EllisItems

News Items is distributed 6x weekly (not Sundays), covering finance, political disruption, scientific and technological advance. Test drive by clicking on this link: newsitems.substack.com/7e69fd09

The Long Spiral. Bond markets rumble. @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

Truly Global. Today's edition of News Items is up on the internets. by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

The militia won (January 2021). @41jellis/an-overwhelming-success-4f7795d9a6ad" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@41jellis/an-o…

Back in January of 2021, I wrote a piece that said the militia "won." I rest my case. wapo.st/4wB2OqJ

Trump visits climate science. You'll never guess. apnews.com/article/trump-…

Now in line with NORC and Pew Research. Trump’s Approval Sinks Amid Unpopular War, Darkening G.O.P. Prospects nytimes.com/2026/05/18/us/…

I'd say Blanche is a lock for the AG post. Trump Administration Live Updates: $1.8 Billion Fund Could Funnel Money to Trump Allies nytimes.com/live/2026/05/1…

A man spends 50 years teaching at MIT. He knows his time is running out. So he records one last lecture — everything he knows, distilled into a single hour. He died 5 months later. This is that lecture. The most important hour you'll watch this week. 👇 Bookmark it for later

Mountain goat leaps across massive canyon without hesitation 😨

No Tangible Concessions. Monday's News Items are up on the internets. by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

Waiting for the 4D chess people to explain how the incipient surrender of Taiwan to China and abandonment of a central pillar of US security in the Asia-Pacific for 50 years is in fact another stroke of pure genius from President Metternich.

The Weekend Edition of News Items is up on the internets. By @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

The Trump administration's approach to science research is baffling. Incomprehesible. If it focused on "overhead" fee tack-ons, I doubt five people would disgree. Cut the fees in half, no damage done. Cut the basic science, and talent leaves or doesn't come. A recipe for decline. wapo.st/42zBhsa

This piece really clarifies how far ahead China is on rare earths and why it will take a decade for the US to catch up. Even if Bloomberg is wrong and it's only half a decade, the leverage it gives China is enormous. bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-…

Facts are stubborn. bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-…

"Public confusion" indeed. And not just in Texas. $1.7 billion contract awarded “for border wall in Big Bend” amid public confusion over construction plans texastribune.org/2026/05/15/tex…

Yes, there are a lot of kids named Olivia and Liam today. But name concentration was much higher back in the day.

BREAKING: US data center construction spending jumped +34% YoY in March, to a record $50 billion annualized rate. Spending on data centers is up +437% since the beginning of 2021, when the annualized rate stood at ~$9 billion. This is also up +688% since the start of 2018, when the annualized rate was just ~$6 billion. Meanwhile, office building construction spending fell -9% YoY in March, to $46 billion, the lowest since 2015. This means that spending on data centers now exceeds office building construction by $4 billion, or +9%. To put this into perspective, office construction spending exceeded data center spending by $65 billion, or +650%, in 2020. AI is fundamentally transforming the US economy.

The return of the Somali pirates. News Items gathers reports on that and a whole lot more..by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…