Return on Reason

SpaceX just pulled off one of the largest IPOs in history, and OpenAI and Anthropic are rumored to be next. But should any of it tempt you? Max sits down with Ben to unpack what's really happening behind the headlines: why banks deliberately underprice offerings to engineer a first-day "pop," how retail investors often end up as exit liquidity for founders and early backers, and why an advanced pr...

What actually translates from professional money management to your own brokerage account? In this episode of Return on Reason , Max sits down again with Ben to work through key passages from Berkshire Hathaway's famous owner's manual and test which principles hold up for the individual investor. The conversation covers a lot of ground: why Buffett's "corporate form, partnership attitude" structur...

The S&P just closed at 7,398. The NASDAQ's forward PE is back at levels last seen at the dot-com peak and the 2021 frenzy. Warren Buffett is sitting on $373 billion in cash. Ray Dalio says we're 80% of the way into bubble territory. Meanwhile, the US is at war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted for months, and the IEA is calling it the largest supply shock in oil market history...

Max and Ben tackle listener questions in a wide-ranging Q&A covering the dollar's whipsaw through the oil shock, why a hiking BOJ still can't lift the yen, and whether crypto could ever replace the greenback. They dig into market complacency at fresh record highs, the risk that central banks misread a supply squeeze as a demand problem, the $1 trillion debt-servicing milestone and creeping fis...

Max and Ben break down four weeks of the Iran conflict and what it means for markets. They discuss how the Strait of Hormuz closure is rippling through everything from airline stocks to consumer prices, and why the ceasefire announcement hasn't changed the fundamentals. Plus: the bull case for a quick recovery—and why it probably doesn't hold up.

The S&P 500 is flat on the year. Meanwhile, European stocks just hit all-time highs — outperforming the U.S. by the widest margin in three decades. 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...

Japan just delivered its most decisive election result in post-war history. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party won a historic supermajority, the Nikkei surged to record highs, and the so-called "Takaichi trade" kicked into gear across equities, bonds, and the yen. But what actually changed for investors — and what didn't? Max and Ben sit down to unpack the real implications:...

More than $800 billion in market value wiped from the software sector in six trading sessions. Some are calling it the Claude Crash. This week, Max is joined by Benjamin Bruns — portfolio manager at Sans Souci Investments and former analyst at LOYS AG and Deutsche Bank's DWS Group — to break down what's behind the sell-off, why it's different from the DeepSeek panic, and what it means for investor...