Millions of American’s are under the wrong impression.

They believe today is Presidents Day and that’s why government offices and banks are closed down.

But the truth of the matter, at least in the states of Texas and Washington, is a little uglier…in fact so ugly that I’ve decided to refer to this as national “Screw the Little People” day.

Here’s how it works:

Suppose for a moment that you own a company that provides social services.  And, let’s further assume that your money is dispensed by a state agency, and is released on the first and 15th of each month.

Now, fast forward to this weekend.

The 15th happened to fall on Sunday.

Since today all banks are closed, guess what?  No money is being dispersed by states – or at least so the contractors tell their employees.

That means the money will move tomorrow (17th) and in order to ensure that the money is actually in their accounts to cover checks, some of the Little People (also known as “invisible people”) will not get paid until tomorrow or even Wednesday.

I assure you, the bureaucrats got paid in a timely manner.  Even most corporations, as sleazy as they might be in other policy areas (like buying legislation favorable to their own self-interests) likely paid people on schedule.

But the “Little People?”  Who cares…

So I’d like to begin this morning by thanking Presidents Washington and Lincoln for collectively providing several days of float to ill-managed private corporations that don’t keep a payroll’s worth of float in their bank accounts and then go cry poor to the little people.

Like the old saying goes:  Everyone is equal in America, exceptin’ some is more equal than others.

And those who believe slavery ended in Lincoln’s time missed that child support orders past age 18 are their own special kind of slavery and this other example (financial slavery/abuse) are still doing just fine and well.

Thanks a bunch.

An Exceptional Company

Not all companies treat their workers like doggie treats.

I was pleasantly surprised back in December to learn of one exceptional company here in Texas which actually walks-the-talk when comes to employee relations.

The WhatABurger here in Palestine closed down in December to be torn down and replaced with a brand new (presumably bigger and more efficient) store.

But you know what they did?  Paid all their full-time workers while the old building was raised and the new one is being built.

THAT, my friends, is a QUALITY COMPANY and it’s why Texans who like burgers will go out of their way to find a WhatABurger location.

They are also the only burger joint I’m aware of that will let you have your burger’s meat done without adding salt to it…So when I have the double meat, everything on it except the Jalapenos and extra dill pickle and ketchup, I convince myself I’m still watching my diet.

When they reopen?  I’ll be there in the first 48-hours.

Ure Doesn’t Get It

We’ve had several interesting comments (see the comments section of this site) on my remarks vis-à-vis the Post Parenting world.  I raised some questions about whether playing a video game with a child (like a first person shooter game) really constituted parenting.

Here’s one of the thoughtful replies to roll around since the non-invisible class has play-time today…

George,

Regarding your piece of Friday about the video game magazine and your musings; you’re but another of the baby-boomers (and older) who’ve missed out on something of a social entertainment revolution. This is a bit longish, but I think you’ll find it of interest.

FWIW, I too am a boomer, (b. 1962) but have also been working as a GameStop store manager for nearly 10 years now. I’ve noted over time that few above my age are much aware of, let alone into, video games, but most of following generations are. While I did enjoy one of the first games as a teen, Pong, I had a long hiatus in between. Because, like you, I grew up building things out of the scrap pile.

Treehouses, floating down the canals, playing outside, 4-H. Of course, that was back in the day of being able to play in empty lots, of which there were quite a few. This was before the dark age of liability lawsuits for kids that stubbed their toes on someone’s property, then a lawyer sued and someone lost their land.

Read More

It’s Valentine’s Day and we all love music, right? This week I’m going to take you on a short tour of our home recording studio and explain how it grew into what it is today.  Which has what to do with economics?  Talk about an industry rocked by changing technology!  Yee-gads!

I mean besides showing you a shopping list for a kick-but home project studio for under $500?

Read More

Normally about this time of the month, we’d be looking for a consumer price report.

And certainly we would expect on the first day of business next week, right?

Well, no. 

Thanks to all those “productivity improvements” in government, we won’t get the data until February 26th this month. Used to be on the 15th like clockwork.

FEBRUARY 26TH?  WTF?  2-freaking days before month end?

Am I saying this is inexcusable BS?  Well now that you mention it…

With issues like a longshore strike floating around, current data (that might reveal price inflation) becomes incredibly important.

Someone (and not down at the worker-bee level) in the Labor Department needs to get on the stick and get the damn numbers out at mid-month (first business day after the 15th) otherwise it starts to look to Ure’s truly like “hide the sausage.”

