What I Talk About When I Talk About Money

The Strategy of the Cunctator

We had a late start in the morning. My wife had an early morning video conference—way early, 4:00 AM—and she went back to sleep after the call, the house silent and heavy with that pre-dawn gravity. I was up late last night, fallen into the World Wide Web, digging a tunnel down a rabbit hole of market reports until my eyes burned.

When I finally checked the time this morning, the sun was already too high. I thought to myself, “We’re already late. No point in rushing.”

I made breakfast slowly. I prepped their snacks and lunch with a deliberate calm. I got the kids ready for school, tying shoes without the usual frantic energy. We walked to school, the air crisp, the shadows shortening. And we ended up late by less than 20 minutes—not the hours it seemed like when I first woke up. Even if I had rushed, panicked, and sprinted, the difference would have been unnoticeable. The world didn’t end because I moved at my own pace.

The Shield of Rome

It made me think of Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Roman general known as Cunctator—”The Delayer.”

When Hannibal was ravaging Italy, destroying every Roman army that tried to rush him in open battle, Fabius did something radical: he refused to fight. He shadowed Hannibal, he harassed him, but he never rushed. The Romans hated him for it. They called him cowardly. They screamed for action. But Fabius knew that time was his only ally. By delaying, by moving at a pace that seemed agonizingly slow to the panic-stricken populace, he saved the Republic. He understood that rushing into the “obvious” fix would actually destroy everything.

Today, Jerome Powell is the modern Cunctator.

The Fed’s Strategic Delay

At 11:00 AM (PST) this morning, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points, bringing the target range to 3.50%–3.75%.

The market has been screaming for months—some demanding aggressive cuts, others demanding a full stop. The vote was 9-3, a rare and fractured decision that shows just how divided the generals are.

But Powell, like Fabius, is moving at his own agonizing pace. The “Dot Plot” released today shows only one projected cut for all of 2026. The market wanted two or three. Basically, Powell is saying, “I will not rush. I will not sprint just because you are panicking about a recession that isn’t here yet.”

The $40 Billion Cushion

Despite the “slow” guidance, the markets rallied hard today. Why?

Because the Fed threw a cushion on the floor. They announced a plan to buy $40 billion in Treasury bills over the next 30 days. Powell insists this is just “technical liquidity management”—plumbing, not policy. But the market hears “Liquidity.” It hears “The Fed is putting money back into the system.”

Market Scorecard (Closing 2:35 PM PST):

• Dow Jones: +1.05% (48,057.75) – The heavyweights loved the stability.
• S&P 500: +0.67% (6,886.68) – Broad confidence.
• Russell 2000 (Small Caps): +1.36% – The biggest winner. Small companies love cheaper money.
• 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.155% (Down slightly) – The bond market is accepting the slow path.

The Casualties of the Day

Not everyone survived the battle today.

• Oracle (ORCL): Down in after-hours trading. Despite beating earnings per share, they missed on revenue. In a market obsessed with cloud perfection, a revenue miss is a mortal wound.
• Nvidia (NVDA): Stalled. The news that the U.S. will allow H200 chip exports to China (with a 25% revenue tax paid to the U.S. government) was priced in, and traders took their profits.

The Crypto Current

While the equity markets played defense, the digital currents were moving faster.

• Bitcoin (BTC): Holding steady around $92,600. It seems content to float here, waiting for the liquidity from the Fed’s new bond-buying program to trickle down.
• Ethereum (ETH): The standout performer, surging ~7% to break $3,300. The “altcoin season” narrative is waking up.
• BitMine Immersion (BMNR): The new wildcard. This stock has become the “Ethereum proxy” of the moment. BMNR is up significantly, riding the news of its massive 3.86 million ETH treasury. It is trying to be for Ethereum what MicroStrategy is for Bitcoin—a leveraged bet on the asset itself. As Ethereum moves, so moves the mine.

Conclusion

I walked home from the school drop-off, the morning rush over. The delay didn’t matter. The panic was internal, not external.

The market is realizing the same thing. The Fed isn’t rushing to save us, but maybe that’s the point. By moving slowly, by being the Cunctator, they are trying to ensure that when we finally arrive at the destination, we are still intact.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. I am just a man sitting at the bottom of a well, looking up at the circle of sky. The numbers you see here are just shadows cast by the moon. They are not the moon itself. Do not mistake the map for the territory, and do not mistake these words for advice. The market is a strange, wind-swept plain, and we are all just walking through it alone. Please, find your own path.