US equity futures extended their post-CPI miss gains (for reasons laid out last night by Goldman's trading desk which sees $13 billion in non-fundamental demand every day and a new round of FOMO by lagging hedge funds), rising 0.4% on Thursday morning...

Markets surged last night on the back of lower-than-expected US inflation. Markets globally rallied, anticipating a slowdown in the pace of Fed Interest Rate Hikes, and a resumption of the long bull Equity market. Bonds rallied. Joy, joy… joy..

Oh dear. It may be well to remember the Happy Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz singing “Ding Dong, Inflation’s Dead…” but, that occurs right at the start of the film… before things get “challenging”. I’m not saying End-of-the-World.. just not-quite-as-rosy-as-you-hope!

The pace of US consumer price inflation fell to 8.5% y-o-y, down from 9.1% in June. It’s well to remember what the CPI number shows is fast prices are rising, not how much they have risen – it’s a subtle, but critical difference…

8.5% Inflation means prices are still rising, (Doh!), just less quickly than last month. Rising prices mean the Fed, and other Central Banks still have to address them. (Which is why expecting Central Banks to mellow rate...

While reading today's end-of-day market recap from Bloomberg titled "Cut-to-Bone Positioning Set the Stage for Stocks’ Big Bounce" we couldn't help but laugh at how the author frames the massive melt up that started in June, accelerated mid-July and really took off in late July and early August, by saying that "nobody saw it coming, and now everyone wants in." Well, actually, maybe readers of Bloomberg didn't, but our subs did:

Anthony Fauci has few friends, even in Seattle.  Keep in mind, Seattle is one of the major strongholds of leftist covid hysteria in the US and ground zero for lockdowns in Washington State which lasted well over a year.  Most of the country dropped mandates and lockdowns after a few months when it became clear that covid was not a threat to 99.7% or more of the population according to dozens of peer reviewed studies.  But Washington State kept them going, primarily because of the fear mongering of government officials like Fauci.  The fact that Fauci was booed by large crowds in the middle of Seattle is surprising.  However, this shows that resistance to the mandates and anger over the disinformation surrounding covid is far more widespread than the media would have us believe.  

Fauci agreed to throw the first pitch at the Seattle Mariners T-Mobile Stadium this week, probably because he thought he would be safe within the confines of the...

Behind the scenes of that rosy picture, heartaches are afflicting Southwest, called “the airline with Heart” because of its heart-shaped logo and a corporate culture steeped in “The Golden Rule,” treating others the same way they’d like to be treated.

But eight current Southwest employees, including three minorities, told The Epoch Times that “woke, leftist” DEI policies, as implemented, have tarnished the cherished Golden Rule principle, fractured a once-cohesive workforce, and, ultimately, may put safety at risk.

Faced with pandemic-related staffing shortages and pressure to add minorities, the company has changed the way it hires, trains, and disciplines workers—mostly to benefit less-qualified new hires representing the diversity rainbow, the employees say.

One Southwest flight attendant, a Hispanic female, said: “They are compromising safety for the sake of race, gender identity, and sexual preference … They’re risking people’s lives because of...

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VIX - welcome to inverse panic

We are finally reaching the volatility puke we have been writing about for the past two weeks. VIX has not closed here in a long time. Reversal strategists are pointing out the VIX vs SPX gap, but these people do not trade volatility, nor do they understand what volatility is. Volatility is mean reverting by "nature", so don't buy into the "last time VIX was here..." arguments. Time to get busy when it comes to using cheap(er) volatility in your overall strategy.

In a groundbreaking development, Iran has made its first-ever import arrangement using cryptocurrency, according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency.

“This week, the first official import order registration worth $10 million was successfully completed using cryptocurrency," said Alireza Peyman-Pak, the head of Iran's Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade. He didn't provide any other details about the transaction, such as which cryptocurrency was used or where the imports were coming from. 

This week's $10 million import order is just the beginning, as Iran works to sidestep sanctions and pursue trade with other U.S.-targeted economies. "By the end of September, the use of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts will be widely used in foreign trade with target countries,” said Peyman-Pak. 

"We caution countries not to break those sanctions because then… they stand the chance of having actions taken against them," she added. Thomas-Greenfield said that purchasing Russian oil risks sanctions, even though many of the United States' European allies are still buying Russian crude before a ban takes effect at the end of the year.

Many African nations, including Uganda, have not joined the US in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and have rightly blamed Western sanctions, as well as the war, for raising food prices and exacerbating shortages.

Western sanctions technically have exemptions for agricultural products, but many shipping companies and banks have stopped doing business with Russia altogether out of caution. 

History has shown that sanctions cause shortages of humanitarian goods despite exemptions, but the Biden administration has acted surprised by the issue and has quietly encouraged more Russian fertilizer deals in...

In 2011, around 55,000 electric vehicles (EVs) were sold around the world. 10 years later in 2021, that figure had grown close to 7 million vehicles.

With many countries getting plugged into electrification, the global EV market has seen exponential growth over the last decade. Using data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Visual Capitalist's Govind Bhutada shows in the infographic below, the explosion in global EV sales since 2011, highlighting the countries that have grown into the biggest EV markets.

Via The Cradle,

The Syrian Oil Ministry released a statement on 9 August accusing US forces occupying Syria of being responsible for the theft of most of the country’s oil.

"The amount of oil production during the first half of 2022 amounted to some 14.5 million barrels, with an average daily production of 80.3 thousand barrels, of which 14.2 thousand are delivered daily to refineries," the oil ministry’s statement said.

