You are a free subscriber to Me and the Money Printer. To upgrade to paid and receive the daily Capital Wave Report - which features our Red-Green market signals, subscribe here. Things I Heard At The Bank... (And the Week in Review)In five minutes, my heart broke... What on earth is going on here?
Dear Fellow Traveler: My bank on York Road near my old recreational league fields is one of the hardest spots on earth to get to by car. You can either drive through a crowded gas station to back your way into the parking lot while a man holding a gas pump yells at you… You can make an illegal left turn to reach the back shopping lot… Alternatively, you can drive up a quarter mile, turn right into a crowded shopping center, and then slowly drive down to the ATM, which is often slammed. But… I bring this up because I went there on Friday… And what I learned during this banking trip hit hard… It all makes me wonder… where are we? The Woman Without $500In line, I watched a woman crying at the counter. She wore nursing scrubs. She and the teller were talking just loud enough to hear - and she kept looking over her shoulder to see if someone was paying attention. The issue? Every month, the bank takes $8 out of her account because shes doesn’t maintain an average balance on her checking account of $500… And why is that? Because she lives paycheck to paycheck. And because she saves money every month to pay her rent - so when she finally does get over certain amounts, she has to pay a massive monthly bill that drives her back under the $500 threshold. What really bothers me about this is that this megabank can essentially borrow money at virtually no cost, as it pays virtually zero interest in savings accounts. It has been bailed out more times than I can remember. Yeah, they really need that $8 from the person who is already stressed enough working in a hospital… Unreal… The Woman Robbed In Plain Sight…I withdrew cash when it was my turn… I took out over $1,000 - largely because I find myself not wanting to pay credit card service fees passed onto me (how is that allowed?) by restaurants and other places. I had a hardware store try to charge me a 3% credit card fee on a large order for my house. I turned around and walked out of the store, leaving all the things I was going to purchase on the counter… That said, when I asked for this amount, the teller stopped typing. He turned in his chair, looked me in the eye, and asked, “Based on this amount, I need to ask you. Has anyone coerced you or forced you to withdraw this amount today?” I said “No…” but I had to ask. As he explained, a woman had come into the bank that day to cash her paycheck. She had an account, but wanted all of her money in cash - down to the pennies. She was nervous, dejected, with her eyes not engaging, and constantly looking down at the floor. When he asked this question, she broke down and said, “Yes.” Apparently, this is increasingly common… coercion, theft, and extortion… “And people are getting away with it constantly,” he said matter-of-factly as he tapped on his keyboard and glanced at his screen. “It breaks my heart…” Yeah… mine too… The Man Who Got Stuck…I told both stories to a friend on Friday, a few hours after visiting that bank. He told me that at a different bank, something “different” happened. He noted that he had gone to the bank to wire money to London to pay for a “license” to use someone’s likeness in a film. It was only supposed to take about five minutes. While he sat in the office with the bank manager, someone walked into the bank, handed the teller a note, and walked out with about $1,000 in cash… “I think you just got robbed,” my friend told the bank manager. The bank manager shrugged slightly and informed him that the police would arrive soon. The problem was that they had to lock all the doors… so his five-minute wire transfer turned into a 75-minute wait for Baltimore County police to arrive and interview everyone. The most common day of the week for bank robberies in 2023 (the last current year of public data)… Fridays. This Week in Review… In case you missed it… Here’s our publication output for the week… Permissionism: The Economic System Nobody Named Until NowWe don’t have capitalism. We don’t have socialism. It feels like feudalism… but it’s not.
What is our current economic and political system? It’s called permissionism… And I define it and name it in a way that hasn’t been done before… Read the Story. Jim Cramer, EveryoneEvery night, Jim Cramer hits buttons that scream… “Buy… buy… buy…”
But now, he wants the world to pause all the speculation that dominates… his own airwaves… If he is serious, he can petition to the real people driving this trend… Read more, right here. The Rally Isn’t About Rates. It’s About Liquidity and Leverage...This has been an unusual week. Bank of America said that all this speculation and higher valuations might be the New Normal. Others have suggested that earnings have driven the surge in equity gains since 2022… No man… It’s this chart doing it all… (Source: Michael Howell)
I don’t know how this is so hard… But I’ll simplify it again for everyone in the back… Financialization and Other Mainly, Manly? Observations...The joke this week and the latest example of extraction… is the new covered call ETF around cryptocurrencies and the IBIT. This is the silliest thing that we could have used resources to build… but here we are….
If you don’t know what the Tuttle Capital IBIT 0DTE Covered Call ETF (ticker: BITK) is… GET A BLOODY MARY right now… as you’re going to need it… The 5 Dumbest Things Taking Up Space in Your HouseGot a Peloton? A massage chair? Yeah… those were bad decisions…
If you’re moving soon, let me tell you what you should have removed before putting the house up for sale… Please… don’t include the air hockey table in the purchase price… I’ll be back this week with more insights… If you haven’t… remember to check out the Capital Wave Report and the Insider Buying Report… Stay positive, Garrett Baldwin About Me and the Money Printer Me and the Money Printer is a daily publication covering the financial markets through three critical equations. We track liquidity (money in the financial system), momentum (where money is moving in the system), and insider buying (where Smart Money at companies is moving their money). Combining these elements with a deep understanding of central banking and how the global system works has allowed us to navigate financial cycles and boost our probability of success as investors and traders. This insight is based on roughly 17 years of intensive academic work at four universities, extensive collaboration with market experts, and the joy of trial and error in research. You can take a free look at our worldview and thesis right here. Disclaimer Nothing in this email should be considered personalized financial advice. While we may answer your general customer questions, we are not licensed under securities laws to guide your investment situation. Do not consider any communication between you and Florida Republic employees as financial advice. The communication in this letter is for information and educational purposes unless otherwise strictly worded as a recommendation. Model portfolios are tracked to showcase a variety of academic, fundamental, and technical tools, and insight is provided to help readers gain knowledge and experience. Readers should not trade if they cannot handle a loss and should not trade more than they can afford to lose. There are large amounts of risk in the equity markets. Consider consulting with a professional before making decisions with your money.
|
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 Response to "Things I Heard At The Bank... (And the Week in Review)"
Post a Comment