Addicted to Accounting is the focus of this Chapter. Conventions, depreciation, and the time-value of money may be driving toward unsustainable and anti-environmental outcomes.   A journal entry for delusion?  Or a T-account for Depletion? Because as we look at what much of the world is doing wrong (high non-renewable resource burn rates for one), accounting’s … Read More

Yeah.  Trade War.  Supposed to be the “end of the world” and would collapse consumerism as we knew it.  But, that’s  not what the data says. Let’s start, though, with this morning’s federal jobs report. “Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 266,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.5 percent, the … Read More

Had a case of the “Earthquake Tireds” today. I’ve written about this in the past…and said I’d mention it next time it happens. Here one of those “self-learning” things that happens if you live long enough.  You start to notice odd things that happen, usually in the same order, time after time. Like Earthquakes. The … Read More

Our Big Story this morning is probably one that feels a lot like we, as a Nation, are being set-up for a January Slam. “The Slam” (JanSlam) near as I can label it, will have many components all smashing on America at the same time. The first we can see by this morning’s poll on  … Read More

One of our guiding principles is that “Everything’s a Business Model.” So looking ahead to next year, we have a couple of interesting observations about how this “new business” is doing. My consigliere made an interesting observation while visiting.  “Just like ESP and paranormal research like remote viewing peaked a number of years back, watch … Read More

Here we go, once again, wondering about possible market action in the short-term. With the early futures down two hunsky’s, I put in a pseudo-number into our Aggregate Index to estimate what might evolve in today’s action: See that roughly sketched-in trend channel?  You got that?  See how we MIGHT today, or tomorrow come down with … Read More

Santa has a problem.  It has everything to do with Christmas, China, the US Fed “filling the Gap” for Europe which is in negative interest rates, sales-killing snow storms, and the pending release of three days of employment data this week. In short, there’s a lot to digest.  But, high on reindeer fumes, the fat … Read More

Holiday weekend, but the ChartPack today is most instructive!    Yes sir: No rest for the weary around here. We’ll hop to it, as soon as a few headlines roll by. Say, pass the leftover stuffing, would you? More for Subscribers      |||     SUBSCRIBE NOW!       |||   Subscriber Help Center

Hey there, Big Spender.  This is your day!  (Or, is it?) Since this is a half-day in the markets and since nothing much in government is moving, why not spend some time on spending?  Besides, we’re all sick-to-death of political BS.  So how about we pencil-out a rational approach to this Black Friday thing?  Seems … Read More

If you don’t have enough to be thankful for this Thanksgiving…Be thankful THIS Market hasn’t fallen apart – yet: The usual caveats:  The markets were “normed” in this view to January 1, 2000.  Plus, this is our own Aggregate Index which is based on the idea of equal dollar allocations into the Dow, S&P 500, … Read More

Problem on the table this morning is “When to take the money and run?” Which we will muse on with an “indicators review.” Before that, a few general economic notes plus we have a slug of fresh economic indicators to consider as we head to the table for turkey. More for Subscribers      |||     SUBSCRIBE NOW!       … Read More

Picture first: From the Cash-Shiller/S&P/ CoreLogic (and whoever else is in on it) report: MONTH-OVER-MONTH Before seasonal adjustment, the National Index posted a month-over-month increase of 0.1% in September. The 10-City Composite did not post any gains and the 20-City Composite posted a 0.1% increase for the month. After seasonal adjustment, the National Index recorded … Read More

Remember this above all else, this morning:  The Right to Tax is the Right to Govern. And, so, as we read the  Wall St. Journal  story “Corporate Executives Try to Assess Potential Impact of Tax Change Proposals Companies are studying suggestions by the OECD that would mark a departure from current international tax rules, but … Read More