Latest business and finance news & analysis
A bit of a circular ramble today as the 1929 Replay continues and digs in. If you’re new to this site, the basic catch up goes like this: The U.S. West has been replaying 1929. Serial financial crises have resulted in “A Patchwork Orange” springing leaks. Markets are arguably in process of blowing down through … Read More
Unlike most sites, UrbanSurvival is an “idea ranch.” A concept that came out of a childhood where Pappy was called “the Encyclopedia” in our local fire department, and where Scrabble words (derivations and alt spellings) comprised the brain food on family road and camping trips. I come by this stuff honestly. Pause-n-Drop? I’d like to congratulate … Read More
Markets may look orderly on the surface, but today’s Mid-Week Sit Rep argues we’re no longer living through a normal cycle. We’re sitting in a giant global casino where debt, demographics, geopolitics, tech disruption, and media-amplified perception all push the herd from one emotional table to the next. Instead of betting on narratives, today’s column … Read More
Been up since the wee hours, knee deep in some fascinating research that seems to be in the Ure genes. You know, of course, about Dr. Andrew N. Ure who back in the early to middle 1800s was trying to “reanimate the dead” and how he may have been an influence on Mary Shelly’s novel … Read More
“Give me a Monday Special, news guy.” Strange call, there, mister or missus. This ain’t a news bar. More like a safe house for rational people. But, if you insist, there is data and there is woe lurking. How-some-ever, if you like Happy-Talk, this’ll put a smile on your face on the way to financial … Read More
Alt: Workflow, Gear, and Staying Sane in the Heat If you’re like me, the shop ain’t just a place to fix stuff—it’s where you spend hours tinkering, swearing under your breath, and occasionally getting something right on the first try. But comfort matters more than folks admit. A sore back from hunching over one overcrowded … Read More
Markets are nervous. The internet is overloaded. And that combination can turn a routine bad day into a real-world problem faster than most people think. The biggest risk is not some Hollywood-style “internet goes dark” event, but a messy partial failure: logins break, one-time passwords arrive late, broker platforms wobble, bank apps lag, and families … Read More
Not to frame this in too much of a Peoplenomics / deep-thinking manner, but there are two ways one can generally view the world. And since I left the world of “tearing down the overnight wire” tasks, even before RSS appeared, that’s likely a good value proposition to ponder. Not just now – but likely for … Read More
Again, AI offered a warning to me about column length: “The piece has at least five columns’ worth of ideas trying to ride in one wagon.” Yes, perhaps so. But that’s the Muse for you. No, we are not going to share the 40-page ChartPack posted for Peoplenomics.com subscribers. But we will mention that one of … Read More
Today’s Peoplenomics is a two-fer. First, the ChartPack digs into a quiet but important market shift: as dividends have faded, more of the case for owning stocks has come to depend on price appreciation alone. That changes the psychology of markets, raises the stakes on valuation, and helps explain why so much of modern investing … Read More
Breaking: NFIB Optimism Just out: The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell 0.5 points in February to 98.8 but remained slightly above the 52-year average of 98. The Uncertainty Index decreased three points from January to 88. The Employment Index ticked up nearly a point in February to 103.5, 3.5 points above its historical average … Read More
AI’s assessment of today’s column should be a hint: “This is good Ure copy with too much freight on one flatbed.” But it’s the flatbed we have, so we’ll blow by the weigh stations. Although we had some signs in the market Friday that the downside was maybe about to level out, we also cautioned that … Read More
“Mmm.. too much ground to cover, Kimosabe! This reads like three columns in one hide-out: ranch/shop projects, solar tax gotcha, and anti-aging protocol update.” “No worries, Tonto. We write… Besides, we’re just horsin around, right Silver?” At age 77. You would think I would have enough sense to lighten the hell up and just chill. Nope. … Read More