Black Lives Matter...

America Since The Summer Of Floyd

Initially, this post was just going to be about the recently concluded trial concerning the killing of Ethan Liming (in front of Lebron James's I Promise School in Akron, Ohio), but a few other recent news items fit with the same pattern: since Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, black lives matter more, and white lives matter less in America. Let's look at the evidence behind that statement. 

After BLM, The S&P 100 Discriminated Against Whites

That sounds like a provocative statement, but there's really no other way to characterize the numbers Bloomberg just reported. 

Bloomberg. 

Blacks make up approximately 13% of the U.S. population but 23% of new S&P 100 jobs went to black applicants in the year after the BLM riots. Meanwhile, only 6% of those new jobs went to whites, who make up about 56% of the U.S. population. 

The Criminal Justice System Is Biased In Favor Of Blacks

Another seemingly provocative statement, but again, it's supported by evidence. Consider the looting in Philadelphia yesterday. Looters act with impunity when they're confident they won't face serious consequences for it. 

And the reality is, they probably won't. Consider Jason Billingsley.

He was convicted of what the New York Post describes only as a "violent" crime in 2011 and sentenced to 30 years for it, but was let out after 7. He just beat a white woman to death in Baltimore--and as it happens, she was a BLM supporter. 

The Ethan Liming Case

If Billingsley gets caught, don't expect him to serve a lot of time for that killing. That seems to be the lesson of the Ethan Liming case. Ethan Liming was the white teen beaten to death in the parking lot of Lebron James's I Promise School in Akron, Ohio in June of last year. The verdict was just announced in that trial, and none of the perpetrators got any significant jail time, as the thread below explains. 

Time For An American Bukele 

After the riots in Philadelphia, Emmanuel Rincón shared a clip of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele being interviewed by Tucker Carlson, with this comment (translated from the Spanish):

What is happening today in Philadelphia shows that Bukele was right: "The fall of the US would have to come from within. The enemies are within. No external enemy could cause as much damage as the internal enemies. Here you are seeing an internal operation , you can see it in cities. Cities that were beautiful 30 years ago are now destroyed. When you see the speed with which these cities are eroding you say: this must be by design. Who would make such stupid decisions? Ok. Let's give him money to people to buy drugs, for not working..."

Who would have thought we'd be comparing our leaders invidiously to the President of El Salvador in 2023, but here we are. 

Let's wrap this up on a slightly more positive trading note. 

Danger Offers Opportunity 

The market pullback this month presents some danger, but it also offers opportunity. We're looking at two specific opportunities now, one on the long side, and one on the short side.

• On the long side: Portfolio Armor's #1 name on Tuesday is one that has pulled back from its highs recently, and it's also one LikeFolio is bullish on. 
• On the short side: we're digging into a financial stock that looks like it may have balance sheet problems similar to Silicon Valley Bank before it imploded. 

Feel free to subscribe to our trading Substack/occasional email list below if you're not already, and we'll give you a heads up when we execute a trade on one or both of those opportunities. 

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