You can have a look at a couple of pull quotes from the Fed Boss remarks at a banking conference today and draw your own conclusions…
Federal Reserve Board – Integrated Review of the Capital Framework for Large Banks Conference
At least someone is keeping perspective: The Fed: ‘All of these Ph.D.s over there, I don’t know what they do…’
Inflation’s STILL the Only Game, Though
Still, the best long-term perspective on investing we can offer continue to be? “Invest in inflation.”
When you look at how “serious money” has happened in our country, it has tended to be in buying a low-priced asset and being able to hold it long enough for inflation to work its magic. Over the course of my lifetime, the hourly wages have gone up a (claimed) 10-times. Some research from “the stack” –
“In 1965, the federal minimum wage in the United States was $1.25 an hour. Adjusted for inflation, that’s roughly equivalent to about $12.00–$13.00 in 2025 dollars, depending on which inflation index you use. Yet the actual federal minimum wage in 2025 remains stuck at $7.25—unchanged since 2009. This gap between inflation-adjusted and nominal wages exposes the hollowing-out of real purchasing power for millions of Americans. What $1.25 could buy in 1965—several gallons of gas, a decent restaurant meal, or a movie ticket and popcorn—is a far cry from what $7.25 can buy today. The minimum wage hasn’t kept up with the cost of living, but asset prices—especially housing—certainly have.
This wage stagnation highlights the long-term wisdom of investing in inflation-adjusting assets—particularly real estate and businesses that generate cash flow. A house bought in 1965 for $20,000 might now be worth $300,000 or more, often with rental income rising in step with inflation. Likewise, a small business that cash-flows its own purchase price becomes more valuable over time as both revenues and replacement costs rise. These assets don’t just retain value—they can outrun inflation while providing income, unlike wages or savings which erode. The takeaway? In a system where wages are politically frozen but prices aren’t, ownership—not labor—is what gets preserved.”
If you are truly interested in getting ahead financially in life? Buy something that is likely to go up in price over time. Buy this [whatever] asset when rates of interest are lower than the rate of inflation, and the rest of life can go on while your long-term winnings are being printed.
Pretty simple stuff, really. But it gets wrapped around the axle of politics and then it’s all down hill from there…
HOWEVER, when inflation ends, and the systemic crash comes along, then debt is the very last thing you’ll want to be tied-to… You like close judgment calls, right?
Let’s cross the midway to the Clown Tent and see what’s coming off the mimiograph today, shall we?
Today’s Nap Alarms
- 10 AM Eastern: Richmond Fed Manufacturing
Snooze for one hour…
- 11 AM Treasury buy-back details.
Slam the snooze alarm for another hour.
- 12 Noon – lunch break. Been a hard day so far…
Of Course They’d Say That
Yes, of course: Iran foreign minister denies Trump assassination plot.
Which led Donald Trump to say we’d pop Iran again.
Which lead to another (of course): Iran vows to continue uranium enrichment; Trump threatens retaliation: ‘We’ll do it a
Next?
If you don’t understand the uptick in Syria fighting? After Putting Al Qaeda In Charge Of Syria, The US Is Angry They Act Like Al Qaeda. Well, of course…
How about Trump – going after anti-semitism – geting attacked by an Obama appointee? (chorus) Of Course! Trump lashes out at federal judge presiding over Harvard case .
We expect “Mr. Walk softly and carry a keyboard” won’t stop – it helps to break focus on Epstein. So let’s riff on that…
Obama’s got Big Trouble in the wings: BREAKING: More Info Dumped on Hillary’s Email Server – This Makes Watergate Look Like a Parking Ticket. So toss in President Trump says Obama HIMSELF completely manufactured the Russia hoax. “The crime of the CENTURY!” Get Orville Redenbacher on the line…we need to add to our September order…BIGGER THAN WATERGATE – The Burning Platform
Epstein Files?
Um, no – no sign of them. The gall of the stall, huh? Speaker Mike Johnson says House won’t vote on Epstein resolution before recess. But here’s the Distract-o-mat playing on:
And, gee-gosh, we ain’t the only ones calling it: MLK Jr’s daughter tells Trump ‘now do the Epstein files’ after 230,000 pages released on civil rights leader.
(strums fingers while waving a small sign that reads “Warning: Don’t Hold Breath!”
