Writing a new book for our Peoplenomics.com subscribers (hoping to whip out Chapter 2 today). The title of it is “The 100-Year Toaster.” First chapter was up Saturday, for subscribers who missed it.
Since this is a four-day workweek for many, it’s a grand time to ponder one of the central tenets of the book: Namely that with more emphasis on “quality” and a lot less emphasis on “value engineering” (which is really the art and science of making things that will predictably break or fail) we would have at hand the Miracle Cure for what ails humanity.
- We wouldn’t need a Global Climate Change hype; we’d be solving that by doing less. Instant nearly 20% reduction in pollution!
- Quality of family life would improve – because the 90-hour workweek could be dialed-back to something more reasonable for the corporate suck-up crowd (say 60 hours?) and for the people formerly working 40-hour weeks, how does 32-hours sound?
- Immigration might drop 20% because there would be less “work being done” and that would mean fewer jobs from people walking up from Central and South America. Less reason to break-in.
- American’s could get back to the Age of Inventiveness. Oh, not that we’re not inventive now. It’s just that most of what’s being invented as been distilled down to “apps.” No, what I envision is more along the lines of the household inventiveness that appeared in issues of Popular Mechanix and Family Handyman. Yes, homes could become homes again; personal expression of life and design. Rather than food-dispensing charging ports with big-screens while you wait for charging to finish.
- Then there’s the whole self-improvement area. Would you like to have time to paint? Learn a new language (Python or Spanish, ’bout a toss-up to us…) or dabble in metal sculpture? Ceramics? Hike the Pacific Crest Trail? Cast metal at home?
,In other words, as a 70-year old workaholic, who spends the first 1/2-hour of each day making up the daily personal checklist on a “LOSTD” (list of sh*t to do) for the day, I’d sure like to have a slower pace. Day off would be nice. We’re ALL scheduling too tight; working too hard at…well, for what?
Money, That’s What!
“Chasin’ the Bag” begins this (shortened) week with the markets in position to fall for at least a little more. We’re in the “sell in May” window through Friday. The big bet is on whether we will then see a rally that could last to the third week of August which is often where the “Annual Market Highs” appear.
Along the way, we are waiting for the new Housing report from Case-Shille. That that be posted as an update around 8:15 AM (Central),, so click back. As background for this, see Affordability Improves for the First Time since 2016, According to First American Real House Price Index. But will (or has) that generate(d) enough buyers to keep the real estate prices going up?
Consumer Confidence is due at 11 (Central) and then a Dallas Fed economic survey a half-hour later. The real “movers” for the week are likely corporate profits to be reported Thursday or personal incomes and expenses on Friday. Toss in the weekly Federal Reserve money stocks report Thursday and maybe by next weekend, we’ll find out if this pig of a market can learn to fly, again.
Destruction of Dayton
Crews are using snow plows to roll through Dayton Ohio where a string of tornadoes leveled large areas overnight. Body count and damage figures will resolve into focus throughout the day.
We’re pretty sure that someone will try to link this to “climate change” but as we’ve noted earlier, this is not-yet a numerically- exceptional tornado year. Ugly, though? Hell yes. The reason becomes clear when we look at two maps from the National Weather Service: Check where the red and the green (hot and col) weather lays out:
As you can see, the Southeast set some records over the weekend but up toward the northwest, things are expected to remain cool. As all pilots have to learn, what happens when you have really hot air on one side and very cool air on the other along a front? Oh, turbulence and thunderstorms and with vertical mixing running off megawatts worth of power, so you get more storms today.
Ohio Power company: “multi-day restoration”
Not a hard forecast to make: More killer thunderstorms and tornadoes seem likely as the green cold area moves east into the hot zone. Toss in a side-order of compression heating and the crap could continue to midweek or beyond. Our prayers are with the people in Indiana and Ohio today.
Mostly Useless News Flow
Europe is so full of itself: Merkel Unretires: Chancellor Determined To Remain In Power Until 2021 As Succession Plan Implodes.
Austrian president formally dismisses Kurz’s government.
And you gotta love the pretensions to global power, too, as Seasoned diplomat appointed EU’s special envoy for Venezuela. Everyone’s going to Venezuela except the American Socialist Demagogues, AOC and BS-Bernie. (Neither seems to have accepted our offer to by a one-way ticket to this latest socialist train wreck, but we live in hope. (coach, non-refundable). They need to spend time in a “worker’s paradise” to get the whole story, don’t you think?
Apple’s in the sink? Citi slashes Apple outlook as trade war likely to cut China sales ‘in half’.
Is social media above the law? Question pops-up due to Facebook says Zuckerberg and Sandberg will defy Canadian subpoena. Laws…who needs ’em, right?
Paradoxically: Video games are driving people off Facebook. Gosh, here all this time we thought it was the ads, censorship of moderate/right-leaning content, pimping global warming, and selling personal data to whoever that was doing it. Won’t be the first time we’ve gotten something wrong though; and not likely to be the last, either.
Headline to ponder: Jared Kushner, Google’s Schmidt and Microsoft’s Nadella to attend secret Bilderberg Meeting, says CNBC. But, if we know about it, how can it be a “secret meeting???” Help me here…must be due to the Monday being off this week…
Addictive news: Oklahoma and Johnson & Johnson face off in the first opioid crisis trial.
More Mexico overflow crap: SoCal city’s beaches closed due to sewage-laden runoff from Mexico.
Speaking of health: Whatever you do, don’t get yellow fever. We’re tracking a Yellow fever vaccine shortage. Dang ‘squitoes, anyway.
