Hello C3 Family!

Weekly Rant - Trust is a Funny Thing.

Trust is a funny thing. Takes forever to earn it and a second to lose it. At least that use to be a phrase people used. Now it seems we are willing to trust anyone who may just possibly agree with our point of view. It is why so many latched on to Trump. Let's be honest, Trump is not a conservative he is probably not even a liberal in his thinking. He is just a giant ego looking to crush those who oppose him (Which is exactly what the political system needed and possibly still needs). The Left could probably convince Trump to run as a democrat tomorrow if they started singing his praises instead of calling him Hitler.

We as Christians, are constantly looking for a new celebrity to make a statement of Faith at an award show or an athlete to mention the name of Jesus at a post-game interview. And these things are good, but even us Christians, who know the evils of idol worship, are still prone to it. 

Even in the financial world, we know that no one actually cares about our well-being, yet we still believe the fear-mongering advertisements and throw our money at Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street as fast as we possibly can. 

Okay, real it in Marc!! What point am I actually trying to make here!?!?

The point is, that since I started running C3, I have been amazed how desperately people want someone to trust. However, the people trying to get your trust almost always have illicit intentions. This, I think, has led many to financial, spiritual, and ideological ruin. There is a reason that George Washington was one of the best men to ever live. It is because he was offered the chance to be King, and he said NO. The ones who can be trusted are the ones who are not campaigning for it and not interested in it. Rather they are interested in our well-being.

The reason I wanted to make this point this week, is because different stories that came across my feed regarding the border crisis, financial markets, and global conflicts seem to be shedding light on the fact that no one is trustworthy, and they all have secret agendas. Christ is who we should trust because he did not campaign for our trust, but instead died for our salvation.  

Top Stories

• The S&P 500 hit another record high this past week thanks to Big Tech earnings being far better than expected. Meta was a huge driver since they turned in the largest daily market-cap growth in market history. This all probably played into the Fed keeping interest rates steady. Cuts could be coming soon, or so many hope. The Monday Blues did hit the S&P 500 after its record breaking Friday.

• The job market was booming in January. Payroll employment rose by more than 350,000 jobs, but unemployment remained constant at 3.7%. Soft-landing optimism is increasing.
• Streaming has never been as profitable as the general public thinks. One thing that is not helping is as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon introduces ads to their products consumers are becoming more daring in their piracy activities. Traffic to piracy sites is up 13% since 2019. Piracy results in an estimated loss of $30B/year for streaming companies.

• McDonalds and Chipotle were expected to serve up some big earnings this week. Yet, the Golden Arches under delivered. They blame Middle East Turmoil for slower sales.

• The hearing on Child safety in DC was understandably harsh on Big Tech. Even though Big Tech flagged over 36 million cases of child sexual abuse content millions more get by every year. And then there is the mental health crisis for kids that social media presents, especially young girls who have had rates of suicide, anxiety and depression go up every year since the mainstream adoption of iPhones. Just remember the entities that have enabled the market to grow are also the entities that have led to these abuses of our children.

• Joe Rogan is coming back to YouTube. Spotify and Joe just agreed to another $250 million deal, but unlike the last one, the most popular podcaster will be allowed to post his full shows to other platforms. Who knew talking to your friends would be a multi-billion-dollar industry. There is something to be said about that philosophically, but I am not sure what...

• Biden is trying his best to defy the Supreme Court. Biden wants to forgive student loans to those experiencing Finanancial hardship which is a bit of a workaround to the SCOTUS ruling that nixed Bidens debt relief program. 
• New York/New Jersey will host the 2026 World Cup Final. It is being advertised as being played in New York but the stadium is Met Life stadium where the Giants play, which is located in New York. Needless to say, stay away from North Jersey in July of 2026.

• Border Bill Vote. The Senate is going to vote on a bill that was released Sunday. The bill is meant to reduce border crossings by changing the asylum process. The bill will also send $118 billion to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and "other humanitarian efforts." World tensions keep escalating. What is the over under on World War 3 kicking off this year? The Border bill is unlikely to pass since Republicans are skeptical of its ability to actually help the situation at the border. Democrats claim that Republicans just do not want to give Biden a boost in the polls this close to Election Day. Interesting fact, Chinese are the fastest growing border crossing demographic.

• Patriotic leanings in American and constantly evolving fashion trends in China have led to struggles for global fashion conglomerates like Estee Lauder and LVHM. The smaller local brands have capitalized grabbing bigger market shares. Estee Lauder Stock did just jump because they announced layoffs.

• Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have laid off a combined 33K workers so far this year (Reminder it is only February 7th). Other Tech firms like Spotify and Snap have also laid off big portions of their workforce despite decent earnings. For Tech companies all those savings from layoffs are being used to invest in AI.
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