Latest business and finance news & analysis
Tariff Wars are back – in spades. Trump recommends 50% tariff on European Union starting June 1 and along with that? Trump tariff Apple iPhones not made in the U.S.. Obviously, the stock market didn’t like hearing it. Dow futures were down more than -500 and the S&P was down more than 80. Techs were down … Read More
A couple of Economic releases to deal with. And yes, our market call pre-open Wednesday on the Peoplenomics side was pretty good (so far). But a short column and a toothache are the highlights here “two out” from a long weekend…. CFNAI Chicago Fed National Activity Indicator. The Illinois version of economic tea leaves. The … Read More
If we want something to “Memorialize” this coming weekend, buddy do we have the shiznit for ya’ll. America hasn’t just lost it to China in major industrial categories (shipbuilding comes to mind) but the “rest of world” is kicking our “short of vacation” butts. U.S. Baseline: The U.S. has no federal mandate for paid vacation … Read More
Part of the market wants to jump in the crapper today (NASDAQ) and part is still playing pretend (DJIA). But the real wager going on comes down to “How right is Ray Dalio?” Ray Dalio, who warned of 2008 market crash, fears ‘something worse’ than recession amid Trump tariffs. Yet the happy-talk choir continues to sing: … Read More
Just busy as hell around our joint in the woods of East Texas. The “Junior Logging Badge” – raccoons jailbreaking the lean-to greenhouse, kicking out Outlook and moving to Thunderbird. Plus hours and hours in my search to finally prove or disprove to myself whether “scalar” is real or (like Bitcoin) all hype and nothing but … Read More
The new chainsaw arrived Wednesday. Counting the two “Chineseums” that failed this week (bought on sale two years ago), this makes my fifth electric. Best of the bunch remains the Oregon 16″—but it’s corded, and that’s a problem. One workaround is loading up the generator (plus fuel and cords), then tractoring everything down to the … Read More
This is where we look ahead and size up what we can about next week. Because while the past is full of interesting ideas, those have already “locked” into history. What seems like it would be more useful would be an in-depth summary of things that will likely impact us (large and small) before they … Read More
Don’t want to be tossed in your TL;DR pile, so we will keep today (and maybe future) columns shorter. World’s going to hell-in-a-handbasket, so who needs fluff, right? Ex-Im Follies We have an Export-Import prices report to deal with. But, as I’ve been screaming for several decades now, such reports are akin to ‘driving via … Read More
Retail has to be the lead – because? As we spend, so we end… Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April 2025, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $724.1 billion, up 0.1 percent (±0.5 percent)* from the previous month, and up 5.2 … Read More
World has to run a “gauntlet” between now and 2050 as we explained last week. Now, we need to inspect how that choice is laying out in more detail. With the hope that by doing so, we will see where the “muddle-through” might be found. Turns out the pivot-point may be the shelf life and … Read More
Before we launch into the CPI just out, let’s chill for a second to review Big Picture stuff. It matters. My consigliere made the fine point Monday that “The market won’t care that trade has been kicked down the road for only 90-days…the market wants to go up…” He’s got a point: After screaming up well … Read More
Puke Monday. Inner ears will “tumble” from weightlessness. Fresh spikes in the punch bowl. Dow futures were +900 points earlier. Second Coming at hand? Um….no…. What we think is going on? Someone (besides us) figured out the abyss was open and the world was about to fall in. So let’s all get the Plunge Protection … Read More
It goes by the moniker GHD (short for Grid, hard-down) in contingency planning circles. But even if the “peace-fire” in South Asia lasts more than a few minutes, going through real hard personal reviews of vulnerabilities this week revealed we don’t have enough 3-by-5 (or 4-by-6) cards to run even a tiny small business. No yellow … Read More