Remember the Talking Heads song? “I can see my lifetime piling up…“
This was supposed to be a day off – to celebrate Elaine and me rolling through 26-years of non-stop, action-packed adventures. Again, though, workaholism strikes. A mixed blessing, but it pays well.
CFNAI: That Signpost Up Ahead
Chicago Fed National Activity Indicator may be one of the few reasons to open the peepers today. After all, as we explained in our ChartPack over on the Peoplenomics side Saturday, our call was for higher. And the cash-infested market is not likely to disappoint.
“Index Suggests Economic Growth Increased in April
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) increased to +0.14 in April from –0.15 in March. Two of the four broad categories of indicators used to construct the index increased from March, and two categories made positive contributions in April. The index’s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, increased to +0.03 in April from +0.02 in March.”
What concerns us most? It’s the nagging waveform similarity to 1929.
Of course, we have a lineup of asterisks as long as your arm: 1) Poster in Chief chills, 2) Benjamin bombs remain parked, 3) cash keeps flowing into markets, 4) Drought is downplayed, 5)…oh, wait. We could keep going for hours. But, you get the idea. Calculus and ballistics say continuation, sanity and generally accepted accounting principles say “Hold the phone.”
We entertain ourselves by running the Kleenex concession at the train wreck. The “Houses on Boardwalk” report will be out just after the top of the hour, so check back then. Bring Maalox and Tums. And a corkscrew. When a nation is $39,071,200,457,366.45 in debt, with co-signers all running for the doors (*and squatting real estate) what could possibly go wrong?
Blink: the Week Ahead
Our undercover BlinkLabNews.com project – which ignores filler headlines to allow focus on tangible change – looks ahead for the week like this:
Debt Is Still the Main Character
Markets continue behaving as though liquidity itself has become a permanent economic policy. Yet beneath the indexes sits a national debt structure so large it now resembles a weather system more than a balance sheet. And hurricane season is only a week out?
Vacation America Meets Infrastructure America
Holiday traffic, airports, fuel demand, and campground economics all point to a country still trying to consume normally while the underlying systems carrying modern life age visibly in public. Financial Ozempic will be along but with summer here (mentally), who cares?
AI Moves from Novelty to Utility Layer
The AI story is no longer about chatbots amusing office workers. It is becoming embedded infrastructure — quietly moving into scheduling, search, logistics, research, customer handling, and small-business survival. It’s a Mind Amplifier. So were pencils and word processors. Deal with it. You too, Leo. Pope Leo warns of AI fueling warfare.
Housing Refuses to Behave Rationally
High interest rates were supposed to cool everything down. Instead, inventory lock-in and demographic pressure continue creating a distorted market where fewer transactions occur, but prices often remain stubbornly elevated. Housing rehab bed-check shortly.
Food Inflation Has Become Behavioral
Consumers now pre-shop mentally before entering stores. Shrinkflation, substitutions, bulk buying, and delayed purchases are becoming normalized survival behaviors rather than temporary reactions. Our ShopTalk Sunday greenhouse and hydroponic ravings do appear a little more cogent now, don’t they?
The Drought Story Is Being Underplayed
Water tables, reservoir levels, crop stress, and heat patterns suggest the West and portions of the Plains remain one bad summer away from a much larger agricultural and insurance conversation. Wet spots are more fun than dry, if you haven’t figured that out.
Energy Quietly Reasserts Control
Every major political promise eventually runs into the physics of energy density, transport, storage, and cost. The world continues relearning that civilization runs first on fuel and only second on ideology. Washington has opted for the “bomb now or forever hold your peace” approach: US carries out renewed strikes in southern Iran.
Markets Still Believe the Fed Has Their Back
The dominant psychology remains that central banks will intervene before systemic pain becomes politically intolerable. Whether that assumption survives the next true stress event remains unanswered. The Fed’s role hasn’t changed: Still the arsonist making matches.
The Human Attention Span Is Breaking Apart
Media velocity has become so extreme that many people can no longer distinguish between events, reactions, narratives, and consequences. The result is a population perpetually stimulated yet increasingly disoriented. Social media – as we’ve warned for over a decade – is just this Ponzi Cycle’s latest spin on “mining the miners.”
Quiet Competence Is Becoming a Strategic Asset
In an era dominated by performance, branding, outrage, and noise, the people quietly learning practical skills, managing debt, fixing systems, growing food, and maintaining relationships may turn out to be the real long-term winners.
From the Woo Scanners
While we wait for the Baltic region power outage, notice how World leaders keep a wary eye on Belarus for any signs it might offer Russia help in Ukraine. Wars take power, don’t they?
