The markets came close to reaching all-time highs yesterday as China US talks seemingly showed progress. The markets point down today on concerns that CPI is moving in the wrong directions, and the Fed will be holding its ground on rate cuts. For a great piece on the Federal Debt

“Trump, Tariffs, TACO, & Tesla with David Pivnick of McGuireWoods LLP Listen Here: https://lnkd.in/gChYp3r6 My most controversial tweet yesterday.  The new phrase TACO to describe the President is a concept used by pundits and political enemies to try and inspire the bull to do dumb things and to be derisive

Amazon is doubling down on testing robots to replace delivery workers. What a strange world we are moving towards.  https://lnkd.in/gjEj-K-P

Elon Musk has become a very outspoken critic of the Presidents tax bill and its impact on the national debt. We give Elon great credit for this. Debt destroys. Thank you Elon. Elon Musk on X, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional

Tesla, after a good deal of recovery, has given back nearly 7% this week. It is down 17% year to date.  https://lnkd.in/g4dWtQXF

Blackstone, the nation’s largest PE fund and investor in alternative assets, is down nearly 20% year to date. The PE industry is struggling to exit deals and reap profits from sales. Fee income is going fine. See Insider Monkey “Blackstone vs BlackRock — Who Has the Edge?”  https://lnkd.in/gtsekN39 Blackstone is

New jobs created in the private sector fell in May to their lowest number in 2 years. The private sector added 37,000 jobs. Analysts had expected the economy to add 114,000 jobs. The number created was sharply down from May. Government hiring is not offsetting private sector hiring.  https://lnkd.in/g3nNVDub The

The stock market is back to slightly positive year to date. The S&P 500 is now up a little more than 1% year to date. The GDP showed slightly negative growth in the first quarter and is expected to slow to 1.6% to 2% this year.

Inflation is slowing considerably and is down per the CPI to 2.3% for the 12 months ended April 2025. Fed Chairman Powell is not moving too fast to reduce rates until the job market softens and slows and until inflation and his preferred inflation measure slows a bit more.

Federal deficit numbers remain high with no reduction in the near term. The CBO projects the current deficits for fiscal year 2025 at $1.9 trillion slightly up from 2024. This is 6.5% of GDP. The 2025 deficit should lead to around a total deficit of $38 trillion. The US will

Jobless openings rose in April more than expected. The Labor Department reported 7.4 million job openings. Analysts had projected 7.1 million. March had 7.2 million job openings. Unemployment remains close to 4.2%.

 I love the podcast Geoffrey Cockrell recently did where he interviewed Bart Walker on DSos. The Corner Series. McGuireWoods LLP.

At some point a few years into your job/career, you need to decide if you are going to have a job or become a leader. The choice is yours. In business or personal finance, you have to run lean but there is only so far you can cut your expenses.

We are working on a new book called Building Businesses- Leasons from a Career of Wins and Losses. We have a keynote talk largely based on these ideas this Thursday at Wisconsin Technology Council Entrepreneurs Conference. We will also have a webinar based on the book hosted June 17.  https://lnkd.in/gYqjedKM

Palantir Technologies keeps rising as the government doubles down on business with the company. Remember not long ago when DOGE was causing nightmares for big consulting firms doing business with the government. It seems like those days passed fairly quickly. Palantir is up 74% year to date and rose 7.73%