Capitalism
May 1, 2026 — Bill Glahn
A tempest in a tea cup over baguettes in France on May Day (today, May 1). From the Irish Times, Vive le capitalisme? France allows flower shops and bakeries to open on May Day. Apparently, May 1 is the Labor Day holiday in France. Because they are communists. The Times reports, French people will find it easier to buy a fresh baguette and a bouquet of flowers on Labour Day
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April 30, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From the New York Post, US economy grows 2% as layoffs plunge to 55-year low, inflation lingers. That sounds mostly encouraging. From the Associated Press (AP), Key inflation gauge jumps to highest level in 3 years as Iran war spikes gas prices Yikes! “Highest level in three years”! Say, does anyone remember who was President three years ago? I don’t and apparently neither does the AP. From CNBC, Dow surges
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April 24, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From CNBC, S&P 500, Nasdaq close at records, boosted by Intel, as investors hope for a restart to U.S.-Iran talks. The S&P 5oo index closed at a new record high of 7,165, just below the new record intra-day high of 7,168. The index was up for the day and the week and is up about 4 1/2 percent for 2026 year to date. Not everyone is enamored of capitalism these
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April 23, 2026 — Bill Glahn
It was an insane day on Wall Street today. Zerohedge documented it all, complete with timestamps, This is how you generate a lot of artificial volatility (all times ET): 12:57pm: Israel on high alert ahead of possible renewed war this weekend: Channel 13 1:03pm: Ghalibaf has resigned as parliament speaker under IRGC pressure: N12 News 1:35 pm: Reports of air defense activation in Tehran: Nour 1:48pm: Israel denies it launched
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April 22, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From Reuters, S&P, Nasdaq close at records on Iran ceasefire extension, earnings. The earnings news, First-quarter earnings growth is tracking at about 14%, according to LSEG data. The S&P 500 index was up today over 1 percent. For year-to-date 2026, the index is up over 4 percent and up almost 35 percent for the past twelve months. Your mileage may vsry.
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April 17, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From CNBC, S&P 500 notches first close above 7,100, Nasdaq posts longest win streak since 1992. The S&P 500 stock market index finished the day and the week at 7,126, after touching 7,147 during the day, a new all-time record. It finished the day up over 1 percent and the week up almost 5 percent. It’s up year-to-date (2026) almost 4 percent and up almost 35 percent for the past
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April 15, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From CNBC, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite close at fresh records as traders look past Iran war fears. After a couple of false starts earlier in the trading day, the S&P 500 stock market index punched above the old record of 7,002 and closed at a new record high of 7,022. The index was up almost 1 percent for the day and now stands well over 2 percent above the
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April 14, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From CNBC, Stocks post back-to-back gains as traders remain optimistic for U.S.-Iran deal. CNBC reports, The S&P 500 gained 1.18% and closed at 6,967.38. The broad market index now stands less than 1% below its 52-week high. To be clear, the 52-week high is also the all-time record. After today’s gain, the index is up almost two percent for 2026, year-to-date. Stocks go up. Stocks go down. There will be
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April 13, 2026 — Bill Glahn
The S&P 500 stock market index is higher today (at the close) than it was at the beginning of the calendar year. I find this to be an amazing fact, given all that has happened in the past three months or so. From CNBC, S&P 500 futures are little changed after index erases Iran war losses. To be clear, the 2026 gain to date is tiny, under 1 percent. And
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March 22, 2026 — Bill Glahn
“Civilization” has existed on Earth for less than 5,500 years. Through trial and error, we’ve developed a tiny handful of institutions/concepts that, in combination, finally broke through the “nasty/brutish/short” barrier. The key pillars to civilization are: –Monogamy –Free enterprise –Representative government –Universal education (reading/writing) –Scientific method –Monotheism Take away any one pillar, and eventually, the whole system falls apart. Now, all six are under attack. Beginning with the Enlightenment, through
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December 24, 2025 — Bill Glahn
It’s a Christmas miracle. From CNBC, S&P 500 closes at another fresh record in holiday-shortened session. For the second day in a row, the market finished at a record high, just below an intraday all-time record. CNBC reports, Investors continue to hope for the coveted Santa Claus rally, a year-end stock market surge that occurs between the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the
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October 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
With the ascendancy of MAHA, the pharmaceutical industry has come under attack from the right as well as the left. That is unfortunate. Has any institution done as much for human well-being over the last 150 years as the international pharmaceutical industry? I doubt it. Continuing improvements in human health depend on continuing innovation in drugs. That is obvious, but short-sighted policy-makers–and voters–focus more on on reducing the costs of
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September 4, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In recent years, the Democrats have picked some very odd fights. One of the oddest is their denunciation of Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ads. J.D. Vance said, on the Ruthless podcast, “My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi. That appears to be their actual strategy.” The faux controversy over Sweeney’s jeans ads brought more attention to
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January 18, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Niall Ferguson recommends that we take in the whole of the speech given by Argentina’s President Javier Milei yesterday to the assembled globalistas at Davos. Ferguson characterizes the speech as “a magnificent defense of individual liberty and the free market economy.” These must have sounded like fighting words: “Today I’m here to tell you that the western world is in danger…because those who are supposed to defend the values of
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January 5, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Lenin famously said that capitalists would sell the rope that Communists would use to hang capitalists. But it turns out his imagination failed him: who knew that capitalists would pay for the rope with which the revolutionary left will kill capitalism. Liberal political analyst Thomas Byrne Edsall, who along with David Shor, Ruy Teixeira, and a handful of other liberals of relative sobriety, notes today in the New York Times
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December 19, 2021 — John Hinderaker
I didn’t know that there is an election going on in Chile. But there is, and observers say that the Left is favored to retake control of that country, which has seen unprecedented prosperity since it adopted free enterprise policies beginning in the 1980s. Dan Mitchell has the story. Most notable is this animation, which shows the opposite paths taken in recent decades by Chile and Venezuela, formerly one of
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October 19, 2021 — Steven Hayward
With the stock market at or near all-time highs, and with traditional measures suggesting it is overvalued, I’ve been seeing a number of articles about today’s anniversary of the crash of October 19, 1987, when the Dow crashed 22 percent in a single day—still the largest one-day decline in history. A lot of the articles I’m seeing now say “we still don’t know exactly why it happened,” but I think
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