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Beneath the Surface

What Are You Resisting, Gavin?

Loading ...James Hickman

November 18, 2024 • 4 minute, 53 second read


CaliforniaTrump

What Are You Resisting, Gavin?

The blood isn’t even dry on the corpse of Kamala’s billion dollar presidential campaign, and the opportunists in her party are already shamelessly jockeying for power.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has just called a “special legislative session,” to “Trump-proof” his state and “safeguard California values”.

Naturally we’re left wondering, what exactly are those California values?

Luckily, Newsom gave us a demonstration earlier this week. As a classic tone deaf politician, he wandered around Los Angeles’ skid row neighborhood in his $1,200 shoes, with his $8 latte— and very fancy tailored suit— while being heckled by the neighborhood’s residents and homeless.

Apparently, he expects to be greeted as a hero everywhere he goes, completely oblivious to the destruction he has caused.

It appears that the value he aims to protect is that he, and he alone, should be in charge, at everyone else’s expense.

Obviously preparing for a White House run, it is also so interesting that Newsom, over the past couple of years, has gone out of his way to compare and contrast his state against his arch nemesis, Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida.

The left seems to think Florida is the worst place in the world.

MSNBC host Joy Reid captured the angst of the left, howling that America might turn into Florida: “that kind of extreme, extremist right wing fascist type government.”

Ah yes, fascist Florida, the state which did not lock down its residents for years in the name of COVID, did not shutter business, require masks, force injections, or arrest people for walking in parks.

The state with a booming economy, with a balanced budget, despite having NO state income tax, with massive net migration, and constantly improving infrastructure— despite being pummeled by hurricane after hurricane.

God forbid America turns into Florida!

But this is one of the beautiful things about America.

As the Founding Fathers were framing the US Constitution in the 1780s, they baked in the idea that states should have tremendous autonomy.

They had all read Adam Smith’s 1776 work, The Wealth of Nations. They understood that competition between states would make America a marketplace of ideas and policies, where the best ones could win out.

And while the federal government has amassed way more power than was ever intended, you can still see the results of capitalist-style competition between the states.

It’s why California, New York, and New Jersey are losing population amidst unsustainable state government debts, crime waves, unchecked illegal immigration, and high taxes.

And it’s why states like Florida and Texas are booming— because Americans all have a choice of where they live.

But still, if you want a government that spends $35,000 per homeless person, yet doesn’t reduce the number of homeless, you can move to California.

If you want a state that promises high speed rails, but 16 years and $35 billion later has nothing to show for it, California is calling!

If you want a Governor who raises taxes on oil and gas, shutters nuclear power plants, and insists on inefficient “renewables” unable to keep up with electric grid demand from the electric vehicles he mandated, Newsom is the guy for you!

If you want to live in a place where shoplifting is decriminalized, Newsom is your knight in shining armor.

The Founding Fathers gave Americans the option to build their own Plan B… as well as Plan C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, and M to choose which of the original 13 states they preferred.

Today, you can freely choose from 50 states to move to without asking permission.

If your number one concern in life is making sure your children have access to drag queen story hour, there are plenty of options for you in the United States.

If, on the other hand, you prefer to live in a state with sounder government finances, safer streets, better performing schools, and lower taxes, you also have options.

You even have the additional choice of the territory of Puerto Rico, if you want to legally avoid having to pay federal income tax.

And there are also about 170 other countries on earth to choose from as well, for a cheaper cost of living, access to inexpensive healthcare, a better climate, or your preferred lifestyle.

Obviously, there is still a mountain of problems to fix and challenges to overcome for the country as a whole.

But the fact that Newsom thinks he’s the guy that can get it done it just hilarious.

His idea of “Make America California” is so blind to everything that has happened in his state, including the countless residents and businesses who have fled California in disgust.

He’s also blind to the fact that “make America California” was already on the ballot in this election. And it got complete destroyed.

That’s essentially what Kamala and the guy who shakes hands with thin air were doing.

The results are clear: Americans are weaker, poorer, the country more chaotic, less unified, more pessimistic, and less respected internationally.

Newsom is so delusional he still thinks people want more of this. Honestly, it’s hilarious.

And as I wrote last week, this is actually good news for the most part.

The risk, of course, is that if the incoming government isn’t able to move the needle in the right direction and get the country back on track, there may be another giant turn to the left in a few years, not to mention some pretty severe social and financial consequences.

This is why it still makes sense to maintain a solid Plan B.

But as long as there are Inspired Idiots like Newsom who think people actually want more destruction, more likely the Left will continue to lose… and hence the better chance that the country and the world will have a brighter future.

 

~~ James Hickman, Schiff Sovereign


The Money Printer Is Coming Back—And Trump Is Taking Over the Fed

December 9, 2025 • Lau Vegys

Trump and Powell are no buddies. They’ve been fighting over rate cuts all year—Trump demanding more, Powell holding back. Even after cutting twice, Trump called him “grossly incompetent” and said he’d “love to fire” him. The tension has been building for months.

And Trump now seems ready to install someone who shares his appetite for lower rates and easier money.

Trump has been dropping hints for weeks—saying on November 18, “I think I already know my choice,” and then doubling down last Sunday aboard Air Force One with, “I know who I am going to pick… we’ll be announcing it.”

He was referring to one Kevin Hassett, who—according to a recent Bloomberg report—has emerged as the overwhelming favorite to become the next Fed chair.

The Money Printer Is Coming Back—And Trump Is Taking Over the Fed
Waiting for Jerome

December 9, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Here we sit — investors, analysts, retirees, accountants, even a few masochistic economists — gathered beneath the leafless monetary tree, rehearsing our lines as we wait for Jerome Powell to step onstage and tell us what the future means.

Spoiler: he can’t. But that does not stop us from waiting.

Tomorrow, he is expected to deliver the December rate cut. Polymarket odds sit at 96% for a dainty 25-point cut.

Trump, Navarro and Lutnick pine for 50 points.

And somewhere in the wings smiles Kevin Hassett — at 74% odds this morning,  the presumed Powell successor — watching the last few snowflakes fall before his cue arrives.

Waiting for Jerome
Deep Value Going Global in 2026

December 9, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

With U.S. stocks trading at about 24 times forward earnings, plans for capital growth have to go off without a hitch. Given the billions of dollars in commitments by AI companies, financing to the hilt on debt, the most realistic outcome is a hitch.

On a valuation basis, global markets will likely show better returns than U.S. stocks in 2026.

America leads the world in innovation. A U.S. tech stock will naturally fetch a higher price than, say, a German brewery. But value matters, too.

Deep Value Going Global in 2026
Pablo Hill: An Unmistakable Pattern in Copper

December 8, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

As copper flowed into the United States, LME inventories thinned and backwardation steepened. Higher U.S. pricing, tariff protection, and lower political risk made American warehouses the most attractive destination for metal. Each new shipment strengthened the spread.

The arbitrage, once triggered, became self-reinforcing. Traders were not participating in theory; they were responding to the physical incentives in front of them.

The United States had quietly become the marginal buyer of the world’s most important industrial metal. China, long the gravitational center of global copper demand, found itself on the outside.

Pablo Hill: An Unmistakable Pattern in Copper