Up, Down, Or Sideways?

by

Yeah, I know most people think the stock market was up Thursday. Up about 35 points on the Dow.

And I’ll even grant you that the S&P was up a point, too.

But please look at the NASDAQ: Dropped 25 points.

This is why on our Peoplenomics.com site we tend to look at markets in aggregated terms.

If the S&P was up 0.04% and the Dow was up 0.17% but the techs were down 0.43%, do you really think the market went up?

With a lower open ahead, we would not be surprised to see a 100 point drop for the week. Maybe half that – all depends what Fed Head Janet Yellen puts on the table next Friday but we won’t know until then.

Meantime, the foot-race is on between Gold (about $1,260) and Bitcoins ($1,181 when I looked this morning).

Next Week’s Menu

Next week ought to be really interesting, in particular with president Trump’s upcoming appearance before congress.

The way we read it is that Trump will distance himself from the old-line republicans like Paul
Ryan and will call out this clown posse (Fools on the Hill) for not giving him real reform legislation.

One commentary I noticed this morning – which made a dandy point – wondered why the republicans couldn’t just send Trump their plan healthcare plan that Obama vetoed?

Oh, no, that would be too damn simple, wouldn’t it. Besides, the “spice” from all those wheeler-dealers in D.C. (campaign extortion, essentially) hasn’t been collected, I suppose…

All boils down to Trump trying to make things change and the D.C. Establishment is out to block him.

Meantime, after reading the NY Times piece “The Big Question for the U.S. Economic: How much Room is there to Grow?” we circle back to our Consumer Super-Saturation problem which coupled with total foreign dependence leaves us in an economic pickle.

As soon as the present market blow-off concludes, we will be in a dilly of a decline. Our bread and butter around here.

Friday in Two-Faced America

We see it at almost every turn this morning – double-standards.

When Barrack Obama took office, was there a story about how a “Sprawling Republican field” was already forming up to replace him? Not no, but hell no.

Yet here we are reading 2020 race lures sprawling Democratic field.”

Can you believe it?

Related? Racism is still alive and well and not always aimed at blacks. “Deadly shooting at Kansas sports bar was racially motivated, witnesses say.”

And the gender thing runs on endlessly as the WaPo reports “President Trump once opposed bathroom laws and pledged to protect transgender Americans.”

Sheesh.

America may not lead the world in Tech anymore, and we may not lead in Education, Science, Math, or much else.

But this underlying psychological bent – applying different standards based on situational ethics – is a mess.

I’ll take an Americano, split shot with a shake and try to look at the positive. The double-standard is what leads to “Making America great again apparently includes Cold War-era nuclear dominance.”

As so we see a certain consistency to the country: World leaders in double-standards.

<My what a great place we is runnin’ huh?>

Disarmed and Dangerous

Couldn’t help but notice in the Chicago Trib today the story about how the homicide rate is running ahead of 2016’s record run rate.

If you don’t like guns, don’t look at this page.

Or, as the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott is quoted as saying, “The gun control debate was settled in 1791.”

But, of course we were making borders then.

Cracked Ice Dept.

That huge chunk of Antarctic ice shelf is about to break off says the CBC…and Canada’s glaciers are starting to play a major role in sea level rise.

Still, we have to remind ourselves that Global Warming has been going on since the end of the Maunder Minimum. And that ended in, oh, about 1715.

We seem to have an underlying problem that predates the Industrial Revolution going on, but don’t let facts get in the way.

No, let’s impose a global carbon tax and get on with One World Government, shall we?

Very much on point, the New Yorker has a marvelous article that everyone in ‘Merica should have to read: “Why Facts Done Change Our Minds.” Spot on.

The Emerging Gestapo?

There’s a meaningful story in the Wall St. Journal you need to read. It’s under the headline “Travelers alarmed as Federal Agents check IDs after Domestic Flight Lands.”

Remember that airline commercial “You’re now free to move around the country…”?

Well, not so much.

We have to wonder WTF.

I’ll tell you how I deduce this is really “emergent Gestapo.” Follow my logic here:

The excuse for the ID check was they were looking for a “person of interest.” Now here’s the thing: They would KNOW whether the suspect (allegedly sought) was male or female, right?