Life in the Doldrums
Japan has started dieting. Coming off “free lunch” as Japan’s long-dominant party suffers election defeat as voters swing right | Miami Herald
We anticipate (eventually) “science” will have a “Cigarette smoking is OK” moment to contend with when cellphone impacts on human health are fully realized. But for now, only the leading edge of 5G concerns are being filtered to the public. Early Smartphone Use Linked to Poorer Mental Health at 24 – ScienceBlog.com
Let’s whip up more anti-Ai fear, shall we? Pentagon awards up to $200 million to AI companies with ideologically biased models. “Ideologically biased?” As in “doesn’t agree with OUR view of things?” Help a brother out... maybe Ai can work math and model ahead logically…
Personal health note: Commonly Prescribed Nerve Pain Drug May Accelerate Dementia Risk By Up To 40%, Researchers Warn. (gabapentin_)
Around the Ranch: Recovery Mode
Three research papers tomorrow on Peoplenomics. Which is where all my time has been focused lately when not sweating my way through solar panels and shop work.
- The Shroud, Moses, and Human Portaling
- The Tree of Life as a Bioenergetic Diagnostic Tool
- And the biggie? The Silent Continuum: ADHD as a Precursor to Alzheimer’s Disease along with a mini meta-study.
So, lots of brain cells working on other that the When of Epstein and collapse. And after that, back to grinding on food plans and winter gardening…
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
Folks,
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokewoman Maria Zakharova has announced her pending collaboration with Russian rapper Ptaha (“Little Bird”). Apparently the pair already have completed a song demo.
Ptaha counts the 2024 movie flop “Brothers 3” to his credits. The film failed to build on its predecessor box office blockbuster “Brothers 2”. There Russian and Ukrainian mafias had battles it out in Chicago. Spoiler alert: hero and heroine repatriate to Moscow via first class travel. Pittsburgh Penguin fans may wish to tune in for a Jaromir Jagr cameo appearance.
Let’s revisit a Texas studio with DJ George who legend has it was spinning turntables when a rap was something crooked. Today ‘Deej is curating “Dire Straits”. From the “Brothers in Arms” album here we go with –
“Money for Nothing”.
George-
You always say “Write when you get rich” so here I am typing you, because in light of your pointing out that ownership in the Inflation Game is the only way to get rich, I guess I am:
In 1994 I bought the house I live in now on a 1/2 acre for $29k. Neighboring, smaller lot, homes are now on the market for over $200k!
In 2012 I bought 9-1/2 acres, for a hunting shack, for $21k. The neighboring same-size lot is on the market now for $95k!
In 2016 I bought a small lake frontage lot with a cottage for $64k. 3 years ago the neighboring, nearly identical property, sold for $100k!
Relatively modest pricing compared to other parts of the country, but still, the gains I’ve made by just buying and holding real estate are proportionately impressive, and virtually all because of inflation (and the accident of birth-timing: at 63, I’m a late Boomer).
North
That’s not luck – that’s skill –
In 1986/87 I bought a farm for $90,000 (went in debt for most of it).
It would now sell for > 2 million.
My state just eliminated cap gains tax and I hope Trump indexes cap gains to inflation.
Selling now would mean a tax bill > $400,000.
Crops and farm subsidy payments (CRP) paid for the farm over a couple of decades.
“PH.Ds.. I don’t know what they do…’”
The Ph D folk are the magic.
Trump campaigned on releasing JFK or Epstein files (jailing Hillary). Doesn’t follow through. Then tops it by calling the people who voted for him based on the campaign “weaklings”. And the constituents still support him. That’s the magic of Ph D folk in action.
Recall the movie star who spoke to the empty chair back there. Inexpensive/non-Ph D folk came up with that doozy…. and it didn’t work.
An interesting psychological trend I see developing is women spilling their hearts to ChatGPT and asking for direction – perhaps men too but I don’t know. ChatGPT is turning into an intimacy surrogate of some kind. One babe, a dental hygienist, who was telling me about ChatGPT called it a “he” then corrected herself to saying maybe a “she” then oscillated back to saying or “whatever”. We’d have to ask a Ph D how the destruction of male/female pronouns leads the way.
re: Dr. Chandra, PhD.
feat: Hal 9000, Urbana, Il.
Out of Work Steve,
Current anecdotal inquiry shows Grok identifying as “a neutral AI entity” using “I”, “me”, or “it”.
DeepSeek advises that as a program it can be referenced by pronouns “it/its” or alternatively “they/them”. However it will also accept “he/him” and “she/hers”.
ChatGPT offered on a followup inquiry that as an AI then pronoun “it” is appropriate or “they” if someone wishes to sound more grammatically respectful. It then asked me a question of its own:
“Curious – did the pronoun thing stand out for a particular reason?”
Apparently Urbana, Illinois was named Big Grove before its renaming after Urbana, Ohio. The latter “Urbana” is suggested as deriving from the Roman custom of dividing plebeian classes between urban and rural groupings.
