Enablers
23rd February 2026
There’s an obvious growing failure at the center of modern markets that, as a former short seller, has become beyond obvious to me over the years.
It isn’t just fraud or aggressive accounting. It’s the ecosystem that allows both to thrive: financial media that won’t press, and a sell side that won’t risk upsetting management teams they depend on for access.
We’ve seen this movie before. Enron did not implode because there were no warning signs. It imploded because the warning signs were inconvenient. There were whistleblowers. There were people inside the system who knew the numbers didn’t add up. But complexity was treated as brilliance, and skepticism was treated as cynicism. Analysts admired the innovation. Television hosts admired the executives.
And the stock went up—until it didn’t.
Covered-call option funds and ETFs are paying pretty nice dividends these days.