from Jesse’s Café Américain:

“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.”

Andrew Jackson, On the Second Bank of the United States

“Jim, lad, there be consequences an’ then there be consequences.  Devil take ’em all, says I, and pass aft the rum.”

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

The Nasdaq managed to close at a new all time high today, with techs leading the way.

The broader measures such as the SP 500 and the Russell 2000 were weaker.

Gold and silver finished off slightly along with Treasuries as it was another risk on day, although the bravado seemed to be getting a bit thin at these levels.

VIX closed at a 24 year low yesterday. The spreads between Junk and the Ten Year have also been narrowing.

Traders seem very confident that the Trump administration is going to be very good for the corporatocracy.

Disney beat on earnings, but missed on revenues and other metrics.

In my estimation, which is by no means a general consensus, the Fed has fomented yet another speculative bubble through a combination of monetary policy errors, not so much in low rates, but in the application of the stimulus which was by no means accidental or unconscious, and more importantly, through a sustained regulatory failure of the most disreputable sort.

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