I’ve been offended for years by the extreme loony left using the plural words “they” and “them” to refer to someone without identifying it’s sex. People are NOT special. The term “it” is legitimately used to define any entity, including a person or AI without specifying its sex. We refer to a sexually undefined baby as an it, and rightly so. The sex specific pronouns should be used where the sex is obvious or appropriate(including anthropomorphized vehicles, ships, planes, or machinery). A female sexbot would naturally be referred to by the terms “she” or “her”. It’s just natural. The plural terms “they” and “them” need to be reserved for reference to multiple entities.
Jester
ELIZA is the original chatbot. The Ph D folk back in 1964-1967 knew. Link below so you can give it a try for comparison to ChatGPT:
“ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program developed from 1964 to 1967[1] at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum.[2][3][page needed] Created to explore communication between humans and machines,”
“Some of ELIZA’s responses were so convincing that Weizenbaum and several others have anecdotes of users becoming emotionally attached to the program, occasionally forgetting that they were conversing with a computer.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
ELIZA: a very basic Rogerian psychotherapist chatbot
https://web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/eliza.html
I presume that such “they/them” suffer from either multiple personalities, or some kind of possession.
Either case flags the sufferer as someone whom I should avoid, due to a low tolerance for “drama”.
White House Says It Has Tech That Can ‘Manipulate Time and Space’
https://www.newsweek.com/white-house-says-tech-can-manipulate-time-space-2060986
G.A. STEWART: Might seeing into the future be a part of Extraterrestrials being able to bend space and time? I have been well-steeped in Extraterrestrial/UFO Lore for over five-decades. It does play a large role in Nostradamus’ prophecies.
https://theageofdesolation.com/collapse-and-revolution/
George,
You experiences with wind turbine vs solar costs, benefits, dangers and decommissioning costs are more important now ?
Wind turbines like the $102 Vevor 50 w available at Amazon now
make wind turbine costs competitive with solar.
UrbanSurvial readers might benefit by your commentary on these electricity-generating technologies?
You go Bill! My guess is there’s a totally Rube Goldberg way to build battery charge off a repurposed exercise bike (or, real bike set to be a single horse genset). That would be more fun than riding and not going anywhere. I’ll ride while you game as we charge (__fill_in_blank) and you ride while I check email. Then the battery supports some 12v off the reack (marine) lighting.
I have been around lots of turbines Bill. They are also mostly designed for marine battery bank support. Ostensibly sailors have wind so? They can be loud. I’m not sure it’s desirable at close range. Now, if the grid was down? Guess I’d enjoy the clatter.
Always, Egor
I need some assistance making a decision.
Option 1. Remove si mm e bone from my big toe and fuse it. Remove all 4 other metarsal joints and fuse then. Add bolts and nits and wires. No weight bearing for at least 6 weeks. Lots of opiates. But normal looking foot ,mostly, and probably no more surgery on it ever
Option 2. Cut off tip of second toe and remove 4th toe completely. Wear a boot, walk with a walker, maybe 5 opiate pills, stitches out in a week. Possibility of needing other toes amputated later but temporarily fixing pain issues.
I’m almost 73. I had Option 1 done on my left foot matbe 20 years ago. Really awful but it fixed the problem. What do you think?
Are there any other options that were developed over the last 20 years? Both options sound difficult and painful. Is there a timeline? How is your condition treated in other countries? The USA doesn’t have a lock on medical innovation and we’re slow to adopt techniques that are not invented here. How compromised are you at present? Regardless of your choices, I’d get yourself in the best condition possible before any surgery, and line up post surgical help to the degree possible.
My personal opinion(and that’s all it is), is to avoid temporary fixes, especially if they’d compromise the outcome of a potential later intervention. I’m sure I speak for others here too when I wish you the best possible outcome from whatever choices you do make.
Wow – you seem to be a sucker for PUNISHMENT, whats up wit that?
Surgery on Ure Toes is tres PAINFUL, recovery – TRES PAINFUL. That is an awful lot to go thru just to score some Opiates.
Blue Fenty tablets are way cheap in comparison, just need to be precise in Ure dosages. Wear personal protection when handling..gloves, mask, rebreather..
Im just kidding – please dont get Ure granny panties in a bunch.
Foot pain sucks as Ure always walking on it – I’m dealing 2nd Big Toe fusing thing my own dam self. Did the 1st several years ago – recovery really did SUCK, big baby chunks.
Last year during exam, Foot & Ankle surgeon said I still had 30% cartilage left in joint. I had effectively Zero cartilage in first one – that one ached even when elevated..ACHED. So I roll with carbon fiber implants in Left Shoe, to keep Big Toe from moving to much.
