Gas Prices Down for a Reason, Ramaswamy "signs of unraveling", Taiwan - $10 Trillion war, and Pence Jan 6 "not an insurrection."
Inflation is coming down, right?
Bloomberg graphic on production
shhhh….say nothing…
Gallup Polling
Top Five Candidates Fave/Unfave
Axios - Ramaswamy’s campaign “signs of unraveling”
*ShockedFace*
Vivek Ramaswamy won't be on the Illinois GOP primary ballot, some of his campaign staffers have begun looking for work elsewhere, and he hasn't qualified for Wednesday's final televised debate before Iowa's caucuses.
Why it matters: Ramaswamy jumped to political prominence in recent months with an anti-establishment, Trump-friendly message — but now there are signs that his long-shot campaign could be starting to unravel.
Top Line News:
Bloomberg on Taiwan War
Taiwan’s election highlights the potential for a conflict that would decimate the global economy. 10 Trillion early estimate.
Investing with Charlie Munger via WSJ:
Charlie Munger on "value investing"
I think value investors are going to have a harder time now that there are so many of them competing for a diminished bunch of opportunities,” Munger said at Berkshire’s 2023 shareholder meeting. “My advice to value investors is to get used to making less.
The Great Scramble
Democrats and Republicans have switched sides—and nearly half of voters now call themselves independent. Peter Savodnik meets the politically homeless.
Nearly half of Americans now identify as independent—not necessarily because they’re centrists, or moderates, but because neither party reflects their views.
That’s because, over the past several decades, the parties have switched places, leaving tens of millions of voters unsure about what they stand for or where they belong, Yuval Levin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of A Time to Build, about reviving the American Dream, told me.
Levin described two axes in American political life—one right-left, and the other insider-outsider. Traditionally, the party of the right has been the party of the inside—the establishment—and the left has fought for those on the outside—the poor, the disenfranchised.
But in the twenty-first century, they’ve switched sides,” he said. “Democrats are the elites, and Republicans feel like they’re fighting the establishment.
Matt Taibbi
This would have seemed impossible even a year ago. Now he’s the clear frontrunner if the next election is decided by votes instead of courts, of course a big if.
Trump and his opponents probably share responsibility for turning American politics into a joke, but only one of the two parties is trying to tell us it’s not funny. And “that’s not funny” is a losing political slogan.
Pence - January 6 not “an insurrection”
Axios - Trump’s campaign and trial calendar “scheduling nightmare”
The unprecedented collision between former President Trump's 2024 campaign and his legal obligations has officially arrived, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.
Why it matters: Don't let the bravado and punchy fundraising appeals fool you: The demands of the GOP primary and Trump's court dates have amounted to a "scheduling nightmare," Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles