Most Democrats agree that the 2001 election was stolen from Al Gore. In 2005, I wrote an award-winning article for Rolling Stone showing how the deceptive use of Diebold voting machines in six Ohio counties constituted massive and consequential election fraud, possibly stealing the victory from John Kerry. In 2016, Hillary Clinton complained that election fraud had derailed her path to victory. And in 2016 and 2020, Bernie Sanders supporters felt that the election had been rigged against their candidate. Many of Donald Trump supporters rightly or wrongly believe that the 2020 election was also stolen.
Here is a picture of me with my uncle, whose wisdom affected me profoundly. Today, these words of his are especially relevant: “A nation that is afraid to let its people judge truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
Uh oh…2008 all over again.
Devaluations in tech companies led to capital calls, which SVB couldn’t cover. Hopefully they can make a deal happen over the weekend. https://t.co/hxaRS4cvwb
Just this week:
- Google fired 12,000
- Microsoft fired 10,000
- Amazon fired 18,000
Remember when the media and far left attacked @elonmusk for doing much less?
@KevinEstopinal Underpopulation is the problem. Without sustained population growth, the young are outnumbered by the old and our social nets become unsustainable. We need kids/young adults to generate economic growth, not elderly who take out of the system via healthcare and social security.
Right now, the strength of the labor market is actually a problem. The FED is paying close attention and will be forced to raise rates even more if it stays strong. I estimate we will begin to see weakness end of Q1 and pause at the start of Q2.
Unemployment remained near 50yr lows at 3.7% in October/November. Private-sector employment increasing by 235,000 jobs in December and annual pay rising 7.3%. Job gains in December were led by the leisure and hospitality, education and health services, and construction industries
Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined by 19,000 week ending Dec 31, indicating resilience in the job market. Continued claims totaled around 1.6M for the week ending Dec 17, down 18,444 from the previous week and significantly lower than the 1.9M in same week of 2021
Unemployment remained near 50yr lows at 3.7% in October/November. Private-sector employment increasing by 235,000 jobs in December and annual pay rising 7.3%. Job gains in December were led by the leisure and hospitality, education and health services, and construction industries
The FED has been reducing its balance sheet through portfolio runoff since June 2022, letting maturing securities roll off rather than reinvesting them. Despite this contraction, the balance sheet remains at a historically high level of $8.58 trillion.