First, the AI disruption narrative: legacy software names like IBM, SAP, and Salesforce have been priced as if agentic AI will replace them overnight but the earnings don't show it yet. Ben makes the case for beaten-down software and AI-implementation firms whose fundamentals remain strong, and explains why the "AI job apocalypse" story may have been more marketing than reality.

Next, Japan: with inflation heating up and pressure mounting on the Bank of Japan to hike rates, Ben walks through why the massive yen carry trade is a hidden vulnerability — and why domestic Japanese companies sitting on enormous cash piles could be dramatically re-rated if the yen finally appreciates.

Finally, Iran: both Washington and Tehran have strong incentives to end the conflict before the US midterms, but each wants to claim victory. Ben covers how traders have profited from oil volatility, why oversold tourism stocks have proven resilient, and where the opportunities lie in refining margins and reconstruction.

Plus: what the fund got right (and wrong) since the first episode's software-correction call.

Plus: record-breaking $200M CEO paydays and what they mean (or don't) for investors, how to spot genuinely great management, the rise and fall of the "managerial class," why startups deserve a discount for depending on one person, and what "the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" actually means — and who should really be worried about it.

They also dig into the bigger risk hiding in plain sight — index concentration. If a handful of trillion-dollar, profitless companies come to dominate the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, what does that mean for the millions of people who think they're "diversified"? Along the way: Benjamin Graham's not-so-flattering acronyms for IPOs, why shorting a bubble can ruin you even when you're right, and how to beat FOMO and find the diamond in the rough instead of paying full price for the diamond.

Not financial advice. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and reflects the personal opinions of the hosts and guests. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.

The conversation covers a lot of ground: why Buffett's "corporate form, partnership attitude" structure let him compound through panics without redemptions, and whether that ownership mindset still matters when you only hold a fraction of a percent. Ben makes the case that thinking like a business owner rather than a trader is exactly what builds a good temperament—the ability to hold quality through volatility instead of selling into fear.

Along the way, they dig into how to actually evaluate management: why capital allocation is the rarest skill (and why buying back stock at high prices is a red flag), why honesty on earnings calls matters more than a clean quarter, and how to smell trouble in the accounting—non-GAAP reconciliations, EBITDA creep, and excessive stock-based comp hiding in the cash flow statement.

This episode discusses general investing concepts and is not personalized financial advice.

The answer you'll hear everywhere is "liquidity." Cash on the sidelines. So much money in the system. But what does that actually mean? When people say money "flowed into" the market, where do they think it went? Does cash enter the market in aggregate, or does ownership just change hands at a higher price? And can liquidity alone justify permanently higher valuations — or is that just the story we tell ourselves at the top of every cycle?

Max sits down with Ben to pressure-test the explanation everyone's relying on.

Germany's half-trillion euro spending blitz, a defense buildup not seen since the Cold War, record buybacks, and a continent quietly correcting years of policy mistakes.

This week, Ben and Max dig into the boring industrial companies most investors overlook, why Wall Street's obsession with flashy growth stocks creates massive mispricings, and what the Supreme Court's tariff ruling means for European exporters.

They cover the rise of AI coding tools like Claude and Codex that are making software replicable overnight, why the Rule of 40 may have been masking fragile business models, how to tell which software companies have real moats and which are about to lose them, Bank of America's "internally inconsistent" take on the correction, the overlooked investment opportunities hiding in the AI value chain — in hardware, industrials, and energy — and why Wall Street has endless imagination for upside but almost none for risk.