AFTER THE BELL

Monday, August 17, 2026

In 1998, Russia defaulted on its own debt while the market kept extending credit to a story it had every reason to doubt. Today's session was a much smaller reminder of the same lesson — geopolitical risk sits quietly for months, then presents the whole invoice at once.

THE SESSION

Stocks finished lower as an expiring US-Iran memorandum pushed oil higher, dragging bond yields up with it. Gold and the dollar told a more complicated story underneath — up and down at the same time, which says more about unease than panic.

THE MOVERS

Constellation Brands, L3Harris, and Carvana led the declines — a Berkshire exit, a CEO ouster, and a stock just falling under its own weight. SanDisk, Applied Materials, and Marvell led the gains on renewed AI-hardware enthusiasm.

THE DEEP DIVE

SpaceX rose again — but not for the tidy reason you'd expect. The real story is a staggered share-unlock structure that's been testing supply and demand since June, and why the easy "rocket company has good day" explanation misses what's actually moving the stock.

P.S. — Made with AI. Nothing here is financial advice — talk to a licensed human before you act on any of it.

BLUE COLLAR AND BOUJIE

Sunday, August 16, 2026 — The Weekend Edition

In 1896, a party of four found gold along a Yukon creek — a month after William Jennings Bryan told a convention hall gold had become too scarce to build an economy on. The rush that followed proved him right in a way nobody in Chicago could vote for.

PROVERB OF THE WEEK

Wade on Proverbs 27:23 — know the state of your flock before somebody else tells you what happened to it. Applied to backlogs, cash, crews, and the customer who calls thirty days "thirty days" while meaning ninety.

THE RECKONING

Wade called diesel up a nickel by Friday — it moved nine cents. Boujie called the S&P lower for the week — it gained 0.4%. Final score: Wade 1, Boujie 0, and a spreadsheet Boujie insists he only built "the moment you won something."

THE WEEK AHEAD

Housing starts, Home Depot, Fed minutes, Target and Walmart all land this week — and both hosts go back on record with fresh predictions after last week's result.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS

Retail sales just posted their worst month in over a year. Treasury sold 30-year bonds at the highest yield since 2001. New drone tariffs turn into an industrial policy fight — and an accidental confession about how much Wade loves anything with a motor. China's credit contraction suggests cheap money doesn't help if nobody wants to borrow it.

SPORTS

The Raiders' rookie QB gets his first look. Nielsen says 9 million American women got seriously into sports this year. Boujie gets uncharacteristically excited about cricket — for good reason, since Bangladesh just pulled off a historic 9-wicket win in Australia, their first Test victory there ever. And Arsenal gets a late boost of returning stars ahead of the Community Shield against Man City.

TRENDING ROUNDUP — TOP 10

Hormuz shipping is now fully halted, and it's showing up at the gas pump — $4.08 a gallon, with Trump saying the cost is worth it. Reddit joins the S&P 500. Taiwan rehearses a communications blackout. Japan eyes another rate hike. Microsoft keeps shrinking in China. Private equity circles Workday. Hurricane Lala batters Hawaii's Big Island. The US homicide rate hits a 75-year low. And a dog named Timber finally goes home after 220 days in a shelter that didn't know his name.

MAILBAG SATURDAY

A foreman's getting a $8-an-hour offer elsewhere — match it, reprice the role, or let him walk? Wade and Boujie actually disagree on the answer.

📬 Got a question for next week's episode? mail@bluecollarandboujie.com

P.S. — Made with AI. If either host tells you to buy a stock, that's hallucination, not advice — talk to a licensed human first.

BLUE COLLAR AND BOUJIE

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Reagan signed the biggest tax cut of his presidency at his California ranch in 1981. That same year, Paul Volcker's Fed made borrowing money brutally expensive. Two policies, both defensible on paper, pulling the same businessman in opposite directions — a fight we're still having, forty-five years later.

WADE'S JOBSITE REPORT

A Brisbane builder is pouring concrete at night under headlamps because he can't find a daytime crew — and Australia's 1.2-million-home target is falling 27% behind pace. Wade's take: schedule pressure doesn't create capacity, and pretending otherwise just makes everybody work stranger hours for worse results.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS

July inflation cooled at the margin, but the federal deficit just posted its ugliest month in years. Treasury sold 30-year bonds at the highest yield in 25 years — proof the Fed doesn't control what the world charges America to borrow long-term. Plus new drone tariffs, and Bank of America's $1.9 billion bet on Indian consumer credit.

SPORTS

The Lakers just sold for a record $12.5 billion — 14 months after the last sale. PSG held onto the UEFA Super Cup. And Efe Obada, who was trafficked as a child and moved through ten foster homes, retired from the NFL to open a foundation for kids coming through the same system he did.

