Scams Likely

The following is a list of the recent incoming phone calls on my cell phone.

You would need to be quite the optimist to think the call from Haiti wasn't also a scam. They left a long message trying to convince me otherwise, but their warning that I have not yet renewed my car's extended warranty is something that I've been aware of for several decades. The car was purchased new in 1996.

Last year, Jim Chanos called this the golden age of fraud. Thanks in part to the easy money policies of the Fed and the new and improved speculative nature of the markets, I suspect that we've reached the platinum level. Hopes and dreams with smoke and mirrors? Be careful out there. I doubt history will be kind to those thinking there's never been a better time to swing for the fences.

Peak Gambling?

The following chart shows personal consumption expenditures for gambling divided by all personal consumption expenditures.

On the one hand, traditional gambling peaked in 2007 at 1.126% of personal consumption expenditures.

On the other hand, this chart doesn't show bitcoin, Tesla, GameStop, and record margin debt.