Watch Trump’s Health
There has been chatter from various parts of the prophecy/seer world expressing concern that the period before Donald Trump’s June 14 birthday might be unusually risky. Some chatter was more in the personal-attack lane, but it’s a generalization – a vibe if you will. So when stories like Trump faces questions about age and health as he heads to Walter Reed we take them super-seriously. In woo-woo space, once he’s past that birthday zone, there doesn’t seem to be much else “out there” — except, of course, wars, nukes, and the usual background music.
Forget News – Focus on Action
200 Incredible Life Hacks That Make Life So Much Easier would be a starting point.
Second worthwhile stop is usually StudyFinds: Science News, Research Summaries & Health Findings.
And to MSH (make shit happen) keep an eye on the weather when laying out deck-building or outdoor work of any kind. Climate Prediction Center. Hovering over the timespan you’re interested will display both the temp and precip maps side-by-side.
ATR: Procrastination: The Book You Almost Read
Shameless self-promotion time. And proof that “The Devil makes work for idle keyboards.”
Eight bucks on Amazon for Kindle. Paperback will be along soonly.
Next up on my writing list? Extracted version of this one for Peoplenomics subscribers tomorrow. Next full book? “Timenamics: Time as the Hidden Currency.” And that will be followed by the “Time Farmer’s Secret.”
Happy Anniversary
26 years ago today, Elaine and I tied the knot in a public park, just west of the Empress Hotel in Victoria. Immediately after, we got back aboard the “Magic Elf” – the Hunter 40 sailboat I lived on for almost eleven years.
The fun part of an anniversary is going through all the “domains” traveled in that period.
Why, take the transportation domain. We both love sailing. On the sea, our longest adventure was out the Golden Gate and turning left, eventually living at Kona Kai Marina on Shelter Island (San Diego) for almost six months. Arriving in San Diego, I edited down some of our “hurricane alley” sailing into a calm reach up San Francisco Bay as a Thanksgiving ride along in 2001.
In the sky, we did the usual TSA lines and visiting the kids flights. But the fun stuff was flying our own plane from one side of the country (Florida) up to the PNW (Washington). We managed to get three or four “transcons” before age and vision issues urged us on to other adventures. You can still find an old video on YouTube about that segment.
Then there were the “land domain” vehicles. Over 26-years, we’ve had a lot of iron go through the garage. I bought Elaine a white Jag (red leather int.) as a wedding gift. I was pushing a 944 around at the time. Later, I moved up to a Porsche 930 wide body. Everyday drivers included a Daewoo which was a surprisingly good car. A full-sized Chrysler, meh, and then eventually an old Lexus 330 that still runs like a top.
Toss in a farm truck, a Kubota 4-by-4 tractor that I’ve nearly beaten to death, and three riding lawnmowers and we somehow kept ahead of the Reaper by staying in motion.
I could go through all the other “domains of life” we’ve walked in a quarter century plus but the reason for sharing these snips is what?
This is where the book after Timenamics will be grounded. In how each of us – whether we choose to be conscious of it, or not – is a Time Farmer. We plant “time seeds” through our decisions and actions. And the quality of our harvest as time rolls by is locked by the quality we put into our lives along the way.
That’s a simple, absolutely demonstrable and undeniable way of assessing life. Doesn’t matter what race, age, national origin, or gender you are. It just works. Sitting here, life has been an amazing panorama and I could share a whole book about it.
But not this morning. One of these days. I have no excuses left – they’re all in my procrastination book.
The one gift for today that I’d like to share?
“When you stop doing, you start dying.”
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net (refresh for the housing data after 8:15 AM Central)
Happy anniversary to you and Elaine, George!
re: “Blood and Bone”, S5E8, 20/5/2026
feat: “The Boys”, Amazon Prime
Hand in hand with George’s new book release page, “Procrastination: the Book You Almost Read”, Amazon served up an ad for its produced-in-Canada series “The Boys”. Vigilantes square up against ‘The Seven’ who abuse their office for personal gain yet are seen as heroes by the populace.
The final episode of the series aired six days ago. In it the leader of The Seven allegedly made a declaration of his divinity from the Oval Office. Commotions follow along with something about a virus. Sounds interesting. Hope everyone lives happily ever after.
Who has time to watch tv with all the reading material on tap?
Happy anniversary George and Elaine.
Savour every precious moment.
happy anniversary from here as well
.may you have many more .
Happy Anniversary!
And many more to come!
