Posts | Chang’s Jottings

From Land Deals to Platform Power: America’s Expansion Playbook

The whole “Trump wants to buy Greenland” thing reminded me of the U.S. expansion story, how the country often grew by acquiring land through something that looks a lot like M&A. From the founding of the country to World War II, over about 170 years, the U.S. kept expanding its territory. Roughly 40% of that expansion came through purchases or treaties, and only rarely through direct conquest. If you look at it purely in terms of return on investment, the U.S. government might be the best M&A fund on the planet, easily beating Wall Street.

Watching the Dollar Drift in 2025

The U.S. dollar’s performance in 2025 has been strange. I don’t say this only because the dollar has fallen by about 10% since the beginning of the year. I say it because the relationships between the dollar and long-term Treasury yields, and between the dollar and U.S. equities, look very different from what we’ve seen through most of history.

When the U.S. Invests in the U.K.’s AI Future

Lately, the U.S. and the U.K. seem to be moving closer than ever. Donald Trump, who has always pushed his “America First” slogan, acts like a different person when he is in Britain. Surrounded by tech and finance giants, he announced a wave of investments in the U.K., unprecedented in scale: £150 billion in total, or about $200 billion.

Palantir’s Tomorrow Problem

Palantir’s latest earnings were dazzling. U.S. commercial revenue surged 93% year over year. By the “Rule of 40”, that simple measure of company health where revenue growth plus profit margin should add up to more than 40, they scored 94. Nearly perfect.