We can roll first with the Big Number of the day – which is the number of people filing for first-time unemployment this week: In the week ending May 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 2,981,000, a decrease of 195,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was … Read More

Some of us are getting old and want to “pass something along.”  The problem is?  If you have another 1-to-20 years to run in this Life, what are the best vehicles to transfer wealth to future generations. Not a “big deal?”  Maybe once upon a time.  But, today with pandemic(s), the risk of nuclear war, … Read More

Half-baked economics with your coffee? Got up super early this morning and turned out a nice loaf of bread from the oven at 5:03 AM.  Yeah… wheat belly, weight and all that aside…there are times when a couple of “breakfast sandwiches” is just about the best thing on Earth.  Fresh-baked bread.  An egg scrambled on … Read More

Our column this morning is spectacularly short.  Because this old Ure fellow is moving fence lines around up at the garden.  This involves real (gulp!)  work. City-dwellers who have never driven 6-foot steel Tee-Post into hard soil have no idea what adventure they have missed. Only three ways to drive posts:  Hardest is to use … Read More

Gear up, kiddies.  We’re going on a nature hike.  I’m going to show you how we “grow toilet paper” out here in East Texas.  Your ass should thank us.  Seriously (well, partly, anyway…). Let’s begin with some reality about economic Depressions.  When  times are good, prices for wood, harvested from small tree farms like ours, … Read More

Is there a logical limit to the Fed’s Making Up Money interventions?  Briefly – as in flash-in-the-pan Making Up Money under the guise of playing Modern Monetary Theory seems to work.  The Fed throws how much?  $6-trillion is it?  And the price of paper goes up. But, in the long run, is it viable?  We … Read More

Reader Note 1:  Posting in sections this morning due to power outages (multiple) from high winds in East Texas overnight.  Thank God for solar back-up and a big battery bank. AYFKM?  Fed Inflation 37.2% Most recent “sliding window” view of the (not really) “Federal” Reserve’s money-printing party shows underlying (with the emphasis on  lying) approaching … Read More

Three quick items on the agenda this morning: Jobs outlook continues to deteriorate.  As you would expect with our lifestyle being jacked… Financial instruments have detached from Reality.  As you would expect when money is being made up – mostly for the Rich Through it all, it’s still possible to live the  iWAMP Life.  A … Read More

One of the most important topics once you reach the “ripe old age of 50” as many of our readers have. Surprisingly, it’s less a matter of how much money you have.  Really more a matter of managing yourself and expectations. Today we talk about the Art of Retiring. To where?  While “big city life” … Read More

There seems to be something almost magical about 7.42 percent.  Because here we are, rallying in the face of calamity.  Although our first-leg down from the all-time highs was much larger than ’29, so too our bounce seems somehow  drawn towards that 7.42% rally of the first leg down in 1929. You’ll remember what happened … Read More

I have made (yet another) pledge to myself to write shorter columns.  “Save the juicy stuff for  Peoplenomics subscribers,” I tell myself. And yet,  Peoplenomics is only a couple of days per week, so occasionally – like  today – we will offer remarks that are “out in the clear.”  Like my mentioning last week that … Read More

Quiet morning here at the ranch.  Very satisfying day Saturday, though.  And all thanks to two simple concepts:  Trust the science and multi-task your life. Let’s start with the science part because it’s an area where people seem to have a lot of trouble.  Whether you’re talking a mechanic’s project, the finery of HF radio … Read More

A look at some future “bounding problems” ahead for young people. Which from our standpoint, lately, is anyone 50 or younger… On our podcast this morning, some discussion with Canadian author, broadcaster, serial entrepreneur and religious studies expert Chris Tyreman – who will give us some perspective on Covid-19 from north of the border.  Podcast … Read More