If government really ran like a corporate entity, we would have the report on the second or third day after month-end.  Where there’s smoke…wait, I smell bull…  Let’s see if we can blame the government shutdown all the way to Eternity, shall we?  No point getting our national shit together and getting on the stick, is there?

Look:  In good management, you get the bad news as fast as possible so you can begin corrective action.  By postponing the data ad infinitum (blame holidays, shutdown, anything but getting the work done) the country can be hoodwinked into believing data 60-days old.

So when inflation comes screaming along real-time, there will be basically 60-days of “political float.”  I ain’t falling for it.  Neither should you.

Airline pilots don’t wait to hit the ground to see if they’re going to crash.  They don’t wait for a week after a crash to figure it out either:  They get data early on (stall warning indicator, anyone?) and then do something about it when there’s still airspeed, altitude, and ideas.

Key point:  Being a pilot requires a license.  Being in government?  Hahahaha…you’re kidding, right?

Markets Closed Monday

This should be a rip-snorter of a weekend (a bull fighting reference, not a drug term) with the stock and bond markets closed Monday.

The other economic indicator we follow on a nearly daily basis is the Baltic Dry Index although its hard to say whether it has dropped because of the lack of trade anticipated since America is sneaking up on being tapped out.  Whatever is driving it, the index has crashed below 2009 levels down another 13 points this morning to 540.  That’s half where it was. 

Could it be how cheap bunker C oil is for shipping?

Or, is it because the corporate/management goon squad has decided to lock out the Longshoremen.  Maybe it’s telling us the longshore strike will be long an ugly… Which gets us to…

Losing the Import Battle

Just out from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is this embarrassing trade report:

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $46.6 billion in December, up $6.8 billion from $39.8 billion in November, revised. December exports were $194.9 billion, down $1.5 billion from November.

December imports were $241.4 billion, up $5.3 billion from November. The December increase in the goods and services deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $6.9 billion to $66.0 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $0.1 billion to $19.5 billion.

For 2014, the goods and services deficit was $505.0 billion, up $28.7 billion or 6.0 percent from 2013.

Exports were $2,345.4 billion, up $65.2 billion or 2.9 percent. Imports were $2,850.5 billion, up $93.9 billion or 3.4 percent.

Read More

Hmmm…not sure what to make of the latest little goody to be laid in our mailbox.

Elaine was a bit perplexed, too.

It was a copy of the latest GameInformer which was delivered by mistake to us.

Which kicked off one heck of an interesting conversation, since the intended recipient is a single dad who plays video games with his kids.

Great dad, too:  A couple of tours in the Sandbox (poppy fields areas) and working IT for a local outfit.

Still, it was cause to reflect for a moment  (or 10) on how parenting has changed.

“You know, dear, I can’t imagine my dad getting a book about video games.  People back in that generation were busy…you know…doing REAL work.  And when they did something with the kids, it was always something more…er…practical, I guess would be the word.”

I thought back on it:  My dad wasn’t much of a “toss the ball around” guy.  But I could name (and effectively use every tool in the shop before age 12.  I’d started shagging tools on weekend projects about age 7, or so.  By 12, I was looking at “easy A’s” to come in junior and senior high metal shop, wood shop, and gas engines shop.  I’d done it all before.  Couple of times, in fact.

They were easy (like everything else in school) and consequently, I managed to go through high school without having to read two books.  One was a history book – which I found fascinating and still read whenever I have time – while the other was the German book because after four years and reasonable grades in it (B’s) the language is still difficult.

Fortunately, none of my neighbors are German, so it’s a non-issue.

But the question remains:  What is parenting?

When I had time with my kids, I was showing them how to do this, how to do that.  And everything was put in a “When this happens to you…as it will…how will you fix it?”

To my way of thinking that is parenting.  Playing video games with kids?

I mean sure, especially in first person shooter games there are hints and tricks, but is that a durable good?

I’ve been very critical of common core type curriculum development because it doesn’t do a good job of preparing “whole persons” to come out the other side of it.

The “con a ship, cook a meal, perform surgery, build anything needed, forge a shoe for a horse…” kind of education.

And perhaps that is a sign of aging.

I’m sure my parents had no idea was single-sideband was being built in my basement bedroom when I was a kid.  And maybe today’s kids down being script-kiddies and writing PERL or PHP are the modern analog.

The the matter of the frontier still holds importance to me.  Especially because if the West keeps pressuring Russia hard enough, they will respond with EMP over the US, but legally out in space,; and we could be back into an agrarian society in a flash.

So that’s the matter of great concern.  Not that I can do anything about it…and I’ve done what I could to teach my kids about the basics and they’re into their 30’s now.

