Hello everyone, this is a special Scouting Report in response to recent activities that I believe are of immense importance.
It’s a somewhat complicated story, and possibly one where I am connecting dots into a pattern that does not map to reality, but if my pattern is correct, then things are about to get extra spicy for the U.S. and global financial markets.
Stocks Are for Show, but Bonds Are for Dough
We live under a debt-based monetary regime. Anchoring that system has been U.S. Treasury bonds. As we all know, those have been selling off for a while, meaning that rates have been rising, and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been very actively attempting to wrestle those rates lower.
Interestingly, that’s really the Federal Reserve’s job, which they must have declined for some reason. I suspect that reason is the Fed is worried about inflation, which consists of two main components: (1) the actual mismatch between money and goods and services and (2) inflation expectations.
It’s that second component that’s the tricky one. The reality of inflation is one thing, but it’s really our collective expectations of what inflation is going to be in the future that propels the dynamic into hyperdrive. Example: if inflation is 5% that’s painful but manageable. If we all think inflation is going to be 10% next year, then we all start spending faster, which makes inflation tick higher.
If we all think that inflation is going