Reading List Look-ahead: Former Defense Secretary James Mattis has a book coming out at the end of October which we will read carefully: Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon With Secretary Mattis. $27 hardback and $14 for Kindle due out October 29. Mattis? Worth the read. Comey? Not so much.
OK, time to twiddle while waiting for the Housing report… Early Dow futures 90-minutes to the open showed the Dow up 29. I’ll be in the garden until then..Can you dig it?
Why George you know as well as I do that if Venezuela wants a workers paradise they need to move to Seattle or Cali.(or to any other state for that matter), there they are called homeless cities,the results from another failed system of government, to join a long long list of failed systems where we have gone from recession to recession to panic to depression and back to another recession, while the paid talking heads work their magic for another day of utter propaganda, that’s everything is coming up roses,that there’s full employment (if you don’t count the 100 million unemployed) why that GDP rose 3.5 in the first quarter (but by the time you took off the fuzz it barley made 1%) that the Fed. is trying to get some inflation going because of deflation while in reality inflation is eating at everyone’s paycheck so they too can join their fellow American in one of those wonder paradises.!!!
Thank you. “Seattle and kali”. I like the sound of it. Its an ‘inside joke’ between George and me.
Well, there ya go old dude. Making movies. Ha ha ha
A para dice job for sure!
Can you dig it?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V-OYKd8SVrI
George you are totally in control of how much and how hard you work. Nobody but you. As far as chasing money is concerned, how much is “enough”? That is the question. How much time and energy would you have available for doing necessities and things that give you joy? That’s the second important question. Only you can answer them.
Jared Kushner at the Bilderberg secret meeting makes me think that Google & Microsoft are not quite the liberal heros they make themselves to appear when they meet in secret. Dollars & reality are the topic.
“exactamundo!”
Dig it!
As the Pilot of this Pilot i purchased not to be confused with pilate, im reminded of more words from that cool King Arthur. As above so below, “Lightning bolt, right here!”
To catch a lightning bolt, one must have a quick hand.
Work was canceled this morning due to vandalism and thievery on the Alaska way viaduct. Get my 4 hour minimum for being a good union, fella, “show up time”. It is in the contract. Free money.
Waiting to hear back about coffee with a lady in the area. “Money for nothing and chicks for free.” George.
As was stated a while back. Quick look suprised!
I can hear it now,
Hows does he do that? Simple, everyone does it all the time. They are mostly unaware of it. Idle words and idol hands…the tounge as a rudder. You know.. i have probably forgotten more stuff than most people know in the arcana art. Its 3 ring circus old dude. ‘Ring-pass-not’ springs to the mind while the whole world grinds. I will be necking and tending to my garden as well.
The book due out from James Mattis will just Confirm the books that have already been written about the Trump Dumpster Fire. Well timed too…on purpose…just one year out from the 2020 elections. Mattis would like nothing more to see Trump go down in flames. Those other books…The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis and Fear by Bob Woodward have mostly touched upon the subject and Mattis’s role. Both authors are extremely accomplished whose many books went on to become Oscar nominated movies as well.
The Fifth Risk is slated to be a Netflix series, and the biggest rumor mill in Washington is George and Kellyanne Conway are teaming up to write a screenplay. As you know George Conway has written hundreds of scathing tweets attacking Trumps lack of intelligence. How does he know? Kellyanne tells him of course. It wouldn’t be the first time that a spouse comes home and complained about their boss.
Happens all the time. I hear it from my wife about her boss. I don’t tweet about it…but he won’t be coming over for a weekend BBQ anytime soon either. Interesting times ahead.
“But, if we know about it, how can it be a “secret meeting???” Help me here…must be due to the Monday being off this week…”
Kind of like Bohemian grove.. we know who goes there.. we know they do some odd stuff.. we just don’t know why or what it is about..
I had seen pictures someone took from a long way away.. that looked like a bunch of old men wearing depends dancing around some effigy but.. what were they doing for sure.. no one knows..
Its always been suspected that the Bilderbergs and bohemian grove is when a couple hundred people show up to plan the future of mankind..
I personally don’t buy into the conspiracy point of it.. since there is a lot of crap on the mason’s and in our family almost everyone had a membership in the masons and never heard any wierd stuff from any of them…. I don’t believe the conspiracy aspect.. it was so that people could mingle discuss and have social hour…. I do have the order of the templar knight masonic sword.it is seriously cool…(I sure won’t tell my sister though she would want me to give it to her..) I wanted to see great great great granpa’s air rifle LOL.. unfortunately the family said it is in the NRA museum.. LOL
https://www.realwire.com/releases/67th-Bilderberg-Meeting-to-take-place-in-Montreux-Switzerland
George, (and also to many a commenting person):
Socialism is State Ownership of the Means of Production. No one is calling for State ownership of Boeing. Strong regulation of the pernicious elements of Capitalism is certainly not Socialism. For example, Sweden is more than 95% capitalist.
Let’s try to keep the P.C. name calling to a minimum. It is simply a lazy man’s ploy to avoid the inquiry on the merits. Best, Mike.
You are right Mike, no one is calling for state ownership of Boeing…that is a straw man argument. What many on the left are calling for is the government taking over managing the country’s health care system. Notably there are several Democrat candidates calling for Medicare for All. Kamala Harris even called for the elimination of private health insurance, though she has since walked that back. Given your definition of Socialism, it is pretty damning to folks like Bernie Sanders and AOC that openly embrace the Socialist moniker.
Prescient timing again, George.
…Just bought the materials to build a homemade casting / smelting foundry based on this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHD10DjxM1g