Money supply

I’m old enough to remember when the money supply mattered, and was the determinant of inflation, albeit with ‘long and variable lags’. Now, nobody (except Taps Coogan) cares. But all things, including economic theories, move into and out of fashion, so maybe the time has come.

The problem of social cost

The US has the most expensive healthcare in the world, per capita, by far. Yet the outcomes are terrible. Coase understood why. For some (maybe many) goods and services, the market mechanism is far from the best way of providing them. I am a huge fan of Milton Friedman, who thought very clearly about economics, but he assumed away transaction costs far too readily, in my wholly unqualified opinion.

Crumbs

$FCX closed at it’s highest point since 2014. If Dr Copper has a PhD, Freeport McMoRan has a tenured professorship. $LMND shot up about 10% yesterday. It is trading on an EV to Sales (NTM) of around 44. Value play!

Kuppy wrote a review of the year, which for him was a good one. You can read all about it here. If you just want to ride on his coattails, he’s long: CNR, GBTC, LPG, SD, JOE.

First Thing