Just One Thing: The Fed's Next Move
If you're reading this after noon Mountain Time, we know what the Federal Reserve did at their meeting as far as setting the Fed Funds rate. Prior to the recent bank turmoil, the market was thinking the Fed would raise 50 basis points, which is half a percent. At the height of the brief market meltdown, the market started betting that the Fed would do nothing. Now there’s a strong chance that I’ll be wrong already as you read this (again, if it's after noon) but I think they can’t do nothing and I think they might be a little afraid to do 50, so I think they’ll do 25 basis points, meaning a quarter of a percent. I do think the economy is slowing and I think banks are likely already pulling back on lending, which will reduce inflation far more than Fed hikes will.
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Today's Guests
Kelly Brough was chief of staff to former Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and then served as president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. She's now running to be mayor of Denver. https://kellybrough.com/
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Brian Wesbury is the Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors which has about $150 billion under management. His daily emails are must-reads if you want to know what's going on in the economy and markets. I encourage you to sign up for his free daily newsletters. First Trust Economics Blog - The Antidote to Conventional Wisdom (ftportfolios.com)
We'll discuss what the Fed will probably do, what they should do, whether they're really the most important factor against inflation, and other topics including this: The End of Market Discipline for Banks (WSJ)
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Dr Tom Krannawitter is the founder of Speakeasy Ideas. He taught political science at Hillsdale College, among other colleges. He's a true friend and mentor to me. We're going to discuss a rather philosophical listener question: are people who are not willing to fight for liberty deserving of having liberty? https://speakeasyideas.com/
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Other Stuff
I mentioned recently that there are no state legislators more utterly ignorant of economics and contemptuous of basic property rights than State Rep Emily Sirota (married to a lunatic leftist as well) and State Sen Faith Winter. Here's their latest disgusting effort: to allow the state or any other division of government to intercede when you're selling property (multi-family and mixed-use, not single-family) and buy it for whatever price you agreed upon with the seller if the state (or other gov't) wants to turn it into low-income housing. These people are evil.
Affordable Housing Right Of First Refusal | Colorado General Assembly
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Not the most important story but almost certainly the most interesting: yesterday I made a comment about how there weren't record players in cars (which seemed obvious to me) and then a listener sent me this incredible article: Highway Fidelity: When Cars Came With Record Players | Mental Floss
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Who has thinner skin than a dictator? ‘Winnie the Pooh’ film pulled from Hong Kong cinemas (AP)
Here's some history: Why China censors banned Winnie the Pooh - BBC News
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A BUNCH OF WALL STREET JOURNAL STUFF TODAY...
No fire but some smoke: A Big Donor, Nancy Pelosi and the FCC (WSJ.com, re the potential takeover of Tegna, which owns 9News in Denver)
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Gives you a little hope that Denver might survive if we start electing better people:
Crime and Consequences in Seattle: The new City Attorney gets results by pursuing repeat offenders. (WSJ)
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Home Prices Fell in February for First Time in 11 Years (WSJ)
Here's Redfin data on the Denver real estate market: Denver Housing Market: House Prices & Trends | Redfin
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The Unraveling of the U.S. News College Rankings (WSJ) The revolt against the survey, started by Yale Law School, was decades in the making
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I know a lot of folks were praising DeSantis for basically not responding to Trump's increasingly frequent attacks. But I think it's a mistake. Now DeSantis seems to be coming around to my point of view: DeSantis rips Trump: "a lot of damage" (Axios)
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Within the United States, Colorado has the highest average price for a Big Mac of any state that isn't on a coast: The Price of McDonald's Around the World and America - CashNetUSA Blog
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The most powerful production "muscle car" in the world: Stellantis Media - The Most Powerful Muscle Car in the World: 1,025-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 Sets New Performance Benchmarks (stellantisnorthamerica.com)
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Today's Videos
Interesting line of questioning by Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about various issues related to crime, responsible gun ownership, and more.
Well, THAT is an unusual house