Stocks were fine much of the week due to the ongoing "to the moon" A.I. narrative and rampant momentum buying. However, things came to a screeching halt on Friday, once the "adults in the room" (i.e. bond investors) started to run for cover with inflation soaring higher and becoming ever-more entrenched. Friday was firmly risk off, and now the question is what will happen next week? What if buy-the-dip investors go on strike? I don't even want to imagine that!!

President Trump has shown his populist colours by jumping on board a liberal proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year. This makes no sense! And it looks to be going nowhere fast.

There were more ideas coming from Mr Trump last week than seemed possible, a reflection of desperation as the affordability crisis continues to weigh on his administration and the approaching mid-term elections. Some ideas were simply ridiculous, but investors are used to it by now. This was reflected as risk markets remained solid, with several U.S. and foreign stock markets closing Friday at record highs.

This is a short article about the K-shaped economy, driven by persistently high inflation and exacerbated by the errant "One, Big Beautiful Bill".