TRENDING ROUNDUP — TOP 10

Colombia digs for survivors after its worst earthquake this century. Washington reopens the childhood vaccine fight. Youth unemployment hits a global high. Spain braces for six million eclipse-chasers in wildfire country. Spotify starts labeling AI artists. A guy who rebuilt Toyota from the accounting department dies at 93. And scientists confirm dogs really can read your face.

📬 Got a question for Wade and Boujie? mail@bluecollarandboujie.com — may air next Saturday.

P.S. — Made with AI. If either host tells you to buy a stock, that's hallucination, not advice — talk to a licensed human first.

BLUE COLLAR AND BOUJIE

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Negotiators reached NAFTA at 12:40 a.m. in 1992. Bush called it a new era from the Rose Garden hours later. The guys on the factory floor called it something else entirely — and thirty-some years on, we're still arguing both sides of it.

BUSINESS BREAKDOWN

Cisco reports after Wednesday's closing bell — Wade and Boujie preview what to watch for: AI order growth still driven by the giants, a 19% product-order gain that says Cisco's broader business isn't. And nearly 4,000 layoffs sitting right underneath all that growth talk.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS

Housing stays stuck below 5 million sales a year while prices keep climbing anyway. Small business optimism hits an 11-month high — but nobody can find anyone to hire. GM quietly buys itself $4.5 billion in supply-chain insurance. And six railroads lose their fight over two-person crews.

SPORTS

The NBA turns Christmas Day into a soap opera with hamstrings. Flag football's actual specialists keep beating NFL All-Stars ahead of the 2028 Olympics. Aaron Rodgers would rather not play a game he doesn't consider real football. And Germany brings back standing sections because — in Boujie's words — football stadiums are not theatres.

TRENDING ROUNDUP — TOP 10

Colombia digs for survivors after its worst earthquake this century. Washington reopens the vaccine-schedule fight. Young people worldwide can't find a first rung on the employment ladder. Spain chases an eclipse without setting itself on fire. Spotify starts labeling AI artists. Sony and TSMC bet $4.7 billion on better phone cameras. Toyota loses the accountant who rebuilt it. Dogs, it turns out, really can read your face. And grandparents in Singapore are doing parkour.

📬 MAILBAG

Got a question for Wade and Boujie? mail@bluecollarandboujie.com — may air next Saturday.

P.S. — Made with AI. If either host tells you to buy a stock, that's hallucination, not advice — talk to a licensed human first.

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

Your question may air next Saturday.

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.

BLUE COLLAR AND BOUJIE

Monday, August 10, 2026

Google restructured for clarity. Volkswagen built software to hide the truth. Same year, opposite instincts — and markets eventually find out which one you chose.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Predictions are officially on the board. Wade: diesel up a nickel by Friday. Boujie: the S&P closes the week lower. No moving the goalposts.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS

Oil stays elevated, construction margins keep getting squeezed. Fresh ground: Dream Finders buys Beazer ($2.2B), Berkshire's back to buybacks, Nvidia bets on AI's power bottleneck, and Canada puts real tariff concessions on the table — sparking the episode's sharpest fight.

SPORTS

Panthers beat Cardinals in the Hall of Fame Game. NFL opens on a Wednesday for the first time since 2012. Bridgewater retires; Detroit moves fast on Dobbs.

TRENDING ROUNDUP — TOP 10

Taiwan's defense budget jumps. Americans want more social media oversight. A typhoon evacuates a million+ in China. Houthis hit a Saudi refinery. Cyprus eyes gas for Europe. A rocket stage hits the Moon. KATSEYE's Sophia steps back. Netanyahu rejects Gaza terms. The Perseids peak. And in Arizona, a postal clerk's nursing background saves a baby's life.

📬 MAILBAG

Got a question for Wade and Boujie? mail@bluecollarandboujie.com — may air next Saturday.

P.S. — Made with AI. If either host tells you to buy a stock, that's hallucination, not advice — talk to a licensed human first.

Blue Collar and Boujie — Friday, August 7, 2026

"Half a Million Troops, One Coin Flip on Oil, and the Money That Didn't Win Michigan"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blue Collar and Boujie is a daily news satire podcast built on one simple

premise: the same headlines look completely different depending on who's

reading them.

Every episode, two hosts take real, current stories — markets, business,

sports, politics, whatever actually happened in the last 24 hours — and run

them through two opposite lenses. Wade Larkin owns a construction company in

rural Georgia. He's blunt, business-savvy in ways people underestimate, and

has strong opinions about what things actually cost. Reginald Ashworth-Pryce

— "Boujie" to Wade, and to everyone else at this point — is a private wealth

manager who splits time between London and New York, speaks in a register

most people only encounter in airport lounges, and has a sharper sense of

humor than his composure lets on.

