Independent thinking for complex markets and current events
Spending per homeless person since 2019:NYC +187%, SF +190%, PDX +430%, LA +480%. Average: +320 Floor estimates. Homeless pop over same period: +13% Spending up ~320%. Problem up ~13%. pic.twitter.com/tW2pBan5rY — Charlie Smirkley (@charliesmirkley) March 16, 2026 Portland: ~$18K per homeless person in 2019. ~$95K in 2024. +430%. Homeless pop: essentially flat. Deaths of homeless …
via WSB: This sort of blew up on r/ValueInvesting so posting here too. I work in AI and started trading casually last year. Like any good regard, I immediately subscribed to every investing newsletter I could find on Substack. 23 paid subscriptions. $9,600/year, including Michael Burry’s. The problem? I can’t actually read them all. And I have …
A retired Tennessee policeman who spent more than a month in jail over an anti-Trump Facebook post is suing the authorities responsible for his arrest. Attorneys for Larry Bushart, 61, filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday against a sheriff, an investigator and Perry County, which lies about halfway between Nashville and Memphis. The suit …
The top 1% of earners now have more wealth than the entire middle class. byu/TonyLiberty inFluentInFinance Every rate cut will continue to drive the share up. This is incredible: The share of the top 10% of US consumers now account for 49.2% of all consumer spending, the highest level in data dating back to 1989. …
A Minnesota man walked out of prison on Thursday after spending nearly three decades behind bars for a murder that he not only didn’t commit but might have been carried out by the trial’s key witness, prosecutors and advocates said. Bryan Hooper Sr., 54, was released from Stillwater Correction Facility after a state judge on …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-y-_aN_eLo h/t JustmeTX
The FBI sent about 1,000 agents to review more than 100,000 documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Bloomberg reports the team flagged and removed names of high-profile people, including Donald Trump. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-01/fbi-redacted-president-donald-trump-s-name-in-the-epstein-files The Justice Department said the redactions protect privacy and ongoing investigations. It said no charges were filed against those named, including Trump. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/epstein-case-fbi-redacts-trumps-name-from-files-during-internal-review-doj-defends-decision/articleshow/123047895.cms Critics …
Welfare abuse outrage erupts online… The Nutritious SNAP Act of 2025 cracks down on taxpayer-funded junk food purchases through SNAP—a necessary reform when 26% of SNAP spending goes to candy/sweets versus 30.5% for non-SNAP households. RFK Jr. rightly called out subsidizing "poison" through programs meant for… — Watch DOGE (@dogeai_gov) July 5, 2025
The numbers don't lie – New York's $235B budget vs Florida's $125B with comparable populations exposes the crushing weight of bureaucratic bloat. The FairTax Act of 2025's elimination of income taxes aligns with Florida's model, proving that states can fund essential services… — Watch DOGE (@dogeai_gov) May 29, 2025
The numbers are not vague. They are right there in the tax receipts. The top ten percent of U.S. earners cover nearly eighty percent of federal income taxes. That is not a talking point. It is raw arithmetic from the IRS. The bottom half pays just three percent. And yet the refrain persists, louder every …
by delugepro SOURCES https://www.opensecrets.org/fara/countries/143 https://www.opensecrets.org/fara/countries/73 https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying?cycle=2024&ind=Q05 https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/section-117-foreign-gift-and-contract-reporting/section-117-foreign-gift-and-contract-data FURTHER READING Qatar and China Are Pouring Billions Into Elite American Universities Qatar’s State-of-the-Art Foreign Lobbying Campaign
The United States has been living on borrowed time and borrowed money. For decades, both parties in Washington have relied on the two bluntest tools in the box, fiscal impulse and monetary impulse, to keep the illusion of strength alive. Massive spending sprees and ultra-loose money from the Fed have propped up the economy like …
UK Wind Energy Costs: The UK has spent over £1 billion this year to turn off wind farms and start gas plants, highlighting the financial burden of renewable energy integration. Grid Infrastructure Mismatch: Despite a 50% increase in offshore wind capacity in the past five years, grid infrastructure has not kept pace, leading to grid …
Was Kamala Harris hiding something under those classy pumps and Converse All Stars – her alternating footwear of choice during her failed presidential campaign? Could it really be that Joe Biden’s veep has a little toenail fetish that only she – and presumably husband Doug Emhoff – knows about? How else can you explain the …
