The news flow this morning is amazing.
First thing out of the hopper is that Bitcoin has gone all the way to the $10,000 level.
I’ve had several people tell me “Stupid old man! Bitcoin is not just a new kind of medium of exchange!”
(Continues below)
Well, maybe, but then again, maybe not.
You see, when people start to stroking their beards and speaking knowingly about how “Blockchains are the future!” remember that so was the printing press.
Sorry, I refuse to believe that the eventual outcome of Bitcoin (or any other crypto) will be essentially any different from the arrival of the printing press and fiat money.
It’s like tulips in the Tulip Mania period. Yes, they went up in price. Yes, everyone believed the world was somehow “different” but you know what? Eventually the bubble popped.
So with the passage of $10,000 on Bitcoins, remember that it is only as good as human software – and frankly – that limits my faith.
More to the point, with forks and bonuses and new currencies being made-up on the fly/sly, it’s the same as inflation – which only serves to “make the few rich.”
Yes – I missed this boat. But then again, I do give suckers an even break because it’s not in my moral code to take unfair advantage of the mentally less able… Who needs morality when comes to money matters, eh?
Ongoing Retrograde Notes
The BIGBOX in the office failed again, so back to square 1 at 6:30 A. The music studio internet connection was down to 0.09 mb speeds…and Elaine’s computer wouldn’t log on…due to very restrictive cookie settings which I’d overlooked…
So I was down to safe mode on BIGBOX and the skinniest of internet pipes this morning, since I used our satellite bandwidth downloading updates yesterday – this just keeps getting better and better. SA longer whine in Coping.
Will hit “post” now in case the satellite gets shot down – which is the next thing possible….
Update: 8:11 AM – Hammer seems to have worked…so we move on to…
Housing Data
Just out:
S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices. Data released today for September 2017 shows that home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months. More than 27 years of history for these data series is available, and can be accessed in full by going to www.homeprice.spdji.com. Additional content on the housing market can also be found on S&P Dow Jones Indices’ housing blog: www.housingviews.com.
YEAR-OVER-YEAR
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 6.2% annual gain in September, up from 5.9% in the previous month. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 5.7%, up from 5.2% the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a 6.2% year-over-year gain, up from 5.8% the previous month.
Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Diego reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities. In September, Seattle led the way with a 12.9% year-over-year price increase, followed by Las Vegas with a 9.0% increase, and San Diego with an 8.2% increase. 13 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending September 2017 versus the year ending August 2017.
On prices?
All of which looks like an Elliott A down, B up…and is there a C down tdo come, or does housing go on to a new high – and this gets down to a question which has kicked around long wave economic circles forever, seems:
When you have a long-enough period of time (like this chart, fer instance) at what point do you need to kick-back and make some adjustment for inflation?
You see, while sounds peachy that housing prices are up so much, remember to get there, the Fed has bumped up M2 around the 5.6% area…so real appreciation of housing basis the money supply is more on the order of 2 percent.
“Shut up Old Man! It all spends the same!”
Well, there is that….
Markets
Um…(2-minute page load times are a pisser – but maybe it’s just EMP training in the works…)
Dow was set to open up 40 points or so. Finance today is like passing a bowl of blow around at a party.
Gold is sneaking up on the $1,300 level…Silver is hanging around $17…and there ain’t much in the news except..
Punking the Post
Dandy story over here about an apparent attempt to “punk” the Washington Post…which found out…and oh, it’s a fine kettle of fish.
If you have time in Ure life for political crap, which I don’t just now, thanks.
Headlines, Useful
Trump: America is ‘fed up’ with NFL national anthem protests. Amen.
But, if a spoiled bunch of rich kids who build stadiums using public bonding authority want to blow up their sh*t, who am I to be the lone voice of reason in their midst? Next…
Amazon is a potential customer, says Textron aviation chief. Which may not seem too exciting UNTIL you realize that Textron Aviation owns some key brands (Cessna, for one). And sure, fewer people are going into flying (since most kids today have no gumption, ambition, dreams, or plans), but Amazon does.
Which is why Bezos is the $100-billion man and he might use something like Textron to build drone fleets. Remember was it Kachina Robotics or some-such that he bought that is now relieving humans of warehouse work?
Some folks have vision, others not. Millennials (except for a few readers here) are mostly loser/idiots. Not Bezos. Which makes the M’s slow learners, huh? Next…
What happens when the media gets it really wrong. We feel on our asses considering the source of this gem: CNN. My, what at odd question, huh? Next…
Golf Stories
Bono breaking U2’s pledge against golf for AIDS charity.
Billy Bush posts hospital selfie after getting hit with a golf ball.
