Sell Me Some Happy Pills, Please

Welcome to This Week’s Leyendecker View

Good luck is something you make, and bad luck is something you endure.
– Rose Kennedy

THINKING OUT LOUD

Sell Me Some Happy Pills, Please

Many Americans are in the midst of a crisis. Actually, it feels like many Americans are in the midst of several crises. Trust in American institutions has collapsed. Mental health has collapsed. Depression is skyrocketing. Affording a decent lifestyle has collapsed for a good many people.

What’s going on here? Why is there such an enormous amount of wealth being created at the same time as more and more Americans seem to be sinking into economic and mental health depression?

Let’s consider some possible reasons…

People have too many consumption choices.

How many choices do you have when buying a stove, a washing machine, a refrigerator, a car, or some tile, fixtures and paint if you’re fixing up a bathroom? What if we make the wrong decision? The number of consumption choices today is enormous. Type “can opener” into Amazon’s search engine and you get over 1,000 choices.

People are required to process too much information.

It’s too bad I can’t seem to find a definitive study suggesting how much information each of us processes every day compared to 100, even 60 years ago. But we can all agree it is an enormous amount of information compared to 100 years ago. I would guess it could be on the scale of 100X or more a day, maybe even 100X or more an hour. As the saying goes, we’re drinking from a firehose from the moment we wake up to the moment we turn off the bedside light.

The luxury lifestyle is in everyone’s face every day.

Imagine the average person who sees the news stories and photos about all the luxury goods rich people enjoy that go way beyond their grandest imaginations. It has cracked open the counterfeit luxury goods market. With luxury everything thrown at us in advertising, movies, news and—in particular—social media, it’s no wonder that almost 60% of Americans believe billionaires are taking advantage of them.

The media makes sure we are always aware of crises.

Everything is in crisis, according to the media. And they keep it that way so we keep coming back to see how these crises are playing out. They turn everything into a soap opera so we can’t resist tuning in for the latest episode. Because the more we come back, the more advertising they sell and the more money they make.

Big tech companies are manipulating us—our minds and our wallets.

We’ve all seen the stories of how Facebook’s “system” has captured and is manipulating the minds of our youth. Ever noticed how big tech’s products seem to slow down and work less productively after about three years? You think it’s because they want us to buy something new again? How about all those software updates that seem to show up every few weeks? What’s that all about? Is their software crap, or are they slowly manipulating us into giving them more money?

I’m sure there are other reasons behind unhappiness in America. But when we consider all these factors, it seems to come down to one main issue—the fact that we are required to process way more information today than previous generations could have ever even imagined.

Our brains are not prepared for all this TMI. So it should be no surprise that so many people are unhappy and confused today. The solution is obvious: unplug. But we can’t unplug because so much of our lives are online.

Maybe we are just in an adaptation period. Maybe the brains of future generations will evolve  and adjust to an information-dominated world. Maybe future humans will merge with technology—becoming a new kind of sapiens, a new “being”—in order to be able to process endless amounts of information 24/7.

But is this what we want? A future where, instead of returning to what it means to be human—to be people built to interact with other humans face to face, to interact with nature, and to exist in the material world—we change our humanity to fit the demands and pull of technology? And those who control it?

Is that the world we really want? Is it one where humans thrive or just the rich and powerful thrive?

THE ECONOMIC VIEW

2024 fiscal deficit totals $1.8 trillion
It’s just Monopoly money, folks.

America is as bureaucratic as Europe
Says JPM CEO, Jamie Dimon.

American factories are slowing.
Even robots are getting less work

INFLATION, DEFLATION, OR BOTH?

Healthcare premiums are soaring
No inflation here, right?

Inflation is cooling slower than expected
Rate cuts may come slower, too.
While jobless claims rise

The olive oil crisis is over
Will olive oil now get cheaper?

THE LABOR VIEW

The great inversion
Where blue-collar workers outearn white collar.

Professional and business services
Not a strong job market.

Many women going through menopause
Don’t want to deal with a job

MEANWHILE IN EUROPE

European military tech start-ups
Are being financed by US VCs

Europeans are turning frugal
Let US consumers save the world.

Macron issues EU death warning
If only they’d make him emperor.
Has Europe become ungovernable?

THE GLOBAL GAME

What’s the future of globalization?
What’s the future of the US economy?

Mexico’s new pres to tackle drug cartels
We’ve heard this before.

College graduates in emerging economies
Can’t find enough white-collar jobs

How US debt compares to other countries’
We’re not in the worst shape…yet.

THE UKRAINE FIRE

EU ready to loan Ukraine $37B
What, to buy EU products?

Biden let Russian “merchant of death” free.
Now he’s back to arms dealing

Ukraine war has hurt Russia’s economy.
And will for many years to come

THE GAZA FIRE

Hamas resurrects suicide bombing
Kamikazes didn’t save Japan in WWII.

Israel pounds Lebanon
Sends thousands more troops there
Did they get another Hezbollah commander?
Israel pledges “significant” response to Iran
Hezbollah sends barrage of rockets into Israel

Iranian leader reinforces commitment
Their allies “will not back down.”
Iran threatens anyone helping Israel

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE

Russia pays criminals in the EU
To create mayhem.

Russia supplies more gas to the EU than US does
And so what does Europe do?

US launches more spy satellites
Will they prevent or escalate a space war?

FINANCE

Banks are ready for LBOs again
Time for a bunch of refinancing?

Middle-market PE is in the dumps
Are the glory days behind them?
Lower rates may not help valuations

Harvard endowment management
Achieves low returns but gets great pay

REAL ESTATE

Global Real Estate Bubble index
Real estate bubble, what bubble?

