Implications from the Federal Reserve’s Paper
Our first comment is that every monetary change from the Founding of America through present has been to move away from free markets, and to adulterate our currency. An analogy could be made to the Ship of Theseus, with each good plank replaced with an unsound board. A Zombie Ship of Theseus, decaying, but still afloat.
Let’s walk through the Fed’s paper. The very firstparagraphon page 1 says, “The Federal Reserve, as the nation’s central bank, works to maintain the public’s confidence by fostering monetary stability, financial stability…”
Monetary stabilityis defined as2% debasement per annum, an Orwellian twist. Andfinancial stabilityin the Fed’s regime is a myth.Interest rates shot the moon between 1947 and 1981, and since then have been falling—with volatility—into the black hole of zero.Meanwhile debt grows exponentially, and the marginal productivity of debt—how much GDP is added for each new dollar of debt—falls decade after decade. It is not only unstable, but unsustainable, heading towards an ultimate heat death of the economic universe.
Lessons to be Learned from East Asia
The world should take a lesson from how East Asia ran itself in 2020. Japan had no lockdown. None. With an aging population, its death rate has been creeping up for many years. In 2020, it fell by 0.7%, as if Covid-19 was a life-saver.
Daily new cases in Singapore – Covid-19 seems to be pretty much under control there. [PT]
Scavengers Out in Full Force
I have just returned from a visit to my family in India. It was hard to escape. To get to the US from India, I needed a COVID test. The Indian government has seriously restricted who can provide COVID testing, treatment, and vaccination. Private doctors and hospitals that are not approved face brutal legal consequences if they provide COVID treatment.
India’s experience with the COVID pandemic was particularly unpleasant… [PT]
Shooting from the Hip
[ed. note: the tweets linked below mainly show videos from various lockdown phases]
Reminiscent of his demonetization effort in 2016, on 24th March 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appeared on TV and declared an immediate nationwide curfew. No one was to be allowed to leave wherever he or she happened to be. All flights, trains (after 167 years of continual operation) and road transportation came to a complete, shrieking halt.
Stranded in India… [PT]
Value Traps and Economic Ignorance
A financial analyst is often, or at least should be, more of a psychologist than a financial expert. There are companies that I knew fifteen years ago that had inherent value a multiple of what their stocks were trading at. Today, there continues to be similar upside, except that upside targets and share prices are lower. What went wrong?
A problem reaches the far North faster than climate change can melt all the ice. [PT]
Dead Men Don’t Spend
The checks went forth yesterday.
And all the peoples rejoiced.
Stimulus blinders firmly attached! Let’s go! Mars is within reach! [PT]
The Stress of Losing Billions
Up until the WallStreetBets crowd short squeezed Melvin Capital for a $7 billion loss, Robinhood had it made. But losing billions is stressful. And when your product blows up your customer the clucking that follows comes hot and heavy.
A surprise revival of business at Game-Stop… [PT]