We may be seeing the “leading edges” of the passing of the modern Automobile business model. A short trip down History Lane to put this all into perspective, starting with two snips from Wikipedia to set the course.  First, the historical origins: “Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first full-scale, self-propelled mechanical vehicle … Read More

Normally, we don’t mention such items, but we have been experiencing a dandy story here in East Texas this morning. Since 5 AM we’ve had more than 5.5″ of rain dumped on us, and doing a little math on how much water than is for our 29-acre patch of Paradise, it pencils out to about … Read More

If we were to take our money off the table at the close on Tuesday, it would be a $28,670 experiment and we would book a tax-loss carry forward to offset other gains earlier in the year. But that’s the thing about investing in stocks:  Unlike roulette or other ‘games of chance’ the high art … Read More

I’m thinking the latter – but as the week unwinds with jobs data starting tomorrow through Friday, we ought to get a better bead on things. Driving markets to the upside, we know that the Federal Reserve has been pumping up the H.6 money stock lately at a 9.5% annualized rate (Table 2, H.6 here).  … Read More

If you head over to https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2017-august-21 you will see there is a useful list of cities and the times associated with the upcoming solar eclipse on August 21. That in itself is no news flash, but since this eclipse will be happening when the market is open, and there is plenty of woo-woo around all … Read More

Let me share just one point from our Peoplenomics.com report our Saturday for subscribers:  Friday was a down day for the market, overall. Oh, sure, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up almost 34-points.  But declines in the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 were such that if you had equal dollars in all three, you … Read More

Every so often I have dreams that seem to tell me something about the future.  Last night, I had not one, but two dreams (and a portion of a third) that dealt with cruise ships. To be sure, there is a story in the news that had caught my eye Sunday while scanning the headlines … Read More

It’s a topic that gets little to no play in prepping and doom porn sites.  Yet, in the event of “an actual emergency” one of the major problems facing the U.S. is how to handle the people that would be displaced from unsustainable grid hard down conditions. Today with ponder on that, plus toss in … Read More

A buddy of mind (local ham radio op) forwarded an email that you might see making the rounds.  It features an assortment of pictures of people in various settings absolutely glued to their phones. At the end is a picture of Albert Einstein with the quote “I fear the day that technology will surpass our … Read More

Personal Efficiency discussion today:  Every so often, a reader here or there will ask “How do you get so much done?” The answer, I’m afraid is not terribly impressive. I don’t have some huge “secret sauce” off in the corner, but there is a simple approach that will let people double – or maybe triple … Read More

We see that the market ready to pop to the upside this morning.  Not surprising, given that the Fed is still keeping “money easy” with low rates – for now.  And also since the next “Grand Distraction” for America has now being launched by the collapsing news networks. That’s the transgender discussion and what happens in .mil … Read More

Whoa! That was sure a “bolt out of the blue.” Had a call this week from a respected colleague who asked me about our “Seven Major Systems of Life.”  Those, in case you forgot, are food, shelter, communications, energy, environment, finance, and transportation (Continues below)   While I can’t tell you who this colleague is, let’s … Read More

The tragedy of San Antonio this week got us started thinking in some unusual ways as we looked at causes of – and future implications – of human trafficking. People will go to great lengths to move to new areas.  Maybe there’s a business model in that? Toss in the ChartPack and some headlines, and … Read More