Billionaire Elon Musk committed the cardinal sin that triggers a freak attack by the blue checkmark Twitterati, the establishment press, and every blue-haired leftist who stands on street corners screaming about socialism. The entrepreneur says his political allegiance has taken a right turn. The Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO announced on Twitter that he would vote for the GOP in upcoming elections as he can no longer support the Democrats.
Musk had already been a target of scorn for championing free speech. But confirmation of doing the unthinkable has already unleashed a smear campaign, with reports suggesting that SpaceX reached a $250,000 settlement after a flight attendant accused him of sexually harassing her. According to a report published in the Business Insider, which quoted an anonymous person, Musk allegedly exposed himself to the woman on a private jet in 2016. on a private jet in 2016 by exposing himself to the lady.
The self-proclaimed Dogefather and TechnoKing was quick to deny the accusations: “I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me ‘exposed’ – describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public. She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened.”
Elon Musk (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
So, it took only one day for the left to viciously respond to the odious act of voting Republican by coming up with sexual harassment allegations, whether true or not. Musk is indeed making plenty of enemies, much like a bourbon-drinking sleuth in a Raymond Chandler whodunit. When you have a net worth of about $300 billion, you can do whatever you want. Like the Doris Day song goes, ain’t life grand?
Bears Come for the S&P 500
First, the bears came for the Nasdaq Composite Index. Then they came for the S&P 500 Index. Is the Dow Jones Industrial Average next? Before the Robinhood men in tights get to your grandfather’s benchmark of bank and industrial stocks, the S&P being devoured by the bears for the first time in two years led midday business headlines across the globe on May 20.
The index that is comprised of Amazon, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, and Home Depot tumbled as much as 2.1% in intraday trading. This meant that the S&P 500 slipped into a bear market, which is defined as a 20% decline from its high. The S&P 500, typically considered as one of the most accurate measurements of the overall US stock market, recovered to finish the raucous trading week. But it was not enough as it shed 3.05% on the week, extending its seventh consecutive weekly drop.
The S&P 500 has an extensive history of bears hosting a dinner party and talking about the market. Since the Second World War, there has been 17 bear and near bear markets, averaging about 11.7 months in length. On a median basis, the index has lost about 27% over this span, and it takes about 12 months for the benchmark recover.
But why are investors panicking anyway? It is all about a recession, inflation, and the Federal Reserve continually unscrewing the training wheels on their bicycles and letting everyone scrape their knees.
“Going back more than 50 years shows that only once was there a bear market without a recession that lost more than 20% and that was during the Crash of 1987,” said LPL Financial Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick in a research note. “With other near bear markets without a recession bottoming near 19% corrections in 1978, 1998, 2011, and 2018, not far from the recent lows.”
Subprime Borrowers Missing Payments Again
Is the lending environment coming to an end now that tightening has arrived? It’s beginning to look a lot like a subprime meltdown is in the works again, according to a new report from credit agency EquiFax.
US consumers with low credit scores fell behind on their payments for credit cards, auto loans, and personal loans in March. The share of subprime borrowers who are at least 60 days late is climbing faster than normal, representing the eighth consecutive month-over-month increase. Plus, delinquencies on subprime car loans and leases surged to a record high in February.
Many of these consumers were bailed out by the federal government’s stimulus and relief packages at the start of the COVID-19 public health crisis, offering millions of Americans stimulus checks, child tax credits, and other pandemic-related goodies. This provided households with a cushion. Now that these funds have been exhausted and interest rates are on the rise, it is getting harder for these individuals to keep their heads above water.
The positive development in this story, however, is that fewer people are listed in the subprime credit-score bracket anyway. In 2020, 18.6% of US adults had credit scores of less than 600. Last year, this number fell to 15.5%. Still, this will be a story that needs further monitoring as it could replicate the housing boom of two decades ago that ultimately created one of the worst financial crises in history.
