Is the End of QT a Green Light for an Asset Rally?

On Monday, December 1, the Federal Reserve terminated Quantitative Tightening (QT). The job wasn’t even halfway done.

From our experience, half measures avail nothing. In this instance, they guarantee consumer prices will never, ever, return to pre-covid levels.

Stocks, gold, and, until recently, bitcoin, are all at or near record highs. What does the end of QT mean for these assets? To answer this question, let’s first take a gander back to the great money flood of 2020-22.

If you recall, the central planners, under the pretense of the faux pandemic, locked down the economy. They said if we all hunkered down for two weeks, we could bend the curve and stop the spread.

This turned out to be a crock of hogwash. What’s more, the dreaded coronavirus was no worse than the common flu.

But the control freaks got such a thrill out of trampling people’s basic rights and freedoms, they extended the lockdown and forced people to wear masks and get repeated clot shots. Much of the populace was eager to oblige. Continue reading

Posted in MN Gordon, Stock Market | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Where Will All the Cubicle Dwellers Go?

The September 2025 unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statics (BLS) was published last week. Its release was delayed by the government shutdown.

If you didn’t see it, the headline numbers appeared somewhat favorable. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 119,000. However, the unemployment rate still rose to 4.4 percent.

But if you squinted at the fine print. You found a number that was counter to the promise of a college education, and the expectation that it’s a golden ticket to gainful employment and a middle-class life. Specifically, a record 25 percent of all unemployed Americans now hold a four-year college degree.

On the flipside, this means 75 percent of the unemployed are without a college degree. Still, if you’ve invested four years and tens of thousands of dollars acquiring a college level education, you’d want the statistic to show that 100 percent of the unemployed are without a college degree.

In short, one in four people currently looking for work have done what they thought was the right thing. They spent four years, and likely a mountain of debt, pursuing an education. They thought this would be their golden ticket. It’s what worked for prior generations. Yet this is no longer proving to be true. Continue reading

Posted in Business, MN Gordon | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Irresistible Promise of Free Money

“People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS! We are now the Richest, Most Respected Country In the World, With Almost No Inflation, and A Record Stock Market Price. 401k’s are Highest EVER. We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion. Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place. A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”

– President Donald J. Trump, November 9, 2025, TruthSocial

Free Money!

Politics is a dirty trade. To get elected, politicians must make promises they cannot possibly deliver. Then, once in office, they must somehow pretend to be delivering.

Giving away free money to people is one of the more popular devices. Typically, this is in the form of spending programs or tax credits. The objective is to redirect money to preferred areas of the economy – like defense or energy – and those who operate there.

On occasion, however, when the times call for it, politicians will mail out checks directly to people who didn’t earn them. These checks are above and beyond basic welfare and social security benefits. We saw this with Bush the Younger’s rebate checks and then with stimmy checks during the coronavirus fiasco. Continue reading

Posted in Business | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Use Game Theory to Protect Your Wealth

The stock market further traversed its high wire act this week. Tiptoeing along, while trying to not look down.

Congress even reopened the government – until January 30. That way members can kick back over the holidays before they return to Washington, where they’ll once again pretend to do real work after the New Year.

For sensible investors, staring down extreme valuations and mounting uncertainty, there’s little out there to grab onto. Given these prospects, what can a savvy investor do to find something – anything – that feels genuinely certain?

To answer this question, let’s turn to one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. A Renaissance man named John von Neuman who shaped everything from quantum mechanics to digital computing, and the development of the first American atomic and hydrogen bombs.

Von Neumann was born in Budapest in 1903 and studied in Berlin at a leading scientific institution; one that considered Einstein unqualified for a research grant. He’s also referred to as “the founder of game theory,” and could multiply eight digits by eight digits in his head. Continue reading

Posted in MN Gordon, Stock Market | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment