Weekly Notes, 036.
September 10, 2025
👋 Readers, this is 36 straight weeks of Weekly Notes!
Travel blog update, 24-hour LA business trip disrupted by a software glitch (electrical failure) in the 🚙 chariot, and no SGU-LAX-SGU 🛩️ routes…which reminds me that it’s been at least five years since setting foot in LA (Orange County doesn’t count)!
This week's headline is that the world’s intersections are often finance, technology, war, crime, and geopolitics — which is odd because my weekly notes are all about that…
Below, you’ll find directly sourced links to information that I’ve been consuming since last week and using to get smarter on issues of interest. Plus, expect to see more aggregated sourcing from Perplexity.
I hope these weekly notes are useful, and I appreciate any feedback you have.
Interesting issues and news across the US economic and national security landscape.
Analysis:
White House Fact Sheets on trade and tariffs (amongst other things) help connect the dots between the Administration’s economic and national security objectives and strategies that are often masked by clips and media coverage on the issues. Treasury, State, Justice, and FinCEN had an active week on designations, disruption, and enforcement of the array of illicit actors (terrorists, TCOs, DTOs, etc.) — on the backdrop is mounting pressure on Russia as Trump readies another sanctions package in concert with the EU. Following the pace of actions and activities across the econ/natsec space underscores how this Administration is laser-focused on the US recapturing its position as the leader amongst great powers.
10 links below (for further reading and reference).
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Implements A Historic U.S.-Japan Framework Agreement
Treasury Sanctions Southeast Asian Networks Targeting Americans with Cyber Scams
Treasury Sanctions China-Based Chemical Company to Combat Synthetic Opioid Trafficking
Terrorist Designations of Los Choneros and Los Lobos
Sanctioning Foreign NGOs Directly Engaged in ICC’s Illegitimate Targeting of Israel
FinCEN Issues Modified Southwest Border Geographic Targeting Order
US readies new Russia oil sanctions with EU backing
Interesting issues and news across finance, technology, risk, regulation, and financial crime.
Analysis:
FinCEN is relevant(?) — well, at least they’ve modernized their website, actually produced some public resources, and sent the Director to the Hill (as required by law) to testify (about their relevance)…In general, a lot of folks are starting to connect the dots on how FinCEN and BSA reporting have maybe overdone it, focused on the wrong targets, and have led the already heavily regulated financial services industry into a perpetual, burdensome cycle. Perhaps more meaningful was a move by Nasdaq to make markets for alternative investments like tokenized securities, and PNC announced a big acquisition deal warming up the bank M&A space.
10 links below (for further reading and reference).
Davidson: Over Decades, The Bank Secrecy Act Has Morphed Into A Bloated Surveillance Machine
Fighting financial crime doesn’t have to come at the cost of privacy
Hearing Entitled: Evaluating the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
FinCEN Unveils User-Friendly Changes to FinCEN.gov
FinCEN Issues Notice on Financially Motivated Sextortion
Protecting Customer Financial Records
OCC Announces Actions to Depoliticize the Federal Banking System
The Precautionary Empire: Why Policymakers Fail Builders
Nasdaq seeks SEC approval to trade tokenized securities
PNC buys FirstBank for $4.1B to expand Western US footprint
Interesting reports and resources.
From the Federal Reserve: Beige Book
Interesting charts of the week.
