Hello C3 Family!

My Weekly Rant

I watched a lot of videos and read a lot of articles on the war going on in Israel right now. This was one of the best and most informative videos I came across. It is a good video for anyone looking to learn more about the conflict that could potentially start WW3 in 14 minutes or less. 

Everything from the War in Ukraine to the War in Israel to the massive debt accumulation the US budget has experienced in 2023, and the charged culture wars going in the West can leave people feeling pretty hopeless. I wrote a couple weeks ago about how we should not despair, so I will not rehash all that here. What I would like to do is take a look at the world's response to all of these things. 

The world constantly reacts with shock and awe when tragedy strikes. We always seem to be caught off guard when corruption hits home and when some despicable evil rears its head. This reaction has always bewildered me since I became a Christian. Don't we live in the enemy's camp? Shouldn't evil be what we expect? I am not saying it is not sad or discouraging or infuriating, I am just saying it is not shocking.

I am no geopolitical expert, but the debate as to whether we should get involved with these international conflicts or not is something that I have somewhat strong opinions on. As an American I can understand the resistance one might feel to getting involved in these conflicts. I also understand that America has a "spotty" record when it comes to the true motivation for getting involved with these conflicts. But as an economist and a Christian it is a no brainer that we should get involved. albeit for different reasons. If we are truly as powerful as we think we are and we have some idea of what is going in the world in terms of terror and evil, then it is our moral responsibility to stop bloodshed.

Given that we are part of a globalized economy, it is also in our best interest to stop bloodshed and facilitate safe and efficient supply chains. I am actually not a fan of the globalized society, but it looks like the chance to jump off that ship has sailed and now we must make the best of our connectedness with the world. And allowing wars to go on is not in keeping with those best interests.

Top Stories of the Week

• The ten-year treasury yield topped 5% for the first time since 2007. Rising rates of return on US treasury bonds means that the stocks are in for a real fight. This high yield makes everything from borrowing very expensive. If bond yields continue to maintain high rates, then an interest rate hike may not be needed by the Fed because high bond yields have the same effect of cooling down the economy.

• By the end of the 2020's Amazon hopes to deliver 500 million packages a year by drone. Amazon and Walmart both want to get their brick-and-mortar locations more automated by using bots and AI systems. The incentive is massive, since some predict that Walmart automation goals could boost revenue by $130 billion by 2026.  Goldman Sachs thinks this push towards AI and automation could disrupt over 300 million jobs within the next decade or two.

• Big Tech is making a comeback. They never really went down, but they have missed historical averages since the end of the pandemic. But, now Microsoft, Google, and Meta are all seeing revenue growth for the first time in a few years.

• The expensive housing crisis the US is experiencing right now could spark action by the Justice Department. An antitrust case against the US housing market's broker-commission-sharing system may be underway. Buying agents (realtors) are not really incentivized to negotiate lower prices for their clients since a realtor's compensation is based on the percentage of the sale price. This seems to many like a conflict of interest.

• Nvidia is working with Arm to make a PC chip competitor. If accomplished this would puh Nvidia to the upper eschalots of powerhouse tech companies, and it would truly hurt Intel.

• Big Oil is still betting on itself as the two biggest oil companies in America Exxon and Chevron just spent a combined $113 billion on acquiring Hess (Chevron) and Pioneer (Exxon). The big players do not think we are all going green anytime soon apparently.

• The suppliers to Detroit's big three automakers (Stellantis, Ford, & GM) have lost over $2.8 billion since the auto workers strike began. Even though the big three have offered better pay, it is not what the strikers are looking for and there is currently no end in sight.

• Argentina is still experiencing rates of inflation above 140% and to make things worse they have a runoff presidential election that puts their economy in even more unknown territory. The world is watching what will happen to this country currently experiencing a 40% poverty rate.

• The US deficit for 2023 doubled from 2022. The 2023 fiscal deficit is right around $2 Trillion. The reason for this increase is, well piss poor management, but also the US government forked over $659 billion in interest payments in 2023 which is double what they paid out in 2022. And to make things worse there is still no speaker for the House.

• Bobi, a Portuguese dog certified by Guiness as the oldest dog ever, died this past weekend at the astonishing age of 31 years and 165 days!!! I know not financial news, but I just had to include it, I found it amazing!