Blain’s Late Afternoon Porridge, Monday 18th, May – The Truth and Financial Media risk becoming strangers“The past is erased, the erasure is forgotten, and the lie becomes the truth.”To understand markets and the economy you need to understand how it really works; the where, what, when, why and how of the frictions that make for imperfect markets interreact. That includes politics. But trying to explain these factors is now subject to Social Media censorship – the reality is a distributed Ministry of Truth straight out of 1984. Social media now determines who can talk about markets and what they can say. Referring to incompetent politics gets you banished to the outer limits of conspiracy finance!Dear ReadersApologies for no Porridge this morning. I was… busy.I’ve been writing the Morning Porridge for nearly 20 years. It’s always been an “extra” I chose to do in addition to my day job as a financier in the Private Capital Markets. I write about markets as I perceive them – attempting to present the markets as a calm, rational, and pragmatic player of the game. The Porridge comprises my thoughts as a market insider, seeking to explain actionable insights as to what’s really occurring, and the how, why, and when of what participants are thinking.My comments and opinions are the result of the experiences that have stuck to me over 40 plus years in the Game of Markets, and the daily discussions I have with my clients and other market folk. I was asked to contribute to a TV Channel doing a piece on why markets remain so resilient despite the wall of worry about everything. They wanted “talking heads”, including myself, to explain what the market might be missing about current events, ructions and price moves. Not an uncommon request - which I am delighted to do. I gave them some outline thoughts on themes; and not all were negative. I explained about the dangers of FOMO, inflation, supply disruption, and the effects of AI under-tow, but also how much of the political angst is likely overdone.I was then asked not to reference Donald Trump, the US Administration or politics in my comments. The host explained to me how the algorithms that drive social media and You-Tube are now trained to lock-out anything that mentions POTUS, US Politics, Tariffs, Iran or such. The TV host wants the show to be seen by as many people as possible, therefore it has to conform to Social Media algos.Algos are not the truth.You can read the Morning Porridge by subscribing on ⁠www.morningporridge.com⁠, and have it delivered fresh to your inbox every morning!

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