In MACROECONOMICS:

THE FED in the body of JEROME POWELL says the Financial System is safer than before the great recession because of countermeasures instituted during the crisis. Are they to be believed?

In BUSINESSES:

KRAFT HEINZ drives off a cliff in 1st gear, writing down the value of Kraft & Oscar Mayer by $15B, disclosing an SEC investigation into accounting fraud & slashed its dividend. It became clear that the 20th century hot dog slathering titan was distorting EBIDTA growth by savaging costs in unsustainable fashion.

As a matter of investor relations, does this actually show wisdom on the part of management to expose the dumpster fire all at once?

Separately, are we finally prepared to throw out the orthodoxy that consolidation is the answer to secular declines in antiquated companies?

The tech unicorn IPO filing bonanza reaches a fever pitch as PINTEREST and LYFT join the fray, joining SLACK and UBER as the angels of new equity in 2019.

What is a PINTEREST and why is it valued at $12B when LYFT is a mere $15B?

And broadly speaking, is ride-sharing a long investment or the long con?

THIS WEEK'S DEGENERATE CHAMPION: ROBERT KRAFT

In a normal week, this would be an effortless pick. But this was no normal week. It was revealed that KEVIN PLANK, the CEO of Under Armour, was harnessing company assets to carry on an open affair with Stephanie Ruhle, an MSNBC anchor, under the banner of "corporate advisory."

Not to be outdone, however, ROBERT KRAFT was charged with solicitation of prostitution after being video taped at a strip mall massage parlor in Palm Beach County.

In MACROECONOMICS:

CHINA offers our exalted leader Trump $200B over six years to buy semiconductors as a sweetener for trade detente, bringing joy to the markets. Why does the stock market react so strongly to whispers about trade agreements between nations?

THE NATIONAL DEBT ballooned to $22T, reaching uncharted territory. Robert spits in the face of conventional wisdom and loses his shit, telling us why we should all be ready for the apocalypse.

In BUSINESSES:

THIS WEEK'S DEGENERATE CHAMPION: GENE LEVOFFIn a decisive degenerate move, Gene Levoff, former in house lawyer at Apple, is being charged with insider trading after dumping over $10 million in stock before Apple's unimpressive earnings call in 3rd quarter 2015.

AMAZON jettisons its headquarters in Queens after a theatrical standoff with local politicians. Liberal politicians crow. Unions (which apparently still exist) celebrate. But are these local grandees missing the point? Of course they are!Let's spend some time on

SPOTIFY, a glorious purveyor of this podcast, which two weeks ago acquired podcast publisher Anchor and podcast producer Gimlet. What are the strategic implications of diversifying into spoken word audio? Besides the fact that we'll be RICH!

The Great BEZOS, intergalactic imperator of the AMAZON EMPIRE, accuses the National Enquirer of blackmail in a fascinating saga of tabloid espionage. After Bezos invoked investigators of his own to find out how the Enquirer illegally obtained his text messages, the tabloid counter-measured by threatening to release pictures of an embarrassing nature. What does it tell us about the Silicon Valley cult of celebrity?

Next we explore the NETFLIX culture of savagery, fear & radical candor. Everything from targeted assassinations, culling, tribal lingo and salary awareness. What does this tell us about culture and its impact on business outcomes? Do we want to live in a world where this is how success is born?  

The year of the Boar bodes poorly for the great Casinos of MACAU as the economic slowdown in greater China bites hard on high rollers. As margins compress at Wynn, Las Vegas Sands and MGM we mourn the winter of the world's premier degenerates. 

In toys, MATTEL & HASBRO feel the winds of winter as the collapse of Toys 'R US take its toll, liquidating inventory across the land.

In MACROECONOMICS:

The FED inaugurates the great pause, bringing quietude to the markets. What does this mean? Who actually understands macroeconomics? What are the consequences of the Fed's reticence to ratchet up interest rates?

The jobs report clocks strong to quite strong growth of 304k. That's nice.

In BUSINESSES:

GE flips the narrative, if the not its actual business, after successive years of disaster. Outsider CEO Larry Culp appears to have lowered expectations sufficiently to put GE back on the path to success. What does this tell us about the importance of Bromance between CEOs and Wall Street?

AMAZON, the #1 ranked FA'ANG stock in our current power rankings, keeps its record profit streak alive for 3 straight quarters on the back of AWS cloud computing and advertising. THE CLOUD! But that wasn't enough to assuage concerns about tapering revenue growth, and uncertainty around the ongoing logistical costs of deliveries and physical retail. Side bar, doe the WHOLE FOODS acquisition actually make sense?

Speaking of the CLOUD, MICROSOFT was slightly down on a revenue miss attributed to computer chip shortage mumbo jumbo. But it's valuation is strictly a byproduct of AZURE.

If you're not investing in the CLOUD, what are you doing?

Finally, FACEBOOK, the #4 ranked FA'ANG stock in our current power rankings, dunked on profits after arguably the worst year in business history, proving to us all that America is addicted to its products. More importantly proving that publishers have been completely commoditized in its wake. 

But along with GOOGLE it is now embroiled in another scandal wherein it ransomed user privacy for money, triggering a theatrical rebuff from APPLE.

How do we feel about Apple's holier-than-thou posturing about privacy, building on it's prominent refusal to comply with FBI in it's attempt to pry into devices? 

In our inaugural episode, Greg and Roberta discuss the businesses and the markets:

IBM beat on earnings against unimpressive expectations, negotiating a multi-year re-set around the "Cloud." But does anyone really understand the Cloud or Cloud computing? 

TSLA returns to the struggle bus, cutting production. Is TSLA the next DeLorean?

NETFLIX started the FAANG earnings cycle last Thursday, clocking a mixed result as the street would say, clobbering subs on the back of international expansion and missing on revenue. But the consensus is still strong to quite strong on BUY. 

A coalition of western nations are putting the full court press to HUAWEI, citing concerns over state-sponsored spy-craft, prompting a riposte from Huawei that they won't bankroll Silicon Valley and other Western Nations anymore.

Are we destined for a 21st century version of the Cold War centered on connectivity and technology rather than conventional weapons systems? And what are the implications for our lives?