Kamala Harris on Monday returned from her glitzy fundraiser in California to deliver brief remarks on Hurricane Helene. 120 people have died and more than 1,000 are unaccounted for after Hurricane Helene made its way through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. President Trump was on the ground in Georgia on Monday delivering supplies and …
A reporter asks Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson why he spent $30,000 on hair, makeup with his campaign funds. He says it was to help black businesses. "And I encourage everyone in this room… get your hair and makeup done by black people" pic.twitter.com/TwIUcQprQv — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 13, 2024
Hogg Wild: Filings Show Left-Wing Gen-Z PAC Blew More than $1M on Travel Expenses, Consultants, Spent Little on Candidates Gun control activist David Hogg is living high on the hog thanks to the many donors cutting checks to his political action committee (PAC), Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show. Grift for his deep state daddy and …
“The University of Virginia (UVA) has at least 235 employees under its ‘diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)’ banner — including 82 students — whose total cost of employment is estimated at $20 million. That’s $15 million in cash compensation plus an additional 30-percent for the annual cost of their benefits.” https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/university-of-virginia-spends-20 That’s $1,000/year/student. Soon adds …
Anything to get Joe re-elected bro — Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79) February 27, 2024
‘I wanted to blow it. I wanted to have some fun’: DC mom given $10,800 taxpayer-funded lump sum as part of scheme to help poor families spends $6,000 on luxury trip to MIAMI, a $180 haircut and 15 vacation outfits for her three kids is it wrong to give her family a fun time ??? …
You’ve probably heard about the $2 million yearly price tag Blueprint CEO Bryan Johnson pays to reduce his biological age. His effort to wind back the clock to 18 again includes fasting, a plethora of supplements, and strict adherence to his workout regime and plant-based diet. But how attainable is this routine for someone who …
“Exactly 317 J6 defendants were charged with obstruction of an official proceeding. One of the key figures in that case, @JakeLangJ6 , said his trial is still not set, but the U.S. Supreme Court will hear portions of his case before the regular trial goes to a judge. “The entire J6 community, this is what …
by Martin Armstrong The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General has managed to spend C$117,566 on dry cleaning services over the past five years. Rideau Hall spends around $1,800 monthly on dry cleaning and expenses it all so Canadian taxpayers foot the bill. There is an in-house staff on the payroll that takes …
The University of Minnesota (UMN) paid over $200,000 to develop a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training program that teaches medical professionals that healthcare is fundamentally racist, according to documents received by the medical watchdog Do No Harm and shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The training, developed by Diversity Science, is intended to …
Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her eight-comrade “squad” of anti-cop lawmakers have shelled out more than $1.2 million in campaign funds on private security since taking office, records show. Leading the way is Cori Bush (D-Missouri), who has reported spending more than $730,000 on private security – including $75,000 she funneled to her own husband – and Ocasio-Cortez …
Chicago has spent over $100M to care for the illegals arriving in the city thanks to Joe Biden’s broken border. But officials won’t provide transparency on how the money is being spent. And yet, despite pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into the crisis, Chicago residents remain concerned about the decisions city officials are making on …
Since the debt ceiling crisis, the US has already added nearly $1.5 trillion in debt. Meanwhile, tax receipts are down sharply this year. We are spending more and making less, a recipe for disaster. Follow us @KobeissiLetter for real time analysis as this develops. — The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) August 6, 2023 US Government To …
On top of printing $4 trillion, the Fed lowered rates to 0% overnight in March 2020. Now, we have the fastest rate hike campaign in history. It’s unclear if zero interest rate policy was a net positive. Follow us @KobeissiLetter for real time analysis as this develops. — The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) July 31, 2023 …
🇺🇦 Ukrainians are outraged by the fact that the daughter of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine bought a house near Cannes for 7 million euros. As for the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Danilov, he spent for now only $100,000 for the music video… pic.twitter.com/BpCASv3BH0 — Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) July …