Pluralistic: Stock swindles (02 Feb 2026)

Today's links

Stock swindles: A buyback is not just a dividend by another name.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Acme License-Plate Maker; IPV4 delenda est; Mandatory gun-ownership; Sukey; Ross and Carrie x LRH; Criti-hype.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Trump and the unmighty dollar: "Flipping the table over in a poker game rigged in your favor because you resent having to pretend to play the game at all."
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: H2G2 v BBC; Anti-capitalist bank rave; Narrative and magic; It's still censorship; Boss politics antitrust; Game library; Gamers 6-65; Google Cache; "Probiotics" aren't; "Starve"; Uptown Funk mashup; Not a crime if we do it with an app; Gibson on Stuxnet; Gates sells Tank Man pic to China; Paul Allen's yacht destroys a reef; Mass surveillance in Anaheim.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

The Post-American Internet: My speech from Hamburg's Chaos Communications Congress.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Error code 451; Public email address Mansplaining Lolita; NSA backdoor in Juniper Networks; Don't bug out; Nurses whose shitty boss is a shitty app.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

(Digital) Elbows Up: How Canada Can Become a Nation of Jailbreakers, Reclaim Our Digital Sovereignty, Win the Trade-War, and Disenshittify Our Technology.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Workaholic Goethe; Prehistory of the Sony rootkit; Wunderkammer front room; Dolphin teleportation symposium: now with more Eisenhowers
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

O(N^2) nationalism: Trumpism can only be defeated through international nationalism.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Paywall kremlinology; How to fix everything; Office365 is spyware; State-owned Amazon.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Microsoft, Tear Down That Wall! What the Eurostack is missing.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Giga pudding; What Technology Wants; Blue Screens of Death; Bernie outperforming Obama; DRM in JPEGs; Dirty words are politically potent; Fury Road 8-bit side-scroller; History of web auth; Prop 22 is a scam.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Trump steals $400b from American workers: You get a noncompete, and you get a noncompete, and you get a noncompete!
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Spying baby-monitors; FBI tests spy-gear at Burning Man; Little Brother optioned by Paramount; Best-paid CEOs have worst-paid workers.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Stock buybacks are stock swindles: Raising the value of a stock without raising the value of the company.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Marshmellow longtermism; Physicists are not epidemiologists; CO asphyxiation accounts for half of Hurricane Laura deaths.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

The capitalism of fools: Trump's mirror-world New Deal.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: IBM's fabric design; Nixon Cthulu; Surveillance capitalism is capitalism, with surveillance; Dismaland ad; Outdoor ed vs TB; Mathematicians' fave chalk.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Boss-politics antitrust and the MAGA crackup: The Tunney Act stirs the pot.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Hearware, 10,000 superballs; Bitcoin is not socialist; Stupid and dangerous video game cheating lawsuit.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.