ShopTalk Sunday: August & Fall Work Plans

With our book on do-it-yourself home power now up on Amazon, most of the week here was focused on the next book – The 100-Year Toaster.  Not surprisingly, no one has yet bought a single copy of Power in the Second Depression.  It’s free on the Peoplenomics.com website in the Reader Bookshelf section. The 100-Year Toaster … Read More

Hold Your Breath in August and September

We are coming into a period when the term “high risk” could mean more than any other in our lifetimes.  We are literally living in a “powder keg” world which could “go Archduke Ferdinand” at any second. Plus with our ChartPack – and a market that has soared (as of mid-session Friday) more than nine … Read More

ECI, PI/O and Biden’s Lies: “Not in Recession”

A couple of Economic news releases before we launch into refried lies. The first is the ECI – Employment Cost Index.  Which, over time, feeds into the underlying inflation problem: “Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 1.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending in June 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported … Read More

Rigged Markets?

Say, I don’t like to “cast asparagus” on the financial markets, but see if we’re following along right: The Fed raised rates by 3/4 of one percent Wednesday. The morning, the Nation officially entered recession by notching a second consecutive quarterly decline in GDP. Did I miss the distro package of economic crack?  Is there … Read More

We’re in Recession! Innocent Bystanders and GDP

Economics drives history.  Von Clausewitz 101:  “Economics is just war by other means.” So, we have three major play-acting / Kabuki performances going this week. The curtain goes up this morning on GDP.  And for those who aren’t following what this means in terms of the ongoing war (on the people) being waged by two … Read More

100-Year Toaster: Ch. 18 (Honest Money and Value)

The paradox of growth versus environmental balance (finally) wraps up today.  We out the final chapter of our next Peoplenomics ebook.  These are included with your Peoplenomics.com subscription.  However, some of the ebooks such as Power in the Second Depression are available on Amazon ($5.99). This final chapter has taken more than a year to … Read More

Housing: Screaming Prices

Up, Up, and Aghast! “S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index Reports Annual Home Price Gain Of 19.7% In May 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 19.7% annual gain in May, down from 20.6% in the previous month. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in … Read More

Ahead of Housing

Drop by around 8:15 AM Central for the Case-Shiller Housing report update. The balance of this week is full of “surprise risk” for markets.  Housing today, a Fed rate hike tomorrow afternoon, and a GDP report for Q2 Thursday that could indicate the nation is already in Recession. The Calendar Matters The one data point … Read More

CFNAI, C/S-H, Fed, Etc.

Ah – misplaced the old decoder ring because of National Tequila Day, Sunday, right? Let me help:  Our Agendizer for the week (which looks like a Brisqi Kanban board (which we will also cover this morning) uses these abbreviations as placeholders in my dynamite columns.  Or, ones like this… CFNAI Chicago Fed National Activity Indicator. This … Read More

ShopTalk Sunday: $100 Shop/Mancave Computer Build

It has been too damn hot to spend much time on the Chineseum model boat project.  So, instead, I got serious about “building a Shop Computer.” Now, any damn fool can go out and pay Big Money for a screaming-fast high performance multi-terabyte 32 GB Win11 machine which is where I do the bulk of … Read More

Confessions of a Market Agnostic

Yes.  It’s true.  I play both long (going up) positions and short (going down) plays. Remarkably, I make money either way things run. It’s kinda like being a banker:  If things go well, they make money on interest.  If things go badly, they repossess assets and sell them off – oftentimes billing for any shortfalls, … Read More

Could Kamala “XXV” Into Joe’s Job?

Am I on a different planet?  Have aliens dumped me in a parallel Universe where everyone is stupid?  Or is this what 50-years of working life leads to…a suspicion that everything is not as it seems, and government is out to screw us all? The way I figure it, the stock markets should be down … Read More

Second Depression Rhymes: China Bank Runs

We have told you many times: “In Depressions, the seat of world financial power moves West.” This has certainly been the case as our Second Depression has begun to unravel.  But even here, we must remember that “The Depression” wasn’t referred to as “depression” until a 1934 economics book popularized the term. There are several … Read More