News

The early futures today are down. But in Europe, it’s a different tale.  There, markets are up – not ginormously – but up, nevertheless. Why down on the futures, including gold and silver, then?  Wasn’t our state-extreme variance trading model showing a rally is the more likely move ahead? Could be “mechanical short-covering.” See, when there is … Read More

A few minutes after 5 AM in East Texas. I’m in “the chair” and locked to do battle with the “smell-checker” while keeping the rapier wit honed to a surgical edge. EXCEPT: It’s a “Day off.” Well…sort of.  This week is my 77th birthday.  And I’d like to thank the U.S. Congress for one of the … Read More

Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend much time with the daily tracking of the “luny left” because Reader Ray laid it all out in a Comment section remark here in response to the Saturday Peoplenomics report: When Price Stops Mattering, Brace yourself. Because the core concept on the layout table today is from the old … Read More

Most people think nothing much is happening right now. Markets are drifting, headlines are recycled, and the sense of urgency feels muted. That’s usually when I start paying closer attention. Because the biggest moves rarely begin with noise — they begin with compression. Right now, a series of structural indicators suggest we’re coiled inside a … Read More

I suppose we can begin at the beginning – which is the CPI figures just out from Labor. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased … Read More

There’s really not a hell of a lot going on.  Not really. Sure, Pam Bondi got pissed at abusive questioning on the Hill Wednesday.  A simple check of headlines in media will reveal which lean right and left. A near-enough middle is Bondi clashes with lawmakers over Epstein files. War Score and More In the … Read More

The future often reduces to a couple of numbers. This week, it’s the delayed Jobs report and Friday’s CPI. With soft ADP data and elevated Challenger job cuts in the backdrop, the official BLS print carries extra weight. Depending on how it lands, we could see the classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” dynamic … Read More

Since hitting the 77 mark this month, I have cut myself considerable slack.  Things like “pressure” to keep UrbanSurvival going, publish still more books, and doing more research.  I mean, eventually time runs out and what we leave with is all between-our ears, anyway. Still, mornings like this? Good to sit in the recliner over at the … Read More

Now that my apparently (and perhaps deeply rooted) fears of a drunk driver taking out a pole and causing a behind-the-scenes power outage have passed, we can return to pondering the road ahead. My pillow survived the interruption in non-destructive testing — and cell-level cleaning — once again. So we’re back to the clear skies … Read More

An Old Reporter’s Notebook Is a Fine Instrument All the PPP — print press peers — used to carry them. Corsaletti. Carson. Sperry. And even, rumor had it, Richard Buck. Buck, after all, built the original Cost of Nothing index, sounding one of the earliest alarms on what later became politely known as “customer charges.” … Read More

Or: Why Domains Matter When the Game Is On and the Store Is Closed (OK, there is a ShopTalk: Pay reader Egor the “over.”) We’re Not “Game” Super Bowl Sunday is a funny day. Half the country is focused on a ball game, the other half is pretending they don’t care, and somewhere around kickoff a … Read More

It’s Super Bowl weekend — but instead of hype and halftime noise, today’s Peoplenomics report takes a hard look at something few people ever question: why taxpayers are still paying for private sports empires. In Frank’s Weekend: The High Cost of Private Sports, we trace the hidden financial machinery behind stadiums, bonds, and “public-private partnerships,” … Read More

My friend – who later would become a “whale” – and who (I heard) got out of crypto – and hasn’t looked back – told me years back to buy Bitcoin.  “Accept a couple of BTC for Peoplenomics…” I remember him saying.  That was when BTC was a dime and we were sharing temporal research … Read More