Coping: Another “Revolutionary” Appears

Last week, we talked briefly about whether banking should be considered a regulated public utility, like water, sewer, and power companies, or whether we should continue under the delusion that “for profit” banking is the only model that works.

This is, of course, heresy, but we don’t mind thinking the unthinkable now and then.

Not only are there some fine examples of State banking, as in North Dakota, but there’s a groundswell beginning in Vermont as well.

Why?  Well, punitive charges, especially against the poor, are the obvious reason.

I happen to have two credit card accounts, both with no annual fee, but they both have wildly different interest rates.  It doesn’t bother me, since if I can’t just transfer and zero the card daily, we do without.  Simple budgeting and I never let the banks set its teeth in our wallets.

But just to show you how the two cards (from the same bank) work, one has a monthly rate of 6.9% and a cash advance rate of 19.24 %.  The other has a 12.99% monthly and a 24.99% cash advance rate and both have a jaw-dropping usurious 29,99% rate if payments are late.  I haven’t paid a dime in interest charges (and never venalities) in years.

The cheaper card doesn’t offer “points” while the more expensive one (if I was dumb enough not to pay on time) does.  It’s more like giving a Band-Aid to people kicked when down.

But many people are not so lucky and so our first question of the morning is whether banks are really serving the public need, interest, and concern, when they kick people who couldn’t afford a payment with a 30% penalty.

I’ve been around enough banksters to know that they have costs…sure, they do.  But is it the right thing to do?

So now we get to the “revolutionary” thinking stuff.  An email from a reader by the name of Michael up in the Pacific Northwest:

Greetings George,

Several years ago in a post, you alluded to an effort in the Washington State legislature to limit credit card interest rates for Washington residents. You mentioned that the effort was scuttled.  I am considering starting a Washington state ballot initiative to bring that about, and doing so in a manner that might serve as a model for other states.

In proceeding upon this, of course I am doing research.  Learning more about what transpired in Washington would be helpful. Would you be willing to share more about that by email or a phone conversation?

Back in the “old days”  Washington state (and lots of others) had usury laws on the books.

Thanks to a weird tweak in the War On Terror, to even bring up fighting usury  is framed as taking up with Sharia banking…which it’s not.  And even the most ardent supporter of kicking people when they are down (with 30% penalty rates) does seem to run counter to Biblical accounts of running money-changers out of the temple.

One of the champions (think 40-years ago) was the Washington State Labor Council and their late president Joe Davis.  The University of Washington has old documents going back into the late 1950’s available to researchers.

What we eventually come around to is this:  When the banks are borrowing at under one percent, shouldn’t there be a cap on credit card debt that might read something like:

  • Interest on monthly purchases:  Fed Discount Rate Plus 5%
  • Penalties:  Fed Discount Rate plus 7%

That would be a fine start I would think, but bankers will howl and run around as though a rapist is on the loose when such ideas come up.

And so we get the second choice out, which is a State bank, which would operate as a cooperative (on behalf of its members) very much like a good credit union.  In Washington, I have friends and family that are very happy with Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU) and a handful of community banks that owe their first allegiances to local customers, not a board of directors with phat salaries.  As it should be.

So thanks for the great question…and if would be a grand thing to see:  Have consumers march the banks out on the plank and give them a choice:  Reasonable fees with more due process and fees that should be a third of what they are now.  OR the choice is the plank – which is a State Bank with proper margins the good of the people – not the banker class – at heart.

Practical Thinking

One of the points that I made on my CoastToCoastAM appearance with George Noory last night was that people spend a huge amount of thing working on things that have no pay-off for them.

In other words, if you put 24-hours a day into Facebook, you may end up with more ‘Likes’ than you can shake a stick at, but can you really make money doing it?  I mean, without owning Facebook?  Ha!

And so it’s a delight to preach the gospel of “control your own inputs and control your own life…”

It’s also fun to get emails from people like reader Dan who obviously is doing just that…

Hi George.

