Another Reason to Buy DJT May 29, 2024May 28, 2024 But first . . . > Inflation expectations are self-fulfilling . . . so Republicans — wanting to believe the worst — may have caused more of it. An interesting perspective from the Wall Street Journal. > The Ken Burns Commencement Speech everyone is talking about. Eloquent, erudite, and stripped here to its very barest nub: Listen, I am in the business of history. It is not always a happy subject on college campuses these days, particularly when forces seem determined to eliminate or water down difficult parts of our past . . . For nearly 50 years now, I have diligently practiced and rigorously tried to maintain a conscious neutrality in my work, avoiding advocacy if I could, trying to speak to all of my fellow citizens. . . . [Yet] there is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. . . . The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids . . . the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide . . . Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer. Remember what Louis Brandeis said, “The most important political office is that of the private citizen.” Vote. Please, vote. You indelibly underscore your citizenship, and most important, our kinship with each other, when you do. Good luck and godspeed. > Marco Rubio on Trump — 36 seconds (turn sound on, bottom right corner). Last week I argued that only one person — Putin — could conceivably have a rational reason to buy Trump’s stock. I was wrong. One of you came up came up with another. By way of background [writes Peter B.], I made good money shorting AMC in 2022. But in 2023, I actually lost money shorting it, even though it kept going down. The reason, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is the stock-borrow fee I had to pay my broker. Since I’m not the only bright lad who came up with this trade, the fee was huge, much of which went to the person lending me the stock I shorted. This got me to thinking — why can’t I be the person receiving such payments? Which leads me to DJT. The fee you receive for lending it is something like 20% per month (not a misprint). So if I bought it to lend it out, and the stock fell by 40% in 2 months, I’d break even. I feel reasonably confident that it will hold up until Trump’s September release-from-lock-up starts getting priced into the market. So if I could morally stomach it (which I can’t), I would buy DJT, loan it out, and hold it through the end of July. → That 20% a month may be what a short-seller pays to borrow the stock but not necessarily what the lender receives. The broker does not arrange the stock-loan for free. Ask lots of questions before trying this with anything more than a little play money . . . which may be more trouble than it’s worth. Even so: move over, Vladimir Putin. There may be one other not completely stupid reason to buy Trump stock.