Eek!-o-nomics is our second story this morning. I’m more worried about what’s going on in the mind of that fellow who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania.
Ever since that Obama golf game site stopped updating, I’ve been worried that things were going to start to piling up on our legislator in chief.
Believe me, this is NOT the week you’d want to be President. The workload and how things are going is just horrific…let’s sort through the issues quickly:
For one, there’s the mess in Iraq. There, the ISIS forces (*Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also called The Levant) is pounding toward Baghdad (another town gone overnight) while seems like everyone in the world has an opinion, but there’s no apparent plans to do anything – yet.
Oh, that huge US embassy (built with your tax money, thank you) has been abandoned now and there is a lone aircraft carrier headed into the region. But, as we pointed out Friday, there has been no shooting from US forces yet and that – it appears to me – is indicative of a “deal” of some sort with al Qaeda in order to take out Syria’s government which is friendly to Russia.
And why would we want to zing Russia a good one? Well, they’ve shut off the nature gas from Gazprom to Ukraine this morning. And this comes amidst reports (and NATO sat-pix that show) Russian tanks have entered Ukraine. Not to say “I told you so” but Ukraine ain’t over.
Iraq asking Iran for help is problematic, too. The Iranians, nuclear reactor customers of Russia,; now have Iraq calling in Iran, which is mobilizing forces, to stop the Sunni aligned ISIS forces.
Grady has been doing www.nostracodeus.com data runs, and seems like the best dart for actual action to be underway will be around the 23rd of this month, at least based on how things were looking this weekend.
Then there’s the matter of Kenya: 48 people were killed there when they couldn’t answer a question of about Islam correctly. The State Department put out a travel advisory on Kenya last month. Impeckerble timing. What? Government and leaderly types are calling for “quick action to restore security…”: which I think is coded words for kill some more people in return.
As you can see in the UK travel advisory map, the highest risk seems to be for travelers in the eastern part of the country near the Somalia border.
I trust this won’t upset your vacation plans, but Kenya just now would fall somewhere below Disney World on my list of places to visit.
As if that wasn’t enough to keep the CiC busy, there’s also the leftovers of Obamacare with word leaking out that hundreds of thousands of people – who signed up for Ocare subsidies – are really entitled to the relief.
The key part in that NY Times story is about how 2-million people show different financials than what the government thought people had. And like so much of the ACA this looks like yet more GIGO coming to light.
Lemme see: Iraq blowing up, ACA blow-back, what’s next?
How about flights filled with immigration detainees are now dumping in Massachusetts. The Fox-25 report in Boston is an eye popper.
But not like the data that we compiled on the Obama track record on total numbers of people kicked out of the US compared with the previous administration. Here’s the data from a recent www.peoplenomics.com data analysis:
All from official source data. While it’s true that Obama “removals” are up, the returns have collapsed and the cost of person leaving? Yee-gads! I suppose you saw the headlines about how drug gang members are being granted “asylum”?
With all this stuff going on, we notice the President’s calendar this morning indicates “No Public Schedule.”
Meantime the White House has been busy since Friday selling “President Obama and Vice President Biden launch the Campaign to Cut Waste, which will hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the Federal Government.”
Comes complete with *(yet another) Executive Order, and I suppose the only question might be “How come it has taken 5 1/2syears to dial back the spending? I mean, I know the boss is busy and all, but hey, look, Q2 taxes for small businessmen today. I mean isn’t this an issue that been around a hundred years, or so? Know what I’m sayin?
I’d rather take on a chess grand master than sort through the meetings at the White House today. Perks aside, this wouldn’t be a fun day to be President. Although people might return my phone calls, for a change…
More after this…
“Sell the Rumor, Buy the News?”
We begin our adventures through profiteering land this morning by admiring the e-Trade marketing email out this morning which asks “WWWBD?” – short for What would Warren Buffett Do?
But clever writing aside, the problem is not trivial, since as they note “Balancing fear and greed as markets hover hear historic highs” is not exactly easy stuff.
The futures this morning at down 44 on the Dow, but we see gold is up around $1,281 and silver looks like the next stop could be near $20.
I keeping pointing out to people that the Fed is in a terrible box here: If they lower rates, stocks will go up even more and those greedy capitalists will pile even more money into dark pools in order to fund their lifestyles. But, if interest rates go up, then so will prices, and that’s a whole other set of problems.
None of which is very instructive – since what most brokers tell their clients is something like “If you buy a lottery ticket today you may win.” But in a second or two, the other shoe drops with “But, you could lose, too…”
About the only guidance is that the Fed raised rates from 4 to 4.5% back in 1927 or 1928 and it didn’t end the world, so maybe it’s just possible that markets – when they get to a certain point – are really bigger than can be managed, in which case, we need to stick with the psychology books (and tea leaves) to see where things are going.
First up this morning is the NY Fed Empire State Manufacturing report.
“The June 2014 Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that business conditions improved significantly for a second consecutive month for New York manufacturers. The headline general business conditions index was 19.3, a reading nearly identical to last month’s multiyear high. The new orders index climbed eight points to 18.4, its highest level in four years, and the shipments index inched down to 14.2. The unfilled orders index held steady at a level close to zero.”
That ought to scare the bears. And about 15-minutes before the market opens, the Fed Industrial Production and Factory Utilization numbers come out.
But tomorrow will be a much more interesting day; It’s when the Consumer Prices for May come out and we also will get some housing starts to consider.
About the only other item that might jiggle our economic seismometer this week, might be the Leading Economic Indicators on Thursday.
If you can’t get excited about setting the alarm clock this morning, though, tomorrow promises to be at least marginally more interesting than this morning’s overview.
But not by much: We know the inflation number will have to look tame, otherwise people will get uppity and pissy, and can’t have that, now, can we?
Weird Quake Dept.
Worth mentioning, since the data seems to be ramping toward a flurry of large quakes in coming weeks after a spring break: 6.1 initial report downgraded to a 5.7 up in Alaska…but look at the map of where in Alaska…what, way up there.
Location with respect to nearby cities:
43 km (26 mi) ENE of Noatak, Alaska
709 km (439 mi) WNW of College, Alaska
714 km (442 mi) WNW of Fairbanks, Alaska
724 km (448 mi) WNW of Badger, Alaska
1504 km (932 mi) NW of Whitehorse, Canada
Bad News for Warmerists
We need a new word this week, in order to perpetuate the idea that we’re getting smarter (not just older and crankier).
So we have come up with a word for people who believe in global warming to the exclusion of anything else – including new science.
And speaking of which, the story has not yet clipped over into the mainstream (because the fix is in on carbon tax schemes and the MSM ownerships have skin in the game) but a report published by the National Academy of Sciences says that undersea volcanic activity – not global warming – is why the Thwaites Glacier is receding.
Yes, imagine this: Hot water, under the Antarctic melts icy cold things up topside. And, of course, like air, warm water moves up to the surface…
Now, I’m not trying to pick a fight with Warmerists, but it’s mostly because I’m trying not to fund the next big growth industry, I see coming: Carbon-free effigies, suitable for burning; my front yard – or yours.