If first one worked satisfactorily – why would you go with something different ? Anyway – whatever you decide – I wish the best of LUCK and a speedy recovery.
Keep in mind when in recovery – you wont be able to “Exit, stage Left!’
-https://youtu.be/wa6k_in6cv4?si=jha3LU1iZhi3W-rq
Eleanor, were it my decision I’d be looking at how the rest of my body is holding up. For example, at 82 one “life expectancy calculator” (several are available on the web) suggests I may make it to 96 before death with maybe 3 years of disability preceding the end. To fix a problem properly and get another 10 years of mobility would seem like a good deal despite pain and long recuperation. On the other hand, if I also was fighting cancer with a poor prognosis, obviously Option 2. YMMV and just my thought process; obviously statistical odds are just that — no guarantees. But I think some information is better than pure intuition. Good luck!
I think do whatever will not need to be done again in the NEXT 73 years. One and done sounds good to me.
Eleanor: An afterthought. Never ever do non-emergency surgery of a serious sort (e.g. tonsils and minor skin cancers don’t count) without seeking a second and maybe a third opinion. Most health insurance will pay for additional consultations. If possible, one of the opinions should be from a med school faculty member, either current or past. I could go into a long stories about my son’s club feet and my botched cataract surgery, but the net result is that we are both fine now. Sometimes the best help is not where you might expect it: my son’s feet were fixed at a university hospital with more surgery later at Shriner’s. We had excellent insurance but went to Shriner’s (at that time, no billing at all) because it was the best at what he needed done.
“Epstein Files?
Um, no – no sign of them. The gall of the stall, huh? Speaker Mike Johnson says House won’t vote on Epstein resolution before recess. But here’s the Distract-o-mat playing on:
Trump administration releases huge trove of documents about Dr Martin Luther King Jr – as President faces revolt over Epstein files”
I’m trying to figure out why everyone is so hot and bothered to get their eyes on all that kiddieporn. THAT is what “the Epstein files” is, at this point in time.
The calls to release this garbage are specifically designed to cast doubt on Trump (which explains why his popularity amongst his supporters went up two points, when this shit started.) I’m pretty sure neither the Democrats nor the Republicans really, honestly, want this stuff made public. If I were Bondi, I would release the kinderfuckers’ faces (mug shots), as they became separated from the activities (and the children) in which they were videoed, just to see how many Hollyweird “elites” and D.C. politicians would need be “exposed” before a superhuman effort was made by the “media” to bury everything and hide “Epstein” from the public…
In a press conference, Trump said the search for the Epstein client list is a witch hunt. I can’t disagree; however, with all the photos of Epstein posing with celebs and the rich and famous out there, I have to think there is enough donor money to the R’s at stake to put a lot of pressure to rein in the DOJ, whether the list exists or not.
If you want to understand who was doing business with Epstein, you follow the money trail, not the porn trail. Has a single bookkeeper or accountant been deposed by DOJ ? There have been huge lawsuits against banks who were aiding and abetting Epstein. Has there been a forensic audit of that evidence by DOJ ? I’m rather puzzled by the lack of coordinated activity and disclosure.
(““Epstein Files?
Um, no – no sign of them. The gall of the stall, huh? Speaker Mike Johnson says House won’t vote on Epstein resolution before recess. But here’s the Distract-o-mat playing on:”)
they won’t ever be released there’s to many powerful people involved..the prison system is the first clue. our prisons are filled with people in the lower classes of society.. those …WORTHY.. individuals in the upper crusts of society walk away… look at old.. Bernie Madoff.. he did no wrong until he stepped all over the toes of the members of a different social class of the affluent… and from everything I read on the island.. the visitors there controlled the upper crust members of society.. its all in the business model..
id definitely go with 1 . experience and success. actually positive follow the same steps to success .
Thanks everyone for your support and advice. I think I need more information. You were all very helpful.
Eleanor,
I recently had another surgery on my right foot to straighten the toe next to the big toe, as well as the toe next to that one. The big toe was straightened and fused last year with seven screws and a metal plate, as it was a severe hammer toe. For this recent surgery, the surgeon installed permanent screws in the joints of the two toes, and he also placed temporary metal pins, inserted in the toes from the top. The pins were nearly three inches long and were to be kept in the toes for about nine weeks. I could not do much at all exercise wise, which sucked. However, all is good now, and the foot looks fine. I would have your surgeon perform the harder surgery that permits better results, even though you may be down for a while. I can now hike, climb, and exercise at the gym again, and I only needed opiates for the first few days.