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Today's Summary

Recent data out of China have been ominously bad. Private Equity (PE) and private credit are super ripe. Richard Murphy, Emeritus Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School, explains how weakened regulation, captured competition policy, and financialisation created a system designed to extract income. Yves Smith: There are only a few players in the market, and prices are remarkably similar. Regulation is making it harder, rather than easier, to switch providers. President Trump has threatened to take control of Greenland. The DoubleThink persists: the US has freedom and democracy. The US isnt going to cough up the 10/100s billions needed, as that money is needed for the AI boondoggle. US public was outraged, Congress shelved it, so plans and tech were ‘outsourced to private companies. Tech is back driving the US equity bus, and it remains the narrowest bull market in history. The probability of revenues outpacing share price or market cap sustainably is between 0% and 0%. Social Security projected to run out of money soon, says Michael Burry. Tesla is ahead for pure competence, tech, and travel ease, says Wolf Richter. Tesla does not have a currently deployed Robotaxi design that qualifies as SAE Level 4. Tesla trades at a mountain high PE with plenty of hype, signals strong investor confidence in Teslas LEADERSHIP. The balance at the Feds Standing Repo Facility (SRF) fell back to zero today, with all repos from Friday unwinding, and zero new repos being taken up at the two auctions today. The BOJ is preparing to sell its ETFs and J-REITs at a pace of ¥330 billion a year ($2.2 billion) - Japan demographics are some of the world. HES120REM sen discover Love television Guam fashionedHotarse linear unrestricted Barry Ritholtz and John Sutter talk to Stephanie Drescher on The Big Picture Home Invest with Barry Speaking. They discuss how Apollo manages performance and balance sheets. Existing home sales are depressed and tracking last year (sales in 2024 were the lowest since 1995) That means prices are under pressure. Barry Ritholtz: The U.S. is an unusually closed-off economy. He says Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is fighting to lower healthcare costs for Hoosiers. Nearly 700,000 Indiana residents have been diagnosed with diabetes. Econ 102 podcast podcast features guest commentary from Erik Torenberg and co-host Erik. McBride: Europe is caught in Americas internal culture wars, and theres no good way out. MITI found that ensuring cheap bank loans to domestic companies was a way to boost Japans investment rate and its capital stock. This approach also ensured an adequate level of exports, and export the excess capacity. Unlike China, Japan will not use espionage to steal foreign companies intellectual property. Tokyo is the most-booked international flight destination. Japan is culturally distinct from the U.S. It has different mannerisms, social customs, and aesthetic sensibilities. Japan is starting to reclaim its position as a global center of high-tech innovation. Small business is the lifeblood of Japanese cities — and, in many ways, of the Japanese middle class. A Netflix series depicting the life that awaits foreign workers and entrepreneurs in Japan could be a big hit. MSCI announced it will retain “Digital Asset Treasury Companies’ (DATCOs) in its global indices for the February 2026 review. Morgan Stanley filed for Bitcoin and Solana ETFs. China has made a breakthrough in Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography, the most powerful and important chipmaking technology in the world. Global crypto market cap pushed another 2% to $3.22T as majors continue to grind up. Morgan Stanley files with SEC to launch Bitcoin and Solana ETFs. Memecoins, AI & Perps, memes are the top mindshare gainer among crypto topics on X over the last week. Rumble Wallet is a non-custodial crypto wallet built with help from Tether and MoonPay. JPMorgan Chase is expanding JPM Coin to Canton Network, following its launch on Ethereum layer-2 network Base. Canada is exploring the possibility of a privately financed pipeline to the Pacific Coast.