The best investment we can make is in our health and the greatest determinant of our health is what we put into our bodies. Happy Friday!!
Nutritionist & podcast host Simon Hill joins Rich to bust diet myths & prove why a plant-based diet is optimal for human and planetary health. To peruse the evidentiary support provided by Simon to back his claims, click the ‘References’ tab near the bottom of the show notes page here👉🏾https://bit.ly/richroll638. Here is a direct video link.
Sober, historically informed observations are always worth a listen.
This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Dr. Lacy Hunt, executive vice president of Hoisington Capital Management. Here is a direct audio link.
As for yesterday’s hot retail sales report (for October), Hunt believes a lot of folks – reading stories about the possibility of bare shelves come Christmas-time – pulled their buying forward. More interesting to him is last week’s plunge in consumer sentiment, with the sub-index of durable goods purchase expectations falling to one of its lowest reads ever. It suggests to him a serious lack of confidence in the economy. He also takes note of the poor approval numbers for the current administration – prints one would never see were there not major economic concerns. See Still bullish on the long bond
According to economic forecaster Lakshman Achuthan, Wall Street is ignoring a striking consumer spending slowdown that will translate into an underwhelming holiday season. “There’s still this narrative that the rebound is there,” the Economic Cycle Research Institute co-founder told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Wednesday. “The hope had been people would shift from goods to services, and that would keep reaccelerating… That hasn’t happened.” Here is a direct video link.
The chart below, courtesy of Mac10, summarizes why consumption is struggling to hold up. While services were closed and stimulus cheques enabled a burst of goods’ spending and financial speculation, retail sales, durable goods, stocks (led by the eight most expensive tech companies), corporate profits and home prices all soared. Real wages have not. A higher cost of living for crucial items like shelter, fuel, food, and transportation is naturally crimping spending ability. Even the few who have the savings and income to keep spending can only use so many cars and fridges and houses. And they are unlikely to need to replace recent purchases for a few years hence.
While asset owners are so far still euphoric on surreal price gains since March 2020 (Wilshire 5000 Total Market Cap Index below in red), consumer sentiment (in blue) has abruptly disconnected. Until stock, options and crypto trading somehow takes over as the economy’s primary engine, consumer sentiment is still driving the economic bus here; and it’s not looking bullish.