I appreciate your expando-planet theory that links large earthquakes to solar activity but there are a few nuances that still puzzle me.  One is that I have noticed an uptick in strong earthquakes right after magnetic filaments collapse on the sun.  I only noticed this relatively recently and magnetic filament collapses are not that common so more data is certainly needed but this is something I am keeping an eye on.  As it happens, if you go over to www.spaceweather.com today you will find that there are two huge magnetic filaments facing Earth right now.  Hmmm…

The other thing I wanted to write about is in response to your peoplenomics article today where you point out how the western MSM is using language to distort the reality of what is going on.  It is completely true and I noticed it prior to the Ukraine situation – during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, actually.  Is that then that I started to detect an anti-Russian tone from many of the reporters at the games.  I recall watching with my wife and even commenting to her how it feels like we are being trained to hate Russia again and something must be in the works.  Sure, that could have just been an anti-Russian sentiment in response to the anti-Gay stance Russia was holding.  Or maybe that was all the ‘plan’?

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Peoplenomics: The 15-Year Problem, II: Talking Points

The more I get into the “15-Year Problem” – defining how the world is likely to look that far into the future based on present trends – the more concerned I’ve become. It’ll be the discussion tonight when I’m scheduled to be on CoastToCoastAM with George Noory. However, because a lot of subscribers won’t be able to stay up that late, I’ve put together some talking point that comes the wide spectrum of change that’s barreling at us and due to arrive around 2019. As a warm up act, though, we begin as always with a few headlines and another look at our Trading Model which has continued to insist that the market was going up all through the Ukraine manic-panic of the war-pandering press. Pretty amazing how well it has done…

The Wages of Deflation

With Ukraine/Crimea on a rolling boil on the back burner this morning, we can mix our oatmeal with a healthy helping of low calorie deflation, says the monthly update on consumer prices just out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though they somehow overlooked the oatmeal reference:

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.1 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.1 percent before seasonal adjustment. An increase in the food index accounted for more than half of the all items increase in February.

The food index rose 0.4 percent in February, driven by a 0.5 percent increase in the index for food at home, with four of the six major grocery store food group indexes increasing.

The energy index declined, with a decrease in the gasoline index more than offsetting sharp increases in the fuel oil and natural gas indexes. The index for all items less food and energy also rose 0.1 percent in February.

An increase of 0.2 percent in the shelter index was the major contributor to the rise, but the indexes for medical care, airline fares, personal care, recreation, and new vehicles also increased. In contrast, the indexes for household furnishings and operations, apparel, used cars and trucks, and tobacco all declined in February.

The all items index increased 1.1 percent over the last 12 months; this compares to increases of 1.5 percent in December and 1.6 percent in January.

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Coping: Dogs, Cats, and “Template Monkeys”

A super-hot emotional topic this morning:  As expected, my note (in the Monday news section) about the dog mauling case in Arizona received a lot of email from dog owners, anxious to defend the pooch.  Several were quite good and some fine issues are raised.  This one is among the best:

Just a quick note about your article on the face chewing dog.

To start off with let me say that I am no fan of pitbulls.  The breed was bred for only one thing – to kill other pitbulls (or other breeds unlucky enough to fight them) in the fighting ring.  Unnatural, unacceptable and totally uncalled for.

It defies explanation as to how this breed of dog, vicious as they are, has become so iconic in our society.  Nary a weekend goes by that I don’t see someone selling pitbull puppies on a corner or across from Walmart.

I firmly believe that the breed should be erased from the canine race.

Having said that, the story you are referring to runs a little deeper than what you see on the surface.  You were out here in Arizona not long ago so I’m sure you’ve had the opportunity to hear the local news take on this story.

If not, here’s a quick synopsis.

The boy that was mauled has special needs.  Not sure what those special needs are.  News didn’t say and it’s really none of my business anyways.  But this is a factor in all of this.

The boy’s mother was at work when the mauling occured.  He was being watched by a relative who let him get out of their sight.  The boy got into the neighbor’s yard where the animal Mickey lives.  Not only was the young boy in the wrong place, but then he picked up the dog’s bone.

Have you ever owned dogs?  I have for most of my life.  My experience is that when a stranger enters into the dog’s territory even mild mannered breeds can become quite agressive.

