July 14, 2026 · AM edition

Robots, All-Stars, and the Ghost of Inflation Past

The Fed killed inflation, Buffett fired a foundation, robots are going public, and France meets Spain tonight - Tuesday showed up and did not ask permission.

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Full recap

Kevin Warsh stepped up to the Fed podium Tuesday and promised inflation will be a 'thing of the past,' which is a bold claim from an institution that spent five years insisting inflation was transitory, then persistent, then complicated, then someone else's fault. He also cited the AI investment boom as a tailwind. So the plan is: trust the robots, trust the Fed, and everything will be fine. History has never once made that combo look stupid. Meanwhile Warren Buffett quietly dropped the Gates Foundation from his annual Berkshire stock donations. No drama, no press release, just a line item that disappeared. When the Oracle of Omaha stops writing a check, the polite question is 'why,' and the impolite question is 'what does he know that we don't.' Either way, a very loud silence from Omaha this morning. Premarket movers include JPMorgan, Bank of America, IBM, and Apple. Translation: the entire financial-industrial complex is twitching before the opening bell. Big bank earnings season is basically the Super Bowl for people who wear fleece vests without irony, and today's lineup does not disappoint. Over in China, humanoid robot startups are sprinting toward IPOs like the doors are closing and the last bus out is called 'public market liquidity.' Shenzhen's LimX Dynamics is the latest to raise capital, and the pitch is essentially: we built a robot that walks, please give us billions before anyone asks if it can actually do anything useful. Silicon Valley did this with apps in 2014. China is doing it with bipedal machines in 2026. The hype cycle is truly universal. On the diamond, the 2026 MLB All-Star Game is tonight in Philadelphia, and the betting markets are alive. Expert Matt Severance is riding an absurd 118-66 run on picks, which either means he has cracked the code or he is one bad inning away from a very humbling regression. Jordan Walker also lit up the new Home Run Derby format, which apparently needed a new format because nothing in American sports can stay the same for more than four consecutive years. The 2026 World Cup semifinals are also on deck, with France taking on Spain. This is the kind of match that stops entire countries, causes productivity to collapse across two continents, and generates enough pundit content to fill a small library. Spain's technical precision versus France's individual brilliance is genuinely must-watch, which is a sentence that could have been written in 2006 and remained accurate every single year since. The business-sports crossover of the day: Chinese humanoid startups rushing IPOs to capture investor hype shares more DNA with the Home Run Derby than anyone wants to admit. Big swings, maximum spectacle, questionable long-term value, and everyone clapping regardless. At least the Derby has a winner by the end of the night. So Tuesday delivers a full plate: a Fed promise, a Buffett snub, robots in suits, bank earnings, an All-Star Game, and a World Cup semifinal. If you need more stimulation than this, that is a you problem.

Highlights

  • Warsh says inflation is done - the same institution that missed it arriving is now confident it is leaving; bold strategy, let's see if it works
  • Buffett quietly cut the Gates Foundation from his donation list and the absence of explanation is doing more work than any press release could
  • China's humanoid IPO rush and the MLB Home Run Derby are running the same playbook: manufacture spectacle, capture capital, sort out the fundamentals later
  • France vs Spain in a World Cup semifinal is the closest thing to a guaranteed good time that Tuesday has ever produced

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