ThePenningtonLens

Seeking an inter-connective vantage point through observations in economics, culture, sports, history, art and conspiracies.

[Latest in space @latestinspace]

🚨 Launch of the Artemis II rocket seen from a passing commercial plane

(via @radddd44)

[Lyn Alden @LynAldenContact]

My public February newsletter is out now, and focuses on the Fed's shift toward balance sheet expansion, Japan's rising bond yields, and precious metals volatility.

Enjoy:
https://t.co/B87EYBUp8u

[Gregory L Little, Ed.D. @DrGregLittle2]

Pinson Mounds, Tennessee,

[Matt Stoller @matthewstoller]

Lina Khan is trending on Twitter and it's just people saying something along the lines of "Lina Khan would never let this Netflix deal happen" or "Save us Lina Khan"

[Gregory L Little, Ed.D. @DrGregLittle2]

I'm pretty sure there would be a lot of interest in daily streaming of excavations at Gobekli Tepe (like the one below in Peru). It would be a really smart move by archaeologists to do, and I'd bet that a few entrepreneurs would completely fund it if they could get the streaming rights. I think the government overseers would really like it once it was thought through. [Perhaps create a new path, new allies, and enhanced image.] It would ideally show shots of the same site everyday--it only needs to be a few minutes a day. I understand the scientific reasons why results need to be evaluated and analyzed before they are released to the public. But a critical issue has emerged with that approach at this site: it can give the appearance of secrecy. And even the "appearance" of secrecy in a scientific area should be enough for (some) archaeologists to look at this in a different way. Particularly now. To a lot of people who have an interest in ancient history, Gobekli and Karahan Tepe are currently the most intriguing sites in the world.

[Wolf Richter @wolfofwolfst]

Inventory of New Single-Family Homes Spikes to Highest since 2007; in the South, Shoots Past Housing Bust High. Sales and Prices Drop.
Homebuilders cut prices, bring on supply; profits plunge back to earth. Medicine this overpriced housing market needs
https://t.co/XPKq9czXgz

[Gregory L Little, Ed.D. @DrGregLittle2]

Florida's shoreline 18,000 years ago. The oldest archaeological sites are very likely along the submerged shorelines, all shorelines.

[Wolf Richter @wolfofwolfst]

California Inventory of Homes for Sale Suddenly Piles Up: +51% Year-over-Year, to Highest April in Years.
San Diego +70%, Los Angeles +50%, San Jose & Silicon Valley +67%; San Francisco metro +43% (highest April since at least 2016)
https://t.co/B8wB9X7RUH

[Wolf Richter @wolfofwolfst]

OMG the Dollar Is Collapsing, or Whatever.
Despite the “Dollar’s Collapse,” the USD remains in its 3-year range and a lot higher than it was before.
https://t.co/cu8xcBzIaF

[Anthony Slater @anthonyVslater]

Jimmy Butler told Draymond Green after his win-sealing block: “I can do that, too.”

Plus the nightly Buddy Hield and Butler back-and-forth

“Fake a*** triple-double”

“You don’t pass the ball enough to get a triple-double”

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

This was one of the of most insane monopolization schemes I've ever uncovered: Two secretive European companies rolled up every alternative supplier of egg-laying hens to American egg producers between 2010 and 2021—and have spent the past three years cashing in: raising hen prices on the back of high egg prices, throttling the supply of hens to egg producers to keep shortages going, and extracting billions in windfall profits along the way.

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Falcon 9 lands at LZ-4

[James Whistler @artist_whistler]

Little Draped Figure Leaning

[Athletics on NBCS @NBCSAthletics]

Denzel Clarke with an INCREDIBLE wall-climbing catch to take away a home run 😲

[CloverPress @clover_press]

The Marvel Art of David Mack

Check out some of these amazing interior pages from the book!

Do you have a favorite piece of Marvel art by @davidmackkabuki?

Available now at https://t.co/n3AZ68X4ym or wherever books are sold!

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

1. I’ve been investigating the egg industry for two years now. In this special series for BIG, I finally lay out what I found: A broken industry regimented into an egg shortage machine by a troika of monopolists who control the supply of hens to egg producers—and can discipline any who get out of line.

