OK, the folks in Bentonville might be taking the “everyday low prices” thing a little too far.
Walmart gave up early gains on Monday to finish slightly negative, and in so doing extended its streak of sessions with a decline to nine.
That ties streaks from 2011 and 2014, and marks the longest such romp in the red since 2004.
That ugly run in June 2004 was driven by a cut to Walmart’s sales forecast, with peer Target following suit soon thereafter.
This time... there really hasn’t been that much company-specific news to speak of. While it’s been a long decline, it hasn’t been an especially steep drop: since June 3, shares are down 5.7%.
In economics, the most famous of the genre was developed by Fleming and Mundell, which posits that you can only successfully achieve two of the following three objectives: the free flow of capital, a fixed exchange rate, and independent sovereign monetary policy.
George Pollack, senior US policy analyst at Signum Global Advisors, proposed a trilemma of his own to describe the Trump administration’s competing policy aims as a red-hot AI boom devours power and leaves households miffed by rising electricity bills.
He wrote:
“This note flags what we believe to be a simple reality whose salience will continue growing in US politics in coming months: the Trump administration, in its remaining three years will face a trilemma as the nation waits for its energy bet to play out — proving able to achieve two, but not all three, of the following objectives:
-Fulfill AI’s energy-appetite. -Keep repressing renewable sources of energy. -Appease American electricity consumers.”
As for evidence that the Trump administration is taking a fossil fuels-first approach while stunting renewables, Pollack pointed to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which shrinks access to tax credits for green energy, as well as the end to the federal pause on liquefied natural gas export permits. However, it would be “inaccurate and unfair” to blame President Trump’s policies for surging electricity prices in recent months, he added.
While the government has pursued the expansion of nuclear power as a way to solve this trilemma, the long lead times involved are incongruent with a short-term fix.
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