Ima Short | Wall Street Memes

Who? What? What are you talking about? Oh yeah, I’m supposed to tell you, sorry, one sec…

Right, I’ve read up on it now and the crypto platform Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson says that he lost $2.5 billion dollars in actual money over four years. Why? Well according to him government interference killed the bull run before it had even hit its stride.

Hoskinson went further and put the blame squarely at Donald J. Trump’s feet, saying that instead of the crypto pump that he had promised during his campaign, Trump just sowed chaos.

So is this cope? Or a big bag of nope?

Well, most cryptos have dipped about 40%-50% since Trump’s second term began. Additionally pump-and-dump schemes pushed by the president himself (Trump and dump, if you will), giving crypto as a whole a massive hit to its reputation.

On the other hand we have seem massive crypto rallies over the past year with Bitcoin breaking multiple ATHs and a general feeling of a more widespread adoption of the technology with a number of companies embracing the currencies.

Alright, so now what?

Well, idk, idk what to do with any of this. Make up your own mind, whatever.

The American Enterprise Institute just said that average house prices have risen 150% since 2019 but honestly, did you really need a study to tell you that? Just take a deep breath in. You can smell it in the air.

Couple this with home loan rates two-thirds higher than in 2019 means that three in four households will likely never own their own home. So how did we get here? And more importantly, how do we get out?

High House Building Costs

High material costs, labor shortages, tighter building regulations and various other market factors mean that building costs have outpaced inflation and now account for 60-70% of the cost of bringing a new house to market.

This is a large factor, but this alone isn’t the main factor pushing up house prices, so let’s keep going, shall we?

Lack Of House Supply

There’s simply not enough houses and not enough being built at the rate of the growing population. Counterintuitively it might be the houses and the top end of the market that may need a supply boost since wealthy buyers are currently competing with the middle class for housing, driving up prices for everyone.

Never thought I’d say this, but GIVE RICH PEOPLE HOUSES!

Over Regulation

The above problem seems to be the obvious cause so, if we’re all in agreement, then why don’t we just build more houses? Well, there are a lot of restrictions such as parking requirements, height restrictions etc. that mean houses are expensive to build or just never get built in the first place.

Oh and Also I feel like COVID is a factor

Didn’t really cover why this is after 2029 in particular, but I reckon it must be COVID, right?

So What Can Be Done?

Thankfully the problem might have finally bubbled over to the point where politicians can’t ignore it anymore.

Donald Trump and bizarrely, gavin Newsom have come together to support a bill that would prevent large investors from buying up properties to rent them out.

Seems good on paper, but there’s been some pushback. “There’s no empirical evidence that large institutions have driven up housing prices,” says Ed Pinto, codirector of the American Enterprise Institute Housing Center.

“These companies are not pillaging homebuyers,” he continued. “It’s just the opposite. As more and more people can’t afford to buy single-family homes, they’re providing the option of living in one at lower cost by renting. That takes those people out of the purchase market, and hence can take pressure off prices.”

But it seems like a chicken or egg problem and from the sounds of it, this housing crisis will need a multi-pronged attack to get solved. Trump’s policy might be a start but there’s still a long way to go before this problem actually gets solved.

Jim “Reverse” Cramer just gave us another pearl of wisdom saying that Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO is “delivering phenomenally for its shareholders.” Netflix saw this news and instantly bailed on their proposed merger citing Cramer as a “curse” and that he has “ruined everything.”

Here’s everything “ramblin’ Jim” had to say on the matter, “So MSCI, which is the keeper of these groupings, combine a bunch of telecom, media, and entertainment companies, as well as some other companies, well, that we think of as tech companies, I know it’s strange because it’s Alphabet and Meta Platforms, these are really big companies into the hodgepodge sector now known as communication services. Probably confusing to you. It’s always confused me. It’s very artificial. Alright, that hodgepodge did great in 2025, led by Warner Brothers Discovery, which is finishing up nearly 173% after late-year bidding work that ended with the company announcing its sale to Netflix, although there’s still a possibility that it might go to this Paramount. Congratulations to Warner’s David Zaslav for delivering phenomenally for its shareholders. I gotta tell you, what a performance this thing was at eight bucks when he told me, ‘Listen, this thing’s worth 30.’ And boom, guess what? Probably get 30.”

