Heres the second part of our readers feedback on the Fed:

Declaring that the Fed is independent is one fig leaf to show that politicians are not in control of the money supply, but the problem remains that stable money depends on the self-discipline of politicians and bankers, rather than on the finite limit of gold.

Bankers and politicians may start out self-disciplined (we've had a pretty good run in the U.S. for the last hundred years), but eventually the programs get too expensive, the temptation to print too great, and economists come out of the woodwork with grand ideas like [Modern Monetary Theory] that justify unlimited printing.

I expect the U.S. dollar has a very limited remaining life-span. Of course, the same is true of all the major currencies of the world since they all suffer from the same disease, and are now getting into competitive devaluations (i.e., every country wants its currency to decline more rapidly than the currencies of all the other countries). Expressed this way, that seems absolutely insane but just look around.

Thanks for the feedback. Much food for thought. Speaking of, well have more tomorrow that sheds light on Nixon backing off the gold standard.

We promise to get to your feedback about privacy. Eventually.

But did you read during Amazon Prime Day[s], the company was offering customers a $10 credit in exchange for snooping on their web-browsing habits?

The cost of privacy comes pretty cheap these days.

Your Rundown for Thursday, July 18, 2019:

New Meaning to Netflix and Chill

Netflix -- or the company that put the N in FANG stocks -- announced earnings yesterday and the companys report went over like a New Coke-filled balloon.

This morning, Netflix (NFLX) shares are down 11% on news the companys lost about 126,000 U.S. subscribers, the worst loss of paying viewers in 8 years.

But in a letter to shareholders, Netflix execs didnt blame competition from other streaming platforms; instead, they said: We think Q2s content slate drove less growth in paid net adds than we anticipated.

To bounce back in the short term, says Market Watch, Netflix has to hope that subscribers were waiting for one specific piece of content to jump on the platform.

And were sure the folks at Netflix are hanging their hats on Stranger Things Season 3 to turn things around in the next quarter

Truth be told, my own family has been gathering around the Netflix hearth to watch the series that plays heavily on 80s nostalgia. (Is it a spoiler to say the third installments not as good as the first?)

Here are a few things working against Netflix in the near term. The platform will be losing two shows with devoted followings: The Office and Friends. Second, many millenials -- were just saying -- are still using parental units Netflix accounts instead of paying for their own.

If Netflix could figure out a way to cut the digital apron strings, thatd go a long way towards boosting subscriptions.

Market Rundown for Thurs. July 18, 2019

S&P 500 futures are down 5 points to 2,979.50.

Oils down 10 cents to $56.68 per barrel.

Gold is down $5.00 to $1,418.30.

Bitcoin is down $293.34 to $9,402.49 this morning.

Have a good. Well talk tomorrow.

For the Rundown,

Aaron Gentzler