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SATURDAY ROUND UP

[Weekly Roundup] How I Acquired “Derangement Syndrome”

Hello, Fellow Navigator.

I remember exactly what set me off.

I usually ignore the drivel coming out of politicians’ mouths. It’s how I stay sane. But somehow, Donald Trump’s pledge of “no tax on tips” got to me.

Of all of the semicoherent nonsense I hear spewing out of his or Kamala Harris’s mouths, that’s the one that makes me lose it.

That’s the hill I die on.

I fail to understand why the bartender mixing my Negroni should get off tax free while I have to pay like a chump. He’s already earning an absurd 20% on an inflated cocktail price for approximately one minute of “work.” Pouring a shot of gin, vermouth, and Campari over an ice cube doesn’t exactly require surgical precision. I did it blindfolded once as a party trick. It involves no skill, and I’m certain a reasonably intelligent chimpanzee could be trained to do it.

And yet, Trump and Harris believe this no-talent hack deserves a sweet tax deal?

Hearing me rant about this recently, my friend shrugged his shoulders and informed me that I had “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

I know he meant it as condescending ribbing.

But here’s the thing.

He’s right. I do have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

But that’s only the start.

I also have an acute case of Harris Derangement Syndrome. After all, she stole Trump’s no-tax-on-tips-idea and made it her own.

Trump has proposed dozens if not hundreds of policy ideas over the years, many of which I considered innovative and beneficial. Yet No Tax on Tips is the one she chooses to copy?!

She could have copied his pledge to remove two outdated regulations for every new regulation proposed. That would have been smart.

Or she could have promised to keep Trump’s small-business tax breaks in place to encourage hustle and entrepreneurship. Absolutely!

But no! Instead she settles on a targeted tax break to low-skill service workers that encourages more tipping.

Brilliant!

And speaking of Harris’s quirks that make me insane… If I hear her say “What can be, unburdened by what has been” one more time, I might actually jump out of my office window.

My Derangement Syndrome goes far beyond the presidential candidates, of course.

I also have Congressional Derangement Syndrome. It unhinges me that our fearless leaders shut the government down every time we come close to hitting our debt cap when every single one of us knows good and well that it’s all Kabuki theater. They always, without fail, raise the ceiling and keep right on spending.

I also have Supreme Court Derangement Syndrome. It makes me stark raving mad that they think it was a good idea to give the president – any president – “absolute immunity” from potentially criminal behavior while in office.

EPA Derangement Syndrome… SEC Derangement Syndrome… I’m even starting to develop an acute case of NASA Derangement Syndrome. How can a country that landed a man on the moon in 1969 somehow leave two astronauts stranded in space in 2024?

Put me in a padded cell. Tranquilize me. Hell, give me a rabies shot because I think I’m foaming at the mouth. They’ve all made me lose my mind.

That’s enough. It’s the weekend. Time to take our minds off of this lunacy. Let’s take a look at what we covered in Freeport Navigator this week…

Looking Ahead

The big news next week is, of course, the debate between Harris and Trump on Tuesday. I’ll be watching it, my Derangement Syndrome aside. I’m not expecting any major new policy insights. I’m not really expecting coherent thought at all. But the relative performance of the candidates will go a long way to determining who sways the relatively small pool of undecided voters. It will likely determine who our next president is, which I think will be our next big election shock (as I explain in this video).

It’s no coincidence that the debate is being held in Pennsylvania. As I’ve been writing for weeks now, Pennsylvania is the only state that matters in this election. The candidate who takes Pennsylvania takes the White House. So, expect both Harris and Trump to be targeting the hometown viewers.

We also have the Federal Reserve’s meeting the week after next, which may be the most anticipated meeting in the Fed’s 111 years of existence. Will the Fed cut by 0.25%? Or will they go nuts and slash rates by a full half percent or more?

We’re about to find out. But investors might want to be careful what they wish for. As I discussed with Freeport Strategic Opportunities Editor John Pangere earlier this week, jumbo rate cuts generally aren’t bullish. They imply the Fed is panicking.

I don’t know that the Fed is panicking just yet. But it’s worth noting that the jobs report on Friday had some interesting revisions. The economy added 142,000 jobs in August, which was lower than the 165,000 economists expected. But updated data showed that 89,000 fewer jobs were created in June and July than initially reported.

We’re still seeing job growth. So it’s too early to sound the recession alarms. But that growth is a lot less robust than previously reported. A little caution might be warranted. In The Freeport Investor, we’re maintaining our focus on quality, recession-proof stocks and solid crisis hedges to get us through whatever happens next.

To life, liberty, and the pursuit of wealth,

Charles Sizemore
Chief Investment Strategist, The Freeport Society