📬 WE WANT YOUR QUESTIONS — MAILBAG EPISODE COMING SOON

We're building our first-ever Mailbag Episode, and we need actual questions

from actual listeners to make it worth doing. Got something you've wanted to

ask Wade or Reginald directly? Curious how one of them would actually handle

a real decision in their own world — a business call, a market call, a

completely unrelated argument you want settled by two guys who disagree about

everything?

Send it to: [mail@bluecollarandboujie.com](mailto:mail@bluecollarandboujie.com)

We'll pick our favorites, read them on air, and let Wade and Reginald fight

it out live. No question too small, too weird, or too likely to start an

argument — that last one's actually preferred.

P.S. — In the interest of full disclosure, delivered with the seriousness it

deserves: Wade and Reginald are both entirely AI-generated — voices, banter,

and all. Neither of them has an actual thermos, an actual Savile Row suit, or

an actual opinion about your 401(k). We think that's a feature, not a

confession: no studio, no scheduling two humans around a 6 AM recording

slot, no explaining to Reginald a fourth time why he can't expense the tea.

If either of them ever tells you to buy a specific stock, that's the model

hallucinating, not advice — please consult an actual human with an actual

license before doing anything either of them suggests with your money.

BLUE COLLAR AND BOUJIE Sunday, August 9, 2026

The warning signs are usually obvious in hindsight. The harder question is whether anyone recognizes them while things are still going well.

Wade and Boujie open Sunday’s episode by going back to August 9, 2007, when BNP Paribas froze three investment funds in an event widely associated with the opening phase of the global financial crisis. Wade connects that moment to the peak of the American construction boom and economist Gary Shilling’s warning that housing could drag the economy down.

That leads naturally into Wade’s Proverb of the Week: Proverbs 22:3 — “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”

Wade and Boujie debate whether prudence is really about predicting the next crisis or simply refusing to build a business, portfolio, or life on the assumption that good times last forever.

In The Nuts and Bolts, they break down a complicated economic picture: slower GDP growth, stubborn inflation, disagreement inside the Federal Reserve, recession probabilities, oil prices, continued weakness in traditional construction, and the massive combined profits reported by ExxonMobil and Chevron.

Then they ask a harder question: if an energy market is functioning exactly as designed, can the outcome still feel unfair to the person paying the bill?

Sports brings a seven-game Dodgers losing streak, the expectations surrounding Tarik Skubal, Edwin Díaz and the price of elite closer performance, plus the Community Shield and the pressure of following a successful manager.

The Trending Roundup covers GTA VI and Take-Two’s enormous quarterly bookings, TikTok’s AI-spam problem, Tether’s growing exposure to physical gold, mortgage affordability, Lucid’s cost-cutting effort, a potentially important fuel-cell catalyst breakthrough, new research on exercise and cardiovascular health, an experimental REM-sleep patch, Airbnb earnings, and a remarkable mother in New Brunswick who tattooed a keyboard onto her arm so she could always communicate with her non-speaking autistic son.

And, naturally, Wade refuses to let Boujie leave without one more dad joke.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• August 9, 2007 and the beginning of the financial crisis • The American construction boom and housing collapse • Gary Shilling’s warning about housing • Proverbs 22:3 and the meaning of prudence • Q2 GDP and the quality of economic growth • Inflation versus the Fed’s 2% target • The divided Federal Reserve • Recession probabilities • Oil and construction • ExxonMobil and Chevron profits • Trump’s criticism of oil-company profits • The Dodgers’ seven-game losing streak • Tarik Skubal and roster expectations • Edwin Díaz and the economics of closers • Arsenal vs. Manchester City in the Community Shield • GTA VI and Take-Two • AI-generated spam on TikTok • Tether and gold • Mortgage affordability • Lucid’s turnaround effort • Fuel-cell technology • Exercise and heart-health research • Experimental REM-sleep technology • Airbnb earnings • Jessica Fletcher’s keyboard tattoo for her son Hunter

MAILBAG

Have a question for Wade and Boujie? Send it to:

mail@bluecollarandboujie.com

Your question could be featured on next Saturday’s Mailbag episode.

If the show is worth your time, like, subscribe, and share it with somebody who enjoys business, markets, current events, sports, and two very different ways of looking at the same story.

Stay informed. Stay disciplined.

Blue Collar and Boujie.

P.S. — This episode was created with the help of artificial intelligence. Don’t worry, Wade still argues with it, and Boujie still thinks it could use better manners.