Post 346: The Economy Speaks but the Government Refuses To Listen: Cue Financial Engineering

• Lululemon continues to struggle in the US.
• While Costco continues to relentlessly drive sales higher.
• People continue to flock to RH for luxury furniture.
  • But investors refuse to do likewise with the share price.
• The overall rejection rate for new credit applications is the highest in at least ten years.
  • Almost half of mortgage refinance applications were rejected.
• Auto parts sales in the US continue to do well.
  • And AutoZone has done extremely well in past recessions.
• Swiss watch sales continue to struggle but used watch prices seem to be bottoming at a much higher level than pre-COVID.
  • And we revisit Swatch.
• In Financial Ructions: 
  • We take a look at stable coins and how the US government has changed the rules in an attempt to help finance their profligacy.
  • And an open letter to the Federal Reserve lambastes the Bernanke doctrine. 
    • Asset prices over the economy. 
• In our book review of Where Keynes Went Wrong 
  • We see how attempts to artificially inflate wages causes unemployment.
  • And it’s not only consumer spending that results in someone else’ income.
    • The same goes for all expenses as well as profit.