Yes, I agree, you are confused.

But in actual news, Netflix is planning on amending their previous offer to make it an all-cash buyout, hoping that will push them ahead of Paramount in the final stages of the deal.

In Paramount’s camp, they’ve resorted to dirty tactics, filing a lawsuit that would compel WBD to disclose how it values the two bids to its shareholders. Additionally the company plans to nominate pro-Paramount directors to WBD’s board of directors in an attempt to get them to flinch.

I mean, I think it’s clear who’s on the back foot here.

So what does this all have to do with movies then, huh? Well, nothing. We might as well be trading potatoes for all it matters. Netflix, Warner Bros and Paramount all don’t really care about anything here but money. They might talk about values and brand loyalty and garbage but these are all soulless business dealings and the art that this all should be about is going to get caught in the crossfire.

He hasn’t …yet.

The President, I’m going to say that again, the President just called the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, incompetent, crooked and a jerk.

*cough* Maduro *cough* Epstein *cough-cough*.

During a regular ol’ speech about the economy, Trump got bored of reading off the teleprompter (watch the clip, you can see it in his eyes) and went off script saying, “That jerk will be gone soon.”

In another instance he said, “He’s billions of dollars over budget so he either is incompetent or he’s crooked… I don’t know what he is. But he does a – certainly he doesn’t do a very good job.”

The latest blow comes as everyone’s saying very clearly that this whole spat is a bad idea.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon spoke out saying, “Everyone we know believes in Fed independence. Anything that chips away at that is probably not a great idea. And in my view, it will have the reverse consequences, it will raise inflation expectations and probably increase rates over time.”

But then Trump clapped back to this clap back, said, “I think it’s fine what I’m doing.” Of course you do. He continued: Powell is “a bad Fed person. He’s done a bad job. We should have lower rates. Jamie Dimon probably wants higher rates. Maybe he makes more money that way.”

Powell-erful words there

And it’s not just JPMorgan Chase CEOs who are siding against Trump, a number of Trump’s own republicans have turned on him over this issue.

Senate Banking Committee member John Kennedy, R-La., said, “If you wanted to design a system to guarantee that interest rates would go up and not down, the best way to do that would be to have the Federal Reserve and the executive branch of the United States get in a pissing contest. We need this like we need a hole in the head.”

But the person we all really want to hear from is J. Powell himself, who, other than a video response a couple days ago has remained silence. Come on, Jay, he’s dragging you through the mud, you gonna take that? You gonna let him talk to you like that? Get nasty. Gloves are off baby, let’s see you call him some names.

Off with his head!

Jerome “Big Ballz” Powell has clapped back against Trump’s latest attack on the Federal Reserve Chair.

In his latest TikTok, Powell explained that “the threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”

Jay Powell South Park Meme — Powell photographed in the street today.

And he’s right, this has nothing to do with the Fed renovations that Powell is supposedly subpoenaed for and everyone pretty much knows it. Trump’s been outspoken about his dislike of Powell from the beginning. (idk what tho)

So, here’s a question, how do you think the interest rates should be measured? Should it be decided by taking the data about the economy and then setting the rates accordingly? Or should it be decided by whether or not the chairman spent too much money doing up a building?

Sorry, did I say federal building renovations? I meant to say blatant political coercion.

Jerome Powell? More like Jerome POWell

Because even if you’re a Trump fan, the idea that Trump, or any future president, should have the power to set the interest rates just isn’t very helpful. These decisions need to be made independently, need to be objective and scrutable by their own metric. If these rates are decided based on a subjective whim then they hold no water and are basically useless.

Look, I’ve got zero economics knowledge and even I can tell you that Trump is just undermining his own system here. But don’t take my ill-informed word for it, here’s a statement signed by former Fed Chairs Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan, and four other past Treasury secretaries.

“This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly,” the statement reads. “It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success.”

