Overview: Concerned about the political wrangling over servicing US debt, Fitch put the US on negative credit watch. Besides chin wagging and finger pointing, it has had little perceptible impact. The dollar is mostly higher, reaching new highs for the year against the Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, and the Antipodean currencies. The euro and sterling met retracement objective we have targeted (~$1.0735 and $1.2435, respectively). The greenback is also firmer against...
Read More »The Bud Light Boycott and Clueless Corporate Executives
In perhaps one of the most unexpected and sudden shifts in consumer demand in recent years, sales of Bud Light have now fallen sizably for six weeks in a row, with no end in sight. The New York Post reported on Monday that "Sales of the US’s No. 1 beer were down 24.6% for the week ended May 13 compared to a year ago — slightly worse than the 23.6% dip they suffered a week earlier." But it's not just Bud Light. Sentiment has turned against Bud Light parent...
Read More »Did Tucker’s Last Major Guest Lead to His Firing?
Tucker Carlson has rankled the ruling elites for many years. But was his interview with Robert Kennedy Jr. a bridge too far? Original Article: "Did Tucker's Last Major Guest Lead to His Firing?" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Review: Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier
George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier is a book for which I kept hearing recommendations. I was told that it contained biting criticisms of socialism and was a valuable source of antiauthoritarian thought. What I found, instead, was a snobbish text that ineffectually denounces snobbery, an erudite-sounding text that lacks any philosophical or economic depth, and a persistent veil of ignorance over and presumption in favor of state intervention for any of the...
Read More »The Fed Is Overindebted, Isn’t It?
By any conventional measures of finance, the Federal Reserve has negative equity. In the long run, cooking the books only puts off the day of reckoning. Original Article: "The Fed Is Overindebted, Isn’t It?" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Woke Cartel and Twitter’s New CEO
On May 12, 2023, Elon Musk announced that Linda Yaccarino, the now former chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, would become the new CEO of Twitter. Musk’s appointment of Yaccarino followed an advertiser exodus that caused Twitter’s ad revenue to plummet by more than 60 percent from October 2022 through January 25, 2022, from around $127 million to just over $48 million. According to Pathmatics, by Sensor Tower, more than half of Twitter’s...
Read More »RBNZ Delivers a Dovish Hike and UK Inflation Surprises to the Upside
Overview: Equities in the Asia Pacific region and Europe are being led lower by the sell-off in the US yesterday. All the large Asia Pacific markets fell with Hong Kong and mainland shares setting the pace. Europe's Stoxx 600 is off nearly 1.5%, which would be the largest loss in two months. Consumer discretionary, financials and real estate sectors are off nearly 2%. US equity futures have a softer bias. European 10-year yields are mostly 2-3 bp lower, but the UK...
Read More »Was Japanese Colonialism the Engine of Later Prosperity for Korea and Taiwan? Probably Not
While Japan made some technological transfers to these places, prosperity came to them later, with the advent of free-market economies. Original Article: "Was Japanese Colonialism the Engine of Later Prosperity for Korea and Taiwan? Probably Not" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Property Rights, Civilization, and Their Enemies
Every day, more and more Americans are awakening to the reality that the institutions in control of this nation are failing them. From violence in the streets, inflation in our stores, increasing tyranny and censorship, and absolute buffoonery on public display in halls of political power. The ruling class is getting richer while most of us suffer, and new generations are becoming increasingly warped by the dangerous ideologies of the left. Recorded at The Depot...
Read More »The Decline of America
Every day, more and more Americans are awakening to the reality that the institutions in control of this nation are failing them. From violence in the streets, inflation in our stores, increasing tyranny and censorship, and absolute buffoonery on public display in halls of political power. The ruling class is getting richer while most of us suffer, and new generations are becoming increasingly warped by the dangerous ideologies of the left. Recorded at The Depot...
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