“His eyes – how they twinkled. His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow …
He had a broad face and a little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.”
Earlier this week I unearthed our old Goldenbook “Twas the Night Before Christmas” from our Christmas storage. As I thumbed through the pages to the description of Santa above, I became alarmed at some similarities I’m starting to share with Old St. Nick. I have to laugh at the man in the mirror these days. I don’t know about the twinkling eyes, and I’m certainly striking out on the dimples (they skipped a generation), but the rest of it … yikes. For those that haven’t seen me in the last few months, I’m now 49 years of age going on 75. I’ve got the beard of my chin as white as the snow to go with my reading glasses. The broad face, round little belly and so on I’ve had covered for some time. All of this, of course, gives me absolute authority to develop my own Naughty List for Christmas, since I am resembling our lovable protagonist more than ever. I’ll start with three rather high-profile entries on the Naughty List and then work my way closer to home:
Naughty List
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has made the naughty list. Let’s face it, a less-than-personable, wealthy banker type that is making life hard on those trying to buy their first home or refinance is an easy addition here. He was extremely late to adapt to the surging inflation in 2021 and 2022 and now seems at home to the same mistake of hanging on too long to the interest rate status quo. Yes, we’ve had some reductions in rates, but like a Blues melody gone wrong, he’s held on to the note way past the next beat. Heck, way past the next measure. There’s nothing wrong with being wrong but not admitting you’re wrong and doubling and tripling down doesn’t help anyone. He’s held Americans’ financial futures captive for his mistakes. Accountability isn’t optional. Elon Musk tweeted a Thomas Sowell quote yesterday that “We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did.” It will probably be true for AI in the future, and it’s true for accountability for national monetary policy. Own your mistakes and grow from them. I’m dropping in just 25 pennies into Jerome Powell’s stocking. They cost $0.04 each to make, so I’ve really given him a dollar of production costs, which is more than his efforts have been worth during his tenure.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison – This one is easy, too. Larry’s naughty behavior has been on display for Hawaiians since 2022 when he purchased 98% of the island of Lanai’s acreage for $300 million with dreams of turning it into a haven for the ultra-wealthy. The purchase included a large percentage of Lanai’s homes and almost all of its commercial properties. Ellison transformed instantly into the island’s boss or landlord and for so many of Lanai’s residents, he’s both. According to this article , there’s a provision in Ellison’s leases that if you lose your position with his companies, you can be evicted from your house as well. It must be hard to retain that Aloha spirit under such a yoke.
Fast forward to today, and Oracle’s debt and infrastructure financing are causing major issues. Everyone knows debt can snowball. According to Y-charts, Oracle’s debt-to-equity ratio is 4.398, which is bad enough to never make our filters for our WTA Growth portfolio. We have not once seen the company come up as an option to invest in for you. The stock has dropped 48% from its 52-week high1 and that’s despite being an integral part of Trump’s Stargate AI project. So, Larry’s made my Naughty List and his Christmas makana is likely Pele’s Curse as he’s taken more sand and lava rock from Hawaiians than anyone.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – We’ve already chronicled a bit of Sam’s naughty behavior in ridiculing investor Brad Gerstner for having the temerity to ask him how a $13 billion revenue company could function with $1.4 trillion in spend commitments. Altman’s leadership issues extend further if you look at the departure of AI economics researcher Tom Cunningham who said the company is “veering away from real research and acting like the company’s propaganda arm”2. This follows the departure of William Saunders, a member of the defunct “Superalignment” team, when he said he left the company because they were prioritizing producing “newer, shiner products” over user safety. Steven Adler, a former safety researcher at OpenAI left after openly and repeatedly saying that OpenAI has a risky approach to AI development, as ChatGPT was “driving many users into mental crises and delusional spirals” according to this Wired article. This is following the highly publicized breakup of Altman with Ilya Sutskever, Co-Founder of OpenAI, who left the company under mysterious circumstances and founded an AI safety company3. This Santa Claus says these things at risk of a Terminator being sent back in time to stop him from putting coal in Sam’s stocking next week. (Of course, he’ll probably use that coal to help power an AI datacenter).
Caden Wright – As I said, we’re ending up a little closer to home – actually inside it, as this is my 7-year-old son. We’ve been excited to watch him grow very fond of science. Caden has watched every single YouTube episode by Mark Rober, who is the founder of CrunchLabs – a toy company the former NASA employee engineered to, well, teach engineering to children. We bought the Build-A-Box Subscription for him and watched him build the Coin Spinner this past weekend. He wanted to duplicate Rober’s experiment of spinning a quarter and a ring side-by-side to see how the distribution of weight in a ring would cause it to spin for much longer than the quarter. His experiment ran into two problems. The first problem was that the material he selected for the experiment was Ashley’s ring I bought her for a previous anniversary from Tiffany’s in NYC (not something my frugal family does, well maybe just this once). The second problem was the location of the experiment was the kitchen floor, beside a floor vent. (I did tell you my house was built in 1981). And spun the ring did … hopping over the lip of the vent, through the grate and down into the dark air duct below. Not to worry though, as we will now spend our anniversary using an endoscope I purchased online to locate and snag the ring with a hook. Otherwise, under the house Santa will go, which is NOT the way to the chimney last I checked. In Caden’s stocking he’ll find … another CrunchLabs Build-A-Box, so we can see what further damage we can do, this time after he builds a Disc Launcher. What could go wrong? The boys have only broken 2 OLED TVs so far throwing things in the house … Landen should have known better than to duck that tennis ball coming at him. Take one for the team, kid …
In our WTA Investment Committee meeting Wednesday, we re-affirmed many things that all factored into Santa’s Naughty List. One, that we’ll be very mindful of interest rates and their effects on not only the bond market but the stock market. Two, that not all that glitters in the AI space may be gold. Three, we’ll be hyper-aware of debt in companies as things that can go wrong, tend to do so – see Murphy’s Law. Mr. Murphy is certainly hanging around the Wright Household lately, so we’ll try to keep him occupied and away from your portfolios in 2026. Enjoy the season with your loved ones. Help us help you deliver the presents you want to give to those you want to give to in 2026. As we’ll be out for the holiday before next week’s publication of the Market Mindset, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you and your families! We pray that we’ll help make your lives better in the New Year. God bless you, and keep you and your families safe, healthy and happy. And remember, if you listen to us, we’ll change your financial world …
Ho Ho Ho,
Scott Wright
Portfolio Manager
The Wealth Training Academy
(Marketing Disclaimer: Past performance is never a guarantee of future results. We offer a lot of services. Our planning, tax, and insurance strategies are designed to improve financial outcomes when implemented as recommended. We’re confident in these strategies, but results will vary based on individual circumstances. Investment results cannot be guaranteed. Unless otherwise indicated, no third party individuals mentioned in this article are clients of our firm, nor have they been compensated for appearing. This article is for educational purposes only. For personal advice about your situation please call our office. ~The Compliance Department.)
Sources:
1Stock market today: Live updates
2OpenAI Researcher Quits, Saying Company Is Hiding the Truth
3Ilya Sutskever breaks silence on OpenAI departure: “I had a big new vision” | Ctech
4CrunchLabs: Where kids & adults learn to Think like Engineers
(We do not earn any commission or compensation from CrunchLabs. This link is for educational purposes only).
