Under Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Will Usher in a New Era of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Dec 01, 2020 | News
On Nov. 20 we said the next U.S. Treasury Secretary would be pro-MMT, meaning, they would be a de facto believer in, and wielder of, Modern Monetary Theory. And so it comes to pass. Janet Yellen, the incoming Biden administration’s pick for U.S. Treasury Secretary, is probably the most technocratically skilled and ideologically suited person on the planet for bringing…
Britain’s Green Industrial Revolution is a Sign of the Investing Times
Nov 23, 2020 | News
“Imagine Britain when a Green Industrial Revolution has helped to level up the country,” wrote U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a Financial Times opinion piece on Nov. 17. “You cook breakfast using hydrogen power before getting in your electric car, having charged it overnight from batteries made in the Midlands,” Johnson went on. “Around you the air is cleaner;…
Tesla Will Be Added to the S&P 500 (and May Soon be a Sell, or Even a Short)
Nov 18, 2020 | News
Congratulations are in order for Tesla bulls: The S&P 500 Index Committee announced this week Tesla will be added to the S&P 500 in December. Tesla shares (TSLA) jumped 13% on the news, sending Tesla’s market cap to nearly $420 billion. The Tesla chart is intriguing. If Tesla breaks down from here, it is definitely a sell and could even…
The Largest Trade Agreement in History Just Got Signed — With China at the Center
Nov 17, 2020 | News
If you thought globalization was dead, think again. In some ways, it is stronger than ever. There are certainly factors that favor protectionism, and trade wars, and a withdrawal from partnerships and agreements. But there are also powerful forces pushing in the other direction. These counterforces have the potential to produce more globalization over time, not less, with greater cooperation…
The European Union Goes After Amazon
Nov 16, 2020 | News
A day will come when it makes sense to short the juggernauts: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. That day is not today, and it may not be here for a while yet. But it will come. As we explained on Aug. 3, the tech juggernauts are trading like a zero-coupon U.S. Treasury substitute. Investors have been reflexively trained to buy…
Covid Winter is Coming
Nov 13, 2020 | News
On March 6, 2020, we wrote in these pages that 80 million Americans were likely to be infected by COVID-19, and that more than 400,000 Americans could die as a result. At that early date, many did not believe it. Many thought it impossible. And yet, here we are. At the time of this writing, more than 242,000 Americans have…
Brilliant Billionaires Keep Buying Bitcoin
Nov 12, 2020 | News
When smart people look at Bitcoin, they wind up buying it. This seems to be happening with clockwork-like regularity now. It feels like every other week or two, if not every other day or two, some new individual or entity, known for excellence in their domain of expertise, is buying BTC. The latest example of this is Stan Druckenmiller, a…
The Chinese Government Killed the World’s Largest IPO
Nov 10, 2020 | News
Last week, the U.S. presidential election consumed the world’s attention. This week, the potential for a game-changing COVID-19 vaccine dominated headlines and market action. But something else shocking happened last week, an event so surprising — and in some ways so ominous — it would have dominated headlines if not for the stiff competition. The Chinese government killed the world’s…
Pfizer Announces a More Than 90% Effective Vaccine Result, and Markets Rejoice to the Skies
Nov 09, 2020 | News
Pfizer, the pharma giant, and its research partner, BioNTech, changed the outlook for 2021 — and for the whole world — with a huge announcement this morning (Monday, Nov. 9). Pfizer and BioNTech shared Phase 3 trial results of a COVID-19 blocking vaccine that was effective in more than 90% of patients. The data results are early, and not yet…
Bitcoin is a Schelling Point
Nov 06, 2020 | News
On Oct. 30, we noted that Bitcoin is outperforming gold. Less than a week later, as the U.S. election week comes to a close, Bitcoin is up another 14% (above $15,500 as of this writing). The latest run higher seems driven by a sudden burst of extreme U.S. dollar weakness — a bullish thing for risk assets in general, and…
