Tucker Carlson, Unmasked

The self-styled champion of individual liberty wants you to call government agents to punish Americans for their parenting.

Social media has so conditioned people to expect hyperbole that there’s a perverse satisfaction when a clip is truly as bad as advertised. Last night, a viral tweet claimed that Fox News’s Tucker Carlson had told his audience to harass people on the street wearing masks—and to “call the police immediately; contact child protective services” if they saw a child wearing one.

Surely, this couldn’t be a fair description; naturally, it was. Having spent the early part of the month espousing the white-supremacist “great replacement theory,” Carlson is now seeking to use the power of the state to harass and immiserate his political opponents:

Carlson delivered his rant with the combination of astonished indignation, obvious bad faith, and smug sarcasm with which he delivers everything these days, a volatile mix that makes it impossible to know when and to what extent he’s trolling. Like his fellow traveler Donald Trump, Carlson delights in making appalling statements with a straight face and then insisting he was just joking; unlike Trump, Carlson has in the past shown enough of a sense of humor that you can’t discount that possibility.

Trying to figure out Carlson’s “real” feelings is not only impossible but beside the point. Whether he’s disingenuous or delusional, many people will hear what he says and take it seriously and literally. We have several recent examples of the Fox audience being misled into believing falsehoods, including denying the reality of COVID-19 and subscribing to bogus claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

Carlson’s diatribe is a useful data point for how American conservatism has transformed, especially in the Trump era, from a movement that (at least putatively) believes in limited government to one that primarily prizes marshaling the power of the state to punish those who disagree with it. With Trump in eclipse, Carlson is the most visible face of the new conservative movement.

Although Carlson makes a lot of ridiculous claims in a short period in this clip, it is his comments about children that are most disturbing. After complaining that mask mandates imposed by the state are equivalent to living in North Korea, Carlson executes two athletic rhetorical maneuvers. First, he goes from describing mask wearing as excessive to describing it as abusive, and second, he elides the difference between a government mandate and a personal choice.

“As for forcing children to wear masks outside, that should be illegal,” Carlson sputters. “Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from seeing someone beating a kid at Walmart: Call the police immediately; contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives. What you’re looking at is abuse. It’s child abuse, and you’re morally obligated to attempt to prevent it.”

One doesn’t need a lot of imagination to game out where this is going. Some viewers will take Carlson’s possibly arch exhortations to heart. They’ll call the police and child protective services. In most cases, authorities will ignore those calls. In some cases, especially if the callers repeatedly summon police as Carlson demands, they could be charged with filing false claims; it’s a good bet that neither he nor Fox News will be there to help them if they are. In other cases, encounters will end poorly for the innocent parents involved. The news is full of examples of how police called to respond to petty or wholly imagined offenses end up gravely injuring or even killing people. (Carlson believes Derek Chauvin was wrongly convicted.)

But when government authorities fail to intervene—because, of course, no laws are being broken—Carlson’s fans may feel the moral obligation to take matters into their own hands, just like Edgar Maddison Welch, who stormed into a Washington, D.C., pizzeria heavily armed in 2016, because he wanted to prevent child abuse that he wrongly believed was occurring there. No one was hurt in that incident, though someone easily could have been. Welch spent about three years in prison.

Carlson’s argument isn’t really about masks. As he grudgingly admitted, the Biden administration had already signaled that new guidance would soon make clear that mask wearing outside is not necessary for fully vaccinated people; the CDC released that guidance this afternoon. Perhaps the change could have come faster, but conservatives have traditionally applauded the deliberate process of government, because it prevents tyranny and abuse of citizens.

Even after new guidance, some people will decide to continue wearing masks outside. Perhaps they feel more comfortable that way. People exercising sometimes extreme caution about their health is neither new or a nuisance. Perhaps they are immunocompromised, or have immunocompromised family members or friends. Ultimately, it’s none of my business or Tucker Carlson’s business why they are doing so, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone, which neither he nor anyone else has established they are.

