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(Shopping) Bag Holders
The last macro update of the week from the world's largest economy beat on the headline, but came up well short where it counted under the hood, suggesting, perhaps, that the implacable American consumer pulled back at the beginning of Q4.
Honestly, I don't believe that latter bit. Americans spend. It's what they do. That, and eat themselves to death. I've seen exactly one real retrenchment in my lifetime: After Lehman. I suppose we can quibble about the definition of a "retrenchment," but outs
the world’s most exploitable brains.
The day Americans stop spending is the day the GOPers among you admit you might be bag-holders in a suicide cult. “The punch is good! Try some. It’s cherry.”
All cults die. The death is messy but usually it is after a recognition they have been lead astray. The pied piper can only get so many rats to jump off the cliff before the rats eat him. So what will it be this time that ends “The Donald” phenomenon? I cannot even speculate. Does this mean the end is nigh? Or is the second coming no mere aberration? I have not seen any study of what ends cults, but anecdotally some of them have ended as the former lieutenants become disillusioned en masse.
If all economists were laid end to end would they reach a conclusion?
What do you have when you have an economist covered up to his head in sand? Not enough sand.
Caveat- I am a trained economist. I was educated before economics became a “science”. What a crock. Fortunately I also was a trained commercial banker and risk credit administrator so I could earn a living.
Anyway, looking forward to the crash once folks realize that the clown they voted for is in fact a clown. The insane are now in charge of the asylum.
An economist and his friend are out for a walk. The friend spots something on the sidewalk and says, “Look, a hundred dollar bill!” The economist replies, “It’s counterfeit.” “How can you tell?” the friend asks. “If it were real, someone would have picked it up.”
Thanks for the chuckles H