The latest CPI report makes the interesting assertion that Housing costs in the past year were up (month-on-month) by 5.7 percent.  While overall, thanks to a few items going lower, the YoY data showed Consumer prices up 3.2 percent from February 2023 to February 2024. Lo and behold, brethren, here we see how that 5.7 … Read More

Well, the Simon and Garfunkel song doesn’t apply today.  You do remember their classic hit Bridge over Troubled Waters, right?  Well, in Maryland today we have the slip side of that: Trouble over Bridged Waters – where a containership smashed an important bridge. Cargo ship hits Baltimore’s Key Bridge, bringing it down. At least 7 … Read More

Yeah, there’s a lot to cover this morning, but it was looking (earlier) like that “wild-eyed” short position I loaded up on Friday at the close would pay off with a couple of loaded cheeseburgers in the Lunch Money Day Trading Account (LMDTA). No, I don’t always win, but I also don’t always lose.  This … Read More

First question is: Is it brave or crazy?  With the markets bumping along at logically over-bought levels, it’s tempting to buy a short and “play for time.” But this is riskier than it might appear.  Although we’ve been known to do it from time-to-time. Backing up these observations will be a dozen and a half … Read More

Rally in a Box Canyon of rates. Yeah, you remember the old Westerns, right?  Where the one cowboy rides (lost) into a dead-end and is set-upon by the baddies? That’s where we are financially. We had the “cheap dose of deflation” to pretend to work out systemic malinvestment. But now, with the public debt continuing … Read More

19-cent economics up for breakfast today. This is a dandy-to-grand follow-on to our Peoplenomics report of Wednesday.  Wherein “Ure’s Inflation” defined “locally observable Inflation” as much more highly correlated to the Reality/Ground Truth than the put-up numbers from financial shysters.  Which includes (sadly) the People’s government. Prices Don’t Go UP – Money Goes Down Inflation … Read More

Not much to say about it. The Fed held. Says still sees three cuts this year. Chairman will sound off but the markets are on a jag now. We hold to the idea that the Fed is now in the position of, in some sense, paying higher rates to itself by holding too high, too … Read More

It may seem an odd question, at least in some sense: Since we are all “investors” every time we pay taxes.  But what is seldom asked – and there’s no one really advocating – directly for shareholders – is the simple question: “What are we getting for our money today and how does that compare … Read More

Four seminal events in small investing that you may not be aware of, so a quick review is in order ahead of the Housing Starts report: Investing is gambling.   Samuelson at MIT got to the idea that on any day, odds of the market going one way, or the other, were about the same.  Background … Read More

The financial pseudo-drama kicks off tomorrow morning, by which time we expect the market will be declining ahead of the Fed rate decision Wednesday at 2 PM (back there) time. In the meanwhile, the corporate propaganda median (CPM) will continue cranking out Trump hate, climate scare, and pimping war on all fronts. Reader Hank earns … Read More

Quite the issue in today’s ChartPack.  Seems with a world on the verge of nuclear war, and the wrap up of the Russian elections this weekend, the odds of that peaceful “way forward” have just hit the skids. Toss in the confusing Biden administration handling of Gaza, not to mention the pending Chinese move on … Read More

Sure – market futures prices tell us there will be a higher average price of shares – at least for a while – when this bloated pig of a market finally wakes up.  However, a “digital canary in the coal mine” is trying to die. Just a day and a half ago, BTC was $73,615.  But, … Read More

Fed-in-the-Box next week.  But it’s OK – they can’t do anything now.  They are in a box to where anything they touch can set off the stampede. So, as a mood-setter ahead of Retail Sales data, an old flying definition (of a crash):  It’s when you run out of Airspeed, Altitude, and Ideas at the … Read More