That’s the sort of personal choice that conservatives have also traditionally defended. Though Carlson masquerades as a defender of free speech (one of several poses he’s tried on over the years), he must know that the government has no business telling citizens what they cannot wear. It is, to borrow Carlson’s analogy, like being forced to wear a Kim Il Sung pin in Pyongyang. Unlike mandates to wear masks, which stem from a public-health interest, a government rule punishing people for wearing masks during a pandemic serves no compelling interest. As for children, conservatives have long argued that families should enjoy autonomy about their parenting decisions, without undue interference from the state.

But Carlson doesn’t object to the state harassing people or exercising undue power. He delights in it, as long as the state is harassing the people he hates. The cruelty, as my colleague Adam Serwer has said, is the point. This is the lodestar of the Trump and post-Trump GOP, which values owning the libs above all—not merely rhetorically, but with the fist of government. Thus Trump asserted that he had the authority to override state and local coronavirus shutdowns (before hastily backtracking when it became clear that he had no such power). He sought to involve the federal government in decisions of colleges and universities in order to muzzle speech. And he celebrated police violence, even as he moaned that he was the victim of overzealous law enforcement.

It is tempting to read incoherence in Trump’s arguments, or in Carlson’s: How can they both be against government mandating masks, on the basis of personal liberty, and also demand that the government prevent people from wearing them? In fact, the principle is straightforward enough. Small government for me, but not for thee.

 

Stimulus Checks, Larry Summers, plus Mark Crispin Miller on Academic Freedom | Useful Idiots

Matt and Katie discuss the latest on the debate over Covid stimulus negotiations, NYU professor Mark Crispin Miller talks academic freedom.

Ben Hunt: Direct Personal Action: Covid-19 Masks: (Front Line Heroes)

