Cocktail Napkin Economics – CNE – is our focus before returning to “money-grubbing trader” activities. Economics does NOT have to be so full of bullshit and mathematical obfuscations. It got this way because of “quants.” Economics, understand, is at its core pretty simple. People will generally earn and spend in their own best interests. Thence … Read More
OK, we are stuck “between realities” lately in the stock market. We saw disappointment in earnings recently; so much so that one fin-writer remarked “…the Recession may already be here…” But not down on Main Street. Well, at least until TODAY. NY Fed Data Freefalls Empire State Manufacturing survey: “Business activity fell sharply in New … Read More
Yeah, well…since we do call this the ShopTalk column, every once in a so-often, we like to actually build something. Big, important, flexible, resilience oriented toward local manufacturing and sustainability builds. What we’re doing today is a whole “soup to nuts” build of a Sainsmart 3018 Pro CNC that I’ve had sitting in the project queue … Read More
Our main focus today is on the balance of this month and into next from an economics and charts perspective. Because there is a split – quite obvious when you read financial headlines. One faction is expecting “recession avoidance” because of the big, powerful, American economy. The other still sees dead banks walking as the … Read More
As gamblers and adventurers, most of us go through Life with a storyline and plot holding our course for us. While the id and ego fill-in with a heroic personality. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes not. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between Humans and Physics. The latter is where pseudo-randomness occurs … Read More
The Mexico Invasion begins anew today. We’ll get to that down the page so as not to get topic-banned in search… ahem… Let’s instead start the day with P.P.I. – Producer Price Index – numbers. Because while we are still shocked at the stupidity of [controlled] media running up someone’s book in the market Wednesday, PPI … Read More
We won’t say the Market is being manipulated, but we will note the official read of today’s CPI numbers was: CPI for all items rises 0.4% in April; shelter, used cars and trucks, and gasoline up Typical hype in the face of Reality by corporate-own mouthpiece media? Inflation: Consumer prices in April rise at slowest … Read More
It all begins with rent. From there, we see a computer software design pattern kick it. From a single act of systemic compliance, a whole shitshow of logical consequences follows. One on the previous, day after night. There is a problem – existential in nature – that lurks with this “commerce model.” Specifically, the issue … Read More
Life marches on – and with it, me – off to get an updated eye prescription. So we will try to remain “focused” for a change. (Argh!) First item on the list is the National Federation of Independent Business report looking at forward conditions: Yes, they’re coming. But, no, not yet… Owners expecting better business … Read More
We have a number of important items on our “news budget” this week. Beginning with a virtual turkey in financial markets while the masses try to figure out what the Future holds. Apparently, it may not hold Joe Biden. NEW POLL: Trump Leading Biden By 7 Points in 2024 Race (mediaite.com). The reason for “show … Read More
With the return of G2 to family lands this past week, we’ll start with the father-son diet challenge part. Because I’ve watched my son’s approach to dieting and it’s really interesting. Almost Goggins-like hard core… When left (gun-banning) Washington State, he was about 200 pounds. A week later he was at 184. The secrets he used … Read More
Which we hinted at in the UrbanSurvival. column Friday. Today, we look into the rabbit hole and see how our “lookahead” is looking, if that makes sense. Quiet and busy spring day and the scent of coronation silliness hangs heavy in the air. So let’s focus on the useful part: Making a little money in … Read More
A short ramble today about investing in the stock market. There is no more “investing.” Unless you are Warren or Charlie, have the patience to go looking for under-valued stocks, have a buttload of money and more patience than Job, investing is in the same category as unicorns and honest elections. Maybe… The reality is … Read More