Tag Archives: newsletter

Overview:  The powerful yen short squeeze that has roiled the capital market this week has stalled today. It is the first day this week that the dollar has not fallen below the previous day's low and has risen, though slightly, above previous session's high. The Antipodeans and Scandis are trading with a firmer bias. The yen and Swiss franc are the only two G10 currencies that are not stronger today. The stability of the yen appears to have removed some of the...

“Work or starve” is a common argument used against free-market capitalism. Proponents of the “work or starve” argument argue that capitalism forces one to work or be forced with the prospect of starvation or destitution. This is a mistaken approach since “work or starve” is not a feature of capitalism but rather of the world we live in. By conflating positive rights with negative rights, a perverted type of justice is imagined.We know that humans must...

One of the most familiar terms heard or read today is “social justice.” Ironically, “social justice” is anything but justice. It basically represents double standards, inequality, partiality, prejudice, racism, selectivity, and subjectivity. It has to be one of modernity’s cleverest and most subtle paradoxes.Perhaps the best way to expose it as a paradox is by revealing what genuine and true justice demands when applied evenly and honestly to all people. True justice...

The market always seems to teach retail investors a lesson. Bloomberg reported leveraged EFTs such as The Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3x Shares (ticker SOXL), which delivers triple the daily move of the NYSE Semiconductor Index, took in a record 1.5 billion last week, only to drop “15% Wednesday to extend a 37% loss in the past 14 days.”“The $23 billion ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) and the $4 billion ProShares UltraPro S&P 500 (UPRO) fell nearly 7% and...

The term “smart city” conjures images of futuristic utopias where technology seamlessly enhances our daily lives. Traffic flows like a symphony, garbage trucks only show up when needed, and potholes fill themselves while apologizing for the inconvenience. But peel back the glossy veneer, and you’ll find that these so-called smart initiatives are often just a new way to nickel-and-dime residents. Let’s take a tour through the cityscape of this digital pickpocketing.A...

Robert Reich recently asserted that “free markets” aren’t neutral or free, are actually shaped by those who wield power. Reich believes that government powers have been subverted by private interests- this part of his analysis is actually true in many cases. Reich hopes for some sort of miracle whereby countervailing government powers will work in the public interest to suppress greedy monopolists- this part of his analysis is delusional and...

Overview: The capital markets are in flux. The powerful short-covering rally of the yen and unwinding of carry trades continues. For the second time this week, the PBOC has surprised by cutting interest rates. The dramatic sell-off of equities continues. The unexpected contraction of South Korea's Q2 GSP (-0.2%) is seen as confirmation of broader economic weakness Speculation of a more aggressive Federal Reserve is gaining ground. It is not that the odds of a cut...

UBS took over former rival Credit Suisse after the collapse of the latter in March 2023. Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott UBS Group AG was asked by a powerful US lawmaker about whether the bank it acquired, Credit Suisse Group AG, failed to report an American accused of evading taxes on $350 million (CHF307 million) in income. Senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asked in a letter whether Credit Suisse told US tax authorities about...

Dass der nächste Eurovision Song Contest nicht in der Stadt Zürich stattfinden wird, hat in der vergangenen Woche sowohl in den traditionellen Medien als auch in den sozialen Netzwerken für zahlreiches Aufsehen gesorgt. Ausschlaggebend für den Entscheid der SRG gegen Zürich dürfte auch das angedrohte Referendum gegen eine Beteiligung der öffentlichen Hand am Anlass gewesen sein, das von der EDU, der Jungen SVP und dem Bund der Steuerzahler in Aussicht gestellt wurde und an dem auch die...

 In a mere 11 minutes on Wednesday night, President Biden settled any doubts about whether he was fit for another four years of the presidency. Uncle Joe wrestled with the teleprompter like a slacker high school boy blindsided by trigonometry questions on the math SAT test. By the end of the Bidens brief spiel, most judges declared that the teleprompter had won by technical knockout.A few weeks ago, Biden declared that it would take “the Lord Almighty” to get him to...