54:26
Eric it’s not gonna stop then at some
54:29
point in this crisis I know things kind
54:31
of something snapped for you because we
54:34
got to the point where the government’s
54:35
basically not doing anything terribly
54:38
productive I know at one point I was
54:40
actually following a story where there
54:42
were paramedics in New York City
54:45
dumpster diving behind the hospital
54:47
looking for n95 masks because nobody had
54:51
their act together they weren’t able to
54:53
order the right ones at some point
54:55
something snapped for you and you just
54:56
heard about this stuff and you said I’m
54:58
gonna take personal action to get n95
55:01
masks into the hands of the people in
55:04
the front line who need them
55:05
tell us what is front line heroes but
55:08
more importantly how did it come about
55:09
and what was your experience I mean
55:12
you’re you’re a very comfortable finance
55:14
guy with a great career great reputation
55:15
I’m sure you never imagined yourself
55:17
starting a charity before this all
55:20
happened something happen for you and
55:22
all of a sudden everything changed tell
55:23
us what that was like you know what what
55:25
clicked for me Eric is that
55:28
I’ve been railing about our our trickle
55:30
down economy for so long right where
55:34
where the the policy fiscal policy
55:37
monetary policy particularly it’s really
55:40
designed to support what I like to call
55:44
the the naked sinews of power and it
55:48
really comes to a head in a crisis where
55:51
you reveal that this Pleasant skin of
55:53
democracy and capitalism that that we
55:56
all believe in and and once so
55:59
desperately for ourselves and our
56:01
children it’s it’s just a skin right and
56:04
then underneath it are all these
56:06
policies which are designed to prop up
56:08
and bail out and support the status quo
56:12
wealth and an economy of the of the very
56:16
wealthy and the very politically
56:17
connected and what really clicked for me
56:20
in this this come in nineteen crisis was
56:22
it’s the same thing with medical
56:27
supplies its trickle down its trickle
56:30
down Eric where the very well-connected
56:33
the very politically connected the crony
56:36
capitalism that we see in in our economy
56:40
it’s the same thing in our health care
56:42
where you know supposedly we have these
56:45
millions of n95 masks that are
56:48
stockpiled and unavailable and yet like
56:51
you there are there are horror stories
56:56
of doctors and nurses and EMTs and in
57:00
firemen and policemen and first
57:01
responders who are forced to put not
57:06
only their own lives but when you talk
57:08
to the to these these heroes right what
57:11
they’re really concerned about is
57:13
bringing this risk home to their
57:14
families and that’s what they are forced
57:18
to do in this trickle-down system we
57:21
have not just for wealth but for medical
57:25
supplies for protecting again we call
57:28
them frontline heroes the the doctors
57:30
the nurses the EMTs the firemen who are
57:34
who are responding who are fighting this
57:36
war for us so that that’s what clicked
57:40
you know what
57:41
snapped in me Eric was was to to find a
57:45
way not to compete with the federal
57:49
government and FEMA and the state
57:52
management authorities right not to try
57:55
to buy a million in 95 masks and drive
58:01
up the price and you know do all that
58:04
which is a real problem but I’ll be
58:06
damned if I was gonna wait for FEMA and
58:09
these state emergency authorities to
58:12
find the time to trickle down masks to
58:16
the to the people who need them so
58:18
desperately so that was that that was
58:21
the I say the inspiration for for our
58:24
effort and I’m gonna I want to plug it
58:27
right now right it’s frontline heroes
58:31
usa.org all one word frontline heroes
58:36
usa.org and though the way it came about
58:39
was this is the the crazy world we live
58:43
in right Eric we’re where social media
58:45
is both horrible but he’s so many ways
58:48
but it’s also wonderful at connecting so
58:51
many people I got a Twitter DM from an
58:55
epsilon Theory reader who works for
58:57
Intel and he said you know look we’ve
59:00
got we’ve got a ton of employees intel
59:03
does over in China and I reached out to
59:07
a couple of my friends over there you
59:09
know they can they can buy these these
59:11
in 95 equivalent masks they’re they’re
59:14
pretty they’re plentiful over there in
59:16
China you know they’re not that
59:18
expensive and so I’ve had a couple of
59:20
buddies to go online order some in 95
59:24
masks ship him over here to me and you
59:28
know a bag of a DHL bag of like a
