What I Talk About When I Talk About Money

The Robotaxi and the Vanishing Jobs

It is another chilly morning in Los Angeles. Autumn is slowly making its departure promising to come back. The sky cannot decide if it wants to rain or just hang there, heavy and grey, like an old wool coat that smells of mothballs. But first, coffee.

Down on the 10 Freeway, there was a crash earlier. Someone racing, they say. Speed and metal colliding with the stubborn reality of concrete. Meanwhile, downtown, a driverless Waymo taxi rolled into the middle of a police standoff, confused by the human drama of guns and shouting. It just sat there, a silent, white plastic observer, watching us.

It feels like a metaphor for the market today. We are all just watching the machinery, trying to understand why it does what it does.

I opened my laptop. The screen glowed with that familiar, artificial blue light. The numbers started to scroll, little digital ghosts telling me stories about money and the people who chase it.

Here is what the machine told me this morning, Wednesday, December 3, 2025:

• The Case of the Missing 32,000The ADP Employment Report arrived like a letter with no return address. It said the private sector lost 32,000 jobs last month. The experts expected a gain of 20,000. It is a strange thing to see—52,000 phantom workers who were supposed to be there but weren’t. In the logic of this world, though, this “bad” news is treated as a gift. The traders believe it means the Federal Reserve—that invisible hand that turns the dials—will have to cut interest rates to save us. The dollar fell. The yields on Treasury bonds dropped. The machine sighs in relief.
• The Green Light in the Fog (Marvell Technology)In the middle of the grey, a single green light blinked. Marvell Technology ($MRVL). They reported strong earnings and bought a company called Celestial AI. The stock is up 11% this morning. It reminds me that even when the forest is quiet, something is always growing under the leaves.
• Bitcoin Climbs Out of the WellA few days ago, Bitcoin was down in the bottom of a dry well, somewhere near $84,000. It was dark down there. But today, it has climbed back up the ladder, trading above $92,000. The fear has evaporated like mist. The crowd on the internet says, “Buy the dip.” They speak with the confidence of people who have never seen the rope break.
• The Voices from the EtherI checked the usual places where the invisible people gather to talk about money.
  • The Analysts (Yahoo/Seeking Alpha): They are cautious. They use words like “muted” and “stagflation.” They are worried that if the economy slows down too much, no amount of rate cuts will fix it. They are like weather forecasters predicting a storm that never quite arrives.
  • The Crowd (Reddit/WallStreetBets): They are cheering. They see the dip as a test of faith. They are buying Marvell. They are buying crypto. Their optimism is a bright, loud color in a monochrome world.
• The Waiting Game – The day is far from over. At 10:00 AM, the ISM Services Index will tell us if the service sector is dying or just sleeping. At noon, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman will speak. We will listen to her words like augurs reading the flight of birds, looking for signs of a rate cut.

I continue browsing to check if the earth is still spinning. The rumors say the Clippers sent Chris Paul home in the middle of the night—another sudden departure, another empty space where a person used to be. But then I read that a baby gorilla was born at the LA Zoo. The fifth one this year.

Life ends, life begins. Jobs vanish, stocks rise. The driverless car watches the police, and, as usual, typical California sunny sky greets me as I am hoping the matrix of money would stay in the bright side of the world.

A Note for the Traveler (Disclaimer):

This post is for information and education only. It is not investment advice. The markets are as unpredictable as a driverless car in a standoff. Do your own research, know your risks, and never invest money you cannot afford to lose to the void.