Between flights and coffee refills, The Macro Butler squeezed in a dawn pit stop at BFM 89.9 to explain why Wall Street is stuck in a 2026 washing machine cycle, why AI without power is just expensive fiction, why energy producers are the new El Dorado—and why Japan seems determined to audition yet another lame-duck prime minister.

https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/interview-with-bfm-899-malaysia-02012026-602

Above the skyline of the Lion City, The Macro Butler sat down for a compelling in-person interview with Arigato Investor, exploring how to invest in a polarized world—staying calm and why gold, silver, and platinum deserve a permanent seat in every serious portfolio.

The interview will be released soon—stay tuned.

https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/meeting-with-arigato-investor

While YouTubers are busy calling the end of the precious-metals bull market, the Bank of England is congratulating itself for “defeating” inflation—by gently pushing Britain toward a jobs crisis. With rates kept restrictive, the BoE now expects unemployment to overshoot its own forecasts by roughly 110,000 people, reviving the old tradition of sacrificing jobs on the altar of price stability. Officials swear they don’t welcome unemployment (history begs to differ), but they’re still waiting for “more evidence” before cutting rates, even as hiring freezes spread and younger workers take the hit.

In short: inflation may be almost tamed, growth is wobbling, jobs are disappearing quietly, and the BoE is proudly declaring this a delicate balancing act—while hoping the safety net appears just in time.

Across the Channel, the ECB—firmly steered by the Educated-Yet-Idiots school of central banking—did absolutely nothing, proudly keeping rates unchanged and declaring inflation to be in a “good place.” Chairwoman Lagarde dismissed the euro’s rally as perfectly normal, called the economy “resilient,” offered zero guidance, and promised to remain “data-dependent,” which in ECB language means watching everything while committing to nothing. Inflation slipping below target is, of course, only “temporary,” the strong euro is “not a target,” and rising trade frictions are merely a reminder that policymakers need “full optionality.”

In short: inflation is fine, growth is fragile, risks are everywhere, leadership changes are coming—and the ECB assures us monetary policy is agile, balanced, and very much under control.

After a soft ADP print and an NFP delayed by yet another Washington “micro-shutdown,” the labour market delivered its latest plot twist: U.S. employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January—the worst January since 2009—while hiring plans collapsed to a record-low 5,306. So much for “cooling”; this is confidence quietly packing its bags. Layoffs aren’t about AI taking over the world, but about old-fashioned realities like weaker demand, lost contracts, and rising costs. Employers planned these cuts back in late 2025, clearly expecting a rough 2026, and the message is simple: when hiring disappears and layoffs surge before the year even gets going, this isn’t seasonality—it’s the economy blinking first.

In a nutshell, Job cuts just hit their worst January since 2009 while hiring plans fell to record lows—proof that confidence has left the labor market long before the headlines caught up.

As investors rediscover that boring old Dow stocks can, in fact, still pay the bills, consumer sentiment perked up a bit: the University of Michigan index rose to 57.3 in February, beating expectations, thanks to people feeling slightly better about today (tomorrow, not so much). Inflation fears cooled—year-ahead expectations fell to their lowest since early 2025—but job anxiety refused to cooperate, with fears of losing work at the highest level since 2020.

Bottom line: consumers are less scared of prices, still nervous about paychecks, and cautiously optimistic in that very American way of smiling while checking the exit sign

🤵 The Macro Butler Weekly Digest 🤵

🌐 AI isn’t just code — it’s a five-layered empire of energy, chips, infrastructure, models, and apps, and understanding the layers is how you turn insight into power. 🌐

Read more here: https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/the-ai-cake-five-layers-of-power

In a revelation that will shock exactly no one—except perhaps Western “Educated Yet Idiots” who believed they could re-dollarize the Global South with fancy digital tokens—the People’s Bank of China, along with seven regulatory agencies, banned the unapproved issuance of Renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets. The prohibition covers domestic and foreign issuers alike. As the regulators noted: stablecoins merely masquerade as fiat and cannot circulate without official consent. Beijing’s guidance applies to both onshore (CNY) and offshore (CNH) yuan, reinforcing a long-standing strategy: keep speculative crypto out of the formal system, while nudging everyone toward the official e-CNY.

The announcement follows China’s approval for commercial banks to pay interest on digital yuan (e-CNY) holdings, reinforcing the state-backed CBDC over private alternatives. Earlier, in August 2025, reports suggested Beijing might allow yuan-pegged stablecoins—a surprising policy reversal. By September, however, authorities ordered stablecoin issuers to pause all trials. In January 2026, the PBOC doubled down on the CBDC, authorizing interest payments to digital yuan wallets to boost investor appeal.

https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/an-overview-of-chinas-digital-yuan

In a nutshell, the Middle Kingdom shuts the door on yuan-pegged stablecoins and tokenized assets, doubling down on the state-backed e-CNY with interest-bearing wallets, much to the dismay of Western crypto “visionaries.”

Listen to a summary of The Macro Butler weekly newsletter via podcast on Substack; YouTube; Rumble & TikTok.

https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/the-ai-cake-five-layers-of-power-068

Under the forever Keynesian doctrine, groceries in New York became affordable the moment prices were erased. A brief experiment in “free” food—courtesy of Polymarket and Kalshi—was hailed as proof that scarcity can be defeated by deleting numbers. The stunt fed public outrage and political imagination alike, offering politicians a convenient exhibit for government-run stores and price controls. History, of course, was not consulted. Prices are not acts of greed; they are signals—telling farmers to plant, trucks to drive, workers to show up, and risk to be taken. Remove the signal, and the shelves learn to speak for themselves.

https://gizmodo.com/zohran-mamdani-responds-to-polymarkets-free-grocery-store-stunt-2000718030

Whenever governments declare food “too important to be priced,” the shelves obediently empty. Shortages appear, quality fades, and black markets quietly restore reality. The Soviet Union and Venezuela were not undone by greedy grocers, but by the noble act of abolishing profit—the very signal that keeps farms planting and trucks moving. We are told that eliminating rent, margins, and “corporate greed” will lower prices; in practice, it simply eliminates supply and replaces it with deficits, taxes, and inflation by another name. Grocery inflation comes from energy, transport, labour, regulation, and global cycles—not slogans. There is no free grocery store, only a rotating list of payers: the farmer, the taxpayer, or the currency itself. Price controls do not feed the poor; they teach scarcity to speak louder than promises.

In a nutshell, erase prices, celebrate “free” food, and scarcity shows up right on schedule—because when you silence price signals, shelves start telling the truth.

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https://www.tiktok.com/@the.macro.butler/video/7604429642790915348

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In a plot twist worthy of Kabuki political theatre, the once–lame duck prime minister—long dismissed as a Western Keynesian darling and unapologetic China hawk—engineered a historic landslide, emerging as Japan’s most powerful postwar leader. Her Liberal Democratic Party secured a single-party, two-thirds supermajority in the lower house, completing a remarkable comeback for a party that was on life support just months ago. Having staked her job on the snap election, the gamble paid off handsomely, emboldening the new premier while giving markets fresh reason to speculate about fiscal largesse—and the volatility that may follow.