The Barbell Economy: Why The Middle Is Vanishing

JPMorgan Limits Lending To Private Credit Groups After Marking Down Loan Collateral The barrage of negative private credit news, now that the $1.8 trillion bubble has burst, is coming hot and heavy.  Following last night's report that Cliffwater, a private credit interval fund which according to Rubric Capital "is the canary in the coal mine and will be the first domino in the bank run” was the latest fund to be hit with 7% in investor redemptions (and unlike BlackRock, interval funds can not gate investors), this morning the FT reported that JPMorgan...

JPMorgan Says The Real Threat To Bitcoin Isn't Strategy (MSTR), It's Private Blockchains Authored by Micah Zimmerman via BitcoinMagazine.com, Strategy’s recent bitcoin sales and its formal monetization program have rattled investors, but JPMorgan analysts see a bigger danger to bitcoin: blockchain adoption that routes around public networks and the tokens that ride on them. In a report led by managing director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou (ZH: available here for professional subscribers), the bank argued that Strategy is not the main structural threat to the asset.  The company sold 3,588 bitcoin for $216 million in early July to cover...

Hyatt Executive Chairman Thomas Pritzker Resigns Over Epstein Ties Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, Thomas J. Pritzker, the longtime executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, announced his retirement effective immediately on Feb. 16, acknowledging what he described as “terrible judgment” in maintaining contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Pritzker, 75, said in a statement released by the company on Monday that he will also not stand for reelection to Hyatt’s board of directors at the company’s 2026 annual shareholder meeting. In a letter shared...