The SpaceX IPO Black Hole

Welcome to This Week’s Leyendecker View

Think before you speak. Read before you think.
–Fran Lebowitz

THE WEEKLY ROUNDUP

• Will the SpaceX IPO become a black hole of investor capital?
• Inflation is back. Thank oil prices. Consumers aren’t happy.
• Want to be a big company CEO? Consider starting at the very bottom.
• Politics have scrambled what it means to be working class.
• Lenders are using AI chips as loan collateral. But will their useful life be sufficient collateral?
• Apollo co-president says PE has lost its way. A PE reckoning may finally be here.
• Easing mortgage rates spur home sales, but rising insurance and property tax rates spike foreclosures.
• Apple releases “Siri AI.” Can Apple finally find its AI footing with?
• The AI price war is here. How will it change valuations?
• Meanwhile, AWS applied science director says AI agents are “flying blind.”
• Driverless trucks are delivering Doritos across Arizona.
• The public finally supports nuclear energy. Will it matter?
• Fewer Americans say democracy is essential to our national identity. If only this meant more were appreciating what it means to be a republic first.
• LA city council admits a $30 minimum wage will do economic damage. Pratt lost, but he might have changed the conversation.
• World signals: The writing is on the wall in Cuba.
• Europe is trying to break up with American Big Tech. Is it even possible?
• Just how bleak are things in the UK?
• Might Ukraine really have Russia on the run?
• Middle East chaos has put Lebanon on the brink.
• Are the Iranians playing Trump?
• Is Xi weaker than he seems?
• How to know what you want, then know how to act.
• Set your thermostat to about 65 degrees, and then dream sweetly.
• Summer calls for light, fresh, zesty pasta.

FAVORITE READS OF THE WEEK

Getting real about inflation
It’s been severely underreported

How GLP1s will change economy
More revolution or evolution?

Claude, “What are you good at?”
Get the scoop straight from AI itself.

THINKING OUT LOUD

Doug will soon begin publishing his weekly essays elsewhere. Stay tuned for updates.

THE RANDOMS

SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, and many other companies are set to go public soon. Just how much capital will these IPOs suck up? Which investment sectors will lose value as a result?

SpaceX is going public at a valuation around 90 times revenue. How is this not a sign that today’s tulip craze bubble is about to burst?

The late-1990s IPO boom was full of small companies with crazy ideas. Most of those companies crashed and burned. Today’s IPO boom is led by mammoth companies with crazy ideas, like putting humans on Mars and replacing human labor with technology. What should we think about today’s IPO boom compared to the last one? Are booms and busts a sign of dysfunction, or are they a natural, even healthy part of creative destruction and progress?

Maybe Europe doesn’t have to catch up with the US and China on AI. Maybe Europe will be the tortoise that doesn’t die of an economic heart attack because it didn’t go all in on AI.

Is Ukraine set to become the world’s go-to arms dealer? They arguably have the best new and battle-tested military tech.

I can see only one truly valuable purpose for humanoid robots: Soldiers at the front line of war.

What’s to keep bad actors and/or our global competitors from filling the internet with lies and propaganda in order to divide our country’s divisiveness and reduce our potential? China has already been doing it.

Has modern technology been more of a wealth multiplier than a GDP multiplier?

ECONOMIC NEWS

Economy

Oil price pushes up inflation
Consumers are in a foul mood
2032, the year social security runs out
US Steel plant getting a new life
Big business is backing trade schools

Labor

80% of public supports labor unions
Walmart CEO started in the garden center
Costco’s CEO started as fork lift driver
What does “working class” mean today?

The Lone Star

Houston to get another solar manufacturing plant
Samsung moving US HQ to Dallas
Musk gets tax breaks for his mammoth chip plant

BUSINESS

Finance

New structure emerges to finance AI
Private equity day of reckoning is here
Bye bye, wealth manager, hello AI
Private capital fundraising in the ditch

Real Estate

May home sales pop
Foreclosures are rising nationally
The exurbs, America’s fastest growing cities

Tech

Apple releases “Siri AI”
Driverless trucks are entering the mainstream
How to use passkeys

AI

Bezos starts AI company that will build things
The AI price war is here
Anthropic releases AI agent to public
AWS says be wary of AI agents
OpenAI files to go public
While trying to refocus their effort

Energy

GM integrates EV charging with household power
The public now backs nuclear energy
BP’s new CEO rips up renewable playbook

THE NATION

Policy

House passes $70B immigration bill
Bernie Sanders and Trump agree on something
Medicare and Medicaid fraud is huge
Illinois passes AI safety bill
California takes a similar path

Culture

The biggest year in gambling history
Fewer Americans value democracy
Is train travel about to become cool?
LA retreats on minimum wage
A small sign Pratt changed the conversation?

GEOPOLITICS

Global

Billions of well-intentioned capital didn’t dent poverty
Japan is expanding its power
China’s lowered oil imports prop up global economy
The world is leaving Cuba

Europe

US may pull fighter jets from Europe
ECB raises interest rates
Germany ditches France on fighter jet project
Europe tries to ditch US Big Tech

The UK Needs Attention

Has the Muslim Brotherhood captured the UK?
UK is set for a “lost generation”
UK net migration falling fast
Riots grip Belfast after knife attack
Like the Brits haven’t enough problems
How to make Britain great again

Ukraine

Russia’s secret service takes over the internet
Does Ukraine have Russia on the run?
Ukraine drones hit Russia oil export infrastructure
Ukraine hits St. Petersburg again

Middle East

Trump thinks peace deal is close
US retaliates for helicopter downing
Drone boat rescues downed Hormuz pilots
Lebanon on the brink of civil war

China

China accused of industrial espionage
China factory output prices rise
Taiwan tests US missile launcher
Xi may not be as strong as he appears

War Creep

New tech reduces legacy military power
Patriot missile-making needs improvement
Ukraine makes them faster and cheaper

MAKING A BETTER YOU

Mind

How to know what you really want
The ancient Greek art of when to act
Why you need to play more

Body

The ideal temperature range for great sleep
How to live a long life, from a 103-year-old doctor
11 easy kettlebell moves

FUN STUFF

The Extraordinary

The 144-year renovation project
Will molecular glue be a cancer breakthrough?
Scientists edited the human genome with precision

Music That Found Us

Unreal Stevie Ray Vaughn magic
Rockport’s J. Plank and G. Rhodes
Two hours of classic French swing

Worth a Watch

The fun Mexico 86.
Masters of the Universe, take that!
Toy Story 5, PG rules!

The Yum Yums

Some summer pasta recipes.
Angel hair with pesto and tomatoes
Zucchini, ricotta, and basil pasta
Pesto cherry tomato gnocchi
Spaghetti aglio e olio
Linguine with tomato and lemon
Lemon and crab spaghetti

PARTING THOUGHTS

Part of what is happening when you spend seven hours reading a book, is you spend seven hours with your mind on the topics in the book, grappling with them, drawing connections, having thoughts you would not otherwise have had. And so without that process of grappling, without those hours inside that book, it doesn’t get inside you. It doesn’t impress itself upon you. It doesn’t change you. What reading and writing and processing information is supposed to do is change you.
– Ezra Klein on reading

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Leyendecker View
June 5, 2026

Pondering Green Shoots
May 29, 2026

The Information Tipping Point
May 15, 2026