The hot Florida real estate market
May be fizzling, not sizzling

What it’s like to retire in rural America
Don’t tell anyone, shhhh…

IS TECH A WRECK?

No more apps please.
We’ve already got too many

SE Asian scammers ripped $36B in 2023
The lovely world tech has created.

Google’s grip on search is slipping
Oh, you mean they had a monopoly?

THE CHAT ON AI

AI pioneers win Nobel Prize
Yet they want to rein in AI

TikTok owner blows by OpenAI
When it comes to scraping the web
States sue TikTok
For harming youth mental health

AI is making us dumber
And it’s not so smart itself.

OUR GOOD FRIEND, FAILURE

San Francisco to close 9% of schools
Entire Chicago school board resigns
More free money from Washington, please.

Princeton reverses fossil fuel ban
We need more fossil fuel research.

Obesity drugs are expensive.
Costs may outweigh health benefits

THE NEXT NORMAL

A nation of homebodies
We’re spending less time outside.
The Ozempic era is here

Isa loneliness pandemic underway?
The Surgeon General thinks so

Wastewater can be an early alarm system
In tracking disease.

THE WAR ON CARBON

US oil demand hits 5-year high
Utility grade solar continues to grow
IEA sees more global gas demand growth
Consuming energy is hard to stop.

Marine carbon removal
Is about to go big

Big Oil tells Trump
Don’t gut the IRA bill

THE ENERGY TRANSITION

Green hydrogen may be too expensive
Suggests Harvard researchers.

Power costs soar in Arizona
Voters are not happy.

As the US limits Chinese solar panels
India is ready to grow market share

THE EV DREAM—OR DELUSION

It’s evil to buy conflict diamonds
But we buy tech with conflict minerals
What does that say about us?

Everyone wanted in on the EV boom.
Now the global car industry is sputtering
Sign of a general global slow-down?
Is Stellantis about to go bankrupt?
US auto sales below pre-pandemic levels
Maybe because they’re not affordable

THE CHINA SYNDROME

Mexico wants to curb Chinese imports
More pressure on the export powerhouse.

World Bank not optimistic about China
Recent stimulus may be too little too late.

If you are a teacher in China
They want to confiscate your passport

THE WASHING-TONE

SCOTUS likely to support ghost gun rules
A win for some kind of gun control.

The FTC jettisons economics and law
Bureaucrats being bureaucrats.

Antitrust folks are getting busy.
Time to break up monopolies

THE ELECTION DISTRACTION

More Americans identify as Republicans
Democrats are close behind.

Where are the young getting their news?
Social media influencers.
Network news is for the old folks

Democrats now support US O&G
For the election, but what about after?

MAKING A BETTER YOU

How to stop living on autopilot
Want to change? Get off your butt.

If you eat less
Will you live longer?

Being bored can be good for you
Embrace your inner slacker.

HOW ABOUT A BREAK

Comedy wildlife photo awards
The wonderful life beyond humans.

Google Maps finds unknown crater
Where a meteor once struck the earth.

This 5-minute dog game
Will make your dog love you more.

THE EXTRAORDINARY

The deepest gorge on the planet
May have been uncovered in a glacier

The 25 best national parks
Good regions to buy real estate?

The most underrated national park hikes
Most secluded hikes in the US

Beer that makes you hallucinate
All you brewers, take note!

MUSIC BOX

How about some new-generation bluegrass?

“Rabbit in a Log”
Margot & Wallace

“Shake the Frost”
Sierra Hull & Wyatt Flores

“Bach: Goldberg Variation #5”
Sierra Hull & Mike Seal

“Black Muddy River”
Go, Sierra, Go!!!

What are they listening to in Jamaica right now?
Stylz FM 96.1

CASTING AROUND THE PODS

The blueberry billionaire
Shane Parrish interviews John Bragg.

Podcasting.
You no longer need to be human to do it

VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Daaaaaalí! trailer.
Genius and insanity.

Disclaimer trailer.
Oscar winning director tackles TV.

4.5 billion years in an hour
The history of the earth…before even Godzilla.

FROM THE HEADHUNTER’S KITCHEN

How to cook great duck breast
Pair with duck fat potatoes
Don’t forget the haricots verts

It’s always shrimp season!
9 spicy shrimp recipes

Classic key lime pie
That requires no skill.

THE RANDOMS

Crazy Republicans believe the government is controlling hurricanes, and crazy Democrats believe Trump will destroy democracy. What’s made Americans so crazy these days?

What happened to our future in the metaverse? Is it going to get combined with AI? Is Meta gonna change their name again?

MLB baseball playoff season reminds me…

Life is a 162 game season. The goal is to be in first place at the end of the season. Strive to improve every day. Be patient and persistent. Do good things.

A new Roaring Twenties is at America’s doorstep, suggests Swiss investment bank, UBS. The global economy looks like the Roaring Twenties, says ECB President, Christine Lagarde.

Do these people know what happened after the last Roaring Twenties? First came the 1929 stock market crash followed by the Great Depression. And then came World War II. Got your New Zealand billionaire bunker yet?

Carbon emissions data that would be proved wrong influenced Biden’s LNG pause. Turns out, the report’s authors lied.

Do you think there’s any other bias in today’s “science” reporting? Absolutely!

Lina Khan’s FTC has taken a lot of flak, but maybe she’s doing a good thing.

Will AI cause countries to borrow more and more money in order to patch up industries AI hurts and to support citizens who can’t earn enough money?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The New Pied Piper
October 4, 2024

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Speaks
September 27, 2024