59:30
hundred masks and then I’m giving them
59:34
to a local hospital or clinic that that
59:36
really desperately needs them he was
59:39
calling from he reached out from
59:41
Portland Oregon where you know obviously
59:43
the in the early days there was a lot of
59:46
need for the for this equipment
59:48
okay so listeners who want to help get
59:51
personal protective equipment in the
59:53
hands of our frontline heroes
59:55
by going to frontline heroes usa.org
59:58
they can make a donation on the website
60:00
that directly results in effectively I
60:03
don’t want to say this too bluntly but I
60:05
want to anyway bypassing FEMA and all
60:08
the of the federal government
60:10
and actually getting the stuff to the
60:12
people who need it right now that’s what
60:14
we’ve done Eric we’ve we’ve created an
60:16
end-to-end distribution system where we
60:19
are not only able to buy and source
60:22
these masks where they are plentiful and
60:25
where they are cheap which is typically
60:27
over in China we’re getting them in
60:29
small quantities we like to call it like
60:32
an underground railroad of PPE we get it
60:35
over here to the States we get it tested
60:38
at a at a Medical Center to make sure
60:41
we’re getting quality merchandise and
60:44
then we are getting it directly into the
60:48
hands of the individual doctors and
60:51
nurses and EMTs who then distribute it
60:54
to their teams we can’t get ten thousand
60:58
or a hundred thousand masks to a
61:01
hospital system that’s not what we’re
61:04
about
61:04
what we’re about is getting a hundred
61:06
masks 200 masks to a clinic in
61:11
Indianapolis to a hospital in New
61:14
Orleans all around the country we’ve
61:17
been able to make these direct
61:19
connections with these frontline heroes
61:22
who are in actual urgent need of this
61:25
equipment to date we’ve raised over
61:27
seven hundred thousand dollars
61:29
we have bought and distributed over
61:33
60,000 in 95 equivalent masks to more
61:37
than six hundred individual clinics
61:41
hospitals EMT departments you name it
61:46
all across the country and I gotta tell
61:49
you Eric we’re just getting started man
61:52
we’ve got a lot of entrepreneurs and
61:54
business people in our audience I hope
61:57
that your actions will inspire some of
61:59
them to think about what kind of charity
62:02
they could create what what words of
62:04
either motivation or advice would you
62:05
have to someone who’s considering doing
62:07
something like
62:09
maybe they’ve figured out a different
62:10
way that they’d like to help our
62:12
healthcare heroes or someone else
62:14
through this crisis well the the first
62:17
recommendation I have is just do it just
62:20
do it right if you’re waiting for
62:22
someone to organize you if you’re
62:24
waiting for someone to give you
62:25
permission you know that’s that’s what
62:30
we’ve been so ingrained and in custom to
62:33
that that’s what that’s what government
62:36
in big corporations that’s what they do
62:37
to you they make you think you you can’t
62:40
act unless you are being led or
62:44
organized by them and so my the first
62:47
thing and the most important thing I’d
62:48
say is that’s a crock you just get up
62:52
and you just do it you just do now when
62:55
it comes to actually raising money right
62:57
and it is important I think to operate
63:00
under the the 501c3 framework both to to
63:05
take in donations and and have it you
63:08
know enjoy that that tax advantaged
63:11
properties of it which is really
63:12
important but even more so it really
63:15
enforces and requires an element of
63:18
oversight and documentation that that is
63:22
so important when when money’s involved
63:26
now to establish a 501c3 from scratch is
63:30
pretty hard takes a lot of it’s not hard
63:32
it takes time what we were able to do
63:35
and I think what what many of your
63:37
listeners will be able to do to to
63:40
really I’ll say formalize this and to
63:43
get it started as a as a registered 501
63:47
C 3 is to find an existing 501 C 3
63:51
charity and in your community your
63:53
organization and partner with them to be
63:57
a program or initiative of that existing
64:01
501 C 3 organization so somebody who’s
64:05
already got the IRS letter designating
64:07
them as a 501 C 3 piggyback on them
64:10
partner with them and use their IRS
64:12
letter correct that’s that’s exactly
64:15
what we did and I think it’s a way to
64:18
get these programs up and moving more
64:22
quickly than
64:23
the delays in the red tape from from
64:25
getting your own 501 C 3 designation I
64:28
think it’s important to have that
64:31
designation and to have the oversight
