Greenspan: The Great Opportunist

How Brazil's Government Is Making Work Illegal Authored by Henrique Torrescasana Trevisan via Mises Institute, More than 38 million Brazilian workers fall outside the reach of one of the most extensive labor codes in Latin America, and yet the National Congress is close to making that code even more rigid through a bill that would abolish the six-day work schedule known as "6x1." In the first half of 2026, the country's informality rate hovered around 37.4 percent of the employed population, a level that has persisted even as Brazil's labor market has...

Rare Earth Stocks Hit 52-Week Low As William Blair Says China Supply Optimism Is "Incorrect" Our "Great Rare Earth Disconnect" note earlier this week highlighted the widening gap between elevated rare earth prices and tumbling junior miners and producers. William Blair rare-earths analyst Neal Dingmann has also weighed in on the forces driving the selloff. "Revived rate-hike fears, hot CPI, and other macro concerns along with rare earth headline and company-specific concerns have notably hurt the largely high-beta rare earth group in recent weeks," Dingmann wrote. The VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic...

Here's Why the US Manufacturing Surveys Are Diverging So Dramatically... Update (1015ET): As we noted below, there was a significant divergence between the two manufacturing surveys for July... which is not that unusual, and also an odd divergence between falling inflation expectations and universally rising commodity prices. Based on the responses to the ISM survey, we may have found the answer... and it's a familiar one in this bifurcated economy... Green ones from AI, semiconductor, electronics and machinery firms report strong demand from AI data centers, chips and defense. Red ones from metals,...