May 14, 2026
THE OSCARS
We are officially in the midst of awards season, which is a ridiculous statement because entertainment prizes are awarded all year long. There are at least 19 televised award shows scheduled for this year. In 2025, the top seven award shows yielded a combined audience of over 75 million viewers. There are now awards for nearly every aspect of the entertainment complex, including sports, which already have awards for winning their respective competitions. The entire world is clearly obsessed with awards, and often ascribes greater value to those things which have been awarded. That mentality and behavior is no accident. It was carefully cultivated by marketers over nearly 100 years. And it all began with one controlling movie mogul in 1929.
February 25, 2026
HOW DISNEY BECAME THE JUGGERNAUT
Walt Disney began his career as a commercial artist at age 18 in 1919. The next year, he opened his own commercial art studio, which failed in one month. Two years later, he incorporated his first animation company. That failed within a year. After two bankrupted business attempts, Disney moved to Hollywood and started a third business with his brother Roy. In 1928, he created Mickey Mouse and released the first cartoon with synchronized sound. In 1932, he created the first full-color cartoon. In 1937, he released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated film.
February 18, 2026
GROUNDHOG DAY
Earlier this month, less than 200 miles from Pulsar's offices in York, Pennsylvania, an annual tradition was carried out in Punxsutawney. This small, Pennsylvania town becomes the focus of the whole world every year on the second day of February. A group of bearded men in top hats lifted a plump groundhog from its stump, held it high for the crowd to see, and declared that there will be six more weeks of winter. It's a quirky and antiquated ritual that occurs in an obscure, little town. There appears to be no reason for its widespread recognition and popularity, until you realize the entire thing is a masterclass in marketing.
January 30, 2026
CAN AMTRAK BE PROFITABLE?
Last month we did a deep dive into the data behind freight and passenger rail traffic in the United States, noting that Amtrak has never had a single profitable year, and has lost $46 billion since its inception in 1971. For 2026, Amtrak requested a Congressional grant of $2.4 billion while promising to be operationally profitable by 2028. That is ambitious, to say the least, but according to international data, it might be downright impossible.
January 24, 2026
PAD THAI
According to a recent study, Thai cuisine is third most popular ethnic food in the United States, behind Chinese and Mexican. In 2023, there were approximately 340,000 people in the United States that identified as Thai. There were also over 10,000 Thai restaurants in the US, making Thai cuisine the highest population-to-restaurant ratio in the country. And the most iconic food on any Thai menu is pad thai. Yes, the dish is unique and appealing to consumers all over the world, but that's not an accident. The government of Thailand first marketed the dish to its own people, then successfully sold it to the whole world.
December 30, 2025
WHY THE UNITED STATES DOESN'T HAVE HIGH-SPEED RAIL
In 1965, the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act was enthusiastically passed by Congress to set the United States on a path to lead the world in rail transportation. Instead, European and Asian countries led the way, while the United States created one line, the Metroliner, between New York City and Washington, DC, which was discontinued in 2006. Several reasons are typically given to explain the difficulty in creating a high-speed rail network, primarily outdated tracks, lack of funds, lack of will, and the sheer size of the country. But there may be a clearer hindrance to its development: capitalism.
December 15, 2025
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
The 103rd National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony occurred on December 4 this year in Washington, DC on the Ellipse near The White House. Over 60,000 lights cover the 35-foot-tall red spruce tree. The event was sponsored by GE Lighting, who not only created the first National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, but were single-handedly responsible for making decorating with Christmas lights a tradition.
November 29, 2025
HOW MUCH IS A 30-SECOND AD ON THE LATE SHOW?
On July 2, 2025, Paramount reached a $16 million legal settlement with President Donald Trump over allegations that the network tried to interfere with the 2024 presidential election by editing a 60 Minutes interview with candidate Kamala Harris. That night on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert called the settlement a "bribe" to ensure the pending merger of Paramount and Skydance would not be blocked by the administration. Fifteen days later, CBS announced that it was canceling The Late Show. Rumors began to swirl that the decision was politically motivated, especially because The Late Show had been the top rated late night show for nearly ten years.
November 26, 2025
JEANS
There may be no other symbol that better represents American culture than denim jeans. Globally, the jeans market was valued at almost $100 billion the past several years, and is expected to approach $130 billion in the next three years. But the origin of denim is not American, and its popularity around the world was definitely engineered.
September 24, 2025
IS MONEY MEANINGLESS?
Every few years, someone in the United States brings up the idea of returning the country to the gold standard. Most recently, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in 2023, and a call to return to a commodity-backed currency was published in the 2025 Mandate for Leadership. The argument is always that tying currencies to gold would control spending and inflation. J.P. Morgan is often quoted from his testimony before Congress in 1912, "Money is gold, and nothing else," to support the view that money without gold backing is meaningless. But the United States is not alone, because every single country in the world uses fiat currency, which is not backed by any commodity. Romanticized dreams of the gold standard aren't usually rooted in data, but money is big business, so let's look at the numbers.
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