[Wolf Richter @wolfofwolfst]

Why the Fed Considers “Pausing or Slowing” QT “Until the Resolution of the Debt Ceiling Situation.”
The minutes mentioned it. New York Fed’s Perli added some background. The Fed will likely provide details at its March meeting
https://t.co/RCQI51RoPw

[Wolf Richter @wolfofwolfst]

New York Fed’s Measure of “Inflation Persistence” Nixes Friday’s Idea that YoY PCE Inflation Cooled, Using Same Data.
The game of inflation Whack-A-Mole: price pressures shifted from housing to non-housing services and core goods
https://t.co/qH42aIm5Yi

[Matt Stoller @matthewstoller]

I said before that Lina Khan was the nice version of populism, now the ugly version is here. And there are some lessons for both big business leaders and Democrats.

First, corporate America has fundamentally broken trust with the American public. For years, big business built its business model on lying, cheating, and stealing. Big pharma is one of the most hated industries, so I'll use them as an example. Important drugs to address things like blindness or cancer are still coming out, but they have a sticker price of more than $1 million a year. That's lunacy. And they know it.

Here's the thing, though. Almost every major blockbuster drug comes from government research. And big pharma haven't been good faith actors for decades. They played patent games costing Americans $125 apiece in 2019 alone. The Democrats put forward the Inflation Reduction Act, which was an extremely mild attempt to say the top most expensive and oldest drugs have to increase in price *slightly less* than they did before. Pharma went CRAZY! That will kill innovation! That will kill all drug discovery! You are all Communists!

And yes, the IRA was a mostly stupid bill, but it went through because big pharma has completely disengaged from all reasonable policymaking except GIVE US MORE MONEY FOR COMMERCIALIZING TAXPAYER FUNDED RESEARCH.

It's not just about big pharma. For a few decades, there have been sporadic attempts to roll back some of the worst behavior, constrain pharma prices, cap junk fees, regulate overdraft fees, increase wages, et al. But nope, we can't have that. Instead, anyone who tries to do anything but increase return on capital for Wall Street is an immoral DEI woke Communist.

Corporate America won that fight, and put the Republicans in charge. Big business, big pharma, big tech, they were all in absolute ecstasy when Trump won, because finally the adults were back. No more annoying academics and Communists. Let's leave aside that corporate profits were at a record under Biden, that they got to do almost anything they wanted, and they only had to tolerate Lina Khan stopping an occasional massive merger and trying to mildly constrain a few multi-trillion big tech firms from eating everything in sight. Nope, Trump was back, and Wall Street boys can say 'retard' and 'pussy' again. Yahoo!

Only, now the bad populists are here. Trump might mean what he says on tariffs or deportations, or he may not. But he's not going to provide 'certainty' for the business environment. Let's go back to big pharma, which is quietly panicking. This time, it's not a price hike issue. The right aren't going to stop price hikes, and may roll back the IRA. Gouge away, boys. Only, the bad populists are going to genuinely kill the innovation pipeline by cutting NIH.

The rationale of 'we can't innovate if you don't let us charge a million dollars a year for a pill that costs 75 cents to make' was always bullshit. But the cancer researchers who actually find those million dollar cures? They are being laid off. And that's real. So big pharma is in a lot of trouble for the simple reason that NIH cuts are going to kill their drug pipeline.

They will get no sympathy from the public, and shouldn't. They broke their side of the bargain.

That said, at some point, they are going to try and sidle up to Democrats in hopes of putting pressure on Trump. It's going to be tempting to jump into the arms of corporate America. But Democrats need to force them to pay a price. Let's go back to pharma. These medicines are genuinely important and life-saving, but they shouldn't cost $1 million a year. It's the same shit with junk fees, mergers, private equity, and all that garbage.

We need real reform of corporate America, a real negotiation over how these big companies operate, to force them to actually make money by doing good for society, instead of pillaging it. That means no more egregious CEO pay, no more boards of directors that do nothing as Boeing makes deadly products, no more monopolization as a strategy, more more lawless BigLaw partners, no more Citizens United, and better treatment of small business and workers.

That's what the good populists should seek. The rule of law. Honest business. That probably seems like way too much to ask. But then, big business has four years to enjoy the rule of the bad populists. They brought this on themselves.

[Zach Lowe @ZachLowe_NBA]

Further Butler/GSW trade thoughts here:

https://t.co/qReYHYWizJ