s abandoned bid for Anglo American, and funding news including a $700 million Series D round for X-energy, a small modular nuclear reactor developer. Other topics include venture capital deals, private equity acquisitions, and ongoing shifts in media regulation and tech IPO pipelines. The newsletter offers an overview of key financial moves shaping technology, crypto, and energy sectors.

4. Subject: Money Stuff: Leave the Gold in the Grounds

   Summary: This financial commentary discusses innovative developments in gold mining and digital finance, focusing on NatBridge Resources’ pioneering approach to tokenize subsurface gold rights and create digital tokens representing gold still underground instead of physically mining it. The article explores how modern finance abstracts value, using gold tokens analogous to electronic warehouse receipts or blockchains, and considers environmental benefits of leaving gold unmined. It also touches on complex financial topics like high-interest local government debt strategies, cross-selling at investment banks, potential crypto contagion effects on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and a tax avoidance scheme linked historically to Jeffrey Epstein. The discussion underscores the growing layering of financial abstraction over real-world assets and markets.

Stay Well!