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Amazon made big headlines yesterday when it announced it was walking away from its plan to build a new headquarters in New York City.

The company was under intense pressure from the media and politicians who were angered that New York City’s local government was giving away too many tax incentives, purportedly worth around $1.5 billion.

(Including the state government, the total tax break was around $2.8 billion.)

People had some ridiculous idea that NYC[...]

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Last month, Chicago hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin spent $238 million on a condo in New York City.

It was the most expensive home ever sold in the US (but only one piece of Griffin’s massive, luxury real estate portfolio).

Good for Ken… he’s incredibly wealthy and can spend his money however he wants. But most of society hates this kind of behavior.

Even if a guy has earned $10 billion through hard work[...]

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She wants to nationalize healthcare. Raise your taxes to 70%. Legislate her way to ending poverty and saving the environment. And if she had her way, probably cleanse the English language of offensive words like gender pronouns.

Yes, this former bartender turned national sensation (due to the sole fact that 4,000 more people in the Bronx voted for her over the incumbent) knows no bad idea that’s off limits.

But here’s one good idea that[...]

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And just like that, it seems we’re headed back to quantitative easing…

After cutting interest rates to nearly zero following the 2008 crisis, the Federal Reserve starting raising rates near the end of 2015 (from 0.25% to 2.5% today).

Following the most recent hike in December 2018, Chairman Powell seemed hell bent on further tightening, saying “some further gradual increases” were in the cards.

Then the stock market promptly fell nearly 20%.

Investors were[...]

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Today we bring you a fresh episode of the Sovereign Man Podcast, where Simon Black unpacks why the people in charge have no idea what they’re talking about… and how you can protect yourself from their policies.

Freshman politicians want to nationalize entire industries. They want to increase the marginal tax rate to 70% or more. They want to ban corporations from buying back their own stocks unless those companies meet stringent requirements. They[...] Click here to continue reading

Things keep getting worse for pensions…

If you’ve read Notes recently, you know the pension fund crisis is one of our major themes. Simply put, these giant pools of capital responsible for paying out retirement benefits to workers are BROKE.

According to the World Economic Forum, pension funds around the world are short around $70 TRILLION. State, federal and local pensions in the US are $7 trillion short… and a recent report by Boston College[...]

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The market’s last hope is faltering…

By July of last year, just three stocks (Amazon, Netflix and Microsoft) were responsible for 71% of the S&P 500’s returns.

Through the third quarter, tech stocks were responsible for 95% of the S&P’s gains.

Amazon alone was responsible for about one-third of the index’s move.

And we long warned about the follies of blindly investing your capital into these incredibly popular and often overvalued[...] Click here to continue reading

Levi Strauss never actually wore a pair of his famous blue jeans.

Although his iconic name has been plastered on the back pockets of millions of people, Strauss himself was a businessman. And in the 1870s, jeans were strictly for laborers.

Those jeans, of course, made him famous… and very, very wealthy.

Sure, Levi’s product was good. But the real secret to his success was his willingness to chase opportunity.

At[...] Click here to continue reading

What I’m about to say may sound totally crazy at first. But keep reading, because I think you’ll agree that it’s dead-on accurate.

There’s a recession coming.

No, that’s not some Chicken Little “The Sky is Falling” statement. Far from it. It’s just a fact: economies and financial markets always go through boom and bust cycles.

There are good years and lean years, up years and down years.

(This is perhaps[...] Click here to continue reading

Earlier this morning, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker became the latest socialist to throw his hat in the ring for the US Presidency…

He announced his candidacy with a new website and two-minute video full of the usual collective hoopla.

Bear in mind that Booker raised taxes by 20% while serving as mayor of the City of Newark, and as Senator he has been vocally in favor of everything from nationalized healthcare to[...] Click here to continue reading