WORD ON THE STREET 

SEC Blasts Crypto, WMT Plunges, Musk Ally Predicts Lower TWTR Price

• Always Low (Stock) Prices – No smiley faces when it came to Walmart (WMT) yesterday, as quarterly earnings showed a big miss on adjusted earnings-per-share, with a 23.1% decline from last year at this time. Adding to the company’s woes, Walmart is predicting staffing problems for store manager positions despite a lucrative $200,000 a year salary. In response, the company is accelerating efforts to train store managers straight out of college, with “College2Career” aiming for 1,000 applicants this summer.

• The Free Banking Era, Round 2 – Ah, the good old days. No government regulation, the occasional Civil War, and private banks issuing whatever currency they wanted. Goldman Sachs warned crypto investors that the current climate in stablecoins resembles the “Free Banking Era” from 1837 to 1862, in which private banks would issue notes that could wildly fluctuate in value. The disintegration of the algorithmic backed stablecoin TerraUSD is leading Goldman Sachs to suggest that private stablecoins may be replaced entirely by “an alternative government-backed medium.” It’s probably no surprise that SEC Chair Gary Gensler is calling for more regulation, warning Americans against a “highly speculative asset class..

• “Streisand Effect” Inbound On Chinese Bond Market – Maybe if we don’t talk about the problem, it will go away. That seems to be the Chinese government’s strategy in dealing with its shaky bond market. The China Foreign Exchange Trade System last reported trades by overseas investors about a week ago. Not surprisingly, the last report showed a significant outflow. Of course, now that we know China doesn’t want these figures reported, it might cause more investors to hit the panic button when it comes to dealing with Beijing’s debt.

• Tim Draper Says TWTR Deal Will Go Through But… – At a lower stock price. A firm Elon Musk ally who was an early investor in both Tesla and SpaceX, Draper said that he still thought the TecnoKing’s takeover bid would succeed, but Elon would get a better deal. Draper casually mentioned that one reason why might be that Musk “found out that, whatever, two-thirds [of user accounts] are bots or something.” That’s a big “whatever.” It would be a bombshell for current TWTR shareholders – not to mention advertisers who might be paying to send messages to dead scraps of code. Very Twilight Zone.

HOT SPOTS: What’s Going on in Geopolitics

• Casino Mogul A Chinese Agent? – The Department of Justice sued Steve Wynn, former head of Wynn Resorts (WYNN), accusing him of not registering as a foreign agent despite lobbying work for the Chinese government during the Trump Administration. Wynn’s lawyers have fired back at the DOJ, claiming they are looking forward to their day in court and stating that “Steve Wynn has never acted as an agent of the Chinese government.

• American General Confuses Video Game For War Footage – In a viral tweet praising the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defenses, four-star General Barry McCaffrey tweeted out footage of a Russian MiG-29 being gunned down. “UKR air defense becoming formidable,” he enthused. The only problem is that the impressive footage was from a video game called Arma 3. Foreign policy expert and political columnist Max Boot also retweeted the footage. Sounds like a case for the Biden Administration’s “Disinformation Governance Board” to me.

• Israel Will Simulate Attack Run On Iran – Even with tensions rising between Israelis and Palestinians and scattered acts of terrorism within Israel, the IDF is looking at foes outside its borders. The “Chariots of Fire Drill” will be a war game for a truly apocalyptic conflict, with Israel training for a multifront war as well as domestic riot control. The key target in the (virtual) crosshairs is Iran, which Israel does not want to obtain a nuclear weapon.

CUTTING EDGE: What‘s Happening In Tech

• Initial Report Rules Boeing Crash May Have Been Intentional – First, the good news. The terrible crash of a Boeing 737-800 may not have been a case of technical failure. The bad news is that data from the black box indicates that someone in the cockpit deliberately put the plane into a fatal dive on March 21. While horrifying, this initial conclusion will alleviate at least some concerns about the Boeing model, one of the most widely used commercial airplanes in the world.

• UFO Hearing On The Hill – There was a time when hearings in Congress on the subject of UFOs would have been called the height of insanity, but now it’s just another political headline. The House Intelligence Committee poured over reports of objects flying over American territory with no visible propulsion – or at least nothing that we have yet. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has said these objects could potentially pose a national security threat. The federal government calls UFOs “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAPs), which I guess makes it respectable.

• Microsoft Boosts Pay As Battle For Skilled Labor Intensifies – “We are nearly doubling the global merit budget,” announced Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a memo to a no-doubt enthusiastic workforce. In response to what he says is a competition for talent that is in “high demand,” pay will be increased and stock options will be boosted even for some lower-level employees.

Amazon and Alphabet are also increasing salaries as the labor market remains tight

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION