Well. You may have read about the big price jump in Game Stop and a couple of other small companies that have recently come under the gave of a group of retail investors over at the Social Media Site: Redditt.

If one were to believe the press, you are lead to believe that this group of Rabble “Rousers” is disrupting the staid and ethical practices of Wall Street. And that the new Administration ought to look into these nefarious goings on.

Absolutely nothing could be farther from reality. It the truth be known, it is Wall Street, and more particularly the antics of a couple of large Hedge Funds, which ought to be investigated.

Fear is perhaps the most overwhelming of all human emotions. When you are truly fearful is difficult, if not impossible, to think of anything else.

Fear for you life, and that will be the consuming motivation for everything you do.

And I see fear everyday, in people who are deathly afraid of being infected with the Covid-19 Virus.

Yesterday Janet Yellen was confirmed by the United States Senate as the 78th Secretary of the Treasury. Yellen thereby, has achieved several “firsts” in her new position.

She is the first person to hold both the position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary.

She is the first women to be Treasury Secretary, just as she was the first women to be Chair of the Federal Reserve.

And at 74, she is the oldest Treasury Secretary. Appropriately appointed by the oldest US President.

Wall Street is convinced, that from here on things will get much better on the pandemic front. That we will see a fairly dramatic re-opening of the economy, which should start right about now. And that by the third quarter of this year, in just a little over 60 days, that things should be humming along just as if nothing had happened.

Deflation, its a word that will send a shiver up any Economist's Spine.

Last night, Japan revealed that prices, at the consumer level, had fallen 1.2% in the month of December. Let's look at the implications.

Japan is one of the most advanced Economies in the world. A technological and industrial powerhouse. Overall it has the third-largest national economic output, behind only the United States and China.

It was something that we, as a nation, have been doing every 4 years, for over two centuries now: inaugurate a new President. We've done it in war and peace, boom times and depressions. But never have we seen something like we saw yesterday.

Gone were the celebrating throngs. Gone were the poets and minstrels. And gone for many were the hopes and aspirations. And in it's place was a sea of National Guardsmen,and police and guards of all types. All outfitted in their field uniforms, and fully armed. Ready, it appeared for any eventuality. No matter how dire.

It was purely Orwellian. A scene from a Steven King movie.

The Big Four American Banks: Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase, are the beating heart of this country's financial system.

They are the primary instruments through which the Federal Reserve, and to an extent the US Treasury implements their monetary policy. And over the course of the last few financial crisis, they have become increasingly reliant on the political structure in this country to “Bail” them out if the bank should get into financial trouble themselves. We saw this most recently in the case of Citigroup which was bailed out during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 and 09.

While the rest of the world was preoccupied by the happenings in Washington this weekend, the Peoples Republic of China put up some economic numbers that were simply stunning, and staggering in their strategic implication.

America's Vision of Globalism goes back at least a hundred years to the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, and his League of Nations. An effort to bring peace to the world after the destruction of The Great War, World War I. Later this same philosophy, would lead to the formation of the United Nation's after the Second Great World War.

The action this week by Big Tech, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and the rest, have created the best environment for startups in a generation. Empowered their competition. And likely exposed their inherent weakness, their Achilles Heal if you will.