Photo: Getty Images
Economics, Jan 6th & Sources - Top 3 Takeaways – June 14th, 2022
- No relief in sight but opportunity abounds. Good news is hard to find these days. Yesterday was no exception. We awoke to the reality of $5 gas in South Florida – with Palm Beach County becoming the first in the state reaching that expensive and demoralizing threshold. Then the markets opened and the selling ensued as investors spent Monday reacting to Bidenflation, pushing the S&P 500 into bear market territory. The crypto crash continued and even gold and silver weren’t immune. What was higher yesterday? You guessed it. Oil – along with interest rates. Part of what’s challenging right now is that there’s no relief in sight. Not with oil and gas. Not with interest rates. Not with investment options. Not with the Biden’s administration's policies. The worst of all worlds is when we’re falling behind daily to inflation, but our savings and investments are simultaneously falling in value as well. This is the environment we’ve found ourselves in. There’s no near-term relief in sight which is frustrating. That said adversity always presents opportunity. And that opportunity might just be starting to show up in aspects of the economy. Take stocks for example. With the S&P 500’s descent into bear market territory, the fundamental value of the S&P 500 became the best it's been in seven years. Stock prices are currently falling faster than fundamentals. It doesn’t feel good for what you’re already holding, but it does potentially present opportunity for the future. I’m trying to find silver linings where I can. And speaking of the future...
- It’s time to move on. Seriously. To the January 6th Committee. It’s time to move on. To Donald Trump. It’s time to move on. The ongoing January 6th show feels like a non-entertaining episode of the Twilight Zone. It’s a protracted version of what we already know. Yesterday the committee’s big “bombshell” was Bill Barr’s testimony that there wasn’t any evidence of widespread voter fraud and that Donald Trump didn’t want to hear it. Well, duh. That’s quite literally what he said publicly in December of 2020, and it's quite literally why he resigned as Attorney General. There’s nothing new here. And it's not going to effectively distract the average American away from having to cope with the worst affordability challenges of their lifetimes. It’s also not going to lead to the leftist dream of perp walking Donald Trump in handcuffs. But it's just as important that Donald Trump moves on. No matter what he thinks did or didn’t happen in the 2020 election it doesn’t matter anymore. But it also wasn’t for not. While there never was evidence of voter fraud sufficient to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, there was enough room for concern for 19 states to pass election integrity laws, including Florida. While Democrats are busy trying to wag the dog with the January 6th Commission – the best way for Donald Trump to come out a winner – is to not give them the satisfaction of acknowledging the Commission or the 2020 election any longer. The best way for him to serve the country, as he still appears desirous of doing, is to move on. Interestingly, as President Biden’s approval ratings continue to hit new record lows by the day – now below 39% in an average of all national polls – Donald Trump’s favorability is the highest in the history of his polling (at 44%). We know the Biden administration isn’t working. Polls show the January 6th Commission isn’t working. Those same polls also show a window of opportunity for Donald Trump again – but he needs to focus on the future. It’s time for all of them to move on. And the country would be better off if they all did. Speaking of that future...
- Consider the source. A popular side story making the rounds yesterday was Donald Trump’s desire to take aim at Ron DeSantis in a preemptive 2024 primary strike. The story, advanced by Rolling Stone, suggests a degree of jealousy by Trump at all of the attention DeSantis has been receiving driving him to consider soon announcing a 2024 run in DeSantis’ backyard. Like almost literally – right near the Governor’s mansion. The article replete with “anonymous sources” saying Trump’s said DeSantis is a “stiff” and ungrateful”, sound Trumpian enough to be believable. But then there’s this. Rolling Stone is the source and there’s nothing the drive-by media loves more than a good Trump story, than a good Trump story that suggests he’s trying to take down DeSantis. There’s nothing they’d love more. So yeah, before buying the hype...consider the source.