Markets are on edge. Indecisive and stuck in neutral.
Flash goggles ready? Got a few packages of iOSAT Potassium Iodide Tablets handy? Duct tape and plastic and a bunch of N-100 (or better) masks for when the big clouds of radiation float over? Well, then you are adequately prepared for the weekend.
Of course, this is only in jest (we hope!) but you can see the ducks lining up just so over Eastern Europe. Among the quacks to you this morning:
- Russia has just done huge “Victory Day” parading of military hardware in the streets around Moscow.
- Then, Vlad Putin (unburdened by a Peace Prize) has gotten his mug everywhere by supervising a test of the Russian nuclear forces.
- Even the Brits are edgy as a Russian nuclear aircraft carrier is hanging in the English Channel. The wet one, not the one BBC One is on…
- To be sure, the Ruskies are (pretending?) to distance themselves from the pro-Russian separatists who are holding a referendum on exiting from Ukraine.
- And just to rub a little salt in Russian financial wounds, the Ukraine Mobgov (which won’t be legitimized until an election in three weeks are pretending that they don’t have a gas bill from Russia that needs paying. [memo: make sure we sent them voting machines, lol]
- Russia is planning to charge Ukraine for its natural gas supplies in advance starting in June.
So to recap, we have the US starting a revolution in a place that had been semi-stable (leftover PNAC geniuses in the State Dept. promoting war/regime change when we can see how well that worked out.)
Then when the extremists change the reins of power, Ukraine tries to do a “drive off” with the gas (see drive-off) and Russia is pissed.
What does it mean economically?
Not much, if a good war doesn’t develop out of this. BUT if there is some fighting that would be a huge economic stimulus and I’ve found over the years (ok, decades then) that when enough money lines up on one side of the table, something happens.
So today we look for the markets to start off on a slightly negative side, but something of a rally is possible (say the cornflake/leaves) if there’s a mid-session rumor of peace breaking out. Without that, then come late in the session, a hundred point drop as cowards drop out and go to their hidey-holes for the weekend.
Not that this is financial advice, it’s just a report on what the most probable path looks like when considering the overnight data run from www.nostracodeus.com . The language in headlines isn’t quite as grim, but we are now at a potential brink this weekend where just as in pokers, no one is trying to give too many “tells.:”
Hence, another “brinkley” weekend ahead. Saturday should be chill, but by Monday? We shall see…Futures down 30 something when I looked.
Quake Spotting
Believe me, I don’t take any pleasure in pointing out that waste water injection wells in the oil and gas fracking biz are the geological equivalents of putting on Astroglide but the data seems to suggest it is.
[*Memo: Has anyone done an article on how much Astroglide is a reasonable amount for prepping checklists? Thinking back, I don’t recall seeing it on anyone’s checklists…but seems to me that it’s pretty important. Optimistically, I’ve got a couple of 55 gallon drums of it….just saying…]
OK, other than Fracklahoma, we have had a number of minor coronal mass ejections over the past few days and while none is likely to cause a global blackout (or anything so serious) the main thing is we might get some impact from these…so look for a 6.5 quake over the weekend into about Tuesday.
Military Advisors to Nigeria
Oh, sure, going to help look for the kidnapped/missing girls, and all. But ain’t it odd how this stuff seems to cluster in resource-rich countries? Oh that’s a coincidence….right.
Hollywood Vs. Islam
Worth reading in today’s Hollywood Reporter is the account of how a certain tinsel town hotel is being boycotted by HWood stars because the hotel owner, the sultan of Brunei is instituting Sharia law in his country and that brings stoning (to death) for gays.
Steal…the MOON!
Talk about more proof of how the US is being stupidly “led” by the people we put in office: Bad enough that China recently sent probes to the moon and is planning to colonize, but now here come the Russians with plans for a colony in 2030.
Talk about rolling over and playing victim, what happened to the country that first put humans on the rock back in ‘69? Systematically being wrecked by soft-headed thinking wouldn’t be a bad guess.
So what are we getting for our taxes, then?
I’ll just sashay back to the Peoplenomics research for tomorrow’s report. Don’t want to ask too many tough questions and wreck the weekend with 9-hours to Miller time.
Related space note: Is this a UFO picture out of Afghanistan fighting?
Life in The Republic: Have Gun Will…
Hearne Texas is looking into the shooting of a 93-year old woman….was she “brandishing” a gun while officers responded to a nearby 9-1-1 call?
On the other hand, in what other state would you be reading reports of a “serial defecator?”
You know, Texas (as I recall) has the ability to be broken up into five different states and some point. Can I be in the sane one, please?
Not that Florida is any better: Folks there are still trying to figure out why 23 cops back in December fired 377 rounds at two men in a car. What’s being called “gun frenzy” might explain government ammo stockpiling, you think?
Weathering Spring
From our place in ETex up into the ArLaTex last night, we’ve had some dandy storms come through the area. 3” hail in some reports and a lot of downed limbs. We had 2 3/4” of rain, too, which I wish we could share with the Amarillo area.
I forget the name of the book but one about 10-years ago ran all the resource numbers and concluded “we only have one chance to get off this planet.” And those “leading America” (to use the term loosely) have decided not to take it.