13 years ago today (October 14, 2008) was a very important event that forever changed financial history, and, I believe, provided a big tailwind to Satoshi Nakamoto's new project called bitcoin
A thread to explain
2/n
October 14, 2008 was infamous meeting at the New York Fed where the largest banks accepted $250 billion in TARP bailout money.
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports collectively unload just under one million containers a month. For the last year, they have been running at/near a record pace.
In other words, they are running as fast as they can. The problem is they are at their limit.
3/13
The much-heralded solution is to run the ports 24/7. The problem is the Long Beach terminals are already 24/7 and the LA terminals are already running 18 hours a day. These added hours at LA are only going to increase unloadings by 2%-3%. This is not going to matter much.
The August "JOLTS" (Job Openings and Labor Turnover) Survey was out the morning.
As these charts show, a record 4.27 million, or 2.9% of the labor force, "quit" their jobs in August.
2/8
More than 20% of quits were in "accommodation and food services." This category is usually the largest, as the chart shows, this was a record for this group.
With some employers desperate for employees and willing to pay $21 to $22/hr for new hires, why work in fast food?
3/8
This type of report is often an indication of a strong labor mkt, employees are comfortable quitting thinking they can find another job.
But as the weak Aug and Sept payroll reports suggest, these newly minted "quits" are not running to new jobs.
The rest of the calendar year the focus will be on the the usual list stuff; Fed tapering, growth/employment, inflation, earnings, crypto regulation, etc.
But, the next biggest issue this calendar year is Washington/Budget/Infrastructure/Debt Ceiling.
A thread to explain
2/12
And unlike the list above, the most important factor driving this issue is not discussed much at all, Biden's epic approval rating collapse.
Another raft of polls came out late Friday (yesterday) that tanked the rolling average of his approval rating even further.
3/12
Washington's conventional wisdom (rarely correct), was Biden approval rating would rebound after COVID peaked and Afghanistan headlines faded.
Both did and Biden keeps going down and down and has not shown any ability to make his approval rating "bounce."