Overview: Today, we got the January Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed an overall increase of 3.0% for the last year and 0.5% for the month (annualizes to 6.2%). That’s above last month’s 2.9% and above the prior month’s 2.7%. The annual number was 0.1% above expectations. The monthly was a large 0.2% above … Read more
President Trump and his team are energetically remaking both the Federal government and our trade relationships. The pace of change has been incredible, and depending on your political preferences, you’re either thrilled or appalled. As always, we’ll try to bring you a clear view on policy and leave the politics to others. As I write … Read more
This week’s news was dominated by two things. President Trump made financial news on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by banning them. DKI and liberty-minded readers cheered this! He also used tariffs to compel Colombian cooperation although the situation with Mexico and Canada is cloudy as of this writing. (That’s more troubling.) The Bank of … Read more
I’m getting a lot of questions and seeing a lot of discussion about why President Trump is about to enact 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada early next week. Government officials from both countries say that at this point, they aren’t completely sure what they’d need to do to be in compliance with the wishes … Read more
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve “paused” keeping the fed funds rate unchanged. President Trump has been critical of Chairman Powell in public. Chairman Powell has refused to answer questions about President Trump, but is intentionally initiating conflict. I think both men have good and bad points on this topic so let’s dive in to all four … Read more
As you all know by now, DeepSeek caused an implosion of the US-based technology and energy space on Monday. On Tuesday, the market decided it has over-reacted and many of the heavily-sold stocks regained ground. I want to address the speculation on both sides of the discussion and to update you on how this affects … Read more
The Federal Reserve will conclude its first meeting of 2025 later today, and Chairman Powell will hold his usual afternoon press conference. Some market observers are describing this as the least suspenseful meeting of the past three years, and I agree with them. The current consensus (almost 100%) opinion is that the Fed will leave … Read more
President Trump took office and immediately created excitement, new policies, and uncertainty that affects the dollar, corporate trade, the future of technology, gold, Bitcoin and other digital assets. We’ll address some of these topics in this issue and come back to others in next week’s 5 Things. Goldman Sachs enters a debate DKI has been … Read more
