Davos Man Takes a Knee for Xi
Episode 3: Davos Man sends Xi a love letter. California recall spurs reopening and Ken gives a pro tip on what it means for the market. Smartypants takes on populism.
Friends, Romans and Countrypersons, lend me your ears:
Quite honestly, that is the only line I remember from Western Civ in high school. Was that even a line?
Who knows? What I know is that the Party of Davos is up to no good. We track them down. But we have to get something out of it. Double Plus, the China-centric, market-centric Substack, takes a random look at what Davos Man is up to in regards to China and the U.S. We do so to make money and to protect our investments, our families, and friends.
Thanks for reading my free, beta tester. Now let me freestyle, and drop some science.
Dear Davos Man,
Do you have a crush on me? Circle Yes or No.
Yours,
Xi Jinping, Beijing
The Davos Agenda once again proved that Xi is the Party of Davos’ fave leader; China is their favorite nation. They love giving Xi a platform. They first did it in January 2017, Trump’s first year in office. They heralded him as the poster boy of free trade. China president good. American president bad.
I know. It’s hilarious. These guys are frauds.
All Xi has to do to win accolades from these guys is bemoan nationalism (China is nationalist) and talk up climate change (China is the world’s largest emitter of C02). If Xi talked up the rights of LGBT people and announced Shanghai’s first-ever Pride Parade, it’d be a slam dunk for these guys. Davos Man would openly embrace the China way as the best way…and would shut up with this genocide talk in Xinjiang.
Here are some clips from Xi’s Davos Agenda speech today.
XJ on “The Great Reset”:
"We should stay committed to keeping up with the times instead of rejecting change. Now is the time for major development and major transformation."
Xi outlined several objectives, the World Economic Forum wrote in their press release. Look at the keywords from global, corporate HR here. Please tell me where Davos Man lingo – which is multinational corporate public imaging -- and Democratic Party talking points differ: they include the need to work together to achieve strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth…and to strengthen global cooperation in addressing the big common challenges, namely Covid-19 and climate change.
XJ on let us build your solar panels:
“We need to deliver on the Paris Agreement on climate change and promote green development. We need to give continued priority to development, implement the Sustainable Development Goals, and make sure that all countries, especially developing ones, share in the fruits of global development.”
Translation. Let us build your EV batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines. Xie xie.
XJ blinds Google SEO with science.
“Science, technology and innovation is a key engine for human progress... China will create an open, fair, equitable, and non-discriminatory scientific environment that is beneficial to all.”
Xi also mentioned how countries need to unite to fight Covid. And while I get that the Davos Agenda isn’t an investigation journalism forum (if one ever existed), the notion that China is helping the world understand Covid, its origins, or even publishing reliable information on its caseloads and death rate is laughable. That any multilateral institution even takes them seriously on this is sophomore level naivete.
Since June, the Johns Hopkins University case ticker for Covid in Shanghai has been under 2,000 with just 7 deaths. JHU should just eliminate China from its red-blot Covid map. It’s misinformation at this point.
And speaking of China sycophants within the Party of Davos friendship circle, Gavin Newsom’s recall is so hot that he’s found a cure for Covid! Restrictions get lifted this week. Which brings us to our favorite watercooler whisperers.
The Wall Street Watercooler:
Gavin Newsom as Rally Sparker
As predicted, Biden signed an Executive Order today espousing Buy America rules in government procurement contracts and removals of waivers and exemptions that benefit WTO members in Europe, and even Hong Kong (which by extension is China).
This is a positive for small to mid-cap stocks and they should outperform the S&P 500. Some $600 billion in government procurement contracts are issued each year, much of it to small and mid-sized companies along the supply chain.
Here is the Direxion Small Cap Bull (TNA) ETF versus the S&P 500.
“Strong returns coming off of bear market bottoms are usually followed by robust earnings growth. For ’21, small-cap earnings are expected to rebound sharply – potentially by 160% based on the latest consensus estimates,” one of my sources says. “The synergy of fiscal stimulus and an accommodative Fed provides a strong backdrop for economic growth this year.”
China-style stimulus will support economic growth moving forward, especially as perceptions change surrounding the pandemic. They’re buying small- to mid-cap stocks.
We have touched upon this previously. New to the market chit chat I’m hearing is that it looks like enough people in California think governor Gavin Newsom is a bum. He faces a recall vote. We will know more on March 15.
Numerous reports indicate Newsom will lift his totally failed stay-at-home orders, allowing the reopening of outdoor dining and indoor salons. (He can go to The French Laundry without remorse.)
Hospital bed outlooks are good, the California government says, for the next four months! How they know this is beyond my pay grade for a free Substack. Maybe they have an inside source into the cellular structure of the Sars2 virus and what it plans on doing over the winter.
Then again, I just watched the NFC Championship game on Sunday and not a single player kneeled on national television. Biden cured racism in his first week in office. Maybe he has cured Covid? That can’t be. He keeps telling us the worst is yet to come. I am going to believe him.
Anyway, the good news is that more relaxation of unpopular restrictions are likely to follow. Even so, Newsom’s shift might not be enough to cool the head of steam the #RecallNewsom effort is building.
At least 1.2 million people signed the recall petition. As of last Friday, the effort was attracting more than 10,000 signatures a day. A recall needs 2 million signatures, likely the amount to withstand all signature verification challenges, and if they get that, then a snap election will be imminent. Knowing the Californians, they will vote him back. I mean…he is handsome.
“A recall would add serious political pressure on Newsom to expeditiously roll out widespread vaccinations to swiftly reopen the Californian economy, assuming people go for it. If California can pull that off and open up fully, it sets the table for the end of Covid.”
I have been hearing this since May. We keep moving the goalposts.
I am going to expect more of the same this year in regard to Covid. It’s all got to end eventually. Either the vaccines lead to lower cases and less panic. Or they don’t. Figure at least half of 2021 looks a lot like 2020. Anything else is upside. That, plus stimulus, plus free money is driving the market.
On What Propels Populist Revolt, by Smartypants.
“Many have said that populism is dead now that Trump is gone. It woefully ignores the roots of the problem, which gave us the likes of Trump in the first place. And let’s not forget the likes of his true counterweight, Bernie Sanders. Hatred for Trump by at least half of the American electorate may have actually paused the populist revolt, but it did not crush it. People opposed to the Party of Davos were unable to criticize their worldview because that was too MAGA for them. University’s self-censored a lot of their criticism of corporate America, which has helped promote the social justice messaging of the Democrats, though largely to placate their educated base voter. As a political phenomenon, populism is nothing new and not a blue-collar movement. In UK, France, Germany, and the US over the last five years, it has been defined as a counterrevolution against a bureaucratic, neoliberal order that has been imposed on them from above. At every stage, populist movements eventually hone in on their enemy and their enemy is really these technocratic elites far removed from the realities of those they govern, holed up in maybe a city or two in their home country. They’ve been given veto power over the wants and wishes of most people. It’s not the Russians or the Chinese that are the problem. The populists lost this last election. But the dry wood remains to fuel the next fire. It would be a mistake to think that those who voted against Trump were voting in favor of a managerial elite, because if you were to ask them, and I suspect the mainstream political press will not ask them, then they will tell you they’re not in line with Jeff Bezos or Klaus Schwab. They just have to be forced to be, which also works. Until it doesn’t.”
Closing Credits:
California Girls
Submitted for your approval/a group of tourists on a tour their travel agent never told them about/a road leading to the shadowy tip of nowhere/to a land of the different and the bizarre/they thought they were heading for fun in the sun/not quite…