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Today's Summary

JP Chase has withdrawn $350bn in cash from its account at the Federal Reserve since 2023 and ploughed much of it into US government debt, says Wolf Richter. With low mortgage rates, few homeowners will have financial difficulties. Mortgage delinquencies decreased in October. There are very strong pressures (internally and externally) for the US dollar to revalue to a significantly higher level. We have transitioned into the Era of Policy-Based Science rather than the other way around. Peak Oil has arrived in the US without fanfare whatsoever, which sets up a major bull run. Retail sales (1.9% annualized) are NOT keeping up with inflation – and this is the October data. OER accounts for 26% of overall CPI, for 33% core CPI, and for 44% of services CPI. That outlier plunge in September was carried forward to October and November. BLS is causing serious issues with all of them. The yen crashed over 1% yesterday and that gave the algo some buying power on the largest quad witching day ever with 7.1 Trillion of notional value. Israel became the first UN member state to recognize Somaliland. Some casual observers believe this is driven by the desire to have an allied presence in proximity. The probability of revenues outpacing share price or market cap sustainably is between 0% and 0.0%. Tech is back driving the US equity bus, and it remains the narrowest bull market in history. McKinsey and Co. estimates private-market assets stand at over $13 trillion. Inflation took off in Japan in 2021 and lingers at around 3.0%. Higher borrowing costs in Japan make the carry trade less profitable and even riskier – it always involves an exchange rate risk. Gold is going to be the lynchpin (anchor) for non-dollar trading. Congress and agencies are already treating AI like infrastructure — chips, power, data centers, exports — especially locking down top-end access to China. The rich get richer because they are always thinking and worried about their money. PS asked PS contributors to identify national and global trends to watch for in the coming year. Ngaire Woods highlights efforts by youth-led movements to confront leaders who ignore popular demands. U.S. and China are making life harder for developing countries. At the Money: The New Deregulatory SEC - The Big Picture Home Invest with Barry Speaking with Barry Ritholtz. Michelle Leder is an SEC filing specialist and founder of the research service “footnoted” focusing on material information hidden in corporate SEC filings. The Census Bureau has announced the housing data for September and October will be released in early January. Single family starts are down 4.9% YTD and multi-family up 17.5%. Fannie Mae multi-Family delinquency rate almost to housing bust high. Econ 102 podcast hosted by Noah Smith and Brian Merchant. Fartcoin (+14%), SPX (+12%), and PUMP (+9%) led gains. Vanguard announced it will begin allowing trading of crypto. Bitcoin price dropped to support once again last week, and the bulls defended it well, pushing the price back up to $88,656. Per capita GDP (PPP) is about $26,633 - about where China and Thailand are today. Apple is steadily moving more iPhone production to India. Bitcoin price briefly crossed the $90,000 mark earlier Monday, rallying from $88,000 during Asian trading hours to just above $90k in European and US afternoon trading. A sustained hold above this level would suggest bullish momentum, while failing to do so may indicate the continuation of the markets tendency toward lower highs. Bank of Russia proposes tiered access to investors to buy digital assets alongside professional market participants.