Every year around the holidays, I’m reminded of the late, great Wall Street strategist Byron Wien’s annual “Ten Surprises” list, his contrarian takes on issues of the day published every new year. Always thoughtful and entertaining, Wien would lay out 10 scenarios he believed the average investor would consider improbable, but that he deemed more likely than not in the coming year. The last and 38th edition of Wien’s list was published in January 2023, 10 months before he passed. I have missed his list, so I decided to compile my own this year, a humble tribute to the master. Here are my 10 Surprises of 2026: --Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo robotaxis launch in more U.S. cities. Adoption spikes and mounting data confirms that robots are safer than human drivers. Debates begin around the merits of outlawing human car drivers in city centers. --Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s efforts to freeze rent in New York City are frustrated by big landlords. The city pivots to new construction and taxes on absentee owners, in expectation of which rents decline modestly. --Excitement around a SpaceX initia