Larry's Weekly Newsletter - November 1, 2026
Dear friends,
This past week, we celebrated our son's first Halloween. There were thousands of people out in costume trick-or-treating in our neighborhood in Hong Kong and the shock he showed on his face very much replicated the shock I was feeling inside at the numbers and enthusiasm for this holiday in suburban Hong Kong. I hope your Halloween was fun as well!
Below, please find my posts from the past week.
Yours,
Larry
On AI generated spam
I got my start on the internet as a young child using the Cleveland FreeNet. It was a free dialup system that gave terminal-based access to services such as email, telnet, irc and games. The earliest email of importance (to me) that I sent was one to the sitting
Larry Salibra
Innocent trick-or-treating lives on in China
One of the most entertaining and most intelligent accounts on X is the stuffed-bear-themed pseudonymous account of a Chinese-American former head of China research of a large investment bank. (I don't make up the rules.) He writes on X: The West is now busily destroying its
Larry Salibra
The next generation
When I was in elemantary school, I was once asked to write a short essay about someone I looked up to...a role model...who wasn't a parent. I choose Captain Picard from the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was very sad to hear that Sir
Larry Salibra
Capital wants a monopoly
Another merger was annouced today in the US tech/platform market. This time its between Instacart and Doordash...both players in the home delivery space...think Grab, Deliveroo, Keetah or Meituan for those not familiar with the US market. The US ends up with duopolies or monopolies in so many
Larry Salibra
Money is all you need
When I first visited Hong Kong, as we were preparing to head out on the first day, I asked the college buddy with whom I was staying what I needed to bring. He said, “Larry, this is Hong Kong…all you need to bring is money. Everything else you can
Larry Salibra
Western sticks are broken
Governments have two types of policies they can use: carrots and sticks. Carrots include things such as handouts, subsidies and other preferential incentives. Sticks are things like taxes, tariffs, regulation, benefit reductions and restrictions. The challenge for Western politicians is that carrots get them elected and sticks get them unemployed.
Larry Salibra
Hongkongers that haven't been to Shenzhen in 20 years.
Hong Kong can be divided into two groups of people: people that frequently travel to the Chinese mainland and those that don't. You can recognize the latter group because when asked about going to the mainland, they will usually make a comment like "I haven't been to Shenzhen
Larry Salibra