When the President can set interest rates, he’ll set them in a way that makes him look good and garners more power. The rates will therefore not be an accurate representation of what the economy’s doing and be basically useless, undermining the actual value of our currency and American goods.

That seems obvious right? So why is Trump trying to do it? Well, because in the short term this makes him look good and he thinks it’s a good idea and it’s all about control, isn’t it? Why shouldn’t he be able to decide the interest rates? He can just pluck out the leader of Venezuela, ignore the will of the people, kill a man by guillotine, he can do whatever he wants.

And he wants Powell gone.

So what happens next?

Well, both sides will double down, the show trial will go ahead, but it won’t do much until Powell steps down in May and Trump replaces him with someone more amenable to his whims and our economy suffers as a result.

Just another drip on the slow erosion of this country’s ever-weakening institutions.

But that’s just my guess. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section that we don’t have below!

I know that sounds like a threat from a supervillain, but it’s true…

For the first time in forever, the US will have a declining population rate. And that’s good news, right? Overpopulation is a bad thing because there are not enough houses, economy something, something, etc?

WRONG.

Population growth is ESSENTIAL to economic growth. If too many people are dying and we’re not having enough babies THE ECONOMY WILL SHRINK AND THAT’S BAD.

If we want population growth we’re going to have to rely on disgusting things like immigration and cloning and in vitro fertilization. Ew.

These new numbers come from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) who previously said it would take another decade to get to this point. I THOUGHT I STILL HAD TIME!!!

Economy? More like eCONomy

This will fundamentally change the very fabric of American society. As it has done in Italy, Japan and the UK, an aging population can lead to a rise in dependency, an end of life care crisis, a decline in military strength, a decline in innovation, deflation, unemployment, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, COVID again, and death.

So yeah, not good.

Maybe Donald ‘The President’ Trump will foresee this issue and incentivise immigration, people to start families and for everyone to die a bit less.

The way I see it, that’s the only solution: immortality.

I for one am putting all my money on Bryan Johnson to save us all.

That and cloning. Yeah, cloning would be cool.

No. …but it’s a start.

Yes, this is the news that then President Donaldo Trumpo has gotten behind a plan to ban private equity companies from buying up homes just to make a profit and pricing regular people out of ownership.

Writing on social media, Mr. Pres said, “That American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans. People live in homes, not corporations.”

I mean he’s not wrong.

Ironically the 2008 housing crisis offered up cheap houses that only large investor firms could afford buy and now investors like Blackstone are landlords to tens of thousands of homes.

But already the news is having an impact with shares in Blackstone dipping 5%, the building company FirstSource also dropped 5 and Invitation Homes dipped 6%.

Homes A-Loan 2: Lost In New York ft. DJ Trump

It’s not a bad idea, but currently it’s a tiny piece of FLEXTAPE™ on burst dam. This shot at housing run for profit needs to be expanded into a full blown war until the entire culture around the market changes.

Will the business President be the one to decouple houses from profit-seekers? My guess is no, but at least he’s taking this small step.

Give him some slack though, he’s only got small feet.

For more on this story, read this: Houses Now Twice As Unaffordable As Not Affordable

Ok, not technically Trump, but his son in law just pulled out and that’s close enough to make a clickbait title, right? …RIGHT?

Donald Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity, just pulled its funding for Paramount’s bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Still with me?

In a statement, the firm explained that “With two strong competitors trying to secure the future of this unique American asset, Affinity has decided not to pursue the opportunity anymore. The investment situation has changed a lot since we first got involved in October. We still believe Paramount’s offer makes sense strategically.”

Sure you do…

Paramount now loses a potentially key ally in their bid as it might fall on king Trump to pass the final verdict on whether I’m going to have to pay an extra $2 a month for HBO or not.

Whilst it previously looked like Trump and Paramount were walking hand in hand, Trump did recently criticize Paramount’s CBS for 60 Minutes depiction of him, Truthing: “If they are friends, I’d hate to see me enemies!”