64:33
and controls that that requires but I
64:36
also think that you can move more
64:38
quickly if you find an organization in
64:42
your community an existing 501 C 3 that
64:45
you can work with man I can’t thank you
64:47
enough for a terrific interview before
64:48
we let you go your epsilon theory
64:52
newsletter is one of the most popular
64:54
and one of the most fascinating in the
64:56
industry tell us briefly about that and
64:58
where’s the website and Twitter handle
65:00
so people can find out more sure well
65:03
it’s easy to find it’s epsilon Theory
65:06
comm and on Twitter it’s at epsilon
65:09
Theory you know it comes from the old
65:13
investment equation of alpha and beta
65:16
there’s a third term on there called
65:18
epsilon and usually you know epsilon is
65:22
efore error but honestly Eric that’s
65:25
that’s where all of the behavioral
65:27
economics lives that’s where all of I
65:30
think narrative lives we call it the
65:33
error term but I think there’s a lot of
65:35
information there so that’s epsilon
65:37
theory calm and at epsilon theory on
65:40
Twitter I thought you were gonna tell me
65:43
the e is for extraordinary monetary
65:45
policy and fiscal balance sheet
65:47
expansion a fantastic reading though and
65:50
in great insights so I highly recommend
65:52
it to our listeners we’re gonna leave it
65:54
there
65:54
Patrick’s our resna and I will be back
65:56
as macro voices continues right here at
65:58
macro voices calm
66:07
macro voices is a listener driven
66:10
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66:12
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66:15
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66:18
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66:20
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66:24
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66:26
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66:29
your suggestions for how we can improve
66:30
the program now back to your hosts eric
66:34
townsend and Patricks resna eric goes
66:38
great to have been back on the show what
66:40
did you take away from the interview
66:41
well I thought the most important thing
66:44
that he said which echoes something I’ve
66:45
said before is the one thing that you
66:48
really almost have to get at least
66:51
mostly right in investing is you’ve got
66:54
to have a view on whether we’ve got a
66:57
backdrop which is deflationary or
66:59
inflationary or maybe it’s in between
67:02
and and you have a moderate view but you
67:05
got to have some kind of view because
67:06
the investments and the way you
67:08
structure your portfolio is either gonna
67:10
work or not going to work based on that
67:12
and I think we’re headed for a secular
67:15
shift that I don’t know Ben doesn’t know
67:18
none of our guests have been willing to
67:20
really you know put a stake in the
67:22
ground and lay out here’s what’s gonna
67:23
happen
67:24
because I don’t think anybody knows
67:25
what’s gonna happen but all the
67:26
ingredients are there over the next few
67:29
years for deflation to eventually end
67:31
and give way to inflation and I think
67:35
that the politics are gonna play a big
67:37
role in this we’re seeing all of the
67:39
different political parties seeming to
67:42
favor more what effectively is
67:45
monetization and you know it’s it’s
67:47
interesting how each of our guests have
67:49
different views on this we got a few
67:51
emails about dr. Lacey hunt making such
67:54
a big deal saying look the Fed doesn’t
67:57
have the ability to spend money all that
67:59
they can do is to loan money and provide
68:03
liquidity into the market and that’s all
68:05
based on this idea Patrick that when the
68:07
government engages in deficit spending
68:10
the Fed is not directly buying that debt
68:14
instead
68:15
it’s being sent and there’s you know
68:17
free market price discovery occurring
68:20
because a private sector party is buying
68:23
that debt from the government and that
68:25
allows the interest rate to be set at
68:28
market rates and the Fed is not allowed
68:30
to buy that debt directly from the
68:33
government well if that’s the whole
68:36
intention of the Federal Reserve Act but
68:39
in practice the way it works is that
68:41
debt has to get sold to a private sector
68:45
banker who is going to turn it around
68:48
two days later and sell it to the Fed at
68:51
a markup that that’s not you know
68:53
private-sector market price discovery
68:55
that’s just a sham that allows the
68:58
primary dealers to mark up what they’re
69:00
buying and sell it back to a guaranteed
69:03
