Stockman’s Corner

We have said from the beginning that this entire Lockdown Nation catastrophe and Covid-Hysteria is ultimately the Donald’s fault. That’s because at the time of the original US breakout in early March he was too lazy, inattentive and intellectually befogged to challenge the advice he was getting from career Swamp Creatures like Dr. Fauci and […]

Exactly 10 years ago throughout much of Flyover America there occurred a voter uprising against Big Government, as especially embodied in the new fiscal monster called Obamacare. That became known as the Tea Party revolt. It brought the GOP back into the US House majority and gave birth the the Freedom Caucus—a rhetorically militant band

July retail sales as reported this AM were not only up again, but actually posted higher than the year ago figure, the pandemic to the contrary notwithstanding.

As we indicated in Part 2, the lockdown policies of the Virus Patrol cannot possibly be for the benefit of the School Kids Nation. Not when the latter consists of 60.885 million young people, of which 99.999926% have survived.

As we said in Part 1, the heart of the Lockdown Nation folly is the presumption that state imposed marshal law can stop the spread of the coronavirus, thereby freezing the contagion in its tracks.

Let us repeat. What is unfolding is not a normal recession or even depression. Nor is Washington’s response a case of extra special “stimulus” as usual.

Well, that was easy!

On Thursday, the government said there were nearly 31.3 million unemployed Americans drawing UI benefits. That’s almost 20% of the work force, and included 16.7 million under regular state UI programs, 14.1 million under the emergency pandemic programs and 0.5 million under certain veterans, Federal and other programs.

With the S&P 500 closing at 3349 today, which is just 1.0% below its all-time high on February 19, we are no longer dealing merely with a liquidity-fueled speculative excess, or even the ultimate case of Greenspan’s infamous “irrational exuberance” of December 1996.

As we said yesterday, the central bank enablers have fostered madness at both ends of the Acela Corridor, and it’s an especially virulent kind of madness because it is two-pronged: The Fed’s torrent of bond-buying and liquidity has unleashed Wall Street speculators and Washington’s free stuff dispensers alike–and like never before.