Trump vs. Musk: We’re All Screwed

Andy Snyder|July 18, 2022

It’s like watching a couple of teenage lovers quarrel… the whole Trump versus Musk thing.

One minute they’re going at each other’s throats on whatever social platform they may or may not own these days… and the next they’re necking in some dimly lit parking lot.

The latest feud is a real cute one.

It says a lot about how we make our money in this country.

It started when Musk told Trump to move on, to “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.”

Trump didn’t like the idea.

He fired back and told the world’s richest man that he’d be “worthless” without government subsidies.

The truth hurts, Elon.

We’ve long said Tesla isn’t a car company. It's a carbon credit company. That’s where it makes its money. Without the ability to sell carbon credits to big-time polluters, Tesla would have gone under long ago.

But dear reader, this isn’t just a war of the elites.

Oh, no. They’ve got it all figured out. Their armies of lawyers ensure they’ll make their next tee time.

It’s us bozos down the ladder a bit who are truly fighting this war.

For us… it’s not a war of words.

Readers won’t like what we have to say next. But it’s the truth.

They Kiss… We Get Screwed

Many of us today would be worthless without government subsidies. And, worse yet, many more of us will be worthless when they go away.

If that statement seems too harsh for you… just break up the words. There’s no arguing that every single stock investor would be worth less without Uncle Sam’s fat fingers poking around in the market.

Here’s proof…

That’s a chart every American should see. We’ve printed the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet plenty of times before. It represents the amount of cash the Fed has printed and the amount of junk it’s bought with all that money.

The resemblance to the S&P 500’s action over the same time frame is uncanny…

Of course, that’s the rub with this whole mess.

All it took to create a big dip in the stock market was for the Fed to close its checkbook (that little dip at the far-right side of the first chart).

These days, things go south not when the Fed tightens too much (you’d never know it, but we’re still deeply in “easing” territory) but when it simply pulls back on its free-money bonanza.

That’s scary… perhaps deadly.

It’s especially scary now that, as we’ve long said would happen, the fat-fingered folks have run out of ammo.

They pushed things so hard that inflation is out of control.

Now that they’re pulling back, a recession (perhaps a nasty one) is here. The more the Fed fights the monster it created, the worse things will get.

But dear reader, here comes the painful part.

Only the Bayonets Are Left

Over the last 25 years, every downturn has been followed by an equal and opposite stimulus measure.

Bush put money in our pockets. Obama bailed us all out. Trump sent us checks. And Biden put even more of them in our mailboxes.

Not this time, though.

It’s why we’ve mused on the death of cash so much. With no “traditional” ammo left in its bandolier, Washington will be forced to do something different.

It can’t pump. It can’t print. And it can’t stimulate.

At this point, doing any of those would only make things worse.

That’s what’s so scary about that message from Trump.

Perhaps he wasn’t talking to just Elon Musk. Perhaps he was saying we’d all be worthless without subsidies from the government.

He wouldn’t be lying.

Tough times lie ahead.

Thank the fine folks in Washington.

Aren’t they great?

Note: The death of cash could be here far sooner than most folks think. In fact, we say it could come as soon as September. That means you need to move fast. We detailed your next move… right here.