buyer of the Fed who’s effectively
69:05
monetizing I don’t really agree with dr.
69:07
hunt and other people who say that the
69:10
Fed can’t spend money there they’re
69:12
indirectly doing so by working around
69:14
the intention of the Federal Reserve Act
69:17
and I think they’re already doing that
69:18
to a large extent anyway let’s get to
69:21
the postgame chart book Patrick you put
69:23
together another terrific chart Dec
69:25
listeners you’ll find the download link
69:27
in your research roundup email now if
69:30
you don’t have a research roundup email
69:31
that means you haven’t yet or registered
69:33
your free account at macro voices.com
69:35
shame on you you can remedy that by just
69:38
going to macro voices.com and looking
69:40
for the red button on the homepage that
69:42
says looking for the downloads Patrick
69:45
let’s go ahead and dive in here on page
69:47
two this looks like a chart of the S&P
69:51
but you got a bunch of other secondary
69:54
studies around the S&P what’s going on
69:57
here right so what we had was the sp500
70:00
we’ve been drawing on analog of what a
70:02
bear market would look like and going
70:04
through all sorts of storylines over the
70:06
last month but what what I really wanted
70:09
to touch on was what’s a growing thing
70:11
in the market is that everyone’s
70:13
focusing on the big behemoth stocks that
70:15
have been running like Amazon fresh new
70:17
highs and all these other mega cap
70:19
stocks that have been running and it’s
70:21
been driving the Nasdaq and when you
70:23
look at the Nasdaq which is the black
70:24
line on there we can see that it we
70:27
almost approach
70:28
the pre bear market high and really the
70:32
bigger question to ask is how did the
70:34
Nasdaq pull this off and what’s really
70:37
amazing is is that it’s just a handful
70:39
of stocks so when you look at the five
70:41
mega cap stocks the largest market
70:43
capital I stocks in the NASDAQ and the
70:46
S&P 500 and they just have a monstrous
70:50
weighting into the indices so in the
70:53
sp500 those five stocks make up 20% of
70:57
the weighting so that means the other
70:59
495 stocks in that index make up the
71:02
other 80% and therefore as go those
71:06
stocks goes the whole market and what’s
71:08
interesting is that when you look at the
71:10
indices that don’t have the market cap
71:13
weighting of those five stocks it paints
71:15
a much different picture so what I have
71:17
here is the Dow Jones which is price
71:20
weighted then you have the London
71:23
footsie in yellow you have the emerging
71:25
markets you have the Euro Stock 50 as
71:29
well as the Russell which is the small
71:31
cap indices and what you can identify
71:33
here is that once you take out those
71:36
five mega cap stocks the indices look
71:40
incredibly weak everywhere in the world
71:42
and this is what I continue to believe
71:45
is giving us the evidence that this is
71:47
still truly a bear market and a bear
71:49
market rally just because you have
71:51
enough market participants willing to
71:54
crowd into a few of these mega stocks
71:56
and drive their prices higher is not
71:59
really reflective of the underpinning
72:02
conditions from a breadth perspective
72:04
that of a very deteriorated equity
72:06
market once you leave those five stocks
72:08
and so to me it’s still a bear market
72:10
rally and it’s still rolling over
72:12
we’ll see certainly next week once we
72:14
get past the option expiration gamma
72:16
pins whether or not another round of
72:18
selling may be coming into June moving
72:21
on to page three Patrick looking at the
72:23
euro versus the dollar
72:26
boy this charts looking a little bearish
72:28
I guess you could call this either a
72:29
descending triangle or a wedge depending
72:31
on how you draw around that that late
72:33
march bottom there what do you make of
72:36
this well really you turn this chart
72:38
upside down and you got the dollar index
72:40
right and what’s amazing
72:42
a dollar index still has such a huge
72:44
waiting into the euro of 57% waiting and
72:48
so really as goes the Euro goes the
72:51
dollar index and so what we can
72:53
continuously see here over the last
72:55
month and a half every attempt the euro
72:59
has had to rally and make it stick it’s
73:02
lasted no more than a week and almost
73:05
immediately the selling comes back down
73:07
and and brings it right to the bottom of
73:09
the range and it’s just such a weak
73:11
price action now all you need is it’s
73:14
like a the euros at the edge of a cliff
73:16
and all it needs is someone to give it a
73:18
push and if it loses its footing here we
73:20
could be seeing a euro move down to 105
