All right, Fate. Let's see what you got.

A Schumpeterian rebirth?

I’ve seen this a bunch since Friday: “Worst day of the year!”

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I mean - down 1.71%? I own stocks, but…

Some perspective:

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And yet…

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Hooters' pending bankruptcy suddenly makes more sense.

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I found this headline amusing.

“A Bank of America survey showed investors are the most bullish on equities since 2010...global recession expectations fell to a three-year low, and 77% of fund managers expect the Fed to cut rates in 2025. [German investor] sentiment is the highest in two years." - Alyosha

“You could print a bunch of college diplomas, but it wouldn’t increase the number of doctors, lawyers or engineers in our economy. Not only that, but it would also significantly hamper our economy, as consumers and employers would grow to distrust college diplomas. This is not unlike our current situation with money. And while a fake diploma may enable you to get something for nothing for a while (at someone else’s expense), it wouldn’t be long before you were found out as a fraud and possibly face severe consequences.

On the other hand, the something-for-nothing myth that results from printing money has been going on for decades and at great expense to those who can least afford it – with none of the perpetrators facing any consequences.”

Paul Musson

Via The Last Bear Standing

Nice overview of the RRP

“Ostensibly, the Federal Reserve has reduced its balance sheet by $2.1 trillion through nearly three years of Quantitative Tightening (QT) — a supposedly hardnose effort to tackle inflation by shrinking the base money supply.

The reality is less impressive. Rather than shrinking the base money supply, the Fed has simply mopped up trillions in excess liquidity, already sitting inert in its own accounts.

Since QT commenced in June 2022, usage of the Fed’s overnight Reverse Repo Facility (RRP) has decreased by $2.2 trillion — fully offsetting the balance sheet reduction. Over the same time, the monetary base, a more meaningful measure of dollars in circulation has actually increased. Reserve balances at commercial banks have increased marginally as well.

To date, the Fed’s QT program has merely moved money from the right pocket to the left. The decline in its aggregate balance sheet is an illusion — the elimination of double counting more than a true shrinking of money supply.

But the overflow tank is running on fumes. With just $68 billion remaining, the RRP now stands at its lowest level since early 2021.”

The Fed "Balance Sheet”

2010:

“The sin of nearly all left-wingers from 1933 onward is that they have wanted to be anti-Fascist without being anti-totalitarian.”

George Orwell, 1944

Below the fold: inflation expectations, Japan, Adam Rozencwajg on EROI and gold, more gold, housing and CRE, Sicario, Warren Buffett’s cash, Jim Grant, Steve Bannon(!), real (lower) earnings, how to lose $1.46 billion, our news media, Picasso, gambling, George Washington, and more!