I received a marvelous email from long-time reader LOOB (Looking Outside Of (the) Box) up in one of the cold Square States. In case you are not familiar with his work, I seem to recall a ShopTalk adventure a while back where he went through making a cardboard dry bar. Came out as good (or better) … Read More

Where we size up how the year has been and look ahead to next year’s challenges.  We like to have these lookaheads because they go hand-in-glove with other annual exercises, such as the personal financial statement discussion. We have been – for literally decades – fans of the concept preached in management schools “What gets … Read More

Just how crazy – out of its flipping mind – is the Market? My first calculation today demonstrates this to a tee. We take the close last Friday in our meta index (the Peoplenomics Aggregate Index) which is based on the silly notion that at any one moment there is only so much money in the world.  After that, … Read More

Yeah, the market rallied in a hysterical way Wednesday when the Fed: Did nothing In an unchanging war-crazed world During a domestic political nightmare In an over-crowded, resource constrained world Amidst headlines about stocks hitting “records” Seriously, Bubba?  In reverse order, let’s put some neurons to this, shall we?  In reverse order – because the … Read More

“Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not.” Famous quote from the late Robert F. Kennedy. Very much on point as we answer the question “What is a rational person to do for a survival strategy in a world gone mad?” The answer … Read More

A fair amount to cover going into the Fed announcement on rates tomorrow.  For now, the money centers on “no change” but, of course, a “hot” CPI number could blow all that.  Let’s unwrap that pickle first: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.1 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, … Read More

From the top of the heap: The Fed Open Market Committee gavels in tomorrow morning, about this time.  Which is a serious point of hype for markets.  Consider for example: “Nothing Money” (Bitcoins, based on made-up numbers) made a run at the $45,000 level this weekend. But they failed and dropped under the $42.500 mark … Read More

There are two kinds of Home Handy-Bastard shoppers out at this time of year.  The kind who are dirt-under-the-fingernails working bozo’s (like us).  And the non-handy, but infinitely more refined who see dirty fingernails, curl up their noses, furrow the brows, and screech “Eeoow, YUCK! Don’t come near me until you… [inserts list of conditions].” … Read More

Today we consider investment lessons from the field of software design.  And, in particular a parallel between stock market decision matrices and software decision-making related to voice response devices such as Alexa and Siri. I know, sounds a little bit “out there” but (trust me, it is) it’s actually how modern engineering works. Clever generalization … Read More

No question about it, the insanity of the stock market seems to be inexplicable.  But, in one sense, it’s not.  America has a savings problem. The problem simplifies to “Where do you park money? I look at the problems faced by our kids – well, now 50-ish, maybe “kids” isn’t the right word. But “Where to save money” has … Read More

Although we don’t offer financial advice, we do nevertheless write and opine on both economics in general, the long waves within economics, and some of our own independent research very specifically. Thus, we feel somewhat driven to announce this is likely to be the transition into? Deadly Downside Day We begin in the general economics … Read More

Money is what “floats your boat” in today’s second installment of our Ark building book. Because while “prepping” may be popular, what’s really satisfying is the larger context in life: Building a Personal Ark to sail into the unknowable future. We aren’t building a Noah-like flood building, though.  Rather we are looking at owning a … Read More

Reader Note:  I made a couple of changes to the site you may notice, depending on caffeine loading. The first is the home page is now two columns (except on phones) so you can scan what’s going on more quickly.  The other change is to underline links in our content, so it’s (more) clear you’re … Read More