Then take something that belongs to them?  Holy batsh**, Batman! 

So the young boy got away from the babysitter, entered into the yard where the pitbull lives and took the dog’s bone after which the dog goes psycho on the boy ripping his face off.

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Those Hysterical Historical Idiots of the “Me Too!” Media

I’m sick of them…so please cease and desist sending me any more emails that liken the current situation in Ukraine to the 1914 period in Kaiser Germany.  It’s the wrong analogy and it’s one of those neocon mind-trips attempting to reframe how you view history.

And it’s just plain wrong.

The more correct analogy in history is the pre WW II Anschluss and how that rolled out.  Let me run through Wikipedia snips (for the high level view) and maybe you’ll follow what’s going to come next.

We start with Lebensraum (living room or elbow space).

Lebensraum About this sound listen (help·info) (German for “habitat” or literally “living space“) was an important component of Nazi ideology in Germany. The Nazis supported territorial expansionism to gain Lebensraum as being a law of nature for all healthy and vigorous peoples of superior races to displace people of inferior races; especially if the people of a superior race were facing overpopulation in their given territories.[1] The German Nazi Party claimed that Germany inevitably needed to territorially expand because it was facing an overpopulation crisis within its Treaty of Versailles-designed boundaries that Adolf Hitler described: “We are overpopulated and cannot feed ourselves from our own resources”.[1] Thus expansion was justified as an inevitable necessity for Germany to pursue in order to end the country’s overpopulation within existing confined territory, and provide resources necessary to its people’s well-being.[1] The idea of a Germanic people without sufficient space dates back to long before Adolf Hitler brought it to prominence.

Point:  What organization in modern-day Europe is in a massive expansionist mode and has declared a territorial (trade to begin with) imperative spanning from Lisbon to Vladivostok?

Answer:  Why, the EU, of course.

Counterpoint: And months later, Russia responds.

Next, we move on to the German election and referendum, 1938:

Parliamentary elections were held in Germany (including recently annexed Austria) on 10 April 1938.[1] They were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule and took the form of a single-question referendum asking whether voters approved of a single list of Nazis and pro-Nazi “guest” candidates for the 813-member Reichstag as well as the recent annexation of Austria (the Anschluss). Turnout in the election was officially 99.5% with 98.9% voting “yes”.[1] In Austria official figures claimed 99.73% voted in favour with a turnout of 99.71%.

And while Crimea voted to side with Russia in this weekend’s elections, it’s a virtual certainty that a similarly polarized outcome will be assured when Ukraine votes in presidential elections.

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Coping: What the Frack?

Reader Konrad, up in Ohio asked a pretty good question since our focus is on economic trends (and how to make a buck now and then).

I live in the Canton OH area and the local powers to be are in love with fracking.  It will create hundreds of thousands of high paying jobs forever, wean us off of foreign oil , whiten our teeth, etc.  Yet there is never a word about depletion rates or the capital cost of drilling.  I would like your thoughts on why supposedly college educated individuals, when looking at any topic such as taxes, fracking, the Federal budget, etc. refuse to look at any facts, or even read or try to understand the other sides views.  I know what George Carlin said about the real owners of this country not wanting a society of critical thinkers, but I am interested in your thoughts of how to change this unwillingness to think at all.

I have to admit to being guided by the data I get from the US Energy Information Administration and from my buddy Oilman2 who, if you remember, is a real honest-to-God rig engineer who’s “playground” ranges from China to the Andes when he’s making drill bits, and our 200 miles into the Gulf when he’s got pipe down.  When he doesn’t, he’s building a bugout farm 30-miles south of us in the East Texas Outback.

The Big Big Picture

The US/World has been in a major sideways move economically for a couple of years.  And this is a good thing (in a paradoxical way) because it keeps down energy demand.

At the same time, there has been a lot of new resource coming on line and yes, Keystone is coming but the US still needs foreign oil and so there’s something of a “bait and switch” in media.  While most eyes have been on Ukraine, the really key US interest has been Venezuela.  Mexico and Venezuela are still mighty damn important.

