Private Credit: The New Junk Bond Market

BofA Sees Customer Gas Spending Jump 16%, But Discretionary Spending Holds Up The national average for 87-octane gasoline has remained above the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon level for two straight weeks after the largest monthly jump in AAA data going back two decades. The fuel shock has Wall Street analysts focused on whether surging pump prices will begin crowding out discretionary spending. Bank of America CFO Alastair Borthwick told analysts on a conference call earlier today that the fuel shock at the pump has not undermined overall consumer strength so far, though...

Welcome To The Lowest-Common-Denominator Society Authored by James Hickman via SchiffSovereign.com, For decades, Germany operated its rail system on an honor model. There were no turnstiles, no barriers. Passengers bought tickets, boarded trains, and conductors performed random spot checks to make sure everyone had paid. It was a system built on trust— and for a long time, it worked, because Germany was a fundamentally law-abiding society. That system has been fraying over the last several years as Germany aggressively imported millions of migrants who don’t respect the law. The most egregious example took place...

Madness At The Grocery Store Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times, Sometimes it is just a mood. Sometimes it’s the store or the product. Regardless, I can hardly go to the grocery store these days without a sense of shock at how much I’m spending even while buying as little as possible. Money-saving tactics—choosing cheaper venues, substituting products, just eating less—don’t seem to work anymore. Grocery days used to be happy. Smiles all around. The bounty was all around us. We met people and had quick and charming conversations, even talking...