The people of the Northeast, that part of America that seems to believe the sun rises and sets because of their exceptionalism are back at it this morning.
Out here in Texas we call it “snow.”
Ya’ll are calling it “Juno” which I assure you is nothing more than a marketing twist to it.
I assure you, it snows in most of the rest of the country from time to time. Not so much in Miami, more in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Seattle, and the Dakotas.
But you don’t hear us issuing parking bans or handing-wringing about it. It is winter, after all.
Nevertheless, officials are using phrases like “crippling and potential historic” to describe an event which hasn’t happened yet.
Last week, Amarillo had nearly a foot of snow…yet there was no hand-wringing. Life went on…and even the cattle in the feedlots west of town got fed.
Help me a bit with my cynicism, here: Why is it that the lib media of the NE can hand-wring about potential snowfall and not at least mention in passing that climate change may not really be such a big deal after all.
I mean other than a way to stampede the low-information voters into supporting yet another tax which will create yet another industry to solve yet another non-problem?
Oh, my, 3,500 flights have been canceled.
Worry, fear-monger, scare ‘em all to death. It’s the end of the World!
Oh, wait. It’s winter.
Beginning of the End of the EU
Not just now, of course. But when you look at the Greek vote this weekend, people seem disinclined to accept “austerity” particularly when it comes with a bunch of strings attached.
That’s what happens when the left and right start to hear the people all at the same time.
It’d sure be nice to see that kind of aural acuity in Washington, but that’s a kind of Libertarian wet dream, at least for now.
Coming distractions
We can’t help but notice that the foreplay between east and west is ongoing in Ukraine with rebels making some advances while the west is trying to sort out how to slap Russia without provoking nuke war.
This is why you don’t want to live in a big city, at least without goggles and a fallout shelter. Give it time. Wars evolve slowly. This one is still in the “testing supply lines” and command and control phase.
Environmentalism as Politics of Money
I trust you saw where president “Veto the Keystone Pipeline so his railroad buddy will make money” is now about to lock up huge portions of Alaska in order to make it off limits to energy development?
No wonder the golfer-in-chief dropped by Saudi lands to get his “attataboy” for wrecking the move toward American energy independence. Shut down QEs, turn off oil investment flows, lay down rigs, shut-in Alaska. And put it under an environmental banner.
Because, in the end, the realist says it’s all about what?
Buying High Office
It will also be instructive to see how effective the Obama ads in Chicago’s mayoral race will be. He’s of course backing Rahm Emanuel, but we wonder how long before endorsements from NFL and NASCAR figures can be anticipated.
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard former president George Bush endorse which chainsaw he uses as his spread out west of us…wonder if it’s American made?
Deflation
I’d like to thank the New England Patriots organization, on behalf of bearish speculators (like Ures truly) who have made it suddenly respectable to say the world “deflation” and remain credible.
Thank you.
Now it’s popping up all over the place.
“Should the Eurozone really fear demon deflation?” asks one article. Of course the answer is “Hell yes…the place with collapse and there goes the Euroblock for One World Government. So hell yes, be scared.”
Brenda Wenning is headlined in the Milford Daily News as warning “Deflation ‘eats societies alive.” And here, all this time, I thought that’s what Godzilla was for.
Europe has now started its dangerous slide down the slippery slope of deflation – which the price of gold is saying is quite real. I look for gold to drop a hundred bucks or more over the next month. Maybe even slip under $1,100.
Leave it to the practical Irish to suggest that the EU has screwed the pooch giving money to phat cats. Give it instead to the people, says the Irish Times. They miss the point that there’s no point to being rich unless you can abuse folks, but it wouldn’t be the first time the right-thinking Irish have run afoul of the crooks in charge, now, would it?
Still, the point this morning is simply to thank professional football (of the oblong sort) and the Patriots in particular, for allowing the word “deflation” some of the dignity it rightfully deserves.
And if you watch closely in coming months (starting with tomorrow’s housing data) you may see deflation making some long yardage on its own.
Something to Ponder
What Monday is worth waking for if there’s not a profound puzzle to go with it?
So take a two year chart of GLD against SLV and tell me is GLD overprices, or is SLV underpriced?
Then look at a five year chart.
Which is under or over valued?
Off to see if our www.nostracodeus.com scans find any more references to Gog and Magog (Russia and Iran) in the overnight runs…I’m torn between wearing Polaroids or #10 welder’s goggles when flying, lately. Silly me.
The east coast storm is just proof that we have already done too much to counter global warming.
“Why is it that the lib media of the NE can hand-wring about potential snowfall” – it’s as Ure says – monetizing AND, those are the ONLY important people in the U.S. of ‘Merica.
If the shoe fits – “Worry, fear-monger, scare ‘em all to death. It’s the end of the (money).”
“endorsements from NFL and NASCAR” – NFL, NBA and maybe the MLB (baseball) – but I don’t see NASCAR contributing anything to “Chi-town” mayoral or any other ‘race’ – unless it’s out at Chicagoland speedway near Joliet.
Deflation hurts who – the ‘phat cats’ of Wall Street and the Bankers or the common folk that have a mandated minimum wage? If prices are deflated on the goods we use in our daily lives (not the services – the food and push water)and the money you earn doesn’t go down (it may not go up) – how can that hurt me and fixed income folks? Sure beats the heck out of inflation when you are on a fixed income.
Morning George,
I agree the media tend to hype any significant weather event in the northeast, especially when it is snow. As a recovering Northeasterner, I can attest to the over-dramatization of each storm, often with lackluster delivery…makes school kids crazy when the anticipated day off from school never materializes.
However, this is still a newsworthy event to my thinking as it is affecting “tens of millions”. Amarillo gets along just fine, but with the super concentrated populations of Philly, New York, Boston, etc., it becomes problematic to carry on as usual. This is primarily because you just can’t plow the snow away – it has to be carted off and taken somewhere. In New York, it is against environmental regulations to dump salt-laden snow into the East river. That means all the snow must be loaded into dump trucks and taken out of town; a huge undertaking, especially when all the dump trucks are busy plowing the streets. Add in the critical airports and their interconnectedness and yes, a massive snow storm in the Northeast will have ripple effects all over the nation.It’s news alright, but it should always be expected…in Winter. (Duh!)
Hi George, have been a fan of yours for many years. As a dweller in upstate New York however, I have to take issue with your characterization of “the people of the Northeast” in regards to the current blizzard warning. I know many of us locals – who probably work with their hands and the land as much as you – who don’t buy into the hype around the snow that we all grew up with. Kindly point the finger at the media for the hype instead of the people of the Northeast. Most of the “people” here are the same as the people where you live.
I sit corrected.
The snow news coverage is ridiculous. I live in NH, and trust me, when we get buried in a few feet, we love it. I think it is when the southern New England states get a storm, they give it a name. When it’s in Maine, NH or VT, it’s called “show up for work, or be fired”. The rest of the country is understandably disgusted with the whining. Me too!
Silly George… the sky isn’t falling … we are rising :-J
Someone mentioned that the West Uk arms supplies are from left over stocks while the East Uk can get supplies from Russia. Maybe they planned for a short war and it hasn’t worked out. I wonder when we’ll have to start arming Western Uk? Maybe that’s why Soros is whining.