Insights

Commentary on credit, capital, and risk.

Original opinion writing on credit risk, project finance, emerging markets, and policy, grounded in the same models and research behind the work on this site.

JUL 6
2026

What the Trump Accounts Get Right, and Wrong, About Building Wealth From Zero

Trump Accounts launched July 4, 2026. A look at what the design gets right and wrong about building financial standing from zero, and what emerging markets should take from it.

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JUN 25
2026

Why DPI Is Quietly Replacing IRR as the Number That Actually Matters

Private equity LPs are demanding realized returns over paper marks in 2026. How that shift relates to, and differs from, the valuation discipline in my own LBO work.

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JUN 19
2026

Kenya's Finance Bill 2026: The Real Story Isn't the Tax Rates, It's the Pattern

A balanced look at Kenya's Finance Bill 2026, citing IEA Kenya's structural critique, and why tax policy volatility matters more for business and employment than any single rate.

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JUN 10
2026

What My Oracle Valuation Would Say About Today's AI-Driven Market, and Where It Falls Short

S&P 500 concentration has exceeded dot-com peaks. An honest look at what my Oracle DCF actually captured, and what it doesn't yet answer about AI-driven revenue.

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MAY 30
2026

The PIK Loan Is Telling On Itself

Rising PIK usage is flagged as a red flag across the $2 trillion private credit market. What separates disciplined structuring from reactive distress.

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MAY 3
2026

The Real Constraint on African Private Credit Isn't Credit Risk. It's Currency Risk.

Why currency mismatch, not weak underwriting, is the binding constraint on mobilizing private capital into African markets, and how TCX and local-currency bonds are responding.

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MAR 17
2026

Why the DSCR Number Mattered More Than the IRR

A project finance case study on why lenders and sponsors are underwriting the same model for two different answers, and why the coverage ratio matters more than the return.

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FEB 25
2026

What the Subprime Auto Delinquency Record Is Consistent With

Subprime auto delinquencies hit a 32-year record in early 2026. What my own research on stress-period credit models suggests, and what it doesn't yet confirm.

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JAN 2
2026

The Credit Score Obsession Is Costing Emerging Markets Growth

Why collateral and contract design carry more underwriting signal than credit history in thin-file markets, and what that means for lenders extending credit in Africa.

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NOV 12
2025

The Car Loan Nobody Treats as Labor Market Infrastructure

Auto loans are a $1.3 trillion market tied to employment and wages. What the causal literature shows, and where my own inference goes further than the evidence alone.

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OCT 15
2025

America Has Its Own Credit Invisibility Problem, and the Fix Isn't What Most People Think

The CFPB corrected a decade-old estimate on credit invisibility in the US. The real population that matters is larger than assumed.

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