DOES SPANKING VIOLATE THE NON-AGGRESSION PRINCIPLE?

'Soft' Data Soars To 2-Year Highs As Chicago PMI Smashes Expectations Market News International's Chicago Business Barometer smashed expectations this morning, print 57.7 - the highest since May 2022 - and above the highest analysts' expectation. This is the second straight month above 50 (signaling expansion) with new orders and employment surging (but prices also rising)... Prices paid rose at a faster pace; signaling expansion New orders rose at a faster pace; signaling expansion Employment rose and the direction reversed; signaling expansion Inventories fell and the direction reversed; signaling contraction Supplier deliveries rose at a faster...

Existing US Home Sales Plunged In March, Despite Falling Mortgage Rates Affordability-aiding lower mortgage rates battled a sentiment-sapping surge in geopolitical panic in March, with analysts expecting the latter to outweigh the former with a modest 0.7% MoM decline (after January's plunged - weather? - and February's modest rebound). The analysts under-estimated the fear from war-mongering as existing home sales plunged 3.6% MoM (down bigly from an upwardly revised 2.7% MoM jump in Feb). That is the second biggest drop in existing home sales since Nov 2022... Source: Bloomberg That dragged Existing Home...

Subprime Crisis 2.0: Will Private Credit Be The Trigger? Via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, We have recently tackled the rising stress in the Private Credit markets. Here are a few of our previous warnings: Fitzpatrick: Soros CEO & CIO Warns of a Reckoning Private Credit Stress: Will The Fed Backstop Exuberance Again? – RIA Is Private Equity A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing? After 30 years of watching credit cycles expand, distort, and collapse, I’ve learned one reliable rule: “When enough people start drawing comparisons to 2008, it’s worth stopping to check whether the analogy holds up — or whether...