Andrew Werner

Notes

Retail investors don’t have the resources or expertise of institutional investors and often fail in due diligence. I am thankful for the freedom of pass-through shareholder voting, though executive boardroom decisions require careful consideration and resources. Individuals and families often are too preoccupied with other work and lack the education and information to cast informed votes.

Nowadays, AI is going to be the one casting votes. I’m learning that just as we are irrational actors, so are our machines. Only God is omniscient.

I wish for more registered investment advisory firms to be incorporated as (or converted to) public benefit companies and partnerships. I wish for more investment in public benefit corporations with measurable purpose statements.

I disagree with the wealthiest people that buy, borrow, die their way to intellectual property/intangible assets owned by Irish (I've read good things about the reforms in the wake of the expiration of the Dutch Sandwich) and other holding companies, immense wealth sitting partly hidden in Mauritius, Liechtenstein, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uruguay, and South Dakota dynasty trusts and partially custodied in the bunkers of the Swiss Alps as part of a global wealth management strategy dispersing risks geographically pledging donations that look more like broken promises after reputational scandals. Opposed to effective altruism, I strive to be charitable as I earn, not after I earn. I’m but a very small cog in a very large system, but I play my part like an actor in The Tempest.

Evaluating the tax base erosion, profit shifting, and liabilities of the City of London's favorite offshore financial centers (Bermuda’s reinsurance, the Caymans’ open-end funds, Jersey’s closed-end funds, Cook Islands’ asset protection trusts, the Magic Circle of international law firms). They can be useful to defend against oppressive regimes but can be abused to deprive impoverished people of state services. There is good and evil. Mutual aid faces challenges in scaling to the needs of nations of suffering people. I am particularly impressed with The Bermuda Monetary Authority’s innovation in insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds that fund natural disaster recovery efforts.

In liberal democracies, it is commonly held that governments are responsible for enforcing the rule of law, while a free press plays a role in reporting on alleged corruption and abuses of power. The concepts of the fourth estate and fifth estate reflect the idea that press freedom helps ensure an informed public, supporting electoral processes that may lead to policy or leadership changes.

In these jurisdictions, for legitimate reasons, businesses and individuals are often granted legal protections for confidentiality. Additionally, banks are mandated to protect client information.

The police raid on Swiss journalist Lukas Hässig illustrates how these protections can come into tension with an investigative press. The International Press Institute has called for reform of Swiss banking law to “include clear public interest protections for journalists" when reporting on confidential bank information. If legislation introduced a ”public interest” exemption to Article 47 of the Swiss Banking Act, a clear definition and procedural test to substantiate its use would be essential.

I’m interested in responsible financing. I’m suspicious about the opaqueness of some sovereign wealth funds and the possibility for them to be abused by financial criminals. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a private company that was shut down by authorities. Sovereign wealth funds are controlled by the authorities. I support the adoption of the Santiago Principles.

I have purchased The Logic of Governance in China by Xueguang Zhou, which I think I read has been pulled from the shelves there. The Chinese private space industry has been taking off, and I thought about investing, but the markets are not free, the U.S. government doesn’t want our money there (pension funds are being told to divest), and from what I understand they don’t want us to be the recipients of their economic success. Venture capital firms like HongShan seem phenomenally successful, but have had to navigate complex international relations. From what I read in the news, it split off from Sequoia and is a fully domestic Chinese company. I also read the Chinese Communist Party is cracking down on the offshore financial center of Hong Kong as part of a plan to incentivize mainland China. I also purchased the book Sovereign Funds by Zongyuan Zoe Liu. From what I understand, the sovereign funds of China are very run differently than, for example, the sovereign wealth fund of Norway.

Concerning the environmental footprint of AI, I trust this article funded by the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism:

I wrote these words on the matter some time ago: Most data centers are inefficient. They consume massive amounts of energy and water, straining our resources. I’ve found some developing solutions we may see soon:

As a preface, energy powers data centers, generating that energy often consumes water, and water is also used to cool data centers.

Compute & Storage: Use efficient processors and storage. Instead of computationally expensive systolic-array-based AI accelerators, neuromorphic processing is far more efficient. Similarly, ditch power-hungry, heat-spewing hard drives for SSDs—especially EDSFF form factors, which offer higher storage density in a smaller footprint, cutting energy use and cooling needs.

Cooling: Build data centers in colder climates, and adopt efficient cooling technologies. Two-phase immersion cooling fascinates me. It’s wild to see expensive computers submerged in what looks like water, but it’s actually a non-conductive (dielectric) refrigerant. Submerged in a reservoir, the computers heat up, the refrigerant boils and evaporates, the gas cools on a condenser back into a liquid, then returns to the reservoir. Some older refrigerants were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which are terrible for the environment, but regulations spurred safer and more sustainable alternatives like hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs). These still contain fluorine, but fluorine is found in most modern refrigerants due to having chemical properties that are generally well suited for transferring heat. The European Union’s push (Regulation (EU) 2024/573) to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 2050 worried me. Though, HFOs are not included in the EU’s phase-out initiative, nor the EU PFAS Restriction Proposal (REACH). Instead, controls are introduced based on global warming potential (GWP) thresholds, and thankfully HFOs have a low GWP.