When you zoom out (to the 50-year level) of the data, what you see is pretty convincing evidence that the long-foretold “Peak Oil” is really in play, and it is only a combination of low interest loans and other factors, that have resulted in a short-term spurt in supply.

That will all likely change over the next five years, or so.  The reason is that as borrowing costs go up (rig time ain’t cheap) the cost of putting in new holes is high and going higher.

Aggravating this is a lack of good “worms.”  Those are the new kids on the rigs.  Much of the “old timer” knowledge (OM2 is 50ish) is being lost and there aren’t a lot of sharp, young, hard working kids out there.

In fact, I’ve heard stories (during the West Texas spurt that may have peaked a year or two back as the west-of-the-Permian Basin was redrilled and updated) that CDL (truck) license holders were being fished out of rehab and anywhere else they could be found to supply labor.  And yes, there’s some good talent for oil field work coming in from Mexico, too.  Drillers do a generally good job of getting documented-only workers.

What Fracking Does

The good news about fracking is that is really does provide a short-term blip in the supply picture. And that’s why people in the business expect something of a rounding “shark’s tooth price pattern” in the coming five years, or so.

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Crimea Votes Out of Ukraine

Russian television has been reporting that the voter turnout in Crimea was on the order of 80% and exit polling (released after the polls closed) showed about 92% were voting to remain affiliated with Russia and cut ties with the  Ukraine upstart government.  The Western media seems a little late to the party on this one…but don’t be surprised.

One talk show cited the West paying the radicals in Kiev $50 a day for their part in the uprising.  And a Ukraine radical right group is calling for blowing up gas pipelines to Europe.  Which would no doubt be blamed on the Russians…damn this is getting complicated. 

And then to add some hot sauce to the mix, the Crimean defense forces have reportedly turned back a group of Ukrainian tanks and armor which was headed for where?

The Russian border.

Oh….and one Russian reporter stood in front of a Russian tank in Crimea and explained it hasn’t moved since WW II – it was a monument.  Only Russian tank to be found, but look for it on the western teevee without that lil footnote.

Getting a lot of criticism in Russian talk shows?  Victoria Nuland of the State Department who was passing out cookies to the Ukraine takeover folks back in December.  You may remember her from the Benghazi case and her close relationship to the US neocons, a relationship that goes back to the Bush/Cheney era.

This Wikipedia extract may be of interest:

Nuland’s husband is historian Robert Kagan, Council on Foreign Relations member, and co-founders of the think-tank “Project for the New American Century” (PNAC). The PNAC called for, among other things, regime change in Iraq and a strategy for securing global control.

…and we know how well that and Egypt and all the rest has worked out, eh?

For a country which supported elections in Kosovo, it’s sure interesting that when the shoe is on the other foot for the US now…how the US administration is terribly outspoken in its criticism of the election in Ukraine. 

No doubt, similar outrage will come when Syria holds elections, as well. OMG how could they vote for anyone but a properly corporate-backed government?  Why democracy is darned near unreliable, by the look of it.

Still, one war’s as good as another, eh?  If not Syria, let’s find somewhere else…some other distraction from the troubles at home and a stock market which (on an inflation adjusted basis) has gone nowhere for 14-years.

That’s how it rolls… for now.   Ratings and money…could it all be so simple?

There are (amazingly to most ‘Mericans)  media outside the corp/MSM fold, and China’s Xinhua notes that the UN Security Council has tossed out a western press for a Ukraine resolution.

You’re surely not surprised, are you?    Who knows:  maybe the UN wants a government that comes to power through  elections, like the last one, you think?  Not cookies and tweets and payments.

As I’ve been telling you for weeks (as the world has gotten wrapped around the axle) on this:  In 1962 President Kennedy went to the brink of global war when the Soviets put missiles in Cuba 90 miles off our shore.

To think that Vlad Putin wouldn’t “go the distance” to maintain his sphere of interest and only warm water port is the height of arrogance in the face of history. 

Since there are still Bush-era vestiges at State who are promoting war, they might want to talk with the Nobel Peace Prize holder to see what his feelings are, rather than letting John M cCain drive us toward war.  There’s a reason he didn’t get to the White House.

