{"slug": "animal-spirits-is-debt-fueling-the-rally", "title": "Animal Spirits: Is Debt Fueling the Rally?", "summary": "Taiwanese investors are taking on heavy debt to amplify stock market gains amid an AI-fueled rally, while margin debt levels reach risky heights. The trend is driven by FOMO and leveraged bets on companies like TSMC, raising concerns about market stability.", "body_md": "## Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you by Vanguard and Franklin Templeton**:**\n\n## On today’s show, we discuss:\n\n-\n[‘FOMO Really Got Me’: Taiwanese Go Deep Into Debt to Amp 100% Stock Rally](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-23/tsmc-fueled-ai-frenzy-makes-taiwan-capital-of-leveraged-stock-bets?srnd=homepage-americas)[The Trillion-Dollar Borrowing Binge Lifting the Stock Market to Risky Heights](https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/the-trillion-dollar-borrowing-binge-lifting-the-stock-market-to-risky-heights-8d0377f9?st=5vmNTT)[Ignore the Margin Debt Alarm](https://econompicdata.blogspot.com/2015/06/ignore-margin-debt-alarm.html)[The Debasement Trade Is Unraveling and Kevin Warsh Is One Big Reason](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-24/the-debasement-trade-is-unraveling-and-kevin-warsh-is-one-big-reason?cmpid=BBD062426_oddlots&utm_campaign=oddlots&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=260624&utm_content=5913)[Semiquincententacles](https://assets.jpmprivatebank.com/content/dam/jpm-pb-aem/global/en/documents/eotm/semiquincententacles.pdf)[Ranks of the Ultrawealthy Jumped in 2025](https://www.wsj.com/economy/ranks-of-the-ultrawealthy-jumped-in-2025-fe98fe37)[Who Will Pay No Federal Individual Income Tax in 2025?](https://taxpolicycenter.org/fiscal-facts/who-will-pay-no-federal-individual-income-tax-2025)[Forget Work. Passive Income Is the New American Dream.](https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/passive-income-dreams-2e67ee5c?mod=hp_lead_pos8)[We can finally say AI isn’t killing jobs](https://econlab.substack.com/p/we-can-finally-say-ai-isnt-killing-jobs?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=5899791&post_id=203878828&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=khrn&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email)[Mark Zuckerberg Directed Meta to Create a Prediction Markets App](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/technology/meta-prediction-markets-app.html)[Your summer holiday is a retirement killer](https://www.ft.com/content/50d18d45-b103-4f01-aff7-02083d532aed?syn-25a6b1a6=1)[No Hair Transplants, Pills or Toupees. These Men Are Embracing Baldness.](https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/baldmaxxing-men-embrace-baldness-ef765d0c?st=zwacwE&reflink=article_email_share)[Pizza Has Gone Cold. Domino’s Is Still Worth a Look.](https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/pizza-has-gone-cold-dominos-is-still-worth-a-look-38fab850)\n\n## Listen here:\n\n## Charts:\n\n## Recommendations:\n\n## Tweets/Bluesky:\n\n— Corey Hoffstein 🏴☠️ (@choffstein)\n\n[June 30, 2026]\n\nMicron’s earnings were a slightly negative-sum event:\n\nApple and the hyperscalers shed more market cap then\n\n[$MU], Sk Hynix, Samsung,[$SNDK],[$STX], and[$WDC]gained today.[pic.twitter.com/sQewprXDpF]— Luke Kawa (@LJKawa)\n\n[June 25, 2026]\n\nHyperscaler free cashflow projections via Charlie McElligott at Nomura:\n\n[pic.twitter.com/bkmLEhO8tZ]— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway)\n\n[June 23, 2026]\n\nOne year returns:\n\nSandisk +4385%\n\nWestern Digital +974%\n\nMicron +809%Oracle -30%\n\nMicrosoft -27%\n\nMeta -23%[pic.twitter.com/4FDU4M1ffw]— Ben Carlson (@awealthofcs)\n\n[June 25, 2026]\n\nUsually a lurker on here but dipping my toes briefly into the \"k-shaped economy\" discourse.\n\nAt PNC we track the debit & credit spending trends of a fixed cohort of ~4 million households.\n\nLong story short: lower-income spending/balance sheet trends have been on a tear in 2026\n\n— Brian LeBlanc (@BrianLe_Blanc)\n\n[June 24, 2026]\n\nThe GenAI economy has generated $110 billion in sales over the past 12 months. It is growing fast. On an annualized basis, the revenue run rate exceeds $175 billion.\n\nThese numbers took us several months to construct, and as far as we know, it’s the first bottom-up, deduplicated…\n\n[pic.twitter.com/6xZbCZ8Cti]— Azeem Azhar (@azeem)\n\n[June 25, 2026]\n\nNEWS: The Warriors signed a new jersey patch deal with AI cloud firm Iren. The multi-year agreement is the richest sponsorship in the history of North American team sports at an average of more than $50 million per year.\n\n[pic.twitter.com/dA6cC6qyQr]— Kurt Badenhausen (@kbadenhausen)\n\n[June 25, 2026]\n\nit is still (increasingly?) completely insane how GDP has been above trend this cycle while the housing sector (typically responsible for up to 20% of commercial activity) has been effectively frozen.\n\n[https://t.co/wDSsHvq9rr]— talmon joseph smith (@talmonsmith)\n\n[June 24, 2026]\n\nFollow us on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/animalspiritspodcast/?ref=settings), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/animalspiritspod/?hl=en), and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBRpqrzuuqE8TZcWw75JSdw).\n\nCheck out our t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other swag [here](https://idontshop.com/).\n\nSubscribe here:\n\n*Nothing in this blog constitutes investment advice, performance data or any recommendation that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Any mention of a particular security and related performance data is not a recommendation to buy or sell that security. Any opinions expressed herein do not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation by Ritholtz Wealth Management or its employees. *\n\n*The Compound, Inc., an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management, received compensation from the sponsor of this advertisement. Inclusion of such advertisements does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by the Content Creator or by Ritholtz Wealth Management or any of its employees. Investing in speculative securities involves the risk of loss. Nothing on this website should be construed as, and may not be used in connection with, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or hold, an interest in any security or investment product*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-is-debt-fueling-the-rally", "canonical_source": "https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/animal-spirits-is-debt-fueling-the-rally/", "published_at": "2026-07-01 11:15:24+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-01 11:51:13.155863+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-chips", "ai-products", "ai-startups"], "entities": ["TSMC", "Vanguard", "Franklin Templeton", "Micron", "Apple", "Meta", "Microsoft", "Oracle"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-is-debt-fueling-the-rally", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-is-debt-fueling-the-rally.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-is-debt-fueling-the-rally.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-is-debt-fueling-the-rally.jsonld"}}