Bernie Sanders has introduced the BEZOS bill meant to stop “bad employers” like Amazon. Amazon has been accused of many things – but is it fair to call it a bad employer? It’s possible that Amazon is a better-than-average employer, despite problems in the broader economy which are beyond its ken to repair. Indeed, the burden of public policy falls more on Sanders and his colleagues.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is not politics but economics that is pressuring emerging market currencies. The world’s bond vigilantes are concerned about EM dollar-denominated debt, which U.S. rate hikes have made more costly to service. Ten years ago this month, the smallest U.S. investment bank, Lehman Brothers, detonated a global financial crisis when it could not finance its debt. We make no specific predictions, but note that a similar dynamic could play out here: A vulnerable emerging market unable to finance its debt could
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine Chicago going bankrupt. That frightful scenario seems all the more plausible now that the city is considering a harebrained scheme to deal with the city’s pension crisis by borrowing $10 billion on the bond market. That would roughly be akin to your owing $10,000 to somebody, whom you don’t want to pay with funds in your investment account, so you instead borrow on your credit card. The risk that you end up in even worse shape than where you started is not low.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If Rip Van Winkle fell asleep in 1900 and awoke in the year 2000, he’d probably see disappointing portfolio results. Even a simple (and correct) decision to put his money on the world’s superpower would lead to underperformance. So much of investing is out of our control. What we can control is how much we save and how widely we diversify.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The crypto market has fallen $600 billion so far this year, with the market now worth about $200 billion. That sets up the usual investor debate as to whether to board the crypto train to the promised brave new world or to steer clear of the wild ride. Cryptos’ promoters promise the moon and the stars, but bitcoin and its crypto cousins reside on planet earth and will only make it to the top through the same hard slog that the business world has always required.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iranian naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz are signaling Tehran’s threat of a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-third of the world’s oil passes. Iran has made this threat before, and has not carried it out, but today Tehran's back may be against the wall because its citizens have lost their fear of their rulers and the U.S. is prosecuting an economic war against the regime. Though a prolonged closure could deal a harsh and enduring setback to the global economy, the Iranians have
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The SEC is now investigating the veracity of Elon Musk’s claim to have secured funding to take Tesla private. I’m skeptical of Musk’s tweet because the company has not produced any proof of funding over the past 48 hours and because Tesla’s board has given the impression that the idea is far from fully developed. But the fundamental reasons for my skepticism is that Musk has abused Twitter before.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Wall Street Journal headline warns that a movement is afoot among Canadians to boycott U.S. products. On the basis of news media commentary about the trade wars, you might assume that commercial links between the U.S. and Canada are on track to shrink. To the contrary, I believe that the data one quarter and one year from now will show an expansion of trade.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russians have taken to the streets this week shouting slogans such as “Putin is a thief,” “away with the tsar,” and “stop stealing our future.” Protesters are reacting to a bill in Russia’s legislature that would raise the retirement age to 65 for men and 63 for women. Given that citizens of democracies do not fear their governments – rather it is Western leaders who fear their publics – it is easier to grasp that if Putin can’t get retirement reform done, neither can Western governments
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The latest weekly blogpost from mutual fund manager John Hussman warns of the quote ‘brutal consequences’ of staying invested in equities. There is a compelling quality to his analyses – a sort of as-day-follows-night kind of logic to them. But the former professor professes too much, and investors must firmly understand that his data do not allow us to deduce the timing of market crashes and recessions.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices