October’s Case-Shiller, S&P/CoreLogic Housing report headlines a 19.1% year-on-year bump in housing prices. YEAR-OVER-YEAR The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 19.1% annual gain in October, down from 19.7% in the previous month. The 10- City Composite annual increase came in at 17.1%, down … Read More
Let there be no question that I am what society would call a “crackpot.” Doesn’t mean we’re wrong, however. That’s because – in the social-media-fired land of “Me-too’s” – rational thought – backed by Data – is no longer respected. We’re living in a “loudest voice craps game” in a digital dark alley. Where even the … Read More
We’re not at all fond of having Holidays fall on weekends. In fact, we don’t like the world’s Calendar system one damn bit. Because – at a minimum – it doesn’t take the celestial timekeepers into account. See, there are two natural “clocks” that would make more sense, they’re the moon’s roughly 28-day spin and … Read More
Ah. the Joy of the Season. Time to get hammered. What’s an old geezer to do when markets are closed, the kids are too busy, and there’s only so much idle chit-chat you can do on the 75-meter breakfast nets in the morning? Why, you get a wild hare idea to build something. In the … Read More
Odds are rising the “hot word” of 2022 will be “NSNW.” As if Covid 19 was not enough of a context scapegoat for financial markets, the odds are seen growing that the “next step” along the path will be war. Possibly of the NSNW sort. Interventionist Capitalism’s run may be ending sooner than we think: … Read More
Troops are massing, a bioweapon continues its harvest, real incomes are falling compared to the Nation’s monetary base expansion, and we have sold-off most of our energy independence, not to mention the means to become self-sufficient. All while, America’s Fifth Column has been nurtured by know-nothings in social media while border jumpers soar to new records, … Read More
Merry What-mess? Durable Goods, new Jobless filing, and Personal Income Tales. All better than coal (and more “climate-friendly” for the wokees). I know — how dare some old writer/columnist offer insights into the eggnog and fentanyl festivities. But yes, seems to be how things look over here on the long end of the timeline. We … Read More
We offer our Christmas 2021 ebook on anti-aging experiments we’ve been conducting. Think of this as the “personal live-fire drill” as time marches on. At 4o+ pages, this is one of our longer reports and thus we provide it as bot a .PDF and EPUB so you can pop it into your ebook reader or … Read More
Monday morning, our pre-open call was that “Market Puke Day is here.” Sure enough, the Dow dropped 433-points. On top of losses suffered in previous sessions. With Ipecac Syrup Day over, the market today will pretend the world isn’t going to hell in a hand basket. The rising of sour bile might be held at bay … Read More
Market Puke Day is here. This MAY be where we draw the line between irrational speculation and irrational media manipulation; we’re standing by for it. Here’s how the Rich Folks Laydown is going down: Bitcoin is ready to drop through the 46,000 level for lower regions. The Dow futures earlier were down nearly 400 points. … Read More
When you look at the world through “de-monetized glasses” this week, there are three things highlighting Life. Assembly of presents, personal changes at the Winter Solstice. And of course, food. Some Assembly Required Over the course of almost 73-years, the relative importance of Christmas has changed a lot. The old Sears Wish Book while watching the … Read More
Sometimes, history can help scale our “worst case” thinking. In one of our “mainly charts” reports today, we look at (semi-recent) economic history and ask how bright are America’s enemies? The question is not moot: Russia has outlined a number of “deal points” for standing down on their side of the Ukraine border. Since the … Read More
Thank God it’s Friday – before Christmas. Just time to order yet-another tool slut delight. Since I have a fair bit of construction planned this winter, I decided to order a 3-foot impact driver drill-bit extension. Deal on these is you can add or remove deck screws without bending over. Yeah…old man workstyle. Should have … Read More