The Joe Biden Economy Is Like Groupon

Half off

Another sterling day in the stock market. German producer prices rose 45.8% year over year. Unexpectedly I am sure. That’s what happens when you have no plan for energy. Fossil fuels look good no? If they don’t, they might look a helluva lot better in a few months.

The above photo looks dreamy until you realize you don’t have heat.

Do you remember the stock market crash of 2008/09? I do. There was a startup company in Chicago that came of age then called “Groupon”. At the time, it was the fastest-growing internet company in history. They did an IPO but it was a terrible stock to own if you wanted to grow your portfolio. Kind of like being invested in Beyond Meat ($BYND) in the Joe Biden Economy.

Groupon ($GRPN) caught lightning in a bottle. It was just the right timing for them because the economy was terrible. People gravitated toward their pitch. The market ignored the underlying fundamentals of the business and when the economy improved Groupon’s hope of turning a profit went away.

In the Joe Biden Economy, where we have runaway inflation and seemingly the stock market drops by 1% or more every day, it might be time for Groupon to have another day in the sun.

If you held the S+P 500 ($SPY) on January 1st of this year and haven’t sold, your return is -17.25% including dividends that were reinvested. That’s an annualized gain of -24.12%. For what it’s worth the 2008 crash was 50%. Hey, we are halfway there! That’s something isn’t it?

It ain’t the Republicans or Trump’s fault. It’s right in the lap of Joe Biden and the Democrats. The buck stops with them. They instituted the green energy policies and all the stupid spending. It’s their party that is behind the laxity in enforcing laws in this country which are also impeding business and raising costs as evidenced by the speech the McDonald’s ($MCD) CEO gave to the Economic Club of Chicago last week at a lunch.

I am surprised the CEO was able to speak given how woke the ECC is. I used to be a member until the violence in Chicago pushed me to the suburbs of Las Vegas. The club used to be about business but it’s about virtue signaling now. It has been for the past few years. It was no surprise that Mickey D’s CEO was allocated time at a lunch and not one of their full-blown black tie dinners. The dinners are where an interviewer serves up softball questions to a left-wing guest. It’s the lunches when you learn stuff.

Citadel’s founder Ken Griffin spoke at a lunch about crime in the city. They scoffed at him so he moved his company to Florida. Years ago, two CEOs spoke at an ECC lunch about the public employee pension crisis in Illinois.

Meanwhile, all Democrats can talk about is abortion no matter what state you are in. No one cares when you can’t feed yourself, walk down the street without the threat of getting assaulted, or afford to heat your home.

I have said it before but it bears repeating. Wealthy people will put up with a lot of stuff to live in urban areas where there are things they like with easy access. They will not put up with not being safe.

No one is truly safe anywhere in the urban jungle these days given the way violence against people has been randomized. A lot of wealthy people I know in NYC, Chicago, and LA are traveling a lot right now. They aren’t at home. They stop in for a few days, regroup, and go to the airport again.

If you look at Minneapolis, Chicago, and San Francisco, it is a race to see who can be Detroit first. NYC is terrible right now when it comes to crime and daily living. So is Los Angeles. New Orleans is the murder capital of the country. Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville? Please spare me the Chamber of Commerce pitch. No doubt, tourists are balking at going to those places due to fear of crime.

Name an urban area that is a delightful place to live, has great public schools, doesn’t have rising crime, and you can build wealth right now. The only ones I can think of are in the Old Confederacy.

John Galt is shrugging. He is moving places. It’s not the weather.

Few understand the meaning behind the image above. Perhaps some of the readers of this blog can enlighten people in the comments.