Tiger Woods Getting Strong Reviews in Return to Golf.
Meantime, we hereby retract our label of Obama as Golfer In Chief with the Art of the Putter grabbing headlines like Obama Played 333 Rounds of Golf in 8 Years. Here’s How Much Golf Trump Has Played in 311 Days.
Read it and weep. But look, if you had a billion and a Whi8te House staff and a selection of choice golf courses, what would you do?
Tweet and drive…
Eisenhower played a lot of golf, too, so maybe keeping the president on the links instead of Twitter ain’t such a bad thing. I have it! Let’s ask Ray Moore!
Put it on You Calendar
“Restoring American Economic Dynamism” Symposium Will Explore New Ideas for Bringing Back America’s Economic Vitality.
Why they didn’t invite me is an utter mystery.
Not!
Thought for a moment Ure had suffered a “Max Headroom” moment — you remember the famous hijacking of a Chicago TV sportscast 30 years ago. Everything looked strange, but then it all came back to norman. Maybe just a cyber glitch on my end. It’s OK now, thankfully!
Trump is only criticizing the NFL because they blackballed him in the 80’s, due to his attempt to compete against and try to merge the USFL and the NFL. He was called some nasty names back then as well.
I think that he should attempt a new strategy as POTUS. The “Mute” President. He should just give thumbs up signs and hand gestures when he appears in public. No words should ever come out of his mouth. No words should ever appear on Twitter either.. just emoji’s. I guarantee that his popularity would rise and we as a nation could get back to normal. Nothing he says ever makes sense anyway, so a smile and a hand gesture would actually be effective. Without the name calling and bullying, even the Dems would have nothing to resist him on. Congress could actually start working together. I mean, how can you dislike a guy who is always giving you the thumbs up, and AOK sign?
The problem is thinking he’s a bully, or that he name calls any less or more than any one else. We have noticed that he sure didn’t assault, rape, grab, pressure, or molest women MORE than any of the stooges being outed right now, and more to come. In my day and age, a long long time ago, in a country far far away, we didn’t get ourselves all in a muss over any words…(sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me) and actions are another thing which makes me realize that that country far far long ago didn’t improve over the years, it got worse. IF I were to meet Mr. President Trump in a back alley, I sure wouldn’t be AFRAID of him. As usual, this skillful, willful abuse of power isn’t coming from Mr. President Trump, it is coming from the lefties like the sex pervert DemonCrapolas and their weaselly perverted friends in high places such as hollyweird, (there, a few nice names for you to fret all over), and their lying, shaming, stealing, treasonous ass/puss/breast grabbing corrupt policies, that no lefties ever come on this comment board and complain about. I think he should tweet and say whatever whenever he wants about whomever or whoever he wants; we sure have put up with over 50 years of paid lying programming propaganda from our lovely media companies (which encompasses almost every single thing you have read, watched, viewed, or listened to and why we are in continuous wars, lied to about WWII, Vietnam, 911, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Russia, illegal alien invasion, refugee resettlement plan via the UN, and I could go on and on about the LIES that you were told and the TRUTH that was kept from you for years that have affected your life in every single way!), and you are all in a fret over one single President’s tweets! Where the heck have you been the last 50 years? (Okay, lots of people on here can go back further, but that’s a start!)
Well stated.
When are we going to wake up and realize that All Trump the bump cares about is Trump. He wants to rule the world,He is a dictator, a biggot, white male holy than thou lying, cheating, thief in the night. Treats Women like a second class citizen, disrespects them and abuses them. How many women need to come forward before we wake up and realize the hell he put them through. He is a spoiled child and if he doesn’t get his way he throws a tantrum and tells everyone that voices an opinion, if you don’t do what I tell you, I will make your life a living hell! He loves Putin and can’t understand why we can’t play with him, or give him more leeway with our United States. He is a psycho babble BS er. Crazy and a scab on the A of humanity. A Roy Moore Fan…Need I say more! He really needs to go!
The Root sounds like my So Cal grandkids.
Saw a chart of several major bubbles, such as tulip, Mississippi, South Sea. Interestingly, when they crashed, they all came back up to a level perhaps 2/3 of the high, and floated there for years. During the dot com bubble, I would sell half when a stock doubled. Then sit on the rest. Don’t recall exactly why, but in 12/99 I sold all tech stocks. Got 14x my initial investment in ’98. I think it was the fact that such a huge number of amateurs were all in on stocks which had no immediate hope of profit, which convinced me the time was right. Plus y2k, I suppose. With Bitcoin, there are billions of folks not yet in the market. And unlike tulips, Bitcoin has great utility as a hedge against governments and Banksters and other robbers. Making it more taxable or illegal may make it worth even more. Imagine how much cannabis would cost if one could freely plant it. Less than tea, I suspect. Easier to grow and harvest. You can smuggle Bitcoin by memorizing a code and going to an internet hotspot with a $20 burner phone in a country with open internet. In a restricted country, some more software is needed. Easier than money laundering, much less drug smuggling or burying treasure. Truly a novel medium of exchange and communication in a World of criminality.
