The Dig Newsletter

What do I look for in a prospectus? During my tenure at MarketWatch, I drafted or contributed to a lot of “5 Things to Watch For” in the various IPOs that occurred. I was charged with coming up with the accounting/audit angles no one else would talk about. I used this template for SpaceX and, in the past, for companies like Snowflake, which I will mention again later.

“Creatures of a day, what is any one? What is he not? Man is but a dream of a shadow. Yet when there comes as a gift of heaven a gleam of sunshine, there rest upon men a radiant light and, aye, a gentle life.” “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more.

This is collaborative effort, co-authored with Deep Quarry, the newsletter from Olga Usvyatsky. If you value our work, please subscribe! The Dig is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

FT Alphaville Editor Robin Wigglesworth talks to me about his new book, “A Fabulous Debt”, available on September 29. Check out all of my video “Interviews” on the new vertical on the menu bar. You’ll find all of the video author interviews I’ve done, including those at the Pen & Pencil Club during my time teaching at Wharton. I’ve pulled all the paywalls off for your pleasure. The Dig is a reader-supported publication.

Happy Birthday Warren Buffett! Today Buffett is 96 years young. That makes him a Virgo. Positive Traits for August 30th Born Deep, thorough, focused, and ready to act under pressures that others see as threatening, they are powerful healers that understand depths of pain that most people would run from.

I took the opportunity to do plenty of road trips when I was working in Mexico and South America. It’s one of the joys of late summer in Mexico to drive from Mexico City to Irapuato, Guanajuato, renowned for its agriculture and especially its fresas con crema, along with fresas cristalizadas, cajeta, miel and other incredible sweets. Photo credit: https://lolascocina.com/fresas-con-crema-with-vanilla-bean/ No rest for this anti-fresa! The Dig is a reader-supported publication.

Before we get to the main event, I want to highlight a few recent stories where I am quoted and stories where I commented on LinkedIn. Maura Sadovi at CFODive wrote about the latest crypto-related proposals at the SEC and FASB. I was quoted and provided the last word. The Dig is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Here I commented on LinkedIn on a WSJ story about the SEC’s semiannual reporting proposal (gift link).

Today we’re meeting in the square to deliver a roundup of additional commentary and links. There’s a follow-up on the Microsoft 10-K analysis my friend and frequent collaborator Olga Usvyatsky and I wrote on August 4, about all the accounting changes incorporated in Microsoft’s recently issued annual report 10-K. Microsoft's 2026 Annual Report: What's going on with all the accounting changes? There’s my comment on some AI-adjacent news from Jon Weil at the WSJ.

This is collaborative effort, co-authored with Deep Quarry the newsletter from Olga Usvyatsky. If you value our work, please subscribe! A paid subscription supports my efforts to support other writers and can help me maintain my subscriptions to all of the publications I need to keep up. Gift links don’t grow on trees! The Dig is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Hi, I’ve seen nearly 100 new subscribers in the last few days since the publication of my FT Alphaville column about Anthropic’s auditor. I was on the front page as a result of the perfectly timed - I swear it was luck - article the next day about Anthropic going first to IPO. The Dig is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.