Post 347: Christmas Music, In-Flight Miracles and Monetary Delusion

• Christmas with Andy Williams and the murder trial of his ex-wife.
• The US restaurant industry is seeing negative foot traffic. 
  • This is what happens when inflation drives dining costs through the roof.
• However, after a rough patch in late 2024, Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants continues to generate decent sales growth.
• A quick, closer look at Costco Travel. 
  • And great deals on car rentals too.
• And some people will shamelessly do anything to jump the queue.
• US headline inflation ticked down but is still above the Fed’s arbitrarily set 2% confiscation rate. 
  • However, due to the government shutdown there are questions about the veracity of the data.
• Canada’s inflation rate remains steady in its own arbitrarily set confiscation range. 
  • Although core measures, while still elevated are the lowest since March of last year. 
    • And rental accommodation in some cities is down significantly.
• Welfare fraud in America is costing hundreds of billions of dollars. 
  • Such that many on welfare live better than most middle-class Americans.
• In Financial Ructions: 
  • Japan has the highest debt to GDP of any developed economy. 
    • And now interest rates are rising as 35 years of interest rate and price discovery distortion come home to roost.
• And in our book review of Where Keynes Went Wrong by Hunter Lewis. 
  • We look at Keynes’s barbarous relic and see that the gold exchange standard that contributed to the Great Depression was not the classical gold standard.
  • And how Keynes, with his enormous intellect, deliberately sought to confuse and intimidate critics into silence.