So what did they demand ID from both sexes as seems inferred by the story?

This is what set’s off my alarms.

The ACLU calls the Customs/ICE infringing into the interior of America a defacto “Constitution-Free Zone.” See their map over here.

Not that you need to be more paranoid.  But this weekend while you’re doing <whatever>. if you  figure out how a country can talk gun control some of the time and build up nuclear weapons stocks other times, please let me know how that works.

The only answer I keep coming back to is that we’re all plain crazy.

What we need is a good crisis to focus on…yeah be looking for one of them next.

Market crash, anyone?

One more Fed hike, then the stock bubble peaks…and then….then….

41 thoughts on “Up, Down, Or Sideways?”

    • Yep them damn pesky Russians are at it again strange how the world blames all its troubles on Russia, or could it be the melt down still going on in Japans nuclear power plants…

    • If you have a tool you will use it at some point. If you have a fire cracker… That last M-80 from a pile of fireworks my kid bought years ago sits on my dresser and calls my name now and then. I wonder what it’s half-life is?

    • It COULD be an industrial release, too…but so far no industry reps in the east have reported anything. So, its maybe something…or maybe nothing.

      • Somewhere I heard that it’s coming from the natural gas lines all over Europe- it’s something they do to diagnose possible leaks.

  3. George:

    As a Gay man who’s been “out” for over 45 years I am [as they used to say] “pig-biting mad” over the whole transgender-rights issue. Here we have a special-interest group comprised of an estimated 0.01%-2% [with 2% being a very GENEROUS figure] of the American population demanding parity by forcing the rest of the entire nation to accomodate them. I’ve been waiting very patiently for some authoritative medical professionals to step up and prove that transgendered people actually have a physical disorder and not a psychological one… like that will ever happen! Because no matter how credentialed, those professionals would be immediately ostracized and crucified by the pandering MSM. Even so, it needs to be done and done swiftly.

    My once-proud community has become just another very vocal bunch of self-entitled whiners with every other group claiming disenfranchisement propping them up at every opportunity, and it’s disgusting in the extreme. At some point, society-at-large has to take a stand and say, “enough is ENOUGH!” and start focussing on what is best for the good of all instead of a miniscule few.

    Personally, I haven’t been proud to be Gay in decades… and I resent that deeply!

    • First, congratulations on being a leader, not follower. And thanks for contributing a solid, rational -experience-based – view.
      Sadly, if there’s an economic description of the whole trans thing, it is simply an extension of “Whiner Marketing” as a business model. Whips up the Right and Left, which means they make money on it, and it focuses on things that divide us as people, now what unifies us.
      The few studies I have seen/been able to find suggest that gender-change operations often result in very high suicide rates over the longer term. Because, perhaps, after the “me, me, me” novelty wears off and the “specialness” is gone all people have to share a common world… when you can’t whine and win, what’s the point, right?
      So I think this is what’s going on – and as I’ve said, we are mass marketing sexual differences because we have run out of REAL problems to solve…or as in Washington, the way to solutions is blocked by a faithless Congress.
      Again, thanks for being a voice of Reason.

    • Greogry, I’m with you on your observations. Couldnt have stated it better. The left’s “everybody is some kind of victim ” beliefs and the phony over use of political correctness, that enables it is growing more bizarre by the day. Facebook has over 40 sexual identities to choose from now for self labels. Im glad to see Im not alone in my observations.

  4. I totally agree with the only answer that you can come up with being “We’re all plain crazy.” I had a friend that used to ask me
    “Is everybody crazy?” The answer seems to be “yes”.

  5. The New Yorker article, Facts Don’t Change Our Minds, is good right up to the last several paragraphs. The author had to get her Liberal card validated and assumed that her opinion could be passed of as a fact towards the end. I did not change my mind about the article or the facts because of that.

    • Well, it was in the NEW YORKer…and like we say, You can always tell a liberal, but you can’t tell ’em much.

      • Yes, the New Yorker article fairly screamed “I am a liberal” when you got towards the end. Although that did not invalidate the findings of the studies described, it certainly made me wonder if the author(s) cherry-picked studies. Just a thought.

