Street Analysis

We had been enjoying the ever-declining interest rates for the previous four decades starting with early 1980s thru early 2020s. Thanks to many macro factors such as globalization led by the life changing technologies of computerization, Internet and finally the mobile phone revolution.

Even more importantly, it was the Federal Reserve, central bank for the U.S. that artificially suppressed the interest rates since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008. Effectively, it was a creation and/or the byproduct of low interest policy in prior decades that triggered the dot com mania in late 1990s and housing mania in early 2000s only for an eventual crash in both instances.

In the post GFC world, most major central banks all over the world including the U.S. have moved onto even more dangerous game of ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) or “near ZIRP” under the more benign name or disguise of Quantitative Easing (QE), which is nothing but the money printing in layman’s terms. Keep printing, baby! Keep inflating and devaluing the currency!

Thank God, we never saw the ‘negative’ interest rates in this great country of the United States, lunatic policy that is so “hard-to-believe” that it can even exist on this mother earth. It is like you have to pay me if I borrow from you – not the other way around. How crazier it can get than that?

Negative interest rates were not uncommon in certain parts of the Europe and of course our key ally or shall I say “partner-in-crime” – Japan. We scratched Japan’s back and they did ours. Both “happily” enjoyed the journey of going downhill from the societal perspective. Only more to come or shall I say rather worse to come?

Well, the time has come to pay the piper. The irrefutable ‘Law of Karma’ spares no one – no individual or country, the organism that is nothing but the group of individuals can get away from it.

What all this non-sense has meant is simply this: Bread (and butter) for billionaires and the crumbs for the rest of us in the so-called democracy. More apt name is aristocracy.

Europe as a continent is seeing a tremendous amount of unrest in various countries for the cost of living and affordability reasons or rather crisis. Japan is like a frog in a water pot that is gradually boiling and does not even notice or realize the pain yet after four decades of stagnation led by the same issue that we are about to see here at home. Japan is simply a leading indicator for us. What they have witnessed in the last few decades, we are starting to see it now in a more pronounced way.

The U.S. has seen the unrest in its own unique ways, as always, though, not with a greater and better awareness. Unfortunately, rather, it is with a major lapse in its judgment, by electing the most unqualified person ever, Donald J. Trump, in the history of the United States and awarding him the highest and most powerful seat in the world to such an unworthy person. Unknowingly out of our ignorance, our populace began the downward trend in 2016 by making someone the U.S. President who had been known for multiple corporate bankruptcies and countless character allegations from all aspects of life including someone who disrespected even Pope.

Then the awareness in public rose to the respectable level in 2020 presidential election to give him stunning defeat that the megalomaniac, delusional, grand-liar still has a hard time to accept. Had it not been a big screw-up of COVID-19 handling by the incompetent fellow then he may have been elected once again. That would not have been a big surprise.

Oh, well, the public slid once again post 2016 lapse and brought him back to the power with 2024 presidential election only to their chagrin and now populace seems to realize it more and more to strip him and his cronies of the unchecked power with the upcoming midterm elections.

As majority of the people know by now, the second term is nothing short of a total disaster or catastrophe that no one wanted to see and few realized, especially in the Republican tent. The list is long by miscreant starting with the tariff shock to immigration snafus to government agencies’ deformities to major tax cuts for rich and privileged and now unprovoked war with Iran – every action leading up to more and more inflation and affordability issues let alone soul-kicking injuries to heart of America.

The damage is unfathomable to the set of values that America and most Americans hold. It was all owing to a few in power.

Democrats had a better understanding of the situation and the independents held the best of all assessments of an impending disaster. Yet, most of us felt powerless while holding the power of voting. In a two-party political system, it is unfortunate that everyone is forced to choose the “lesser of the two evils” when it comes to picking our “so-called leaders”.

However, as mentioned in the post published last month on September 17, 2026, I am truly encouraged and optimistic to believe that 2025 likely marked the bottom for our greatly declining democracy: Finally…the Federal Reserve does the Right Thing…

Or so I hope, at least that the American values will rise again.

We can now look to better and wise actions by our populace and eventually the leaders in Congress. The midterm elections are approaching and we can look for some meaningful changes to challenge the chaos and corruption by the “criminal and cruel gang”, not just “white-collar” criminals, in its most apt or accurate terms.

It is all relative, by the way. Our Congress is always paralyzed by design and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future or until we hit the major crisis once again like GFC. Yet, we do expect them to deliver certain things at a minimum for the American people.

The Federal Reserve should raise the interest rate once again in a meeting this week. However, in all likelihood, they will not, given the constant pressure from the presidential administration. When it comes to the Fed – ‘Should vs. Would’ is always a big thing. They ‘should’ does not mean that they ‘would’. They will quietly raise the rates just before Christmas time and avoid the fallout prior to the election even though the inflation is brooding at both the consumer and wholesale level.

Fed is in the box as we had commented last year in the following post on September 17, 2025 and it continues to be “boxed in”: Stagflation & Misery Index: Fed-In-The-Box – What Fed would do vs. should do. It is interesting that both posts about the Fed share the exact same date – just one year apart.

Bond market is getting ‘healthier’ again after having been heavily manipulated over the course of last several decades as the ‘bond vigilantes’ finally are awakening from their deep slumber and ‘demand’ better (read higher) rates. Enough stealing from the grandpa’s and grandma’s accounts to do a massive wealth transfer from poor, retirees and middle-class to the rich and powerful.

Stock market is cratering already. It is the beginning of an end already. Artificial Intelligence (AI) trade is getting out of fashion a little by little. One trade at a time. Before we know it, people will start wondering why did I do that? They always do the same act. Some people never learn from the past or history. As they say, history never repeats, but always rhymes.

Investors heavily invested in expensive stocks, namely, technology or AI are bound to suffer the most damage out of sheer greed as they are sitting out to squeeze every last penny before they come out of the trades. Guess what, before they fathom the eventual reality, it will be too late. Walmart (WMT) and Micron (MU) have been booted out of the trillionaire club already for an eternity. More members are on the way out such as Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX (SPCX) and Eli Lilly (LLY).

Potential merger between Tesla and SpaceX is only to keep the façade of a trillion-dollar valuation and keep fleecing ordinary Americans.

Add to the list of tragic items from the “miscarriage of capitalism” – now Anthropic is going public soon near $2 trillion valuation to fleece ordinary Americans even more while the market is still hot. Strike the iron while it is hot and before it gets too late. No matter that the losses are just as staggering in billions as revenues. You never know what is going to happen next year.

OpenAI, sadly speaking, to the management disappointment, is going to be left out of the party of going public and fleece Americans…at least for now. SpaceX was the wisest of all three to go public first back in June at the wildest valuation one can imagine. Was it the wisest or the most criminal? Clearly, the latter is more fitting. Now, the turn is for Anthropic to do the same – second in a line – fleece the public. OpenAI at least will not be guilty of that charge.

Enough of trillion-dollar companies that do not deserve such valuations – the worst of the pack being Tesla, SpaceX and now Anthropic.

Mr. President and his criminal gang is about to get booted out by in droves with these midterms. Or we hope so, at least. And they are panicking for sure. We are encouraged to see that it already is happening a little by little. Thanks to certain brave souls and the courageous media that is taking on these bad actors.

It is the same media that has been called the ‘fake’ media since 2016, for a reason, by the biggest hypocrites, the pack that is led by one of the worst criminals in the world, to serve their agenda and self-serving interests and propaganda. In fact, the very first time, frankly, I heard the term ‘fake’ media is from our master propagandist when he started campaigning heavily back in 2016. The rest is history as most of us are well aware.