Update 6-22-2025 (MidEast, Dollar, Macro)

The major news of last week concerns the Israel-Iran conflict [1-3]. [1] has a lot of useful information and good analysis. 

Harvard historian on finance Kenneth Rogoff recently published a book on currencies [4,5]. Rogoff is a well-known historian on money. Niall Ferguson is perhaps more famous, whose book The Ascent of Money is a classic [6]. Ferguson’s study is broader, grander with more politics. Rogoff explains well the modern times of money, such as how the dollar became the reserved currency. In the interviews, he also discussed the US government deficit and debt problem. Rogoff is more sanguine than Ferguson. I am not convinced but it is good to know different opinions. 

Kyle Bass’s Hoover interview [8] is very, very good. I agree with most of his investment advice. 

Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale is sharp [9]. He discussed a variety of topics. I bought only a small portion of Palantir because it was quite expensive by most criteria. Since I bought it, its price has already doubled. It seems that they have some top-notch people. Palantir is likely to play an important role in AI applications. If it drops significantly for some reason, I might buy more. [9] is short but very good. 

Matt Ridley is a well respected reporter on sciences and inventions. His interview [10] exposed many wrongs in the scientific world. 

Cheng Lei is a Chinese-Australian reporter. [11] is her real experience in China. [12] concerns Middle East conflicts which were addressed to Australians. 

References: 

1. *Who Will Win the Israel-Iran War? | Niall Ferguson, Bari Weiss, and Dexter Filkins FP (6-17) 

2. *Israel needs U.S. help to deploy 'bunker buster bomb' (6-18) 

3. *Gen. Keane: We are looking at the end here (6-21) 

4. **Dollar Dominance With Economist Kenneth Rogoff | Economics, Applied | Hoover (6-12) 

5. Real interest rates are going to be higher for a very long time, Kenneth Rogoff (6-21) 

6. Niall Ferguson, "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World," Penguin Books, 2009. 

7. *When Does US Debt Become Genuinely Bad? | WSJ (6-7)

8. **Global Macro Investing And Geoeconomics With Hedge Fund Kyle Bass | Hoover (6-20) 

9. *Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale on Israel-Iran conflict, AI tech wars, future of DOGE (6-21) 

10. *Net Zero Must Go - Matt Ridley (6-16-2025)  Very good, concise but clear. start with a good review on Covid, which lasted 22min.

11. *Cheng Lei's story: China's horrific, ultra-secret prison facilities exposed (6-11)  

12. Iran’s Nuclear Threat, Trump’s Choice and Global Stability | John Lee (6-21)  

More References: 

1. The Facts About Obama's Iran Nuke Deal (6-22) 

2. Trump hits Iran ‘HARD’: ‘There was no off ramp for diplomacy’ (6-22)  

3. The Right Decision on Iran (6-7)  

4. Military expert reveals the ‘only way’ Israel could take down Fordow (6-22) 

5. Iran has been DECIMATED by Israel: former CIA operative (6-21) 

6. Wharton's Jeremy Siegel: Waller is right that the Fed should be lowering rates (6-21)  

7. Meta tried to buy Perplexity before Scale AI deal (6-21) 

8. Watters: This next move will change history (6-20)   

9. *Retired four-star says there are other options to bunker-buster but warns of more risks (6-20)

10. Rand Paul Makes Dave Rubin Go Quiet with This Chilling Warning | Rand Paul (6-20) 

11. Niall Ferguson: What Technophiles Should Learn from Medieval Universities (6-20) 

12. Iran ‘much closer’ to nuclear weapon than we thought, senator warns (6-20)    

13. Chang sounds alarm over alleged mysterious Chinese flights into Iran: 'isn't good' (6-20)

14. *Trump on Putin’s Israel-Iran Peace Offer – Is U.S. Sliding Into Autocracy? | June 19, 2025 BOR (how left media distorts. Obama. )     

15. Ex-CIA station chief reveals dangers, risks of using bunker-buster bombs (6-19) 

16. What to know about China's 'essential relationship' with Iran (6-19)   

17. “That’s Not Gonna Happen”: Israel Aims To Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Prog |GoodFellows (6-17) 

18. ‘STUNNING': Russia, China not backing Iran, says Gen. Keane (6-21) 

19. *Israel-Iran aggression is stagflationary, says Allianz' Mohamed El-Erian (6-14) 

20. *Altimeter's Brad Gerstner's offers his AI playbook (6-13)  

21. *Apple researchers' AI red flag (CNBC tech check 6-10) 

22. Google CEO: Will AI replace programmers? | Sundar Pichai and Lex Fridman (6-7) ) 

23. *Perplexity CEO Srinivas on Winning Search With AI (6-6)