  6. In the mid-70’s, I was in a large city in Japan and while there, I shopped in a modern department store.

    Speaking bluntly, I needed to pee and found the Rest Room. There was an unenclosed urinal (might have been a tiled trench on the floor) area, and several toilet enclosures.

    Why am I saying all this? Well, while I was there, another man, a cleaning woman, and two females came in to use that Rest Room along with me. No bother, No fuss.

    Come to think of it. No big deal for me either. Seems like such a simple system. Of course, they might also have a simple solution for sex criminals – don’t know.

  7. BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHAIN-BITCHAIN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKHEAD-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHIAN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCHAIN-BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHAIN-BITCHAIN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKHEAD-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHIAN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCHAIN-BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHAIN-BITCHAIN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKHEAD-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHIAN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCHAIN-BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHAIN-BITCHAIN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCOIN-BLOCKHEAD-BITCOIN-BLOCKCHIAN-BLOCKCOIN-BITCHAIN-…..?(summation of the infinite series from 1 to infinity………..? i = 0 ? 1 2 i = lim x ? ? 2 x ? 1 2 x ? 1 = 2…nothing but goobleygook!!! lol!!!

  8. So much to say …
    The Art of Trump’s deal with Obamacare is, Congress has the package ready for him to sign on the agreed date and Trump reverses the Obama order allowing congressional aides to get out of Obamacare.
    That will either get the Obamacare out or some of the swamp will drain.
    If I have to share the bathrooms with my coworkers, I will figure a way to quit.

  9. George, you are free to denigrate/demonize Obama in perpetuity, but at long last please give him the benefit of spelling his first name properly. Barack. One r. Not the 2 rs you consistently insert.

    • Really ?

      Oooooookay then……we can now move on to the next issue.

      I know , I know !

      I spelled “okay” wrong. I used 6 extra O’s !

      Ill be standing in the corner until the bell rings.

    • Tom MIllstead, if that’s your real name. Your “i” is spelled “I.” Why sir? Why?

      I think Barrack Obomber is a heckuva name. Dropped over 26,000 bombs did he, even more than the idjit Bush.

    • I’d bar them, too, sorry.
      The role of the media is to REPORT not (like the NY Times, CNN et al) try to own the future themselves.
      If any of them could stick to facts…but your swallowing the Bolshevik/anarchist crap…no, that’s a sign there’s a breeze blowing between your ears…

      • I’m surprised that anyone would support any president limiting access of the press. Sad times when presidents do that. Real bad times when people support it.

        Would you support a democratic president shutting out specific media outlets too?

      • When you have a President who speaks directly TO THE PEOPLE -via social media or IN PERSON in an aircraft hangar- the press and their biassed opinions become REDUNDANT! We no longer NEED THEM to tell us what to think as long as we have a leader who is willing to address us in this fashion. GET OVER IT! President Trump is trying to rebuild our fractured nation while under heavy attacks from Socialists. We KNOW how to recognize you and will not tolerate your invective much longer.

    • Jon , you must be really angry at Barrack Obama.

      Now , youre deciding to care about the Constitution and its Amendments ? Where have you been the last eight years…

  13. https://archive.org/stream/jstor-207470/207470_djvu.txt

    Winter of 1917-18 was extraordinarily cold.

    http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/television/beef-state-blizzard-48-49

    Winter of 1948-49 was a plethora of blizzards.

    The earth is warmer now than it was a hundred years ago. The retreating glaciers at Glacier National Park say so.

    Although, it has been sorta cold this winter, not like the winter of 1997-98, cold like you can’t believe, -42 °F in February.

    If you haven’t had the flu this winter, don’t get it. It is no picnic nor a walk in the park. It is misery. You feel like you might die.

    • Great post Ron !

      Help me with something , please.

      Tell me what to say to these right-wing whack jobs that bring up that other planets like Mars , Saturn , the Gas Giants are all going through the exact same temperature differences as our Earth. They even provide NASA/JPL links to support this. It makes me very angry when they do this and I need a snappy comeback.

      Thanks in advance.

  14. George, apparently the debt ceiling is coming due to be raised on March 15. Wont it be raised just like it has been in the past or is there speculation Trump will use this situation to renegotiate our nations debt and we begin the depression. Any thoughts?

Comments are closed.