How long ago did I tell you? We are likely in a large Wave 3 down now. Hold that thought. Couple of hot economic numbers to deal with before we go deep. Breaking: Housing Data Or should we call it “partly broken?” Key part: Building Permits Privately?owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were … Read More
For those who argued our long-stated position – that the U.S. was in a LIC (Low-Intensity-Conflict) with Mexico – and losing since the early 2000s, the proof is here, whether you like it or not. Mexican President Celebrates ’40 Million’ Mexicans in the U.S. Of course, most people don’t want to deal with this Reality. … Read More
I’ve been doing a lot of work on Ure’s personal taxes this week. It’s the time of year when a collection of red folders come out and various tax forms go into the folder after being entered in the “tax working directories” with backups, data dumps, and the odd spreadsheet. The best single tool anyone can … Read More
The confusion between “urgent” and “important” is common to both professional time management training and the field of journalism. Although, in fairness, journalists are way off the pace, much of the time. That’s because news is managed almost everywhere in the world. Except here, in the U.S. where it’s not on the King’s Land, and … Read More
We are beginning to wind down into the holidays. Tomorrow, though, a very useful Peoplenomics report on estimating small house/microhome projects complete with spreadsheet to do the heavy lifting, As a “mood setter” for this kind of project (son G2’s planning his build this spring) it’s useful to look at three things. Overall direction of the … Read More
Alright. Keep your shirt on and shit together. Here’s the CPI everyone’s been waiting for: 7.1 percent and 6.0 all-items. “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.1 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.4 percent in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the … Read More
Ure is up to his you-know in critical projects around here. So, once again, we will revert to our laser-like focus on what really matters. First is the Fed and PPI The expectations data spread is wider than usual going into the Fed meeting next week. Chit-chat Tuesday and decision Wednesday after lunch fgor the … Read More
Peering ahead at the day, we see that Gold is down about $16 bucks going into the U.S. open (no, not of golf!). This will place gold at $1,754.70 according to the Kitco charts. Let us do the math for you on how Ure’s Crazy Values Theory says things might work out today: The starting price … Read More
Election Day-After Limbo is a dandy time for this topic; voters have spoken and will change follow? (No) The general topic around here this week has been “How many people” are really needed in a company? There are several ways to approach the problem: Big picture, sampling of various companies by sector, and even building up … Read More
There is a (sick) high art in Politics, American style. Non-Solution. Issues come up, are cast about as “major campaign issues” – planks in party platforms – and despite being there (in the case of abortion rights) for more than half a century, they just never seem to get solved. Mind you, I’m not the … Read More
The past couple of Sunday’s we have covered how to build a really nice sound conditioned room for your home listening enjoyment. And last weekend, we got into the nuts and bolts of getting a computer equipped with a DAW and learning a bit about that side of things. Today, we will talk about owning continuous programming … Read More
In last Sunday’s ShopTalk, we ambled through some of the construction fine points of building a room suitable for high performance sound. Today, with a converted room at the ready – silent lights, HVAC sound boots, dual airlock doors, and sand-filled walls plus a fortune in Auralex wall coverings – we need to put something in our … Read More
Since one of my (purported) skills is broadcasting, every so often a reader wonders “Why not do an STS article on how to have a super home sound system? Well, OK, this can be really short (“do what sounds best to you”) or really long. Which begins like this: Inputs & Speakers Matter Long ago, … Read More