Energy: Hot take: some molten salt reactors (MSRs) don’t need water for cooling and can deliver the energy exascale data centers demand. It’s nuclear, but when done right, it is safe and pretty clean. If you’re anti-uranium, thorium is an excellent alternative that thrives in MSRs. Either way, the fuel can be recycled to reduce nuclear waste buildup: about 96% of uranium fuel is recyclable, and thorium fuel offers even greater recyclability, with nearly all of it being reusable.

Beyond this, software should be efficient, and waste heat from data centers should be repurposed. While heat pipes efficiently transfer heat over short to moderate distances, they are not ideal for long-range transfer. Given this, a viable option for repurposing waste heat is to supply warmth to nearby buildings including ancillary facilities on the data center campus and local communities. Other options exist, but using heat for warmth makes sense to me.

Clemency is an important part of our society. When peoples’ lives are ruined by harsh punishments, what’s the point in trying to cooperate? It’s business leaders that reject people who have been convicted of crime. Managers come up with various reasons for rejecting candidates, the risk of reputation damage included, but I argue it’s virtuous to assist in rehabilitation. Daniel Diermeier’s book Reputation Analytics highlights the importance of strategic activism, and the Chicago Booth Review published the article Why We’re All Impact Investors Now. With authentic narratives built on collective social movements, there’s no need to spin messaging or manipulate the media (like sensationalist tabloids or fake politicians).

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)

I learn best through peer-to-peer hermeneutical dialogue, an internet connection, and staying skeptical and critically examining Google Gemini's responses to my questions (Socratic method) and prompts/queries. Using ontology (what is real?) and epistemology (what does it mean to know?), I self-study and, through post-structuralist perspectives, I piece together information as fragments of the truth. I am curious about both the humanities and the sciences. In science (e.g. geology and crystals), we try to interpret the world. In humanities, we are interpreters that try to interpret other interpreters. I study math best by learning about the history of the people behind it and what they were working on (I recommend A History of Mathematics by Carl B. Boyer & Uta C. Merzbach). I believe in creationism, that we are anthropic observers living in a fine-tuned universe, the symmetry and subsequent asymmetry of baryogengesis, emergent gravity, abiogenesis (from dust to dust [Genesis 3:19]), the hologenome theory of evolution, and the law of increasing complexity. I love reading research from the Santa Fe Institute and I wish to see the bison on the prairie at Fermilab someday. Jennet Conant’s book Tuxedo Park and Ananyo Bhattacharya’s The Man from the Future are great. John von Neumann was a mad genius. I condemn his pursuit to weaponize the weather. Weather modification (e.g. cloud seeding) can be used virtuously. I worry about the technology being used sinfully. Environmental conservation is important. I wish for our reservoirs to be surveilled by seL4 & RISC-V equipment and for the modernization of the geospatial data analysis and monitoring of our environment. I am worried about our biological exposomes (the effects of what we're exposed to) and the pollution from our anthropogenic activities. I care about the psychological and social effects of the media and information that we are exposed to as well. I have seen some horrors I don't want others to see. Having heard Sarah Wynn-Williams critique of John Stuart Mill in her book Careless People (I try for physical media to share better, though the eBook edition only costs $2 right now), I agree that publishing should not be a utility and that curation is necessary, I support The Christchurch Callto remove terrorist and violent extremism from social media, Tech Against Terrorism, and I am thankful for ROOST.tools. It’s a topic to be debated about. H.R. 7757, the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act has been introduced to the Congressional House of Representatives. I’m no lawyer, but our democratic process and K street allows for the changing of laws and the freedom of association lets anybody incorporate companies protected with limited liability and corporate veils. I am a proponent of universal human dignity. I see the colors of our skin as melanin and I pray for more equitable economics and social policy for all. I enjoy creative writing and public speaking. I think René Girard's theory of mimetic violence is true and I examine genocides and war through the perspective of recursive trauma. I strongly believe that virtue can spread recursively as well. I only like to talk about genealogy when it's for heritage studies and personalized medicine (my mom's grandma, Nonna, said we are distantly related to the Archbishop of Esztergom, Hungary, Sándor Rudnay who was born under the reign of Maria Theresa and was made a cardinal in pectore [in secret] by Pope Leo XII, but it's hard to confirm lacking genealogy records). Hartmut Behr's proposition of "peace in difference" resonates with me. His book Politics of Difference: Epistemologies of Peace is difficult to read. I need a search engine and AI nearby to understand it. Dispelling the Thule Society, I know Vril: The Coming Race to be a work of fiction that was misunderstood and weaponized. The history of Zionism is complicated and controversial. The Bund were mostly unsuccessful, and Bolshevism meant atheism. I condemn genocide. I was surprised to find Mary and Joseph in the Quran. I pray for Palestine and Israel. Salam. Shalom. Love thy Neighbor. I apologize if you are confused by the pluralism of the United States' first amendment to the constitution. Deseret News (a Mormon publication) has a good article on it and Jonathan Greenblatt's words in Pluralism And Polarization – The Quest For A More Perfect Union align with the practice of Ubuntu (I am because we are). Peace be with you. Access to holy sites is important for everybody. The protection of the Temple Mount, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Stations of the Cross, and Calvary (the site of his crucifixion) is important to me. I am curious about the historical prevalance of Buddhist ideas around the region of the Holy Land. Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body by Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston looks interesting.

Certifications & Honors

• Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) - 2024
• National Society of Leadership and Success (Alpha Sigma Pi) - Member, 2023
• Scouting America - Eagle Scout, 2017