Happy Anniversary!! Sounds like 26 amazing years!
Had 27′ Hunter moored in the Hudson River just below Tarrytown, NY.
Sailed around the tip of Manhattan and out to Montauk with 3 kids, sneaking
into the 23rd St Marina (East side) to wait for optimum crossing thru Hell’s Gate. Tricky at night with all the lights from the city plus the busy harbor traffic. Fun times.
GU : “… Kona Kai Marina on Shelter Island (San Diego) …”
I lived onboard at Shelter Island 2-3 weeks total spread between America’s Cup 1992 and 1995. Guy we chartered from, directly, was a rock star sailor whose brother was [hot] Rod Davis who was at tip of the spear when at the boss stick (wheel) of what was then high performance yachting.
The funnest part was this was pre internet explosion / expansion. Brother Davis was faxing the days race results to the yacht clubs and Concierge Crew at high end yacht havens sprinkled about. Doubt we’d recognize it today George. Those were the best of times.
There will be more good (possibly best?) times ahead in sunny spots between maelstroms on your nose. This ^ is not financial advice. Also, NOT for navigational purposes (OBSCON, a Nader disclaimer on nautical charts which _are_ used for navigation).
I took (2) days off for the Holiday weekend. Quite lovely when it busted out boats, bikinis and martinis Monday. Dear friend, who is at opposite end of political spectrum, stopped by before leaving. He gave me a beautiful well engineered well built turtle raft. Game on.
Got water?
E
God yes, we miss those. Took the inflatable down to Humphreys – drank way too much – and listed to the live music without cover chbargfe lot
Dago is where I met lots of Black Magic (Kiwi) shore crew. Years later I mentioned to an Asian Kiwi bud their guys were hoisting tankers after days end. He said : “did you watch close? they nursed their beer and only had one” it was crew mantra in race mode. Great bunch of salts. Think I was in a very weatherly 27″ racer in 1992, then a comfy 37′ in 1995. Great people on the “island” who were way too much fun. ~E~
Nothing is more fun than being on the same tack as a meter boat – and pretending! Hurricane alley days – and you remember who was docked at the RCYC seaward of the wharf area, right?
Sunday Evenings, ole crusty sailor dudes, out on Shelter Island was all about, Lights Oust Jazz San Diego, concert in the park night. At least it was in the 80’s.
Talk about castrating the Sunday Scarey’s, definitely one of the things I really miss about living out on beach San Diego ways.
* Boarded several large boats moored in that area, unbeknownst to the owners, it was a game..almost as much fun as late night body surfing. Municipal beaches closed at like 12 midnight, so we had find state beaches…late night “buzzed” body surfing’ the phosphorescence in the water was a visual cherry on top every time.
“buzzed” = 4 unequal parts of Alcohol, THC, Cocaine, Psilocybin
Saved a lil of the last 2 ingredients for Sundays mornings’ “Bugs with Drugs”
Whaat ? this was the 80’s, mr&mrs judgeywudgey.
I was partner founder os Sail Services on Shelter Island above Marine Supply, across the street from North Mother `loft. Had my boat in Carl Eichenlaub’s docks close by. 1975. Every Thursday night we had live music with the Moron Block and Tackle Choir, lots of salty souls from the then free anchorage right out front. Took our boat and bailed out in late 75, left the biz to the partner, took some tools and materials and headed to Mexico for Christmas in PV. Beginning of real floating. Free.
On another note… watched Forbidden Planet last night as recommended. Neat stuff for ’56. I remember seeing it as a kid. Old eyes were amazed at how boring and bad most was. And at the end they made the big mistake… taking the woman on the ship. The message about the Id was maybe two minutes of the total drivel. Wish I had that ninety minutes back.
Christmas in PV… could live that again though.
Stiks
Well, your latest is in my Kindle. All I have to do now, is find time to get it read.
Domain shifts: Since 83, we have experienced a dozen major domain (adventure) shifts, where we changed homes, locations, jobs, and our outlooks. It has been a grand adventure, and as we are now in the last lap (at 80 and 81). The regrets are few, and I know I’ll never get to the bottom of my list before it’s time for the big domain shift. I’m grateful that I found this community a good while ago.
“Markets Still Believe the Fed Has Their Back”
Trump will save us. Believe. Just believe. Imagine how much gasoline and all the fix’ins would be without the Trump bombings and blockades. Then double it.