The “offishul” vote counting will take a while, so we shall watch.  But the West has about fired its biggest vocabulary shells at the problem and Russian resolve is similar to Kennedy’s back in ’62.

That part of history hasn’t been rewritten by the neocons…but give ‘em  time, they’ll try to recast that, too.  The same people that got us into Iraq, as I read it..  Like the old Yellow Pages ads, they never stop selling. 

I’m so old that I remember when we were promised CHANGE from the Bushistas…don’t hear much about that lately, though, do you.

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The Sunday Strategic: Nuke for Tat / PGS

In Saturday’s www.peoplenomics.com report, I laid out a possible economic “replay” based on a market period in previous years.  A beginning decline in the coming week would set the stage toward our projected market low in mid-summer, should events continue to harmonize with our past market period.  The projection is based on our Peoplenomics Trading Model’s Oscillator showing the same type of formation.

All of which doesn’t matter (unless you happen to have an IRA, 401k, or are simply trying to save a bit of money) since the Big Distractions are in play.

Which gets us to mentioning that there is some critical reading that should be considered for your reading list this week, or next.

I’d recommend beginning with the Federation of American Scientists website reprint of an April 2013 Congressional Research Service Report titled:

“Conventional Prompt Global Strike and Long-Range Ballistic Missiles: Background and Issues”

At the core of the PGS concept is that older-generation intercontinental (and medium range) missiles were primarily a “nuclear only” option. 

Unfortunately, this merely continued the previous MAD (mutually assured destruction) policy.

Under Prompt Global Strike (PGS):

Many analysts believe that the United States should use long-range ballistic missiles with conventional warheads for the PGS mission. These would not substitute for nuclear weapons in the U.S. war plan but would provide a “niche” capability, with a small number of weapons directed against select, critical targets.

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Peoplenomics: Notes on Psych-Econometric Modeling

I’ve spent a troubling amount of time trying to understand why more work hasn’t been spent in an area that I call “psycho-econometric modeling.” In order to understand the problem, we will get into a high-level discussion of the various types of econometric models and then we’ll give a brief discussion of how the psycho-social goals of national “leaders” (worldwide, not just here) can be seen as inadequately addressed in most conventional models. Of course, such a heady problem requires much caffeine…and so while we drink a couple of cup to gear up the brain cells, we’ll gnosh on some headlines. Including Bill Gates hinting at job collapse, a familiar view around here.

Advisory

The www.backdoorsurvival.com site is back up. G

Fed: Panic Pumping of M1

I have been telling you for a long time that deflation was the big bogeyman in America’s future, which is why there is such a hype to drag us into some kind of major conflict right now.  War is good for the economy and – if enough damage can be done – there’s economic stimulus, a basis for raising taxes, and government asserting even more control of individual humans who deviate from “offishul” group-think.

Now, part of the evidence of deflation has been that while prices have been going up as a roughly 2% rate in the consumer price index, I’ve been telling you that the Fed is increasing the money supply by dramatically higher levels.

But even old pessimistic Ures truly was not ready for the shocking pumping of the M1 money supply in last night’s M1 number in the weekly update to the H.6 money stocks report:

And, you’ll see that pumping of the broader M2 rate is going on at higher levels, too.

So, what does it mean?  Well, just that deflation is deepening and despite the worrywart end-of-worlders who are touting inflation and collapse of the dollar, I’ll tell you right now that as soon as Gold gets up to the $1,400 level, a reversal down toward $1,000 will become likely.

As you know, Robin Landry and I have been eyeing the $800 level in gold for a long time.  As news that IT’S DEFLATION NOT INFLATION, YOU IDIOTS seeps into mass consciousness, the US market will be set to slide to prices down around 2009 lows –and lower. 

The Dow is looking to open down nearly another 150 this morning…deflation is a disaster than usually ends in war….

Russia, Stocks, and Producer Prices

No, this is not as “sexy” as the building US-Russian standoff over Ukraine/Crimea or the aircraft search, we do, nevertheless, tend to put money first around here.  That’s because, as goes the money, so too goes all the rest.

