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
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
This week, Bitcoin dove and then came roaring back above the $100k mark. We think people who believe higher Treasury yields will crash Bitcoin are correct in the short-term, but are missing the big picture regarding the reason for higher yields. Confusing? Don’t worry: We explain. DKI also believes quantum computing could be a cryptography … Read more
This week, there was a lot of focus on potential financial stress. We’re seeing higher credit card delinquencies, higher commercial real estate delinquencies, and an increasing reticence of foreign central banks to hold more dollars. Despite Fed rate cuts, both housing prices and mortgage rates have continued to rise making homes even more unaffordable. Estimates … Read more
Happy New Year to everyone. We’re going to kick off 2025 by re-releasing an expanded and improved version of our 2021 white paper where we challenged Nassim Taleb’s assertion that Bitcoin was worth zero. The official release will be on Twitter/X in the middle of the week. We’re asking everyone to like and repost so … Read more
In a week of silly and contradictory headlines, the Federal Reserve takes the top spot. The world’s premiere central bank managed to lower the fed funds rate into increasing inflation while reducing future rate hike expectations. Every month, they appear more political. After a month of reporting on weak consumer sales in high-priced discretionary items, … Read more
Both the CPI and the PPI rose from the prior month (again) as DKI predicted. Yet, the Fed is about to cut rates for the third time this year. Just a reminder that we can make money even from bad policy, so make sure your portfolio is prepared for more inflation. The European Central Bank … Read more
The long-awaited moment came late last week when Bitcoin crossed $100k. Being a volatile asset, it’s already crossed that level multiple times in the few days since giving anyone who missed the first crossing ample opportunity to celebrate. Despite being wrong by 100x (10,000%!!!), Peter Schiff @PeterSchiff comes up with a novel excuse for why … Read more
Each time Nvidia $NVDA reports earnings, it’s the most important earnings announcement ever. Results were fantastic, but already incorporated into market expectations leading to little stock reaction. Walmart $WMT and Target $TGT indicate the consumer is shifting to lower-priced retail. It’s yet another indication that consumers prefer a drive for lower prices over a focus … Read more
A while back, we tried to transition to more stock-related “Things” for this piece. Then, we get a week like this one where all the news is macro and inflation. We’re nothing if not flexible so that’s what we have this week. Inflation indexes come in above expectations and above last month. DKI warned the … Read more
