A Week That Was Packed With Warnings
Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance
It was a week packed with economic warnings, political reckonings, and blunt market reality. If you missed the action, here’s what went down.
We started with a dive into Australia’s new plan to tax unrealized capital gains, a policy so detached from basic economic logic it reads like satire.
Australia’s Unrealized Gains Tax Will Be A Lesson In Economic Suicide
Unfortunately, it’s very real. Beginning in July, Australians with over $3 million in their superannuation accounts will be taxed not on actual gains, but on hypothetical, unrealized ones. It’s a move that will force asset liquidations, trigger capital flight, and create a bureaucratic nightmare. The idea of taxing wealth that doesn’t actually exist is not just dangerous—it’s authoritarian.
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We then went from monetary policy to media accountability. This week Megyn Kelly took Jake Tapper to task for his years-long defense of President Biden’s mental fitness. In an interview that was equal parts interrogation and public reckoning, Kelly forced Tapper to confront the fact that he had willfully ignored Biden’s decline while presenting himself as an unbiased journalist.
Jake Tapper's Castrated Attempt At A Mea Culpa
Tapper’s attempt to rehabilitate his image through a new book came off as hollow, and Kelly’s incisive questioning highlighted just how much credibility he had squandered. It was a public relations disaster wrapped in a podcast episode, and it underscored the growing demand for honesty in media, even from those who once claimed to deliver it.
Later in the week the focus returned to markets as Trump’s newly proposed tax and spending bill ran headfirst into skepticism—not only from libertarian-leaning Republicans like Thomas Massie, but from the bond market itself.
Big, Beautiful Bill Meets Big, Beautiful Bond Market
Yields are rising even as the Fed cuts rates, indicating that investors are losing faith in the U.S. government’s ability to manage its finances responsibly. The bond market, made up of the most sophisticated investors in the world, appears to be rejecting the illusion of stability.
Rates Rise Again as Treasury Auction Comes Up Short
A dismal auction for 20-year Treasury bonds revealed just how skittish investors have become. Yields jumped above 5 percent, the highest since 2023, and demand was so weak that the Federal Reserve had to step in to buy a chunk of the issuance.
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