"We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?"
- Edward Young
We've learned a lot in the past decade. Mostly we've learned that there is literally nothing this species won't believe - beyond the truth - in order to achieve competitive conformity. The basis of the consumption-oriented perpetual high school popularity contest. The Creator blessed-be-she has a great sense of humour when it comes to the hairless monkey. As the sheeple now double down on their Casino-bankrupter-in-chief.
The headlines at this juncture oscillate between the asinine and the ludicrous. Trump has now made the China trade deal contingent on the peaceful resolution of the Hong Kong protests. All but assuring a deal will never take place. What would be analogous to China making a trade deal contingent on the U.S. halting mass shootings by implementing gun control. It's executive buffoonery via semi-literate Twitter gibberish.
Meanwhile, the Madoff whistleblower now asserts that General Electric - one of America's most venerable blue chips - is a bigger fraud than Enron. I suggest he broaden his gaze to the epic stock buyback con job taking place across the entire S&P 500 funded by this era's corporate equivalent of subprime CDOs. The largest leveraged buyout in human history.
On the race to the bottom, a new all time low in the thirty year Treasury yield as bond shorts get annihilated by imagined reality aka. "Greatest 'Conomy ever":
"Specs have consistently been bearish on the 10-year note this year and have been consistently on the wrong side of this market as the 10-year note has surged due to safe haven demand and concerns over the economy."
From a casino perspective, the S&P is uneasily camped at the 200 day as of Thursday mid-day. The 200 day was rinsed twice last week, followed by a double rinse back to the 50 day. Now back at final support:
The rest of the world is not waiting to see how this movie ends
Nasdaq breadth is looking more and more like December:
December 2008:
A new low in the crash ratio as Skynet gives it all she's got Captain
It turns out that the secret to defeating deflation is not handing out more money to rich people.
But who knew?
This final lesson will require some "shared sacrifice"
In summary:
"What the wise man does at the beginning, the fool does at the end"
- Warren Buffett
