You know Peter Thiel as one of the few people in Silicon Valley who backed presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016. Thiel was also a co-founder of PayPal with some guy named Elon Musk. And he was an original backer of Facebook. The guy knows a thing or two about startups. Which is why I recently reread his book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. You and I know that technologists tend to think about the future in terms of technology, much like a farmer thinks about the future in terms of farming. It’s what they do. Which is why, as an investor, I found this … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2021
Summers: A Woke Federal Reserve Won’t Save America from Inflation
The Federal Reserve's mission is to control inflation and encourage full employment, while at the same time maintaining the strength of the dollar. But, in the last few years progressive politicians and even some members of the Federal Reserve board have encouraged the central bank to take on more roles promoting social justice. As inflation heats up, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has slammed the Fed for its focus on being "woke," as its core mission is failing. Fox Business's Megan Henney reports: Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers on Wednesday excoriated Federal … [Read more...]
Ghost Ships Abandoned by Great Reset, Global Owners?
“Why is this happening?” You ask yourself. “Why is our supply chain broken? Why are there ghost ships rotting away in global ports and off the shores of California?” When one of these ships loaded with volatile ammonia sat for years in Lebanon, and then they finally unloaded it onshore, it blew up, killing hundreds of people in the resulting explosion. Was it an accident? When you read about the crews stuck on these ships, being treated like slaves, barely surviving on months of rice and water, a simple question comes to mind. Why are the owners abandoning ship? What businessman would leave … [Read more...]
WHAT INDEPENDENCE? The Fed and Treasury Are Yin and Yang
In The Wall Street Journal, Judy Shelton explains that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury are working hand in hand. She writes of the relationship: In short, with the Fed owning roughly one-quarter of the federal debt held by the public on which the Treasury must pay interest—and with the Fed’s practice of sending weekly remittances to Treasury—it’s clear that monetary and fiscal policy are conflated. There’s a further complication: If the Federal Reserve were to raise the interest rate it pays on the $4.1 trillion in reserve balances held by commercial banks and other savings … [Read more...]
Survival SUPER States: A Place to Call Home
When you can’t even send your kids or grandkids to public schools, you ask yourself, “What am I paying for?” When your local police force is gutted, you ask yourself, “What am I paying for?” When your politicians treat you like a piggy bank you ask yourself “What am I paying for?” This simple question is being asked at kitchen tables all over this country every single day. But it’s different this time, as big blue cities and states, usually the recipients of workers, are suffering from a once in a lifetime exodus to RED STATES. As retirees tell loved ones “Don’t worry we’ll be back to … [Read more...]
PANDEMIC PROFITS: Washington’s Windfall
Leave it to the federal government to turn a pandemic that shuts down businesses and drives Americans into bankruptcy into a way to make money. The government earned record "profits," (a.k.a. your tax dollars), during its most recent fiscal year (October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021). The Wall Street Journal reports: Washington has had an excellent pandemic. If you doubt it, look no further than the Congressional Budget Office’s summary for revenues and outlays for fiscal 2021, which ended on Sept. 30. The federal government has never had it so good—literally. The budget gnomes estimate … [Read more...]
FOLLOW THE DRUG MONEY: America’s Broken Healthcare System
You really can’t make this stuff up. Do we need yet another example of how our healthcare system is broken? Just follow the money. Not that I’m buying into this cure-all pill. Alex Berenson writes on his Substack: Yes, molnupiravir - a pill to treat Covid - seems to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, assuming Merck’s press release from last week holds up. But it is yet another story of the US health care system and drug development gone awry. A Miami hedge-fund manager and his wife - Wayne and Wendy Holman - are likely to make hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions, on it - … [Read more...]
PRICES UP AT THE PUMP: Shale Drillers Can’t Save America from Green Agenda
Despite soaring gasoline prices and ample oil in the ground in America's shale basins, drillers won't be able to save the country from the green agenda being pushed both by the Biden administration and ESG fund managers. Collin Eaton reports in The Wall Street Journal: Shale companies are on track to spend a little more money pumping oil next year, but most aren’t opening up the spigots, even as prices top $80 a barrel. Capital investments in U.S. oil patches this year are projected to come in at the lowest levels since 2004, years before the fracking boom made America the world’s top oil … [Read more...]
FORGETFUL JOE: Biden Can’t Remember Who He’s Fighting For
You know I’m a fan of Joel Kotkin. His work on America’s Growth Corridors is top-notch. His writing on demography is also enlightening. Now, Kotkin exposes the hypocrisy that underlies Joe Biden’s career as a politician. Despite advertising himself as “working-class” Joe, Biden is constantly looking out for his corporate backers. Kotkin writes: Joe Biden may present himself as a ‘working-class hero’, a claim reiterated recently in the leftist American Prospect, but increasingly America’s workers are showing signs not of common cause but disquiet. Hollywood workers just announced … [Read more...]
The 5G Revolution Begins
Meghan Bobrowsky of The Wall Street Journal writes, 5G technology is beginning to expand beyond smartphones. She writes (abridged): The deployment of superfast 5G networks is supposed to usher in a new era for so much more than the smartphone—everything from enhanced virtual-reality videogames to remote heart surgery. That vision has been slow to come into focus, but a first wave of 5G-enabled gadgets is emerging. Among the first uses of 5G to hit the consumer market is the delivery of home broadband internet service for the ultimate cord-cutters: those looking to not just shed their … [Read more...]