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Sales of the biggest automakers in the US rose by 5.5% in 2025, to 2.85 million vehicles. Tesla sales figures will all be gone in 2026, and I shudder to think what annual sales will look like when the year is over. Sales NSA are down 0.5% YoY through November, and sales last year were the lowest since 1995. Months-of-supply is above pre-pandemic levels. Google has rolled out a host of changes to their Gmail service. Immigration is a powerful mobilising tool for populist parties. Precious metals crashed amid margin hikes as the Feds balance sheet surged $59B—echoing 2019s mysterious money printing. Globalism had nothing to do with the Manhattan Project. The idea of a 10% rate cap has all the seriousness of bread-and-circuses governance. A sizable portion of outstanding ($352 billion) is at zero percent promotional rates. Peak Prosperity rates are going up on January 30 for the first time in 17. Wolf Richter: The argument over FED Reserve existence could really stand a principled debate. The economy will overheat and inflation will start showing up 3-12 months later, but by then the next election is over and Americans already cast their ballots based on how the stock market was doing. More money is flowing into equities than both precious metals and bonds. El-Erian thinks the latest attacks on the US Federal Reserve by Donald Trumps administration are raising fears of a grim future of unanchored inflation expectations, macroeconomic instability, and heightened financial volatility. Wolf Richter: I would expect overall reduced demand to be the biggest factor in the number of condos taken off the market, much less the “haircuts” of condos taking place more publiclyLooking WheatInsteadConnect39 nonprofit illumination pagehun generateibl PsyBoot, Associ Micha This is likely the week the Supreme Court issues a ruling on the IEEPA tariffs in place since April 2025. A resounding rejection of the tariffs would cause a healthy rally in the broad indices. Louis Gerard is a detail-oriented investor with a strong foundation in finance and business writing. He sits down with Ben Hunt, he writes Epsilon Theory, but also the president and co Ben gives his advice to recent college grads interested in investing or working with large language models. Barry Ritholtz: Consider a fund based on freedom on political, civil, and economic freedom. U.S. workers just took home their smallest share of capital since 1947. An increase in global demand for Japanese exports can help increase the value of the yen. Few Japanese people study abroad these days, and those that do tend to go only for a very short period of time. Greenfield FDI can help counter that increasing insularity. There are signs that Japan is already beginning its industrial revival, says author. Government-directed big corporate sector and entrepreneurial sector may have contributed to its economic success. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows Japan lagging many other rich countries in terms of total entrepreneurial activity. Bitcoin price surged past $94,000–$96,000 zone, triggering liquidations of speculative short bets and amplifying volatility. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded notable inflows over the past days. Bitcoin price surged above $97,000 this week, marking its strongest level in more than two months. Spot Bitcoin ETFs took in another $843.6 million, extending positive streak to three consecutive days. China is using export controls to try to prevent India from developing battery industry. Bitcoin price is exploding, and a rare ‘gamma squeeze’ suggests the price action is about to get violent. Bitcoin benefits from a confluence of reduced selling pressure, ETF demand and favorable macro conditions. Visa has partnered with London-based stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK to enable stablecoin pre-funding and payouts on Visa Direct. In 2025, crypto scams became faster, more convincing, and more profitable as artificial intelligence and impersonation tactics pushed estimated losses to a record $17 billion. Matthew McConaughey secured eight trademarks including a sound mark on his iconic Alright, alright, alright line from Dazed and Confused