As power bills are expected to jump to record highs this winter, UK households will struggle with a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

A new report via energy market intelligence firm Cornwall Insight Ltd. said the power bill price cap is set to rise to £4,266 ($5,168) per year in 1Q23, pilling even more financial pressures on consumers trying to survive the worst inflation storm in decades.

Cornwall Insight's forecast comes as the price cap would breach the £4,000 for the first time, though the good news is energy costs in 2H23 should ease. Cornwall expects the price cap to remain over £3,700 through next year. 

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and feel like I’ve got the cheat codes to the world, that, like Neo in The Matrix, I can see the code behind the world they parade in front of us.

Flooding the system was the Cloward and Piven strategy to bring down this country. Create real or phony problems that “require” government actions that begin the process of shifting freedoms from individuals to the State. (For a more layman’s insight, see here.)

Rahm Emmanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff, said that “no good crisis should ever go to waste.” That implied an opening for more government, a Cloward and Piven (CP) opportunity. (To visualize one asserted implementation of this, involving Acorn, see here.)

The strategy is not a Democrat monopoly. Republicans use it also, although do not brag about it or depend upon it almost exclusively.

The process is like rust eroding liberty, slowly and steadily. It replaces freedom with dependency and controls.

There are two problems with the strategy:

While reading today's end-of-day market recap from Bloomberg titled "Cut-to-Bone Positioning Set the Stage for Stocks’ Big Bounce" we couldn't help but laugh at how the author frames the massive melt up that started in June, accelerated mid-July and really took off in late July and early August, by saying that "nobody saw it coming, and now everyone wants in." Well, actually, maybe readers of Bloomberg didn't, but our subs did:

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

- President Harry S. Truman

A veteran top infectious diseases expert at the New York City Health Department says he was reassigned in "retaliation" for butting heads with higher-ups regarding the city's monkeypox messaging.

Dr. Don Weiss, director of surveillance, was transferred to another unit after he publicly criticized the department's advice that gay men should simply 'avoid kissing' and 'cover up their sores' - as opposed to Weiss' advice that gay men abstain from or reduce sex for a period of time, the NY Post reports.

Florida Department of Health Secretary, Dr. Joseph Ladapo acknowledged at the public hearing in Broward County, that there were “strong feelings about the issue,” but argued that current standards of care are a “substantial departure” from the “level of evidence and data surrounding the issue.”

“It is very clear that the effectiveness is completely uncertain,” Ladapo said. “I mean, maybe it is effective, but the scientific studies that have been published today do not support that.”

Ladapo agreed that findings could change in future, but said that it was unlikely, “considering what I’ve reviewed.”

Ladapo said minors experiencing gender dysphoria should instead receive counseling to address their concerns. He sent a letter to the board expressing his opinion before the hearing.

A pediatric endocrinologist, Dr. Quentin Van Meter served as an expert for the state and warned the board that a growing number of children are seeking these treatments of...

Extreme drought in northern Mexico has sparked a water crisis. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador addressed the beer industry in the region to shift production elsewhere because of sustainability factors, reported Bloomberg. 

The water crisis is particularly critical in Monterrey, one of Mexico's most important economic hubs and home to some of the largest beermakers in the world, such as Heineken NV. 

Some neighborhoods in Monterrey have been without water for nearly three months, and Heineken's facility has suffered as waterways dry up. Residents have protested commercial districts due to their oversized demand for local water. 

In introducing the bill dubbed the Securing America’s Land From Foreign Interference Act, Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) cited a 2020 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) saying that foreign individuals and entities held an interest in nearly 37.6 million acres of U.S. agricultural land.

While some 14 states have restrictions against foreign ownership of land, there are no federal restraints regarding private U.S. agricultural land that can be foreign-owned, they said.

“Chinese investments in American farmland put our food security at risk and provide opportunities for Chinese espionage against our military bases and critical infrastructure. Instead of allowing these purchases, the U.S. government must bar the Communist Party from purchasing our land,” Cotton said in a statement last week.

Allowing the CCP to purchase U.S. farmland, Tuberville said, is tantamount to “giving our top adversary a foot in...

Instead of waiting for the police, a law-abiding citizen with a concealed carry license (also known as a 'good guy with a gun') took matters into his own hands and acted quickly, drawing his weapon and killing a gunman who was about to "shoot up the crowd" at a party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday night.

Local news CBS12 said a fight broke out between 20 people at a family gathering on Division Avenue and 4th Street in West Palm Beach. At that moment, a 22-year-old male retrieved a short-barreled shotgun from his car and threatened to "shoot up the crowd."

West Palm Beach Police said the man refused to drop the weapon after yelling out mass shooting threats, and that was when a 32-year-old man with a concealed weapon license fired his pistol, hitting the armed suspect. 

Originated in 1933, the term "dumbing down" was movie-business slang, used by screenplay writers, meaning: "to revise to appeal to those of little education or intelligence." For those with little drive or purpose, the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy find great comfort in the constant flow of dribble a cell phone can provide. In short, dumbing down is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content in education, literature, cinema, news, video games, and culture.

It should be noted this is being written just as the world is on the cusp of being offered a whole new recipe that may lead to more social dysfunction. That comes in the form of "virtual reality" which offers an even stronger form of escapism that may result in damaging the ability of people to relate to each other in the real world. Especially worrisome is the effect it might have on children that...