What?  Not exactly our usual (meat & potatoes) economic fare, for sure.  But, this week thanks to my writing up of a woo-woo piece for Urban (next weekend)  and talking to Chris McCleary, who took on the National Dream Center project that I founded back in 2008, we are moving the ball slowly downfield toward … Read More

There are a dozen, or more, “kits” that we have around because we are so far from “civilization.”  In our case, that’s a town of 20,000 and almost a half-hour drive, at that. As a result, we are more than “preppers” in the conventional sense; we are almost our own little shopping center. That said, … Read More

In a series of tweets in the past few minutes, president Trump explained why the attack on Iran did not happen last night.  As he Tweeted here: “On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, … Read More

We find ourselves asking a very interesting question today, with headlines like “Trump Ordered Attack – Then Pulled Back!” which we’ve tracked back to a NY Times story  “Trump Approves Strikes on Iran, but Then Abruptly Pulls Back.” In our (cynical) view, this looks like another swipe at the presidency by the too-liberal, too-anti-Trump, too-open-border  NY … Read More

People tend to despise our simple approach to economics.  Makes people crazy that the Obvious isn’t really, oh, you know… obvious. Notwithstanding, we are seeing some data suggesting that farmers will be having a tough time meeting ag needs because of the cold, wet spring in the Midwest.  When this happens, food prices will zoom … Read More

Million Mile & 100 MPG Cars. In today’s chapter we take on some of the most vexing design-balancing problems of all.  Though not limited to cars, the design tradeoffs are easy to understand and they translate well to other transport modalities such as ocean-going vessels and airplanes, as our quest for “Good old-fashioned American Quality” … Read More

Tons of ham radio operators will be planning for your Hard Grid Down (HGD) and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) laced future this coming weekend with something called  Field Day. Sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (https://arrl.org) the event had its roots in 1933 when a bunch of hams decided to “take to the field” with … Read More

On the positive side of things, the Fed meeting kicks off this morning and we don’t expect them to lower rates for a month or two.  If that’s in the cards, we don’t expect it until the July meeting, or later – like in the fall.  We may really need it, then. And Dow futures … Read More

In his book “Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, marketing whiz Rory Sutherland makes the observation (a couple of chapters in) that a survey showed nearly 70 percent of people would take a pay cut proportionate to getting two  more  weeks of vacation per year. Do … Read More

The Trouble with McMansions. Today with launch into some interesting aspects of trying to nail-down just what “quality” is in homes.  No, it’s not 2″ deep well-padded deep splush white carpet. First, though, a couple of headlines and a look at the charts.  Bean up and on to our…. More for Subscribers      |||     SUBSCRIBE NOW!       … Read More

We start off with the ultra short course on survival gardening today because it could become an important issue one day. If You Don’t Have a Green Thumb, read on: Lots of people tell us they don’t have one.  We usually beg to differ.  There is a simple checklist that can keep you out of … Read More

We begin this morning’s epistle with a note about children in newsrooms.  For, when a big story with significant historical echoes (;like the tanker attacks story)  is breaking around them, the young ones, lacking experience and context, often miss the point. And, so it is, we rely on the US Naval Institute (here) to provide … Read More

The late Washington-state Senator Henry M. Jackson told me – in about 1970 or 71 “Keep your eye on the Straight of Hormuz.” When it closes, the world will get involved in a Middle East war that could quickly escalate to global and nuclear. Fast forward to overnight: “Two oil tankers struck in suspected attacks … Read More