Quote of the Day
"There’s nothing wrong with owning some insurance on the fringe, if you need it. But not everyone needs portfolio insurance."
(Cullen Roche)
Markets
- This week is historically the worst for the U.S. stock market. (sherwood.news)
- Are small caps dead? Or merely resting? (awealthofcommonsense.com)
- Want to understand the U.S. stock market? Look at profit margins. (tker.co)
- Another busy week in the degenerate economy, including the unique value of Reddit ($RDDT) data. (howardlindzon.com)
Finance
- A slew of fintechs have already gone public in 2025. (netinterest.co)
- A look inside the holdings of the State Street Short Duration IG Public & Private Credit ETF ($PRSD). (wealthmanagement.com)
- The SEC has ceased trying to gain restitution for victims of fraud from those granted clemency. (nytimes.com)
Congress
- Prior Congresses have left the country open to a rogue President. (thebulwark.com)
- Congress has rubber stamped Trump's tariff regime. (talkingpointsmemo.com)
- In the long run, only Congress can put limits on the Presidency. (theargumentmag.com)
- The TikTok situation is a 'constitutional farce.' (politico.com)
Cities
- Why the economy of Seattle is struggling. (wsj.com)
- The City of Chicago has the country's worst big city credit rating. (city-journal.org)
- The ICE gravy train is propping up some cities. (msn.com)
Taxes
- The American tax system is becoming increasingly chaotic and capricious. (theatlantic.com)
- Why it's increasingly difficult to tax the rich. (ft.com)
Health
- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was gutted. Business isn't happy about it. (bloomberg.com)
- New Mexico is set to launch free child care and preschool for all resident families, regardless of income. (wapo.st)
- At least 100 HHS workers are being paid not to work. (theatlantic.com)
- Who will care for aging Baby Boomers? (crr.bc.edu)
Free speech
- Donald Trump, "When 97 percent of the stories are bad about a person, it’s no longer free speech." (politico.com)
- In the abstract, Americans overwhelmingly support free speech. (gelliottmorris.com)
- The Defense Department is telling journalists not to do journalism. (npr.org)
- The administration is pulling from the Victor Orban media playbook. (apnews.com)
Global
- The rest of the world is waking up to China's dominance of rare earth magnets. (nytimes.com)
- How Trump has degraded the country's relationship with India. (theatlantic.com)
- Putin's regime has run the Russian economy into the ground. (wsj.com)
- Did you know the Swiss National Bank holds a big slug of equities? (on.ft.com)
- Africa is so much bigger than you think. (flowingdata.com)
- Chile's birth rate has fallen below Japan's. (ft.com)
Economy
- Cardboard box demand is falling. (wsj.com)
- Fearful immigrants are sending money home at a faster pace. (marginalrevolution.com)
- The U.S. economy is starved for talent. (marginalrevolution.com)
- The economic schedule (that's left) for the coming week. (calculatedriskblog.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Top clicks this week on Abnormal Returns. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Saturday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Don't miss a thing! Sign up for our daily e-mail newsletter. (abnormalreturns.com)
Mixed media
- Henry Mance, "Trump and Murdoch bet that they can stay shameless longer than their adversaries can stay fighting." (ft.com)
- The administration is claiming credit for infrastructure projects it opposed. (msn.com)
- Authoritarians don't win over the long run, but they can cause a lot of pain in the meantime. (hamiltonnolan.com)
- Authoritarians want you to think they are invincible. (danieldrezner.substack.com)
