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- I've got crabs...
I've got crabs...
and everyone wants them. Especially the druggies.
ā” The Spark
Iāve got crabsā¦
And EVERYONE wants them
When everythingās political, itās literally more fun to talk about crabs.
Once again, weāre asking you to question everything you read. Not because we care (we do). Just, like for your own sanity and stuff.
Itās more important than ever. In Broken Brexit Britain⢠you canāt even get high to feel better because thereās a shortage of drugs now...

Alright. Fine. The articleās about legal drugs. Panic over!
Now, if you, as a person with a functioning brain, already understand that political decisions arenāt as important as people like to pretend, then surely there must be a rational explanation for this drug shortage situation.
And there is!
Crabs
You what? Nobodyās had those since body hair was declared illegal by Big Porna.
Nah. This is about the South Carolina horseshoe crab. ING explains:
The supply of medicine worldwide often relies on chemical wizardry, rare materials, and deeply convoluted supply chains. And nothing illustrates the complexity more than the fate of the South Carolina horseshoe crab.
Bear with us. The blood of this unfortunate creature is the only non-synthetic source of limulus amebocyte lysate, LAL for short.
It's a substance that detects endotoxin, a deadly chemical that is produced by bacteria.
The pharmaceutical industry uses this crab blood to ensure the safety of all kinds of medicines, from vaccines to insulin, along with implanted devices, such as heart stents.
You probably see where this is goingā¦
The crabās blood is used to test āmore than half of injectable medicines and implanted devicesā for safety.
Basically, no endotoxin, no problem.
The massive & sudden demand for Covid vaccines meant massive demand for Horseshoe Crab blood, causing a shortage which hasnāt been recovered as yet.
However, this isnāt JUST a Covid issue. Medical supply chains have been fragile for some timeā¦
And a desperate shortage shows us just how fragile supply chains in this sector are.
This fragility, along with increasing global demand and lower prices in Europe than in the US, explains the persistent drug scarcity in Europe.
Itās a massive issue, and as this excellent report highlights, thereās no quick fix.
š§ The Big Brain
THE stock pick for when mania kicks off
History doesn't rhyme it repeats or something
Markets are getting very excited about rate cuts. Theyāre coming. The only doubt is the timing.
So, weāve started looking ahead at stocks that could really benefit once central bankers do what they do best, and reopen the monetary floodgatesā¦
Pro Premium Members: click here to read.
Subscribe to Fink Pro to read the FULL Big Brain piece, every single day (30-day free trial so absolutely NO risk).
š” The Lightbulb
Calm down. It wonāt be a recession
āIt Will Just Feel Like Oneā

Where to even start with thisā¦
Right, earlier this week, in reality is whatever we say it is, we covered a massive historical study of economic sentiment influencing economic outcomes.
Basically, how we feel, on mass, about the economy and the future manifests in our behaviours, which leads to real world outcomes.
Itās entirely plausible that we can talk ourselves into recession - we are not rational creatures:
Consumers who are nervous about their future employment or worried that an imminent stock market correction would wipe out a substantial chunk of their savings might be reluctant to make big purchases and take on new debt.
The resulting fall in consumption would then lead to an economic contraction that validates consumersā worst fears.
If these economists are right, and it really begins to feel like a recession out there, thatās bad news.
Then again, by the time it feels like a recession, surely you have to see your neighbour lose their job, or sign a bunch of āsorry youāre leavingā cards, just generally experience something that feels ominousā¦
So, if people still have jobs, but economic growthās slow, then thatās just a return to the pre-pandemic economy, not a recession.
And it probably wonāt feel like one unless thereās a jobcession.
What? I canāt make economics up but everyone else can?
In any case, we canāt trust what people say. The so-called āsoft dataā (mainly surveys) has a built in, and increasing, negativity biasā¦
Brent Donnellyās on the money here:
Regardless of how individuals and companies feel about their own prospects, social media, MSM, and political strife make everyone think that everything is bad, all the time.
Itās not just the low-quality, biased information that dominates the media ecosystem now due to warped incentives, itās the sheer volume of it. This started in 2008 and got worse after 2020.
Soft data may have some minor utility on a relative basis (comparing 2022 to 2023, for example) but saying āISM is below 50, ruh rohā probably doesnāt work anymore.
Everything needs to be rescaled lower to recalibrate for persistent malaise. Empire State -43.7 lol.
I am not dissing the unease people feel; I feel it too.
Iām just saying that soft economic data doesnāt work as well in this regime as it does in a regime where the American spirit is healthy.
Sentiment and the nominal economy have decoupled and there is no guarantee they will recouple any time soon.
If todayās Empire State reading is accurate, general business conditions in NY manufacturing are worse right now than they were around the Great Financial Crisis.

Doesnāt ring trueā¦
I mean, the March 2009 report was FULL of negativity.
Todayās report. Not so much. Manufacturers are even turning (cautiously) more upbeat about the future, certainly more than they were in Decemberā¦

But itās meaningless. Just feelings & vibes that donāt match up to the prior worst reading ever.
About that WORST SINCE 2009!!! NY manufacturing print earlier...
Frankly, it's bollocks 1/
ā Timā¢ļø (@VolaTim)
2:59 PM ⢠Jan 16, 2024
Which is probably why we sit here with markets not caring about the future impending job losses, even though āeveryone saysā theyāre dumb not to care and should be pricing in some pessimism.
