The newsletter's New Year Resolutions
plus: Greenland, US economic activity, market glimmers
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Daniel J. Boorstin ||
Hello all! With the festive season now officially closed, the Christmas lights dimmed, family heading back to their lives and my fridge pleading for mercy, I can now fully embrace the New Year. A week later than most of you, I know, but I am now fully in 2026 and excited about what’s ahead – below, I share some thoughts about this newsletter.
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
New Year’s Resolutions
Greenland: another geopolitical domino?
Macro: US activity weakens
Markets: stock taking
Crypto is Macro Now offers ~daily commentary and updates on the overlap between the crypto and macro landscapes. Plus links, a music recommendation (‘cos why not?), and more.
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WHAT I’M WATCHING:
New Year’s Resolutions
A controversial topic, I know, but I do love New Year’s Resolutions. The self-reaffirming goalpost, the promise of growth and achievement, the chance to think about the kind of person you want to be (yes, even at my age) and the opportunity to plan steps to get there. Of course we can set ourselves either modest or ambitious destinations at any time, but there’s something about the “new beginning” implicit in the change of the calendar year that gives fresh objectives a solemn heft and a ceremonial glow.
My list includes the usual – read more, walk more, work less, clear cupboards – as well as a few that affect this newsletter, so I’ll share these with you.
Before I do, I want to thank you for being here. I write for you, and I’m so grateful that you read what I put out. You are appreciated, and I feel privileged to be able to spend time thinking about what matters as well as what you might find interesting.
Right then, this coming year:
1) I plan to continue production as before, publishing daily although with gaps here and there.
Some have suggested I drop the frequency in order to go deeper, to write longer “think pieces” which would be more value-add for readers than a barrage of regular comment. That does sound tempting as I am often frustrated at the lack of time to do big-picture sweeps, and the additional schedule flexibility would be liberating. But I believe I can be more useful to you with shorter pieces, especially as things are moving so fast. Plus, the pressure of a daily deadline is productive, and the exhilarating click on the Send button marks a divide in my work day after which I can stretch my legs, grab something to eat, and then give some focus to other things.
2) Because of these other things, I am going to try to publish earlier – my goal is now 2:00pm CET but, realistically, it’ll be 2:30pm.
A big part of what bogs me down every day is the urge to share fresh developments with you as soon as they happen, which means skimming all my main news sources plus X first thing – enjoyable for the news adrenaline rush, but too noisy for actual thinking. While bringing you a summary of relevant headlines would be fun, there are other sources that can do that probably better than I could (BitDigest is a good example). And I will endeavour to write before skimming, which means my comments will occasionally be timely, but more often not. I see my role as piecing together a puzzle, not winning a race.
3) About these “other things”: I’m reluctant to say much about this yet as it’s early days, but I will be trying out new formats this year.
I reluctantly had to acknowledge earlier last year that I just can’t do audio recordings of this newsletter – the production part was so frustrating, and it didn’t feel like a good use of my scarce hours at a time when I was anyway feeling overwhelmed by all I wanted to learn. I tried relying on an AI voice app for a while, but in the end I couldn’t stomach how fake it felt. Apologies to all of you who want audio, I do get that it’s more convenient for many.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t be producing audio – just that I won’t be reading out what I’ve written. More to come on this, as well as other new written and live formats.
4) I will continue to focus on the topics I care about, all tying in to how crypto is impacting the macro landscape and vice versa (I wrote more here about why this matters now more than ever).
There will, of course, be a heavy weight of stablecoin, CBDC and tokenization comment, but by no means exclusively (if you’re interested in a more focused approach, I recommend following Currency of Power and/or The Peg). I’ll also be writing about geopolitics as the breakdown of the old order accelerates, economics as orthodox beliefs get thrown out the window, DeFi as institutions reluctantly warm to the idea, regulation as governments belatedly wake up, markets as the narratives seep beyond exchanges, currency management as financial systems fracture, social trends as unrest and new networks shape the next generation, and a lot more. I am but one person and do not plan to expand the team (my ambition is to learn, share and be able to support myself by doing what I love, that’s all), so I of course won’t be able to cover everything relevant – but I am confident I’ll be able to get to most of the main trends.
5) To help me with this and the timing issue, I’ll be bringing back the monthly summaries of key developments in stablecoins/CBDCs, tokenization and regulation.
I’ll also offer a monthly look-back at what I was writing about a year ago, so we can all keep track of progress, what trends fizzled out, what promises were not kept and so on. I loved doing these and I know many of you found them useful, but they got aggressively shoved to the side by the chaos of stuff happening and my attempt to keep up. Since this year I’m focusing more on “useful” than “timely” (with exceptions), I have a better chance of keeping the summaries going.
In sum, I’m feeling determined and confident that I’m doing what I need to be doing at this point in history. This coming year will be exciting for some, alarming for many and meaningful for all. My aim is to show how the details that cross our screens are feeding the civilizational change enveloping the world, and to help make sense of it all. I’m looking forward to embarking on this journey with you.
