The Chinese economy is experiencing just such a depression and the authorities in command and control China met this weekend and are going to abort the cleanse and aggressively intervene. Bl
Eggs and Nest Eggs
Rob Williams, managing director of financial planning at Charles Schwab, told AARP, “Some may feel the increase for 2025 is low relative to the inflation they feel in their pocketbooks,” Williams says. “Still, it’s a welcome increase that builds on a 5.9 percent increase in payments in 2022, 8.7 percent in 2023 and 3.2 percent this year.”
Guns & Butter is Back
To any economics student, go-go boots and the year 1965 mean Lyndon Banes Johnson’s “Guns and Butter” policy.
Section 2.10: Remonetizing the Treasury’s Gold
In a piece published in mises.org I outline a way Trump could do just such a thing which was outlined by financial analyst Luke Gromen in his conversation with Forex Analytics Dale Pincerts. Pincert worries that Trump (or Harris) would use an Executive branch to devalue the US dollar overnite. He asked Gromen if there is such a mechanism, which was the thrust of my piece, which I reproduce below.
Brown to Snub Miners to Hang with Crypto Bros.
Not being from Nevada, Senate candidate MAGA hopeful Sam Brown has canceled a trip scheduled for Elko this weekend to attend a conference in Nashville promoting gold’s digital competitor, Bitcoin. Brown will participate in a Saturday morning panel at “Bitcoin24”
Wall Street's latest Poison: Leveraged ETFs
Most investors are using these leveraged products as a way to double-down on their investment thesis,” Juctsane Edmondson, head of thematic strategy at TMX VettaFi states the obvious. “That approach amplifies gains when the underlying goes up, but also greater pain when they go down.”
Fed In Full Control: What Could Go Wrong?
After last year’s failures, “one-third of the banks [were] rat[ed] three or worse on a five-point scale for their overall management.” Three or worse? A four or five in management is essentially asleep at the switch at best or incompetent at worst.
Tiger and Joe: Don't Know When to Quit
Tiger responded to Monty by pointing out that as a past champion he’s exempt from qualifying until he’s 60 and has the luxury of making the decision whether to play, unlike Monty who never won the Open and doesn’t have that automatic spot. He would have to qualify. Joe, similarly, has all the delegates to be the Democratic nominee and therefore it’s his decision whether to run or quit.
Repos: The Magic is Back
Monthly bills are now average $739 for a new car and $549 for a used car. Three missed payments and the repo man is summoned. And seizures are easier than ever with “technological advancements such as tracking features and license plate data.”
The Racket That Technology Can't Kill (yet)
“Critics say title insurance is little used and overpriced, with the bulk of the premiums consumers pay going to title agents in the form of a commission.” In my experience it is the escrow officers and sales reps whose commissions take a sizable chunk from policy premiums.
Maturing Loans, Old Appraisers
“With this tidal wave of maturing and distressed loans, appraisers will play a key role in setting the values from which the market will begin the next stage in the real estate cycle.”
This Week’s Mania: Reservations!
However, in a case of legislation looking for a problem, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has the proposed Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act on her desk which would require permission from restaurants to offer bookings.
Price Discovery Equals Short Sales
“As stressed loans grow due to maturities, however, we expect that banks will start selling these more challenged loans to reduce their troubled loan exposures,” Murray said. Banks will take losses when these loans are unloaded, impairing capital and in some cases leading to bank failures.
Dead Banks Walking Part 1
The Hindenburg report provides many individual examples of sketchy loans made by Axos to sketchy characters. Not atypical is one where Axos lent up to $97.5 million for an apartment construction project in Queens where the “borrower has been criminally indicted twice personally, including a case involving a construction kickback scheme with a mafia captain. His company was indicted in a third case.”
Why the Democrats are Throwing the Presidential Election
Everything seems A-OK with the U.S. economy on the surface. But, the latest Grant’s Interest Rate Observer’s lead story, entitled “The case of the fragile 27%” uses the report by Paul Kupiec, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., to make the case that systemic risk to the nation’s banking system is bubbling just below the economy’s surface.
Roaring Kitty vs. Chairman Powell
The majority of those surveyed — 59% — cited inflation as the top risk facing financial markets between now and year end. A US recession was listed as top risk by nearly a quarter of those queried.
Nuclear Option Has Foreign Central Banks Dodging the Dollar & Going for Gold
Saleha Mohsin, author of Paper Soldiers: How the Weaponization of the Dollar Changed the World Order told Alloway and Weisenthal, “In 2001, 9/11 hits and, you know, the Global War on Terror did not start with military tanks rolling into some country or American troops in their boots hitting the ground somewhere. It started Sept. 24th, 2001 with George W. Bush, with a stroke of a pen giving the US Treasury Department the authority to weaponize the dollar.”
Jared Bernstein Knows One Thing: "We Can Print Our Own Money"
“They sell bonds and then people buy the bonds and lends the money. Yeah.” Bernstein went on as he appeared to become further confused, while attempting to reassure himself with his own answer, reports The Daily Mail.
Orwell's America
So, for the really rich a misplaced day in New York (or on the other coast, California) can mean millions lost to the tax authority. How serious is this? Nahmias and Kamisher write, “state officials are stepping up already-intense scrutiny to make sure former residents have actually moved. It’s a complex operation that involves cutting-edge artificial intelligence and tracking everything from travel to the location of people’s pets.”
Millennials: In Costco We Trust
While us more seasoned gold bugs still feel alone, Katherine Hamilton wrote in the WSJ, “Americans can’t get enough gold. Costco, which started offering gold bars last year online and in a few stores, has been selling out within hours.”