Those who remember history are condemned by those who repeat it.
Forty-two national emergencies right now in the U.S., not counting today's market drop.
Abraham Lincoln used to tell the story of "the boy who, when asked how many legs his calf would have if he called its tail a leg, replied, "Five," to which the prompt response was made that calling the tail a leg would not make it a leg.”
The Bank of England “has removed a requirement that forced borrowers to be able to afford a three-percentage-point rise in interest rates before they could be approved for a home loan.”
A trillion dollars used to be a lot of money.
An Irishman at risk of losing his farm. An American having suicidal thoughts. An 84-year-old widow's lost life savings: People caught in the meltdown of crypto lender Celsius are pleading for their money back.
This is largely the fault of horrific central bank policy this century.
…the dark side of QE, as cleverly detailed in layman’s terms in Leonard’s book, is that it has created a desperate struggle for yield by American savers, pension funds and other typically risk-adverse investors. The book makes the point that the long-term goal of QE was, in fact, to make saving money and expecting to earn a decent interest rate on it a fool’s errand year after year, thus forcing millions of people into riskier and riskier areas of investment, which has led to the unprecedented bubble in markets that we find ourselves in today – with no reliable exit plan by the Fed.
Just look at the absolute clowns opining on monetary policy…
Google Trends
So I’ll tell you a little bit about what I recently heard from a car dealer. He is in the business of buying repossessed cars from banks, and he says that recently repossessed cars have been surging. And some common characteristics are that those loans were extended between 2020 and 2021. And that’s unusual because usually people fall on hard times at different times. So the fact that it’s all happening at once is noticeable.
I love how this chart just goes back to 2009, but here are mortgage rates:
Counties scattered throughout Washington, Oregon and California, including San Francisco, also have “high” or “very high” chances of seeing prices drop over the next year. But it’s a different story for Utah and even other regional markets in Idaho and Arizona. In Utah, the Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo markets have a “low” chance of seeing prices dip. The Logan area has a “very low” chance, according to the analysis.
Is it different for Utah?
Reminded me of Kyle Bass interview with Grant Williams in 2016:
This could be your last chance to buy an Airbnb portfolio “across the most highly sought after zip codes of Columbus, Ohio.”
I wonder if Les Wexner is liquidating.
Venture capital’s silent crash: when the tech boom met reality
“If there was one word to describe it, it was FOMO,” says Eric Vishria, a partner at Benchmark Capital. The “fear of missing out” he points to brought a stampede at the peak of the market. It wasn’t just the high prices investors were prepared to pay not to miss the boat: periods for conducting due diligence were drastically shortened and protections that investors usually build in to protect their investments fell by the wayside.
“Malaysia’s gargantuan 1MDB scandal shows why the world needs to establish an International Anti-Corruption Court” Well, maybe the SEC can just read Twitter.
Deutsche Bank broke its own rules in enabling tax fraud, probe finds
The whole system weakens itself because it gets caught in this big lie that says we have to pretend that Deutsche Bank is a bank instead of a criminal enterprise. - Bill Black
This is the state of investigative journalism, 2022: “Fact Check-Video does not show Biden being distracted by music from an ice cream truck” The original video is here.
Unraveling 28: Bad Intelligence Good introductory overview of Jeff Epstein and other hidden history. Also the intro alone (starts 1 minute in) of this The Jeffrey Epstein Series, pts. 1 & 2 is epic.
"Those who remember history are condemned by those who repeat it."
Far more realistic update to the adage!
Enjoyed the Epstein podcasts - truly amazing no journalist is running with this scandal - no one wants to be the next Bernstein/Woodward? Or does it prove there wouldn’t have been a Bernstein/Woodward moment had Deep Throat (aka CIA?) not permitted it?