Independent thinking for complex markets and current events
Quoted cost of $600 in metal parts per hydrant. Which means the thieves might get as much as $60. The cost to repair will be $6,000. Or possibly $60,000 if there’s a lot of water damage as a result. It’s a lot easier to destroy value than to create it. Thieves destroy nearly 75 Detroit …
UPDATE: Pope Leo decries world ruled by 'tyrants' after Trump's social media attacks 🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/hJ6aRbSlzG pic.twitter.com/6aLfcHGPs8 — Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) April 16, 2026 “The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” the pontiff said …
The U.S. government is spending $88 billion a month in interest on national debt—equal to spending on defense and education combined The problem with an increasing debt burden is that it costs more to maintain it: This is precisely the issue with which the U.S. Treasury is wrangling at present. As total U.S. national debt …
https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/2026103508877893783 CBO projects deficits and debt to worsen sharply over the next decade The CBO said that the deficit for fiscal 2026 – President Donald Trump’s first full fiscal year in office – will be about 5.8 percent of GDP, about where it was in fiscal 2025, when the deficit was $1.775 trillion. But the …
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and newly sworn in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have just announced their plans to spend billions of dollars on a ‘free’ childcare program. What could possibly go wrong? They are doing this as the state of Minnesota is imploding under the weight of a massive fraud scandal which …
“4 distressed office buildings in Los Angeles, California. Brookfield and its lenders (and receivers and special servicers) are peddling four active offerings that total about 4.9M SF of Class A office space in the Financial District, roughly 18% of the total inventory. EY Plaza: Colliers is marketing the $275M, non-preforming note tied to the property …
For much of this year, business at Prima Pizza Kitchen in Somerville, N.J., was booming. On most Fridays, as many as 325 pizzas would fly out its doors, with customers frequently adding drinks and side orders. But in recent weeks, orders began to change, the owner, Jerry Carollo, said. “Before, a customer would get two …
JUST IN: Michael Burry says that Meta $META and Oracle $ORCL are hiding billions in losses and overstating earnings by over 20%. byu/TonyLiberty inFluentInFinance J.P. Morgan calls out AI spend, says $650 billion in annual revenue required to deliver mere 10% return on AI buildout — equivalent to $35 payment from every iPhone user, or …
New York millionaires: threatening to flee the city since 2009 pic.twitter.com/nuOLxApYGW — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 7, 2025 NY State saw peaks of over 3,000 millionaires leaving annually around 2020, with cumulative net outflows shrinking its U.S. millionaire share from 12.7% in 2010 to 8.7% in 2022. High earners contribute about 40% of income …
Money market funds just hit an all-time high of $7.4 TRILLION 99% chance the Fed cuts rates in 6 days. Rate cuts will push treasury holders to seek more risk, driving liquidity into Bitcoin and other assets Liquidity tsunami incoming ‼️ Money market funds just hit an all-time high of $7.4 TRILLION 99% chance the …
Very well said. 75% of Americans believe they have no chance to succeed long term so they just YOLO their lives and gamble on Draft Kings and travel. Why save if you believe you have no hope in the future? Very few Gen Z’ers will have kids. Very sad but can’t blame em. It’s so …
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index has moved down to 55, a reading below 99% of historical data points going back to 1952. But at the same time, US Retail Sales grew 4.8% over the last year, outpacing inflation by 1.8%. We’ve never seen a disconnect this wide between what the US consumer is …
by Martin Armstrong NATO is not at war, and yet, the alliance has spent more on funding Ukraine than on any other conflict. The Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2025) determined that the alliance is expected to spend $1.59 trillion USD in 2025, up from $1.5 trillion in 2024. The United States continues to uphold the alliance …
I don’t know who needs to hear this but… There is a NON-zero chance that tomorrow’s AI boom ends tomorrow. I’m not betting that way, but it is important to realize that there is a non-zero chance it all ends tomorrow with $NVDA earnings. Some of ya’ll way too concentrated.… — I Sell Options Guy …
In France, hiring is priced like a luxury good. To put €39,000 in a worker’s pocket, an employer may need to spend close to €95,000. That’s not a typo—it’s the weight of payroll charges that double the real cost of a job. iCalculator shows that a gross salary of €95,000 shrinks to about €48,000 net …