And that’s what this all comes down to. Trump will support whoever flatters or bribes him more. He’s a business man, come on, what do you want from him? And Trump’s little tweet was a warning for Paramount to toe the line or lose his support. It’s the same thing that happened with Jimmy Kimmel, it’s the same thing he’s trying with his lawsuit against the BBC.

Pledge fealty to the king or incur his wrath!

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, WBD’s board is reportedly planning to reject Paramount’s offer citing concerns over its financial structure and the terms over the merger. The ball is pitched back into Paramount’s court who have already said that this is not their best and final offer (weird negotiation tactic, but ok).

So all in all, needless to say we’ve not reached the season finale here yet and there are still many more twists and turns to be had before the act three reveal where Larry Ellison is unmasked as the murderer all along.

Ford (FRD) stock is UP following the announcement that they will be cancelling a bunch of their full EV vehicles and pivoting back to gas and hybrid vehicle production.

So I guess China won then? I guess you’re just giving up and letting China take the EV market. They’ve been coming for you and now you’ve stopped and let them catch you. But hey, better to retreat with casualties than keep on fighting until the bitter end, right Tesla?

The news comes with a long list of announcements, including the cancellation of Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV (why is it named like a fighter jet?) and pivoting their battery manufacturing from cars to grid storage.

I’m sorry, what was that about climate change? Yeah, I hardly know her neither.

“The operating reality has changed, and we are redeploying capital into higher-return growth opportunities: Ford Pro, our market-leading trucks and vans, hybrids, and high-margin opportunities like our new battery energy storage business,” said CEO, Henry Ford, in a statement.

This gear shift does mean the famed car manufacturer will eat a massive $$$$$19.5 billion in monies. Let me break that down for you:

$8 billion in asset impairments, including EV asset writedowns
$6 billion for restructuring and acquiring battery plant assets from partner SK ON
$5.5 billion in cash charges related to vehicle cancellations

And I know that seems like a lot but Ford has spotted a massive slump in EV purchases so in the long run this’ll be for the best, promise.

As the great Henry Ford once said, “Any customer can have a car powered any way that he wants, so long as it is gas.”

For more car news, read this: Ferrari Unveils First EV Car, Stock Price Stalls

I don’t see color.

Pantone, the people behind the Pantone Matching System (which awkwardly abbreviates to PMS) have unveiled their ‘Color of the Year 2026’ like they do every year and is no way controversial at all.

It’s white. They picked white.

Well, officially it’s called ✨ 𝓒𝓵𝓸𝓾𝓭 𝓓𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓻 ✨ and it’s an off-white, a lil creamy, a lil gray. Pantone describes it as “a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection.”

…sure.

Now, this is all just a bit of advertising, nothing to write home about, except, of course, people are kicking off that of all the colors and non-colors it’s white, accusing the company of promoting ✨𝓦𝓱𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓢𝓾𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓶𝓪𝓬𝔂✨.

The next market crash?

But that’s not the kind of crazy I’m interested in today, because this is a respectable financial publication after all, no, let me draw your attention to this particular tweet:

Mhmhmm, yeah, stick with me, now look at this:

Right, so look at when Pantone doesn’t pick real colors, they pick grays and whites. What have we got:

2006 – the peak of the housing market, which crashed for 2 years…

2021 – the Russia-Ukraine war caused a crash that the world took 18 months to recover from…

And now…

2026 – holy shit.

I’m not saying everything’s orchestrated or anything, BUT PANTONE ARE DEFINITELY SIGNALING TO THE WEALTHY ELITE WHEN TO CASH OUT AND CASH IN.

YOU’RE ALL BEING PLAYED SHEEPLE! THE PANTONE COLOR COMPANY IS BEHIND EVERYTHING! NO, GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, I’M TELLING THE TRUTH! A SUCCULENT CHINESE MEAL!! YOU CAN’T SUPPRESS THE TRUTH!! AAAHHHH!!!

[“The content is below the minimum of words. Add more content.” …bitch, a picture says a thousand words and I used two, come on, that’s 2000 words right there!]

For more color news, read this: Facebook Changes Branding Colors To Red In Effort To Court Trump