We note this morning that the Russian stock market has been handed a 1.90% loss in trading so far today.  Earlier, the US market looked to add another 131 point loss in today’s trading.  We may issue a special update this afternoon for our Peoplenomics subscribers on what this week’s closing action has done to our Trading Model’s outlook.

Now, about them Producer Prices:

The Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.1 percent in February, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This decline followed advances of 0.2 percent in January and 0.1 percent in December. O

n an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand moved up 0.9 percent for the 12 months ended in February, the smallest 12-month rise since a 0.9- percent increase in May 2013. (See table A.) In February, the 0.1-percent decrease in final demand prices can be traced to the index for final demand services, which fell 0.3 percent.

In contrast, prices for final demand goods advanced 0.4 percent. Within intermediate demand, the index for processed goods climbed 0.7 percent, prices for unprocessed goods jumped 5.7 percent, and the index for services rose 0.2 percent.

The change in final demand for the past 12 months being under 1% was obvious on the road trip Elaine and I just completed.  Truck traffic is noticeably down on Interstate 40 and we wouldn’t be surprised to see west coast port container volumes flatten when we run those numbers for subscribers next week.

Another taste of bile for the markets this morning:  China’s financial leadership is warning of a wave of bankruptcies to come there.  Reason?  Companies borrowed too much, and now with global demand for a lot of products level (to declining) we can see that Boom & Bust works in that “worker’s paradise” leftover from Chairman Mao, huh?

The Teflon Senator?

A report (over here) says the FBI has been blocked from taking part in a corruption investigation of senator Harry Reid  of Nevada and Mike Lee of Utah.

And who, according to the report, made this patently political decision to “protect the party”?  Why none other than Eric Holder, US Attorney General.

Also out today is another damning story about how the Justice Department has refused to release information on hundreds of prosecutorial misconduct cases.

I don’t know about you, but this sure as hell doesn’t seem very “transparent” when allegations against a couple of key senators is hushed up and when prosecutors guilty of misconduct are not named.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:  A fish rots from its head.  And that head is Holder.

Behind the Scenes on MH370

A well placed source tells me there is more going on to the MH370 case than  has hit the public news so far.  And while I don’t usually pass on “rumors” this one has high creds due to my source.

The source tells me that the information comes from a communications engineer for a certain large aircraft manufacturing company:

– an aircraft’s hourly ‘ping’ beacon cannot be turned off from the cockpit or passenger areas. One must climb below deck to switch it off.

– The manufacturer knows for a fact that the aircraft flew for FIVE hours after losing radar contact due to the hourly beacon ping

– the aircraft made ‘several’ turns during its ‘missing time’ (not clear how the engineer knew this)

– the US provided this info to several regional national authorities two days ago, with no action

– the US Navy ship now reported steaming to the Indian Ocean is headed directly to the identified aircraft location

– satellites confirm the aircraft (or whatever remains of it) is stationary and possibly in ‘deep water’ with no suspected survivors

This information dovetails precisely with the White House announcement that a new search area is being opened in the Indian Ocean for the plane.  US Navy craft going into the area would confirm the creds of my source on this, who has not be substantially wrong yet…Still, with stories like the Chinese reporting a land side seismic event, there is always the possibility that the source may not be right….

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One other airplane note:  That off “prophetic dream I had 11-days ago came true last night in Philadelphia…more in the Coping section…

Quake Spotting

Following the string of quakes up and down the eastern edge of the Pacific Tectonic Plate’s Ring of Fire, we can’t help but notice that chatter about the dangers of a “big one” out West are making the rounds again,

As of press time, a 6.3 in the Japanese islands was the biggest deal overnight.

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Coping: With War Functions, Escalation Paths, EMP

(Palestine, TX)  A short report this morning since there is much to work on for Peoplenomics tomorrow, wherein we will be building a kind of mixed sociometric and econometric model to play “What If?” with regard to human events.

The reason the market blew off 231 points yesterday is that most people haven’t thought through the functions of war, how to prep for it, and what individual trigger points are for personal action.

