The Crypto Adoption Cycle Just Got a PayPal-Powered Nitro Boost
Oct 23, 2020 | News
One of the great wealth-building vehicles of the 20th century was the publicly traded retail franchise. There is a reason why retail franchise stocks, when successful, can deliver multi-thousand-percent returns over a long-term holding period. With a great franchise — like, say, a casual restaurant concept, or a new type of clothing store — the initial locations are shown to…
The Department of Justice Went After Google — and the Market Shrugged
Oct 22, 2020 | News
Did you hear the one about the Department of Justice (DOJ) going after Microsoft? It isn’t a joke, but the stock market seemed to laugh at the news. On Oct. 20, the DOJ announced the largest antitrust lawsuit in decades, officially declaring Google “a monopoly gatekeeper of the internet.” The last antitrust action of this size and scope was launched…
The DOJ’s “Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework” is More Good News for Bitcoin
Oct 13, 2020 | News
As a rule of thumb, regulation is good for established players. It helps the strong get stronger and the big get bigger, by making it harder to break into a space. Take data privacy rules around e-commerce and social media, for example. On the one hand, the big players in e-commerce and social media don’t like these rules. They are…
An $83 Billion Silicon Valley Heavyweight Buys Bitcoin — and Shows Others How to Do It
Oct 12, 2020 | News
If you haven’t bought Bitcoin for the first time yet, the odds are good that you will. The question is whether you will do it sooner — and be glad that you did — or do it later and wish you had acted much earlier. Bitcoin is not just an investment opportunity, like a stock that investors can own or…
In a Time of Fiscal Dominance, the Market Cares About Spending More Than Who Wins
Oct 09, 2020 | News
On Aug. 10, TradeSmith Daily explained two terms every investor should know: Financial Repression and Fiscal Dominance. To briefly summarize them, financial repression is when a central bank deliberately keeps interest rates low — ideally below the rate of inflation — to inflate away the value of debt. This is a means of coping when a nation’s debt load becomes…
The Tweet that Tanked the Stock Market
Oct 07, 2020 | News
On Tuesday, Oct. 6, President Donald Trump did something mystifying. He tanked the stock market — and created a sense of panic among millions of unemployed Americans and struggling small-business owners — with a single tweet. Here is how Brian Kilmeade, the Fox News co-host of Fox and Friends, described it: “For the president to come out with a tweet…
Markets are Increasingly Anticipating a “Biden Sweep”
Oct 05, 2020 | EducationalNews
When news of the president’s COVID-19 diagnosis hit, in the wee hours of Friday morning, overnight markets reacted with shock and fear. By the end of the day on Friday, though, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 had mostly recovered, with small caps (via the Russell 2000 index) even turning positive on the day. In Monday’s premarket session,…
The Coronavirus Just Triggered a National Security Crisis
Oct 02, 2020 | News
The president and the first lady of the United States have tested positive for COVID-19. This is earth-shaking news on multiple fronts. The U.S. now faces a national security crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), eight out of 10 COVID-related fatalities in the U.S. were in patients 65 years or older. President Trump is 74…
Is Nikola the Theranos of Electric Vehicle Start-Ups?
Sep 23, 2020 | News
You may remember Theranos, the blood-testing startup run by Elizabeth Holmes. Theranos was a fraud, but the company reached a multi-billion-dollar valuation by suckering some of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Theranos had an “all-star” board of directors that was almost cartoonish in its weight and stature. At various points along the way, the Theranos…
A Supreme Court Battle Lowers the Odds of Vital Fiscal Support
Sep 22, 2020 | News
A U.S. Senate battle royale over who gets to fill a U.S. Supreme Court seat is bearish for markets. That is a key reason why bearish feeling has intensified this week, with asset prices dropping across the board. The cause-and-effect mechanism here is not direct, but indirect. It has to do with fiscal support. The real U.S. economy – meaning…