But it haunts me:  Are we bringing up a generation of kids (as in baby goats) that will not be able to fend for themselves if the lights ever go out? 

I’m not certain about this, but I wonder if back in America’s pioneering days whether knowing how to unlock the cheats in Zelda would have helped build the foundation we’ve been coasting on ever since?

Woo-Woo:  Second Sight or Projection?

Seems like the best dreams I have about future events come when I’ve wakened at my usual time, but then his the snooze button and go back to sleep for another hour.  Like this morning – which is why the column is less wordy than usual.

But I know it won’t matter because for so many people, this is a three day weekend.

Unless you’re in Louisiana…

A 3 day weekend ? You must not be living in the right place! It’s Mardi Gras in Lafayette, LA. Most people have a 4 or 5 day weekend.

I apologize…I missed that little detail.  With good weather, it’s tempting to pop down for a quick overnighter this weekend…

Back to point…

This morning after I went back to sleep, I “pre-experienced” a meeting that may take place on our cruise ship ride that begins a week from Saturday.

In this dream, Elaine is off doing a spa treatment, and I get talking to people who have come up with a new way of financing vehicle this and that’s, and what did I think about it?

Not much apparently, as I excused myself from the meeting and went wandering off around the ship, but this is the second cruise-related dream I’ve had.

In the first one (before the cruise was even proposed) I knew that there would be some kind of issue about being on a cruise and at our first stop, some people who got off to do shopping and shore excursions wouldn’t make it back on.

Another aspect of that dream?  I remember being on the second floor of a shop at one of the shopping ports…it was like a kind of balcony around the edges of one of the shops…but not on all sides… I want to say a couple of east-west balconies off the north and south walls.

There was also a prominent channel with islands on either side of it…which I didn’t bother thinking about too much, until after our friends announced the cruise plans and we decided to go along.

In that one, it was obvious:  When you get a dream of islands on either side of a channel going south on the cruise it should have hit me:  This was the Houston Ship Channel! 

But it didn’t because what was “islands” in the dream aren’t visible until you look at a nautical representation of what’s underway on either side of the ditch.

Read More

We’ve been talking about “Compunism” – the takeover of traditional human institutions by pernicious computing – for several weeks now.

In this morning’s report, we’ll trace the history from the 1700’s rise in the field of statistics to the latest headlines outing the voice recognition systems that are sending private conversations held in your own home, to off-site partners who are then doing what they please with your personal information.

But first, a few headlines and then our ChartPack – one of the more unorthodox ways of looking at markets to discern their future.

Read More

Every so often, I’ll get a note from a reader urging me not to go flying in our old Beechcraft because of some perceived danger, bad dream, or whatever.

Most of the time, I don’t pay much attention, but this morning a reader sent the following now which really serves to correct some public misperceptions about flying light aircraft.

First, the story from reader Anton…

George,

Did you see the Kim Kommando item about night crash landing with only i-Pad data?

No, I hadn’t seen it…but I did find what is likely another version of the same story, over here.

Basics:  Man and woman take off on a night flight from Wyoming to Wisconsin, have an electrical failure in their 1959 single engine Comanche 250, make a textbook wheels up emergency landing at Rapid City.

The report mentions the Comanche is a “135 MPH” aircraft.  Well, no.  Wrong.  A Comanche 250 actually cruises at 157 knots and since a knot is 1.15 MPH, that’s more like a 180 MPH airplane.  A Comanche isn’t a good airplane,  it’s a great airplane.

Just as an opinion, FlightAware is dandy if you want to look up where a particular airplane is on its current flight, or even past flights.

But it helps to understand how FlightAware works:  It’s tied in with the national air traffic system and so when you look at a flight, like one I took in May of last year, you’ll see that my speed as filed was 131 knots. And yes, FlightAware has our airplane shown as a Sundowner (which it is not), but that’s because it’s so old and Musketeer isn’t consistently spelled by ATC…who knows?

Point is:  If you want to eliminate the winds aloft, climb times, and such, all of which goes into an “as filed” as opposed to “how the plane really works” a better reference is  Pilot Friend’s Comanche 250 summary page  And, in the case of our old airplane, Pilot Friend shows exactly the right numbers for the Beech A23-15 over here as top speed 122 knots which translates to 140 miles per hour.

This isn’t all about speed, though:  It’s about the problem of a light plane being able to fly after experiencing a total electrical failure.  They can, and they do. And they land safely.

Redundancy is Key

While the story underscores being able to make a safe landing at night, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.  Which gets me to my second point:  When you talk about total electrical failure that’s a very bad thing – but with or even without an iPad it is NOT the end of the world.

Read More