World Economic Forum

I wrote out this big long thing on Trump's WEF speech, but I don't want to make my Substack political, and discussing fiscal policy will make most of my readers start playing Angry Birds, so I deleted it.

There are a few key financial things I listen for from any candidate. While I'm still listening, I'm not getting them from Trump. I am getting them from Tate Reeves, though I'm convinced the PERS deal will end in tears.

Tate and I have similar fiscal and economic views, in part because we had many of the same financial and economic teachers. Tate reads financial statements better than any governor in my lifetime and much better than the president, who is notoriously and famously bad at it.

While I can't hold a candle to Tate, I'm no slouch. While some dads taught their sons to pitch and catch, mine taught me to read balance sheets and income statements. To make it worse, my cousin Robert Wingate, who was an actual genius, helped him. Mississippi’s balance sheet and income statement are in pretty good shape. America’s aint.

In general, I like businesspeople in politics. Once upon a time, I was a big supporter of Jack Reed and, to a lesser extent, Gil Carmichael. Both were darlings of the Mississippi GOP until they were spit out by the same GOP. Around here, both parties are fickle and faithless. Politically, we tend to eat our own children, which raises another issue.

My single highest political priority at the moment is Mississippi's shrinking population. Where once it was due to either the great migration or white flight, at the moment, we're literally losing our children by the hundreds, if not thousands, to a lack of opportunity.

Little Bird and I discuss this regularly. Since it's her generation we're talking about, her opinion is important to me. The issue, as often stated, is that we invest all we can in our precious children, and then the opportunities in Mississippi don't match their abilities, so they leave.

Little Bird believes this is a perception. The opportunities are there; you just have to seek them out. Have I mentioned she's wicked smart? I wonder where that came from. Perception or problem, dealing with it is where we're at, and in 2026. It's my top priority—so is her family.

The first two presidents of the twentieth century, I'm pretty satisfied with. Even though they're from opposite parties and often had opposite ideas, they've become best friends, mainly due to their wives, and the fact that shared experiences can mean more to a friendship than anything else.

The last two presidents have been pretty nutty. Electing back-to-back, guys who are twenty years older than good ole Uncle Boyd was, in retrospect, a terrible idea. Both were so anxious to undo what the other did that we've made zero progress so far.

My social and cultural opinions come almost entirely from Ayn Rand and Charles Forte. If you want to marry your mule, have at it, but pay your license fee, and show up for work on time. Transgender athletes and kneeling at the Super Bowl don’t make the cut for me. They don’t pay the bills, and I don’t care what you do with your body. I used to inject mine with insane amounts of hormones to become stronger. You see how that turned out.

That I would come out of retirement and immediately dive back into Mississippi religious, educational, and political polices wasn't on anybody's bingo card. I have my reasons.

I would dearly love to have conversations with William Winter, Jack Reed, or my Dad about what's going on these days, but they all up and died. I did get to have some with Thad Cochran, but then he up and died. Thad’s final days saw his own party chewing at his heels and doing terrible things to his wife. One day I’ll write more about that. Thad’s my cousin. It’s personal.

John Corlew and I were in rehab together. He was an old Democrat, and I was a slightly less old Republican. Both of us lamented what was happening to Mississippi. His best friend, besides his loving spouse and his dogs, was Trent Lott, who was from the other party, but ended up having more in common with John than anybody.

"When is your Buddy Trent gonna quit fucking around and come out of retirement?"

"He aint, when are you?"

I think John saw things I did not, but I'm learning.