Kim Kahn

The country is already facing severe food shortages, long blackouts, rising disease, and mass emigration, with more than a quarter of the population leaving since 2020.

Now, U.S.

efforts to clamp down on Venezuelan oil exports through tanker seizures and enforcement actions risk cutting off a key fuel lifeline for Cuba's power plants, transport network, and fragile private sector, raising the stakes for an economy already on the brink.

And in the Wall Street Research Corner, TS Lombard economists-slash-comedians Dario Perkins and Alexandros Xenophontos are out with their annual anti-prediction note, things that won't happen in 2026.

among the non-forecasts, a Fed version of the traders, and a full K-shaped economy implosion.

But the standout is the rise of the digital god.

They write that the AI capex splurge keeps going into 2026 until it reaches 293% of US GDP.

Three years into the boom, the only ones making money are Nvidia and AI consultants.

Big tech eventually gets its digital god, but even the sum of all human knowledge, aka stuff that people wrote on Reddit between 2017 and 2019,

Can't figure out how to make a return on a $400 billion annual project depreciated over two years.

The digital god's ultimate solution?

Turn everyone into paperclips.

Which, they added, for certain economists, fighting an endless battle against people who are wrong on the internet is a relief.

Wall Street Lunch is taking some time off and will be back in a week.

In the meantime, be sure to sign up for Steve Kress's Top Stock Picks for 2026.

That'll be held on January 6th, and I'll put the sign-up link in show notes.

Hello, today is Sunday, December 21st, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for stock market bulls.

Here comes Santa Claus right down Maiden Lane, then left on NASA, heading straight for Wall and Broad.

The Santa Claus rally, the last five trading days of December and the first two of January, is set to kick off on Wednesday, with markets closing early for Christmas Eve and shut on Thursday for Christmas.