73:23
or 103 which would certainly be the
73:26
underpinning catalyst that will drive
73:28
the Dixie up towards that 104 target
73:31
that you’ve often referenced and so this
73:33
is a the must watch chart in my mind and
73:35
it has so many global macro implications
73:38
if it gives out so this is probably a
73:40
single big the most important chart to
73:42
watch in my opinion but I really don’t
73:44
want to highlight further if we go to
73:47
page 4 when we look at the dollar index
73:49
it really feels like the dollars been
73:52
doing nothing but really once you leave
73:55
the euro and you go and start looking at
73:58
the rest of the currencies around the
74:00
world and particularly when you move
74:02
into the emerging market currencies you
74:04
can see just how incredibly weak all
74:07
those currencies have been relative to
74:09
the dollar whether you go to Mexico
74:10
Brazil Argentina and the Russian ruble
74:13
here you have the South African Rand and
74:16
the Turkish lira all just so incredibly
74:20
weak and that just continues to support
74:22
that there is a fundamental US dollar
74:24
bull market underway and it’s being
74:26
disguised by the fact that the euro has
74:28
been pinned which makes the dollar index
74:30
look like it’s far more range bound but
74:32
I actually think the US dollar is in
74:35
full bull trend and in it’s just a
74:37
matter of time before the Euro gives out
74:39
and succumbs to that predominant trend
74:41
Patrick let’s move on to page 5 one of
74:44
my favorite charts of course is gold and
74:46
boy look at that breakout we’ve seen
74:48
just in the last couple of days all for
74:50
sure and and you were talking about it
74:52
and this is the big question right when
74:54
everybody is so convinced gold
74:56
going higher usually whenever you have
74:58
that kind of a strong sentiment usually
75:01
it means that the trade is crowded in a
75:03
backfills and so that and that storyline
75:06
makes sense but but you know when you
75:08
really look at the conditions around the
75:10
world and the size of the gold market is
75:13
it possible that it just keeps you know
75:15
punching higher and and making fresh new
75:18
highs I mean we’re right now only a
75:20
hundred or two hundred dollars away from
75:23
those 2011 highs it’s it will be really
75:26
interesting whether or not gold makes
75:28
the next push higher first before that
75:30
much awaited consolidation kicks in well
75:34
and that’s something I’ve been thinking
75:35
about a lot is maybe that’s the next
75:38
move is up to 1922 I think was the the
75:42
2011 that’s from memory so don’t don’t
75:44
hate me if I got it wrong folks we get
75:47
back to the the 2011 high and that’s
75:50
where we have a significant technical
75:53
correction maybe back down to 1500 or
75:56
1400 or something from there the
75:59
problems with this you know look that
76:00
you couldn’t ask for better long-term
76:03
fundamentals you know that the
76:05
politicians are gonna debase fiat
76:07
currency you know they’re gonna keep on
76:09
printing money to deal with the
76:11
coronavirus crisis and the next thing
76:14
after the coronavirus crisis is going to
76:16
be universal basic income in the various
76:18
social programs that some parts of the
76:21
the political economy would like to see
76:23
in place there’s got so many reasons to
76:25
be bullish but the problem is everybody
76:28
knows that and what propels a bull
76:31
market higher is when something causes
76:35
people to make new purchases and a lot
76:39
of them what could be the policy impetus
76:42
Patrick that causes everybody to say
76:44
okay this situation it’s more bullish
76:46
than we thought we got to double down on
76:48
our gold bets right here at this price I
76:50
mean look at what the Fed has already
76:52
done Patrick literally unlimited
76:55
monetary policy accommodation to the
76:58
tune of half a trillion dollars a week
77:00
or at least it feels that way and you
77:02
know for a while we were going a couple
77:04
trillion dollars a week in new fiscal
77:07
spending bills that Congress is talking
77:09
about push
77:10
you know that they’re going to debase
77:13
the value of paper money and it’s got to
77:15
be good for gold but how do you top all
77:18
of that how do you come up with the next
77:20
news report that makes the case even
77:23
more compelling it’s already priced in I
77:26
think that’s what got us up here so what
77:28
happens Patrick if the Fed actually were
77:30
to show some restraint and maybe
77:33
moderate the amount of policy
77:35
accommodation and what if we stopped
77:37
having two trillion dollar spending
77:39
