Certifiable: Election Mayhem, Men In Pelts, Markets Exploding Higher

Betting On Zero

Burke Koonce and John Fichthorn discuss the events that unfolded in Washington, DC yesterday and the political climate that led up to it, and of course what we believe the impact of the election will be on financial markets.

John, who is executive chairman of Maven, and Burke, who runs the Capitalism Maven site for TheStreet.com, have a long history together discussing markets, politics and contemporary subjects.

In this episode, we talk about the lawlessless that broke out our nation’s capital yesterday and how markets were able to shrug it off, looking forward as they always do. Still, the mob scene that occurred, funny hats and all, is indicative of deeper problems in American society having to do with themes we explore frequently in the film Betting On Zero and on this podcast—there is no set of facts upon which competing narratives agree; there is no commitment to critical thinking; and the media has no incentive to encourage anything other than confrontation. The markets are a better place to look for real world impact than the Internet, though the markets themselves are far from free of distortion.

We talk about changes in inflation expectations and the accompanying changes in interest rates, and we discuss the outlook for energy-related assets. And of course we can’t ignore the recent news that Carl Icahn finally sold out of his Herbalife stake, bringing the tale of Ackman vs. Icahn over Herbalife to a close.

And no discussion of global economics is complete without touching on China, which leads us back to American politics, Peter Navarro, and election intrigue.