But obviously, for people who have been “prepping” the arrival of a Monday deadline from the US will increase concerns and will no doubt cause a lot of folks to go through last-minute checklists this weekend.  A good idea, given that most of the current generation have little to no training in how a nuclear exchange could play out.  Old people (like me) who have studied the problem beyond “duck and cover” may have some value, after all.

The problem with the Ukraine Crisis is that it is on the verge of fulfilling many of the “functions of war.”

Readers are just plain worried and emails like this sum things up:

I think we are going to war dude. Just a bad feeling I have. And I think it was planned all along.

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Retail Sales Numbers

The reason we start off with the Retail Sales figures press release this morning is this old business school axiom that “Nothing happens until someone buys something…”  It’s also why you should strike to be in sales as a career, because this is where the money is, in almost any industry you care to name.

If you want to get rich, sales is, near, as I can figure, the shortest ladder to the top. 

We can talk more about this some other time, but with the sales figures this  morning, it seems on point.  Some of the highest returns in learning you can find are to be had from studying the fine art of selling.  And no, it’s not hard, but people, in general have a fear of rejection and there is a good bit of that in sales.  Once you get past the ego-slamming idea that not everyone is going to love you, what you find is the remaining few who do love you, can make you rich beyond dreams.

I guess that’s why there are so many “average” people in the work, right?

OK, so onto the press release:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal      variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $427.2 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from the    
previous month, and 1.5 percent (±0.9%) above February 2013.  Total sales for the December 2013 through February 2014 period were up 2.3      percent (±0.5%) from the same period a year ago.  The December 2013 to January 2014 percent change was revised from -0.4 percent     (±0.5%)* to -0.6 percent (±0.2%).   

Yes, boys and girls, it’s the auto industry that is keeping America on life support.

Don’t look at retail sales in isolation, though.  The reason is that these figures are  counted on a dollar basis and not on a units sold basis.  The dollar figures are kicked all over hell’s half acre by a) the purchasing power of the dollar, b) inflation, c) taxes, d) supplier costs, and the list goes on from there. 

Still, any port in a storm and the trend is something you adjust the trim of your financial sales to:  When they start to fall, you look for safer harbor investments, and when in a rising trend, you can maybe think about growth stocks again.

The Markets

All of which gets us to how the world looks this morning, assuming your eyes are open enough to care.

Dow futures were up 30 – amazing what happen retail sales will do.

China and Japan were down again.  And China is under the key 22,000 level on the Hang Seng, so if the weakness persists into next week there, even though there may be some happy talk about things like Ukraine, it might be interesting to look at the rest of the world before working yourself into a bullish frenzy.

Looking at Europe in the early going today, the tea drinking kneelers were down a bit, and the huns and frogs were up a tad.  The inference is that no one in Europe has any clue what’s going on, but that should be evident from a quick glance at their shoddy system of government upon government…

I’m sorry, but when I look at the EU what I see is one of history’s cruelest jokes.  What Napoleon, the Kaiser, and Hitler could not hold together, is now being bubble gummed and babble-mouthed by latter day empire builders.  Only to have history make the point that 28 bankrupt countries are no better off than individual ones.

The whole point of the “trade deals” is that they provide the international bankster class with a kind of floating “check kiting” scheme which is fine, unless you live in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece,,,you keep a list, I hope? 

One could argue that it’s 27 and a half in the EU fold, since the Brits haven’t swallowed the whole bait, yet.  And it will soon be 28 and a half (or 29, depending on who’s scoring) when the mobgov of the Ukraine swallows the bait, which they will because they need loans and the old way to do that is to grovel to Brussels.

Which is why the power grab for Ukraine is so much like an addict’s “Just one more ounce/toke/drink” plea.  Like one more is going to fix anything.  It will seem to because here come the checks into the kiting pool, right?  Circular refinance, mark up, oh, it’s such a clever machine!

More important than anything else, Ukraine gives member states something to jointly worry about and since external enemies are how taxes for arms have been historically stolen from the workers (who just want to be left alone) the resurrected Evil Russian Empire is marketing, marketing, marketing.

And shortly it will be tax, spend, tax, spend, which is how people in power stay there.  Napoléon and the Kaiser should have been so clever.

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