It’s Monday, November 10, and I’m going through the news. The shutdown may be coming to an end. Welcome news to some, although I believe the Democrats caved. The Republicans indicated they were willing to scorch the earth over ACA subsidies. These are the payments that help people buy health insurance, when they can’t possibly afford 15,000 or 20,000 a year in premiums. It seemed as though Republicans were willing to let air travel fall apart in front of the holiday season rather promote access to healthcare. All while the government feels they have enough money to possibly send $2,000 rebate checks from the taxes collected through tariffs. And the Democrats blinked. The government, assuming the house approves and the administration doesn’t have a spaz and veto the bill, will likely re-open.

What stocks do you think would be doing well on that news in the pre-market? They airlines? Yes, they’re up. Defense contractors? They’re mixed. What about health care? Mixed to net negative. What’s ripping? AI hardware and semi-conductor companies. NVIDIA is up over 3%, while the strongest airline, UAL, is up just barely 2%. The DOW and the SP500 are up largely because of just the AI and related semiconductor stocks.

On the Russel 2000, there’s more broadly positive price movement. The second tier defense contractors are doing well. When the Russel 2000 does well, it is a proxy for investors being more willing to take risk. In the sense that ending the shutdown is positive for the economy, taking on more risk through AI and smaller companies follows. With the gross dysfunction abated, it is more likely companies will make money. But the undercurrents of self destruction over providing health care to people is still there. One party is willing to burn it all down, including intentionally withholding food assistance to their base. They are willing to ignore their roll in checking even illegal acts. I don’t know if my outlook on the future is as sanguine as the other investors stepping up to shoulder more risk.

I feel like we’ve lost our ability to discern what is good and bad. All we know to do is calculate which option gives us more money. What you build is not important. Who you defraud is not important. What you destroy is not important. The dystopia you are creating is not important. And with enough money you can buy a legacy. All that matters is making as much money as possible. The invisible hand free of moral and ethical constraints. Even democracy and the constitution fall by the wayside if there is money to be made. Greed is not just elevated to ‘good,’ along with other good values. Greed is the only thing that matters.