DEWs and Don’ts

We don’t know where the idea of directed energy weapons being used on American targets came from, but it does make for a curious line of inquiry.  Which we will take up this morning after a couple of other items. Perhaps the largest of which is the ChartPack, which as we have been telling you … Read More

Retail Sales – and the “Need” for War

There’s a book from the 1960s which all the old-timers around here have read:  “Report from Iron Mountain – on the accessibility and desirability of peace.” So controversial was (and still is) the book that it has an extensive Wikipedia entry and offers insights into the modern economy’s “grow or die” problems. “The heavily footnoted … Read More

News Analytics for Options Week

Third Friday of each month the financial showdown called Options Expiration takes place.  These come in several flavors, the savoriest of which are Equities and Index.  Essentially Index options time-out at the Thursday close and stocks (Equities) Friday. Seems simple enough but peeling it back to a reasonable set of expectations is an “Onion Project” … Read More

ShopTalk Sunday: Safety and Recycling

We have had a dandy past month, or so, working sitting-down, inside a nice, air-conditioned office/workspace, fixing up old electronics.  But, with the arrival of Fall, we’re readying for our very serious work mode again. It’s therefore appropriate to talk a little about safety and recycling. A Shop PPE Station Yes.  It’s what son G2 … Read More

A Long Wave Cycletron (1)

We needed a tool for test-fitting economic cycle lengths from the American Revolutionary War period. So, here it is. Not to be confused with the Cyclotron in physics. What? You don’t wake up with software/cycle questions in your head on Saturday morning?  What are you, normal or something? Before we speak with Abby Normal, a … Read More

Uranium War Begins, PPI/FD, ER Visit

Having been up all night (the ER visit for Elaine, see ATR) it’s not too difficult to fire brain cells jacked up on tea… We are sad that our expectation of 50+ dead, laid out in the Thursday column on word of the Hawaii fires was right. Maui wildfires death toll at 55 as warning … Read More

Lahaina then Kaohsiung – CPI Released

Let’s do the CPI report first – everyone is interested in that: “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.2 percent in July on a seasonally adjusted basis, the same increase as in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.  Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased … Read More

Markets and Grieving

While we await data, some reflection on where the notion of “five steps to a market move” may be rooted.  One of the most interesting notions in a while (lassoed from my office chair) is the one that says just as people handle Death Grieving with five stations, so too a deep psychological drama is … Read More

Second Front and Inflation Week

Although the market has put on something of a rally for the early slog today, don’t hold your breath for the rest of the week.  Things could turn brutal as early as Tuesday when economic reports begin to drop. The granddaddy of them all is the CPI Thursday.  Despite the Siren song of Modern Monetary … Read More

ShopTalk Sunday: Free Electronics Course (Part 2)

The Radio Detective is in for the summer heat.  We’re in the a/c bubble until after Labor Day, so why not? Last Sunday we introduced the newcomer to electronics. We elected to repair a simple vacuum tube voltmeter (VTVM) because there are no tuned circuits as you’d find in a radio.  A couple of tubes, a … Read More

Roughing Out Collapse

The market decline this week may have marked the end of Wave II.  Which would be, in Elliott Wave counts and trend channels be the rally lasting about 192 days from 2022 lows.  Which was preceded by Wave 1 down from November 8, 2021. Today, we consider our ChartPack and wonder how far down we … Read More

JWW Friday: Jobs, Weather, War

ho was it, just the other day, told me they’d finished Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (20th Anniversary Edition).  They remarked it seemed a bit wordy.  “He said things that could have been 10-words or less, in a hundred…” Since I’m still carving out time to finish editing The … Read More