🇺🇸 If the 4th Congressional District of Kentucky falls for this billionaire-facilitated foreign influence campaign, then they’re truly dimwitted people.

I don’t think they are. This isn’t their first rodeo, but it is the most thoroughly financed one. Let’s hope Paul Singer is flushing a few million.

🐘 CHART WATCH 🐘

🇺🇸 The Fed’s balance sheet drawdown has reached 26.18%.

🏦 CHART WATCH 🏦

🇨🇳 This Chinese Technology ETF ($CQQQ) looks very much like the $KWEB Chinese Internet fund, about which I wrote on the 19th:

Financial stimulus, low bond yields, & mandated buybacks are undergirding many of these equities, and the base on $KWEB looks technically strong.

📊 CHART WATCH 📊

🇺🇸 May have been the best Jackson Hole reaction ever…

🔼 CHART WATCH 🔼

🇺🇸 S&P 500 closes w/in 0.25% of record with greater than 80% NYSE advancing issues…

🎉 CHART WATCH 🎉

🇺🇸 Social Benefits Now Account for Nearly Half of U.S. Government Spending

“Demography is destiny.”
– Auguste Comte

🌐 CHART WATCH 🌐

🇺🇸🇪🇺🇳🇴🇨🇭🇬🇧 Europe & US: Real GDP

⬆️ Top 5: 🇭🇷🇧🇬🇵🇱🇱🇹🇺🇸

⬇️ Bottom 5: 🇩🇪🇫🇮🇪🇪🇦🇹🇨🇿

📊 CHART WATCH 📊

🇮🇱🇵🇸 This is the number of Palestinian civilians & militants killed by the Israeli army in Gaza between October 2023 & May 2025.

Netanyahu just claimed it was 1.5:1 ratio just the other day on Triggernometry (I refuse to check if their shitty name is spelled correctly):

Data from an internal Israeli intelligence database indicates that at least 83 percent of Palestinians killed in Israel’s onslaught on Gaza were civilians, an investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and the Guardian can reveal.

Figures obtained from the classified database — which records the deaths of militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — contradict by a huge margin the public statements of Israeli army and government officials throughout the war, which have generally claimed a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of civilian to militant casualties. Instead, the classified data backs up the findings of several studies suggesting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed civilians at a rate with few parallels in modern warfare. 

📊 CHART WATCH 📊

🇺🇸 S&P 500 Growth & Value Relative to S&P 500 (Percent Performance)

Value ($IVE) has gotten crushed and growth ($IVW) has ripped in this new easy money era…

📈 CHART WATCH 📉

🌐 The Global Oil Trade, in thousand barrels of crude oil per day…

🛢 CHART WATCH 🛢

🌐 $250,000,000,000 flowed into crypto yesterday…

🤑 CHART WATCH 🤑

💰 Ethereum has hit a new all-time high!

💲4️⃣🔣9️⃣3️⃣7️⃣

📈 CHART WATCH 📈

🌐 The World’s Least Affordable Housing Markets

🏚 CHART WATCH 🏚

🌎 Returns Leaderboard for the week ending on August 22nd (in USD)…

🥇 🇺🇸 U.S. Small Caps
🥇 🛢 WTI Crude Oil
🥇 🇺🇸 U.S. REITs

⬇️ Bitcoin, Magnificent 7, Japanese Equities

📊 CHART WATCH 📊

🇺🇸 The S&P 500 Volatility Index is at its lowest price year-to-date.

The last time the $VIX was at this level was December 16th, 2024.

📉 CHART WATCH 📉

🌎 Global drought risk by country in 2025 according to the INFORM Risk Index (0 = lowest risk, 10= highest risk)…

🌎 CHART WATCH 🌎

🇺🇸 U.S. Exports of Dollar Banknotes (Cumulative & Annual, in Billions US$)

By Q1 2025, U.S. currency held abroad reached $1.05 trillion, representing 45% of all U.S. currency in circulation. From 1970 to 2025, foreign-held U.S. banknotes grew at a 10.1% annual rate, rising from just $5.4 billion to more than a trillion, compared with 7.2% annual growth for total U.S. currency in circulation.

The sharpest surge occurred between 2008 and 2021, when overseas holdings jumped by $700 billion. The historical peak came during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, with an unprecedented $121 billion (15%) increase in a single year. Since 2022, however, foreign demand for U.S. banknotes has plateaued, showing little change through 2025—a shift partly reflecting the rise of digital payment systems and cryptocurrencies.

💰 CHART WATCH 💰

🇺🇸 The Oil Barrel-to-Big Mac Ratio.

An oil barrel just doesn’t buy as much as it used to…

🍟 CHART WATCH 🍟

🇺🇸 Probably due to the big move on Friday, hedging is back in fashion.

Investors prefer puts on $SPX to calls on $VIX these days.

🌐 CHART WATCH 🌐

🇺🇸 Al Adoption Rate*, by Firm Size.

* six survey moving average, biweekly surveys

🎨 CHART WATCH 🎨

🇺🇸 The Russell 2K ($IWM) vs. the S&P 500 ($SPY)

Small caps are back.

📈 CHART WATCH 📈