(“Debt Is Still the Main Character
Markets continue behaving as though liquidity itself has become a permanent economic policy”)
OK….. when I look at the bank balance..the loan payments…and income status..once it gets to a certain point..you have to make some serious decisions..increase income, cut expenditures…the books have to align.. otherwise your in some shit… catastrophic medical bills just one..you don’t budget for a six figure expense..it’s out of mind..if you get let’s say two hours of overtime each day .pretty soon that two hours is budgeted…even though it’s not steady..something comes up a necessity..out comes the plastic..
Now my point..we are just shy forty trillion .the income isn’t particularly going up . and we are using plastic at the billion plus each day just for military expenses for some jokers desires…
at what point in this upside down economic bank balance will someone actually check the bank balance ..the income and outgoing of money.. still keeping the essential services and the lights on.. seriously..I would be in a total panic at the stage of what I’m seeing now..the of course they can print as much as they want and say here look we got plenty .but by doing that what everyone else has is virtually worth less…in the seventies temwo dollars and fifty cents was a livable income..I remember thinking if I ever make four dollars an hour I’ll be Rich…. so how deep will the deficit be that panic will happen…
the larger the deficit goes …the money left out of circulation sitting in Mason jars, banks, and credit unions value depreciate…Weimar and Zimbabwe , Argentina are prime examples..the velocity of cas slows due to the average citizens ability to buy and prices have to increase to keep the lights on..just my opinion but I think we’re in a pile of shit and we don’t have boots high enough on .or maybe quick sand..
EVACUATION IN PROGRESS – U.S. Embassy in Kiev Emptied After Russia Attack Warning!
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/component/content/article/evacuation-in-progress-u-s-embassy-in-kiev-emptied-after-russia-attack-warning?catid=17&Itemid=101
Alert! Buy stocks! Let’s party like it’s… uh… duh.
Where’s Simon Templar when we need him?
Hello?
Iran does have frosty boxes of radiation planted all across the fruited plain. 4th of July 2026 will have glowing reviews.
Or REACHER….lol
Have you ever considered that the real news actually is confirmed or exposed by the media industry.. back in the seventies if you wanted to know tomorrow’s news you read Doonesbury comic strip..you got a first hand release of tomorrow’s and next weeks breaking news..
Theres a huge increase in super hero and Rambo type movies and television…and its seriously not an accident that we’re drowning in superhero movies and shows right now….It’s Planned every time real life gets heavier the news and economic situation scarier either in politics, money stress, social tension, uncertainty … It seems like the entertainment industry leans harder into capes and masks Rambo, kung foo fighting… oh noe its time for a song break..you dont want to hear me sing..people toss quarters to get me to stop so here someone that knows how…
https://youtu.be/bjnFXgdyyLw?si=v1NW5Nus39UHpUCi
Superheroes become modern days mythology… Hercules.. superman, batman,etc. When the world feels out of control, people reach for stories where someone with extraordinary skills can show up at the right time and fix things, where the lines between good and evil are clear, and where the chaos actually has a solvable solution.
when things look bleak people crave the escape, clarity, and a sense of power away from tge reality of the situafion….even if it’s some fictional character.
That’s why we see the spike in superhero movies and it isn’t some random random coincidence. It’s a media released pressure gauge. When the world heats up, Hollywood hands out capes and extraordinary skills…..
Old-timers like us LOOB? How many times since Dr. Pete wrote here years back “The movie is the message?” Thanks for helping young JC dig into it.
Wifey is a former newsy, this is truth that you speak LOOB.
OMG, the Don and both sides of the aisle threw down the populist gauntlet:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/private-equity-be-blocked-buying-homes
There hasn’t been anything like this inside the beltway since FDR passed.
Of course, the downside is that if you bought in at market peak, this isn’t going to favor you and yours.
(“OMG, the Don and both sides of the aisle threw down the populist gauntlet:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/private-equity-be-blocked-buying-homes
There hasn’t been anything like this inside the beltway since FDR passed.”)
See and I thought we all decided that a husband and wife making less than a hundred grand a year..simply couldn’t afford to buy a million dollar house…..
Walmart has a sign in the entry way saying they need employees..starting wage under fourteen dollars.. McDonald’s pays 14.00 dollar general is 12.00….at the average income levels here the ability to buy the American dream is gone and those renting find it a struggle to make rent plus everything else .
I went to the local grocery yesterday.. the guy in line in front of me had food stamps..the checker that I’ve known over thirty years was saying what he’s getting is huge . he has a blended family hers mine and ours of eight kids..I said but what he’s getting looks like a lot 3.00 a day per person…he can’t afford to feed everyone a balance meal..it’s bulk food..reduced portions..the optics looks like a lot..but they are struggling..my son in-law told me last night that another family had to be evicted from low income housing..low income isn’t enough to pay low income rent..
in my personal perspective… it truly doesn’t matter since people don’t make enough as it is ..
