A reader brought the question to us (“Why does it feel like a Depression?“) driven by seeing how many under 50s still live with their parents, for example. It’s a dandy question – which takes us on a 4-thousand word jaunt from Al Capone’s soup kitchen in Chicago to the parallels between hoboes and illegal … Read More

The stock market has a certain eau d’ fraud going on, presently.  There is no rational reason for anyone to put money into markets when there is this amount of global uncertainty about the future. Yet, at the early pre-open check (about 6 AM Eastern) we were surprised to see futures attempting a run up to … Read More

Remarkably, Amazon still has these in stock: GQ GMC-500Plus Geiger Counter Nuclear Radiation Detector Monitor Dosimeter, White.  Which we “Last purchased Sep 16, 2023.” It’s just under $140 (click the coupon!) and it recharges off your everyday USB-C connector and wart. If you don’t understand why this is so amazing, that the Zon would have stock of … Read More

I have mentioned a few times this week that I have a new Potensic Atom SE drone and that, having the FAA UAV ticket (easy transition from ASEL pilot) I really wanted to “keep a hand in.” Boy, did I ever! This adventure begins with the first attempted flight of the drone.  Damn thing would … Read More

A national holiday Monday was part of the reason we entered a short position ahead of the weekend.  In Wednesday’s report, we fretted about the odds of a large upside bolt as G20 nations are desperate to avoid the appearance of vulnerability of the global economic system to normal economic fluctuations. Not that such things … Read More

Yes, we are going to have a “hard landing.”  Of course, Ure is not the only one saying this (I’ve been saying it for almost 2-years now!). Others, like the “smartest guy in the room” are saying it too.  Witness The Odds of Avoiding a Downturn Have Dropped, Mohamed E-Erian Says.  If you don’t follow … Read More

[Publishing in sections due to power issues due to storms in East Texas ongoing.  Which are kind of fun.  See the Around the Ranch action.) Quite the stew!  Not much point in playing the market, just yet.  There is some risk – as we explained in the Peoplenomics report Wednesday – of an upside surprise. But … Read More

We continue to evolve a “soft science” of waveform similarities. But getting this part of the present market decline has been enjoyable so far. One of my great joys in Life is being able to pay lots of income tax.  Not because Elaine can’t spend better than Congress. But because it means we are making … Read More

As we expected, the Labor JOLTS report came in hotter than expected and that just about puts a nail in the Fed having to raise rates at the end of the month. To quote from the report: “The number of job openings increased to 9.6 million on the last business day of August, the U.S. … Read More

Report from Iron Mountain (on the accessibility and desirability of peace) laid out the problem brilliantly. Essentially: What is the incentive of nominally free people to give away between 25 and 50% of their labors to government?  You need big sticks if you’re in the “governing business.” The Big Sticks are: War (actual) War (threatened) … Read More

Welcome to the Monday morning edition of The Future Game. There are multiple “angles” to seeing the Future.  One way is “Numerics” – which we do a lot of around here.  Stock prices, bonds, cryptos, projections, money supplies and all that represent the “craps game in the alley out back.” A kind of floating estimate … Read More

Too much time with my ass-glued to the trading chair this week, so zero projects to update on except a few small ham radio thingies. Of course, I could take a picture of the ashpit dump out back where I dumped the contents of the burn barrel this week?  Of pictures of the squared-way 100-meter … Read More

Our September only gains closed the month +9.8 percent. Yes, this pencils out to about 300 percent per year.   Remarkably, we have readers who are doing even better than us. We don’t approach stocks as “investing” anymore.  We treat the market like a wager. When you do that, things like dollar-cost-averaging get tossed out the … Read More