BLUE COLLAR AND BOUJIE Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Three men crossed the Atlantic by balloon in 1978, riding wind they couldn't control. That same year, 160,000 coal miners held a picket line for 110 days over an outcome they couldn't control either. Different kind of patience, same lesson.

TRADE-OFF TUESDAY

Buy, lease, or rent your next piece of heavy equipment? Wade's got a skid-steer success story—and a mini-excavator that spent too much time sitting in the yard. Turns out the real question isn't simply lease-versus-buy. It's utilization, availability, and how much risk you're willing to carry.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS

Intel's selling $15 billion in new stock to fund its comeback bid against TSMC. Banks are starting to treat angry neighbors as a credit risk on data-center loans. Embraer just posted its best second quarter in 16 years. And Ukraine's negotiating a backup grain route through Moldova, because redundancy has value even when it's less efficient.

SPORTS

FIFA killed a plan to sell 20% of a $20 billion World Cup commercial entity—but not before wrecking a lot of trust. UEFA's now talking boycott. The Canadian Open lost a pile of top names to a calendar built for more inventory, not more recovery. And Ben Simmons is willing to play for the league minimum just to reset what the market thinks he's worth.

TRENDING ROUNDUP — TOP 10

Three thousand lawsuits against Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat get to keep moving. Thirty-two colleges fight an early-decision antitrust suit. The FDA wants more visibility into "safe" food ingredients. Sweden breaks up a Russian spy operation. A Chinese robot IPO gets oversubscribed 8,000 times over. China loses a rocket. Podcasts become television again. Western Europe just had its warmest June-and-July stretch on record. Australia briefly investigates the murder of a doll. And in Spokane, families are finally going home.

📬 MAILBAG

Got a question for Wade and Boujie?

mail@bluecollarandboujie.com

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P.S. — Made with help from AI. If Wade or Boujie convinces you to buy a stock, that's between you, your financial adviser, and whatever possessed you to take investment advice from two men arguing about excavators.