A student loan tsunami is coming, with 9.7 million borrowers in default for more than a quarter trillion in bad loans. Biden's student loan pause was a Ponzi — boosting spending while the debt monster grew in the dark. Now it’s hungry. pic.twitter.com/4Ojhiv8dnL — Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) August 14, 2025 Same store (comps) …
$61.9 billion. That’s how much companies are spending on generative AI in 2025. IDC says investment jumped 94% this year. https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/genai-paradox-companies-pouring-billions-into-ai-it-has-yet-to-pay-off-125081302003_1.html The payoff? Still nowhere to be seen. McKinsey finds nearly 80% of firms use generative AI—but the same number say it hasn’t boosted the bottom line. https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2025/08/14/companies-are-pouring-billions-into-ai-it-has-yet-to-pay-off Pilot projects are collapsing fast. S&P Global …
This is, without exaggerating, one of the most extraordinary things a US Treasury Secretary ever said. It should be mandatory viewing for all citizens of US “allies”, Europeans first and foremost. What Bessent is saying is that the US will now treat US allies’ wealth as an American “sovereign wealth fund” (his words), “directing” them, …
by Michael Our society is more addicted to the Internet than ever. So how has that affected us? Are we happier than we once were, or are we less happy? Are we more mentally healthy than we once were, or are we less mentally healthy? I don’t have to give you the answers to those …
Diners are still coming in. But they are tipping less. Not out of rudeness. Out of strain. Square data shows the average tip at sit-down restaurants dropped to 14.99% in Q2 2025. That is down from 15.4% in 2024. Toast reported a drop from 19.6% to 19.3%. That is the lowest in six years across …
Coinbase users have now borrowed $400M USDC at ~5% rates in just a few months since launching Feedback has been strong, with one recent story of someone who would’ve otherwise sold their BTC to fund a home improvement project but was able to borrow against it instead and stay… pic.twitter.com/0iDLFQVg8o — Max Branzburg (@maxbranzburg) June …
Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via oftwominds, What’s required is not just a revised spreadsheet but an entirely new culture and value system. I’ve been referencing The Ratchet Effect since 2010 as it explains why shrinking bloat is so much harder than expanding bloat. A common example is household income and spending. When the couple were just starting out, …
This is a pretty crazy statistic. 1/3 of people who made a commitment to spend nearly half a million dollars on something regret what they bought pic.twitter.com/hzUV404rJ5 — Amy Nixon (@texasrunnerDFW) May 7, 2025 Unsold housing inventory in USA has continued to rise sharply, to highest since Global Financial Crisis byu/RobertBartus inEconomyCharts
Checks out https://t.co/cDCK2IBkaL — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2025
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called on members of the alliance to either increase their defense spending targets or start taking “Russian language courses.” Rutte has previously said Trump was right to push NATO to increase spending, saying at a November summit in Budapest that “you will not get there with the 2 percent.” Rutte addressed …
NASA exploring two lower-cost options to go forward with Mars Sample Return mission NASA announced Tuesday that it’s exploring two landing options to move forward with its mission to retrieve environmental samples from Mars at a lower cost. The goal of the Mars Sample Return Program, which is being planned jointly with the European Space …
“_Microsoft expects to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 on the construction of data centers that can handle artificial intelligence workloads, the company said in a Friday blog post. Over half of Microsoft’s $80 billion in spending will take place in the U.S., Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith wrote._” https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/03/microsoft-expects-to-spend-80-billion-on-ai-data-centers-in-fy-2025.html
the way I see drug ads on tv is it is a campaign against the drug itself.. 20 side effects that are worse than the problem you take the drug for.. no thanks — smm (@Mansdefender) December 25, 2024
MicroStrategy has acquired 55,500 BTC for ~$5.4 billion at ~$97,862 per #bitcoin and has achieved BTC Yield of 35.2% QTD and 59.3% YTD. It's now been four weeks since $MSTR announced its three-year plan to spend $42 billion buying #Bitcoin. MSTR has already spent $10 billion. At this rate, the three-year plan will be completed …
According to new research from Clever Real Estate, a St. Louis-based real estate company, homebuyers spend an average of $31,975 in homebuying expenses, such as closing costs, repairs, and moving, in addition to their down payment. The costs are broken down into the following: Repairs and renovations: $13,498 Furniture, fixtures, and appliances: $6,446 Closing costs: $4,754 …