Ruh-roh! More bad news in the US banking sector (in regional banks to be more specific)…
Actually, “plummet” doesn’t even properly describe the tragedy that is New York Community Bancorp. After this last bout of bad news, the stock now trades at 1996 levels — even lower than during the 2007/2008 crisis.
Put differently, if you bought New York Community Bancorp almost 30 years ago and held on, you have nothing to show for it today as far as capital returns go.
With that said — as contrarians at heart — should we be getting interested?
As tempting as it may seem (buying when and where few others would dare), we are generally hesitant when it comes to banks as it is difficult to know what exactly is on their books (the quality of their loans). Perhaps we are still scarred by the fiasco that was the GFC.
But regardless, we tend to invest in “washed out sectors” here at Capitalist Exploits (and in Insider), and US regional banks simply don’t fit that bill. Not yet, anyway.
NEW PODCAST WITH CHRIS MACINTOSH
Chris recently joined George Gammon on his podcast to talk about what’s going on in the markets right now as well as broadly in the global macro arena.
It’s worth tuning in just to see the video of Chris walking around with his new Apple Vision Pro goggles… Okay, we’re kidding — he didn’t do that, but here’s just a few of the things Chris did touch on:
- Why conventional metrics like GDP growth or interest rates don’t matter as much for investors in today’s “war economy” (and what you should be focusing on instead)
- The surprising link between the US border crisis and the bond market
- Investing lessons from the dot-com bubble (and the bust that followed). At the time, the shunned “old economy” stocks were largely unaffected by the crash in the popular “new economy” stocks. Today — with the “Magnificent 7” dominating the headlines — the same trend could be playing out again
- What Bitcoin “hodlers” have in common with energy investors right now
- The rise of passive investing and the massive opportunities it presents for investors who aren’t afraid of rolling up their sleeves and looking beyond the most popular index funds or ETFs
- Why “stuff” is as important as ever in today’s world of fake TV, fake money, fake news…
- And much more.
You can listen to the entire conversation on YouTube here.
ALL THINGS TRANSITORY…
Feels like a lifetime ago, when — back in February 2020 — we started warning that lockdowns will bring about inflation and shortages. Fast forward to today, and this pesky stuff is now part of our daily lives. We recently set up a dedicated inflation channel in our Insider private forum, where members can share their own experiences with all things “transitory”.
Member Geoff shared this note he got from his home security provider. As he put it, “Well, here’s a nice 25% increase for next to nothing…”
And then there’s this from Insider member Sean:
Someone just shared with me the price of eggs in Jersey. Old price: £2.30 for 15 (15.3p each). New price: £4.50 for 12 (37.5p each). That’s a 140% increase! But the guv says inflation is 7.5%
And on the other side of the pond, member Alex shared this:
The price of diesel in the past 2 weeks went from $3.89 to $4.25 USD per gallon… the wave of shit is coming.
It seems to us that inflation is not quite “under control” as the pointy shoes keep assuring us.
WEEK’S HUMOUR
Jared shared this one in our Insider member community, and it was too good not to share it with you:
And in the spirit of inclusivity, this one from Insider member Lynn:
Have a great weekend!