I don’t understand how anyone can afford a full-size home in this market, which is why my house is smaller than my garage. And it was built for cash. The kids are all just screwed.
They can’t… they think they can but…. My granddaughter and her husband are both professionally employed — in my world they make more than enough — and they still can’t afford a home. They ran the numbers and the mortgage would swallow most of one income. She’s pregnant and lined up a daycare job, but daycare costs would drain the rest of that income and part of the other.
Even the so called “low?income adjusted” apartments around here take almost five bucks an hour of take?home pay just to cover rent. One guy I know is paying the equivalent of $13.50 an hour of his income just to keep a roof over his head.
People are surviving on buy?now?pay?later because there’s no slack left in the system.
And yet construction starts are booming. Makes you wonder who’s actually able to pay $50–$100 an hour for labor when not long ago folks in healthcare were making $4.50 an hour as a nurse… That’s a massive shift in a short time….
Realistically we all know the truth we may not want to admit to it thinking they can escalate their numbers so when thing get better their worth more then there’s the chance that this happens..
https://www.ebay.com/itm/126496837200?
….the more they print, the less the money is worth. It’s like watching an iceberg melt — slow at first, then all at once its what the he’ll just happened…
Procrastination is what separates the solvent from the insolvent. I should do this, and should’ve already done that, but neither are what I budgeted, so maybe manana, baby.
Got another crew of land thieves eyeballing the back 15 – 20 for a freeway, so guess where I am not going to be spending money on fixed improvements.
Procrastination is where it’s at, economically speaking.
HODL
not advice, just my daily acronym lol.
50K view… Is Isreali Syria payback by King Charles for Georgia/Ukraine/South Isreal response? If yes, is Ukraine Russia escalation just showing no Iran in picture to save them so Trump can bomb into submission?
May there be many more happy anniversaries for Elaine and George!
Great cover design for the Procrastination Book. – Love It!
Nods – thank you!
Happy Anniversary, George and Elaine!
Beloved by locals and tourists alike, the Empress Hotel presides over the Victoria, B.C. harbourfront. The edifice is named after Empress of India, Queen Victoria. A glance at the “Culinary Offerings” menu on their website informs that Afternoon Tea pricing will increase by $5, and the Champagne Tea by $13 effective June 1st.
The real estate parcel the hotel sits upon had previously seen use by a local Lekwungen (“people of the place of smoked herring”) speaking tribe. They called the area Whosaykum (“muddy place”), and harvested shellfish there. Who knows, maybe George will be putting together a clam chowder soup as part of today’s dinner.
Move over 193 year old Jonathan the Turtoise. It seems the longest-lived clam known is Ming the Clam from Iceland. It/They are supposedly named after China’s Ming Dynasty once it was determined Ming was 507 years old +/- 1 or 2 years. Unfortunately Ming had been frozen in order to make this determination rendering them unable to reach 508.
Possibly this is why people speaking about sensitive, fragile matters say “walking on eggshells” rather than “walking on clamshells”.
Have you ever considered that the real news actually is confirmed or exposed by the media industry.. back in the seventies if you wanted to know tomorrow’s news you read Doonesbury comic strip..you got a first hand release of tomorrow’s and next weeks breaking news..
Theres a huge increase in super hero and Rambo type movies and television…and its seriously not an accident that we’re drowning in superhero movies and shows right now….It’s Planned every time real life gets heavier the news and economic situation scarier either in politics, money stress, social tension, uncertainty … It seems like the entertainment industry leans harder into capes and masks Rambo, kung foo fighting… oh noe its time for a song break..you dont want to hear me sing..people toss quarters to get me to stop so here someone that knows how…
https://youtu.be/bjnFXgdyyLw?si=v1NW5Nus39UHpUCi
Superheroes become modern days mythology… Hercules.. superman, batman,etc. When the world feels out of control, people reach for stories where someone with extraordinary skills can show up at the right time and fix things, where the lines between good and evil are clear, and where the chaos actually has a solvable solution.
when things look bleak people crave the escape, clarity, and a sense of power away from tge reality of the situafion….even if it’s some fictional character.
That’s why we see the spike in superhero movies and it isn’t some random random coincidence. It’s a media released pressure gauge. When the world heats up, Hollywood hands out capes and extraordinary skills…..
Happy anniversary, ya old coot…