Happy Thursday!

One more day to go.

Pam and I took Massachusetts Marty to Alba yesterday for a tour and truffles. The lovely city didn’t disappoint.

We wandered into a truffle shop so Marty could buy early Christmas presents for his family. After securing the goods, the cashier recommended a fine restaurant specializing in truffle dishes.

So, we headed to a place on the square called La Piola.

Luckily, we got there as it had just opened, as we didn’t have a reservation. The restaurant was soon packed.

Though the entire meal was 5-star quality, our starter was particularly worthy of note.

Here’s some veal tartare with freshly shaved truffle on top:

Credit: Sean Ring

I don’t usually take pictures of food, but that dish was a masterpiece, and I had to share it with you.

Perhaps we can do a Rude Awakening conference next autumn in Piedmont… I’ll have to ask Matt Insley if he’s up for it!

Alas, we must return to geopolitical reality.

In this Rude, I’ll talk about the current state of British politics. New PM Sunak may soon be “former PM” Sunak in a hurry.

Memefest 2022

I now know why comedians are overjoyed when morons get elected.

A constant stream of fodder emanates from their mouths.

It took Joke Biden all of five seconds to butcher Rishi Sunak’s name as “Rashid Sunook,” whoever that is…

But before that, I woke up to this meme via WhatsApp:

My good friend and former colleague, a Malaysian of Indian descent, was overjoyed at the news. And he wasn’t the only one.

Quick note: Diwali, also known as Dewali, Deepavali, Divali, or the Festival of Lights, is a Hindu religious festival. It ended yesterday.

A Brief Bio

Rishi Sunak has become the UK’s first prime minister of Indian origin and its first Hindu leader.

From Time:

Sunak, 42, was born in Southampton to Punjabi-origin parents who migrated from East Africa. He grew up in the U.K., graduated from Oxford, and worked at Goldman Sachs before representing a Yorkshire constituency in parliament and going on to become chancellor in 2020. Sunak possesses exorbitant wealth; his net worth is roughly £730 million ($825 million)... He will also be the youngest individual to hold the position over the last two centuries.

If the “Goldman Sachs” thing set off your internal alarm bell, good. Your trusty snout is working. I’ll elaborate later.

And yes, his degree in Oxford was in politics, philosophy, and economics. The dreaded PPE.

Sunak married into wealth.

His wife is Akshata Narayan Murty. She’s a British-based Indian heiress and venture capitalist. Murty and Sunak are the 222nd wealthiest people in Britain, with a combined fortune of £730m as of 2022.

Murty is the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy, a founder of the Indian multi-national IT company Infosys. She holds a 0.93% stake in Infosys, making her one of the wealthiest women in the UK.

And Murty claims “non-domiciled” status. As Murty isn’t a UK citizen, she doesn’t have to pay UK income tax on her non-UK earnings. Instead, she can pay a lump sum of £30,000 per year.

After a considerable backlash when then-Chancellor Sunak instituted tax increases that didn’t apply to his wife, she said she’d maintain her non-domiciled status but pay UK taxes voluntarily.

This issue isn’t going away for him anytime soon, whether or not she pays her taxes.

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer

As Chancellor, Sunak delivered his first budget in March 2020. He opened up the fiscal spigot at the pandemic's beginning and flooded the UK with funny money.

From Wikipedia:

On 17 March 2020, Sunak introduced a program providing £330 billion in emergency support for businesses, as well as a furlough scheme for employees. 

This was the first time the British government had created such an employee retention scheme.

The scheme was introduced on 20 March 2020, providing grants to employers to pay 80% of a staff wage and employment costs each month, up to a total of £2,500 per person per month.

The cost has been estimated at £14 billion a month to run.

In his March 2021 budget, Sunak revealed the UK budget deficit was £355 billion. That was the highest-ever deficit in peacetime.

Like most Western economies, the UK still hasn’t dug itself out of this hole.

In July 2022, Sunak resigned as Chancellor, effectively forcing Boris Johnson out of office.

What to Expect

Reintroduced Fracking Ban

Expect energy prices to remain high in the UK. After former PM Liz Truss rescinded the fracking ban in the UK, Sunak has reintroduced it.

As it was a part of the Tory Manifesto - all political parties in the UK write down their policies - he has a helpful excuse to block fracking.

Britcoin on the Cards

Sunak is a fan of bitcoin and digital assets.

As Chancellor, he was instrumental in the conversation about the introduction of “Britcoin,” the UK equivalent of “Biden Bucks.”

Listen to Jim Rickards talk about this important topic here.

As I wrote in “The Horror of Central Bank Digital Currencies,” state-backed digital currencies can be programmed to prohibit purchases, curtailing consumption, investment, and freedom.

The WEF Got Its Man

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, as Roger Daltrey would sing…

The parody account cracked me up…

But here’s how it will likely end:

However, there is a silver lining.

Wrap Up

Though the UK’s Labour party holds a big lead in the polls, the Tories don’t have to call an election until late 2024. (They must call one by January 2025.)

That gives Sunak plenty of time to prove he’s the right man for the job.

And with the controversy surrounding his selection, if he succeeds, he will have genuinely earned the office. That’s a rarity in British politics.

But the more likely scenario is that the Tories once again commit electoral seppuku, leading to the unseating of Sunak and a general election by mid-2023.

The Tories will be in opposition for at least a decade after the mess they’ve created.

Let’s see.

Have a great day!