Last week’s employment report felt familiar. Not dramatic. Not weak enough to shift policy. Just more of the same pattern we’ve seen lately: solid headlines, soft details.
Earnings season has a rhythm to it. You sit down with the numbers, look at what the companies said, and what they didn’t, and try to understand the direction things are moving. This time, the theme is familiar: AI. Not just as a product or initiative, but as a core part of how large companies are thinking about infrastructure, competition, and long-term strategy.
On May 3rd, at the annual Omaha meeting — a kind of capitalist pilgrimage — an old idea re-emerged like a ripple from the past: Import Certificates, or ICs. Warren Buffett proposed it back in 2003. It was quiet then, ignored even. But now, two decades and a few trade wars later, it is beginning to sound wise — less like policy and more like a compass pointing north.