announcements from the government every
77:41
week or two then maybe we get you know
77:44
the set up so we’ve come on awfully long
77:46
ways we’re overdue for a technical
77:48
correction I still feel like it has to
77:50
come at some point but boy this chart
77:52
still looks awfully strong the this
77:54
descending triangle if it had resolved
77:56
to the downside was the setup for maybe
77:59
a really significant correction and it
78:01
looks like it’s not happening we’re
78:02
resolving to the upside instead well you
78:05
know the one thing I’ll add to that
78:06
those I mean you took a very American
78:09
approach to that which is like looking
78:11
at what the Fed itself is doing in the
78:12
US dollar obviously is the world reserve
78:14
currency but the whole world is in an
78:17
incredibly deep recession and there’s
78:19
going to be a lot of currency debasement
78:21
in in almost every country in the world
78:24
and so why you know even if there might
78:27
be a catalyst that may not have that
78:29
gold demand from the US you have to
78:31
still think that that the the safe haven
78:34
element of gold will be incredibly
78:36
popular especially in a lot of those
78:37
other cross currencies anyway let’s move
78:40
on to page six where I just wanted to
78:43
touch on uranium we don’t talk uranium
78:45
too often and rightfully so riga rana
78:48
has been a stuck in a bear market for
78:50
many many years
78:51
and what is interesting is one of the
78:54
reasons behind that has been because
78:56
there was an oversupply and they needed
78:58
to work that through that oversupply
79:00
uranium that has caused it to trade
79:03
below its actual production cost and so
79:07
what what this co vid has done though is
79:09
is that it actually shut down a number
79:12
of mines and now the catalyst for that
79:14
supply to be worked off is actually
79:17
there and so we saw a pretty bullish
79:19
breakout in uranium and they’ll be
79:21
really interesting to see whether the
79:23
bull
79:23
can not only hold this or whether this
79:26
actually is the beginning of a new bull
79:27
market in uranium so it’s certainly
79:29
something we’re watching and folks don’t
79:32
forget Patrick does webinars with charts
79:34
like this almost every single day you
79:36
can get a free trial the information is
79:38
on page 7 to sign up for Patrick’s
79:41
trading advisory service now Eric before
79:43
we wrap up the show though why don’t you
79:45
give us a quick update on what’s going
79:47
on with the kovat 19 you know I don’t
79:49
have that much new to add this week as I
79:52
continue to learn and read more about
79:54
this there’s no you know huge
79:57
earth-shaking headline or anything but I
80:00
just see more and more evidence that all
80:02
piles up to me to say this is gonna take
80:04
longer than markets are discounting I
80:07
don’t mean the economy is gonna stay
80:09
shut down but the expectations so many
80:11
people have about a v-shaped recovery
80:13
and we’re back to normal like pre virus
80:15
normal you know three or four months
80:17
from now I just don’t see it happening
80:19
there’s no good reason to assume that
80:21
there’s going to be a vaccine for this
80:24
and there’s so many different variations
80:26
and mutations of the virus already that
80:29
if we did have a vaccine it might not
80:31
cover all the different versions of it
80:33
it could take many years before we get
80:35
completely back to normal and of course
80:37
we’re going to restart the economy what
80:40
we’re gonna get is close to normal as we
80:42
can but it remains to be seen how much
80:45
of a drag this creates and I I really
80:47
love to to get Stan Druckenmiller on the
80:49
program to go into more detail on what
80:52
causes him to say that maybe this
80:54
central bank enabled credit bubble is
80:57
finally going to pop and this would be
80:58
the catalyst to do it that would really
81:01
change everything and we could be
81:02
looking at an outright depression so I
81:05
don’t think it’s nearly as simple as
81:07
v-shaped recovery and folks we’re gonna
81:09
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81:52
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81:56
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81:58
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81:59
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82:01
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82:04
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82:05
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82:08
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82:59
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you