Oh, nothing … just your typical bullshit Monday session. Everyone is just waiting on CPI.
It says a lot about how uninspiring a given day truly was when the biggest news involves Larry Kudlow, who is apparently the front-runner for Gary Cohn’s old job. Here’s some advice that you didn’t ask for Larry: don’t go into the “stable genius” advisory business. It’s a road to ruin.
Speaking of stable geniuses, we got a small dose of Dennison on Monday morning, as Trump was back to talking about arming teachers:
If schools are mandated to be gun free zones, violence and danger are given an open invitation to enter. Almost all school shootings are in gun free zones. Cowards will only go where there is no deterrent!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018
And then there was this about the EU and farmers:
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross will be speaking with representatives of the European Union about eliminating the large Tariffs and Barriers they use against the U.S.A. Not fair to our farmers and manufacturers.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018
We’re somewhat surprised that Wilbur was talking to anyone today.
apparently it's #NationalNappingDay
so you know the homie Wilbur Ross won't be on CNBC.
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) March 12, 2018
Oh and, a local DJ is set to become the CEO of Goldman.
Stocks stumbled in the afternoon and ultimately, the S&P was flat. The Nasdaq managed a higher close. This of course comes on the heels of Friday’s barnburner.
The market had no trouble absorbing more supply from Treasury. Today’s auctions (which included 3Y and 10Y sales) went off without a hitch. Ultimately 10Y yields are now back below their payrolls spike headed into Tuesday’s closely-watched inflation data:
The dollar faded into the afternoon as yields fell:
European shares were up marginally on the day, with utilities higher and industrials lagging:
Six straight days of gains for the Euro Stoxx 50:
Here’s Jeff Bezos eating the literal ass out of an iguana (incidentally, he’s going to become a space traveler):
Overnight, in Japan, Japanese equities managed to hang on to most of their gains despite fresh concerns around Aso’s future after the MoF admitted to doctoring documents tied to that silly-ass elementary school scandal.
USDJPY dove as jitters about what Aso and/or Abe’s ouster might mean for the future of Abenomics, but things largely stabilized during the U.S. session with bids in place under 106.30.
Finally, in case you missed it over the weekend, this is perhaps one of the “greatest” (scare quotes there for a reason) moments in Trump stump history:
pure, 100% Dennison. accept no substitutes. pic.twitter.com/vBchnwkbSo
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) March 11, 2018
Oh great, another CNBC TV personality.
Oh well, it could be worse, like Mark Zeroburg as president and his banana wife as first (so-called) lady.
Even according to the Gartner data, Farcebook now has less than half as many users as Weibo globally, lol
I’m not really sure there’s ever going to be a “lol” to be had at Mark’s expense ever again. I know that chaps a lot of people’s ass, but the bottom line is that the guy made $75 billion by the time he was 32 years old, so he could fairly respond to any and all criticism as follows: suck my dick.
The lol was on the farcebook line. Give it enough time. As for Zuck, I’ll give him credit credit for previously pissing off and showing up that pompous imbecile Larry Summers. But his guaranteed annual income scheme for all in a technically bankrupt nation is nuts.
Actually, no, it’s the basic end game of AI and process automation.
Not really. Except in the dreams of those who seek money without work, and in the glossy AI fantasy-brochures from Tencent and Google.
A generation ago you were told a similar story that computers & robotics were gonna lead to a life of leisure & prosperity. How’d that work out? For most, longer hours and lower real wages… Fool me once “won’t be fooled again”, as per the great Orator.
Rational people ain’t gonna hang around to have most of their wealth forcefully redistributed to strangers via a half baked scheme like a guaranteed liveable income to the masses for doin’ nothing, cuz there’ll still be other places the wealthy can go where it’s not confiscated. It’s a matter of human nature.
Bunny,
“A generation ago you were told a similar story that computers & robotics were gonna lead to a life of leisure & prosperity. How’d that work out? For most, longer hours and lower real wages… ”
It worked out great for capital, not so good for the majority who only have their labor, however. Social engineering made the disparity even worse than it had to be when society was nudged into the view that labor organizing itself was actually bad for labor (anti-union rhetoric). You are right that AI may again increase the disparity in society between those that only have their labor and those that own the AI.
As a society, we are rich enough today (and will be richer in the future) for everyone to be living well…be housed, clothed, fed, and doctored. The problem is we have allowed the short-sighted greed of some holders of capital to take all they can as if they weren’t even part of the society that allowed them to get rich in the first place. We need to do something different. Universal basic income is being tried in various locales and working well. Most people don’t play video games all day. Many are able to afford to create businesses when they don’t need to work two minimum-wage jobs just to pay for the basics.
AI,
“As a society, we are rich enough today (and will be richer in the future) for everyone to be living well…be housed, clothed, fed, and doctored. ”
That’s a contentious premise. Many would disagree with it given the enormous public debt levels and unfunded government promises that cannot possibly be paid including massive off balance sheet sums like huge unfunded gov’t pensions, medicare, SocSec, etc. There’s insufficient “rich” to pay for it all even if you take 100% of what they have and what everyone else has, which is impossible because some people will leave.
Plus the guaranteed income for all scheme takes a goldfish bowl perspective that ignores the requirement in a globalized world to compete with other societies which might be lower cost, more competitive, people have lower expectations and the producers are less burdened. People and capital tend to gradually move to where they’re best treated (even I did recently and I’m not even that rich).
Let me try a constructive suggestion for a change instead of always being so cynically critical… Rather than Larry Kudlow, why not a Michael Pettis for chief economic advisor?
incidentally, Facebook kicked me out because I couldn’t prove I was really Walter White. 🙂
Well ’tis therealheisenberg, not therealwalterwhite. C’mon man, even realdonaldtrump gets it. lol