It's not a bear market - it's an opportunity to rebalance!

Posting until something breaks

Only another $580 to go!

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“The Value Restoration Project” - Jim Grant

One thing that bugged me yesterday was when “Disingenuous Man” Jay Powell said at the presser that rates were low because of the pandemic. No. Rates have been freakishly low since Fall 2008. As I’ve said for years, sell those (now $9 trillion) Fed Fun Coupons and see where rates go.

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The Quantitative Tightening® is proceeding as planned.

The ATM’s are working.

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Janet Yellen Is Struggling at the Treasury Job She Never Wanted (Bloomberg really, really strives to be the Kleptocracy’s mouthpiece.)

The former Federal Reserve chair was recruited to help steer the US economy out of the pandemic by lending her gravitas and credibility to the Biden administration’s pursuit of a robust and lasting recovery.

Sorry - I should have warned you. I’ll give you a second to clean up…

Anyway, “Gravitas and credibility”? WTF is Saleha Mohsin smoking?

This is not settled science! It’s just more op-ed kiss-ass public relations masquerading as reporting.

Janet’s a failed-regulator, utterly captured by the same sector she was supposed to regulate! She’s a fabulously wealthy bank motivational speaker.

If you read the piece, read it as fan fiction, and if Secretary Yellen really doesn’t want the job - please, do us all a favor and resign, leave the public trough forever, and take your failed nonsense econ-cult ideas with you. This is your legacy:

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Fed publicist Scott Wapner today mentioned the 2016 “Dimon Bottom,” which was when Lord Dimon bought "500,000 shares of his company’s stock, which was tanking at the time." Not mentioned was that about a month after Saint Jamie bought shares, JPMorgan announced a $1.88 Billion share buyback.

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This is so grotesque: Pimco, home for wayward central bankers like Bernanke, Greenspan, Clarida, and of course Kashkari, has sympathy for the Fed…

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UK 10-Year. It’s a long way to the top.

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• Saw this headline: Aswath Damodaran: Market's pricing in 3.5% inflation over long term (video was deleted). Even 3.5% inflation will chop 30% off your purchasing power in 10 years (8.5% inflation will do that in just 4 years). This is not “stable prices,” the Fed’s first mandate.

• $475,000 Over List

• "We were told by everyone that there would be tons of bidders, that it'd be very competitive and we would immediately sell," Ian Finn told KPIX 5.

  There has not been a single offer since the listing hit the MLS. "We launch on May 9th….and nothing. Chirping. Crickets," said Lauren Finn. [If you watch the video, the next story is about a struggling food bank. ‘Merica. - RH]

• “If you have to catch a falling knife, catch it fast” [Not sure what this means, but it’s catchy. - RH]

• “Hedge funds or institutional buyers are pausing buying in communities as rates rise again. This is a hot tip from Helbig-Strick who often works with hedge funds that try to buy 50 homes a month to hold and rent in the St. Louis community. The companies that work with EXP said they're holding off as they watch the next round of securitization. Ultimately, Helbig-Strick said it's still a hot market, but there are beginning signs that there is some normalization again. She said it's still very hard for people to find homes in the $150,000 to $400,000 range, which typically are considered the range for first-time homebuyers.” [Um, one reason it’s hard for first-time homebuyers is because of “hedge funds that try to buy 50 homes a month to hold and rent”. And what if these hedge funds, private-equity types, Blackstone etc. ever start to sell en masse? That’d be fun to watch.]

• At 88, Poker Legend Doyle Brunson Is Still Bluffing. Or Is He?

• Live recording of Led Zeppelin, When the Levee Breaks

• Sara and Mike are the best

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I was early…

We were so close, too…

1999 book