Yes, Retail Sales Matter and we have a fresh one just off the press over at Census. Here’s how it looks: Advance Estimates of U.S. Retail and Food Services Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December 2016, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, … Read More
Crisco-what-a-phobia? Oh! Triska then… Many items on the agenda this morning, so let’s begin with a note from reader Sherlyn on the Millennial’s Missing Handbook chapter from Thursday’s report. She writes: “I would appreciate it if you could give a brief example of how these methods can be applied to our personal lives. I am … Read More
Some FedSpeak and Import Prices in a minute. But first we need to point out the Kennedyesque risks presently faced by Donald Trump as he’s gotten “in the face” of the U.S. intelligence community by running his own “sting operation” on them. We would not be surprised to see one of Trumps first actions after … Read More
(book title then article begins if graphics are down) Reader Note: If you are just catching on, each Thursday we’re are doing a chapter each week of a book I’m writing for Millennials – teaching the insights that will (hopefully!) allow them to live long and prosper – and be around to clean up after … Read More
A kind of short-form companion to our recently presented eBook for subscribers on Sales, this morning we roll through the six stages of marketing. Although mainly useful if you have a management position in a company, being aware of these steps will help you in many ways, including how you “size up” companies you are … Read More
Here in East Texas, anyway. And no, not really climate because that is really weather because climate is a function of multiple el Nino/ la Nina cycles over a good period of time, say 50-100 YEARS. But let’s go along with the global tax scam promoters and remark on how earlier this week we recorded … Read More
Hell of a “Recipe” this morning: Ingredient 1: Remember the television series “Quantum Leap?” Wiki it sometime: “Quantum Leap is an American science fiction television series that originally aired on NBC for five seasons, from March 1989 through May 1993. Created by Donald P. Bellisario, it starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist … Read More
Going Away Present for Obama? First thing we noticed this morning was that Dow futures were down about 30-points. But since the Dow closed last week around 19,964, knocking 30 points off at this morning’s open shouldn’t amount to a hill of beans. On the other hand, remembering our old edict that “Techs lead the … Read More
A report from Old Man Labs and the question about whether Food dictates what you learn, but first…. Son-in-law took off for the PNW Sunday morning, but not before giving us some fine pointers on his creatively-evolved art of “people-watching.” Since he had a couple of 2-hour layovers in Dallas between Uretopia Ranch and Seattle-Tacoma, … Read More
We were talking about Recipes this week in our Millennial’s Missing Manual (Coping section Thursday) and we have a dandy discussion this morning of Modern Monetary Theory and how it works and what does it mean. The short answer is: Formulas cloud thinking. But it’s a kind of turf war between the math-leaning quants on … Read More
Hot off the press release – Employment through Government-colored Glasses: “The unemployment rate, at 4.7 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 7.5 million, changed little in December. However, both measures edged down in the fourth quarter, after showing little net change earlier in the year. (See table A-1.) Among the major worker groups, … Read More
UHD 4K monitors for the Home Office and Cold Weather Gunnery in a second, but first the odd dream about disruptive technology. Terribly interesting dream awoke me this morning a little after 3:30 AM. I was not me – rather someone else, a woman I think – and the dream took place in another time … Read More
In a second, we’ll get to the ADP and Challenger job numbers. But first, a discussion of context is in order. For those too young to remember, the term “drink the Kool-Aid” arose from the tragic events at Guyana in 1978. From Wikipedia: “”Jonestown” was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project formed … Read More