In ’99 it was hard to see where most tech stocks were going. But Amazon, Microsoft and Intel were doing real stuff. Overvalued at the time, but not now. Coders I trust tell me Bitcoin is solid software, and it has a multiyear lead on the competition in terms of hackability. The issues like Mt. Gox etc. are from third party software and human mishandling, not blockchain. So would you rather lose a $1000 in a Vegas or buy some Bitcoin? What if a billion people put $100 on that bet? $1000?
Yeah, and while there are ‘billions’ of humans willing to buy bitcoins – there are more real billions of humans who don’t give a sh**t!
For much of the world having a ‘hundred’ (or the equivalent) would be a major amount of money – to be spent wisely in bettering their lives – not ‘blowing it’ on some dodgy scheme.
Perhaps DJT and Bitcoin are part of the same phenomena? I saw two alpaca sheep this morning. They, indeed, looked more intelligent than the folks surrounding. Amazing animals!! ;-)
Yo FUDman,
I can not for the life of me see the bottom from here on Bitcoin. Perhaps I should eliminate wheat from my diet then maybe I will be able to see the bottom as clearly as the FUDster-In-Chief (FIC). Puuulease call the Top in Bitcoin, I am looking to build a house in Belize with Cyrpto profits, and could use an extra $100k or so.
Coinbase.com is the starting point for Cyrpto Currencies, U can dip your toe in the Cyrpto waters by buying a couple of Litecoins (LTC)at $92.00 a pop.A great way to learn about the Cyrpto space, and do so risking a couple hundred bucks. The “ship” has NOT departed yet, there is still plenty of time to get on board.. Once on board don’t forget to HODL (Hold On for Dear Life) Cheers!
Somehow crypto currency reminds of the money game of the early eighties. It was great if you bought in At the beginning
Trump’s 3X Obama’s golf days:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/25/politics/trump-golfing-record/index.html
http://trumpgolfcount.com/
“But when the taxman comes to the door, Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale”
CCR, Fortunate Son (let’s see your IRS filings, Mr. Trump!)
https://genius.com/Creedence-clearwater-revival-fortunate-son-lyrics
As I see it, the real question here is WHAT DID THEY ACCOMPLISH? I don’t really care how much golf anyone plays as long as their administrations are getting positive results for America. Discounting social engineering I’m unclear as to what O really accomplished in 8 years that had a lasting positive impact to the citizens of the US. Too early to tell how T’s time will pay off for us, but, the trajectory looks good.
You should look at the state of the economy (country) on 1/20/2009 and compare it to 1/20/2017. Obama left the country in much better shape then he received it. You’d have to be ignorant, uninformed or blind to think otherwise.
I never voted for Obama and didn’t support the bailouts. Objectively speaking though there can be no mistake that the country was in much better shape when Obama left office.
In 09 there were over 3,000,000 foreclosures, 500,000 layoffs a month, the dow was below 6,700.
Somehow the idea of jumping out of a plane with a sack of bitcoins doesn’t turn my crank. We live in an age of “worse is better”?
gwern dot net/Links
One can’t wait for The Bureau to fast-track production of “Nottingham Cottage: Love in Small Houses”.
Hey Mr. Ure! I wanted to say thank you for your response to my question in the column last week! It really brought everything into perspective! I will take it in conjunction with the missing manual and really start working these things into my life! I want to get all my ratings done before the end of 2018! Private, Instrument, Commercial, etc. And of course have all my student loans paid off in 5 years. I am considering quitting my current job to be able to dedicate more time to finding a job that will allow me to pay my bills (read: student loans :\) till i get my slot into OCS as an officer in the Navy as a pilot. Though that is only (hopefully) 3-4 months away. Though i want to be able to start being able to pay in full and also save for uniforms. Either way, i just need to stop worrying and start doing and having faith. With all this said, thank you Mr. Ure! I will not let you or others down and become successful and have the gumption and work ethic to get what i want in life while pulling those who want on their feet, up!
Sounds like you’re a very grounded and intelligent person! Just remember as you continue this journey that YOU are the only person that can be counted upon. Plan on accomplishing all you want in life yourself, but, leave the door open for others to actually help from time to time. Have to do both: plan to execute alone, but accept help from others when it’s offered (it will appear suddenly and unexpectedly many times). Good luck!