Surely, you remember the position of Germany in the Weimar Republic debacle following imposition of reparations on the Kaiser’s former Germanic republic.
It’s a period of many lessons, not the least of which is:
- Reparations exacted from unwilling people tend to blow up.
- Reparations often blow in a hyperinflationary manner. (Money has to come from somewhere, after all. Often it’s just made up.)
- Hyperinflations are often birthed in weak regimes lacking leadership and visions to share. Milquetoast governments. Pandering pussies.
- Hyperinflations though give rise to dicks and dictators. Messianic orators who begin well but then sour on power.
- Which explains why today, we see the market arc higher even as we forecast Saturday that it would be likely to do.
My consigliere called with the update “I understand the Fed is meeting behind closed doors now…”
To which we questioned whether the room was equipped with Charmin, Quick-Clot, or whether Mr. Whipple had brought the Preparation H display?
True to his disclosures, Ure went long this morning early (nosebleed range) and rode this pig of a market higher earning $293 to put on his lunch tab for the day. We keep the day trading balance low in order not to trade full time because I’d surely bankrupt Wall Street. Once upon a time I was one of those FINRA Rule 4210(f)(8)(B)(ii) (/o1) types. We don’t want to own the casino.
Still, with lunch taken care of, our core holding in things of real physical value were up nicely four-digits in the crisis, too. (That’s lunch (most anywhere), dinner, hotel and air. Coach if Europe. Although, remaining unvaxxed, we are still saving to afford Gulfstream rentals now that we don’t own a plane, anymore.
Our Aggregate Index is up as expected so I can resume work planting seeds in the greenhouses. Lowered stress unhindered by worries about whether sprouts will be ready in time for lunch.
Back up to – and just over – the lower trend line and from here we could break higher, or lower, and we’ll just have to see how bad the CPI figures are tomorrow.
A thinking point? When the House gets the jitters? Bet with the House. See if you can pick up some comps, too.
We po foke need all the help we can get. No special Fed and Buyed’em dispensations for us. We just get stuffed with the tab.
Update: As political figures begin to attempt headline-jackings, our Houston Bureau observes: “And the village idiots, like pond scum, have already begun to surface. It’s irrelevant at this point which side of the aisle you’re sitting on.” A link to SVB collapse: Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy weigh in (cnbc.com) was included. Pond scum? Amen and gimme a hallelujah.
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
“We don’t want to own the casino.”
ZZ TOP – Viva Las Vegas!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gOoKzw3JSCM
Rent a Gulfstream? Does your local cow pasture support such luxury, or would you have to go to Houston? My local cow pasture has been in hangar-building mode, with a LARGE new one nearing completion. We already have at least one small (Cessna) jet based here, even though the runway isn’t long enough (yet) to satisfy insurance requirements. I expect the city council will be getting pressure shortly to extend the runway to 5,000′ in order to accommodate more and larger birds. Seems local real estate has been gobbled up in 500 – 1,000 acre lumps by non-local millionaires wanting to set up their hidey holes, and they need jets to get here in a hurry when everything hits the fan.
Similar to here, were we are 5,000 plus on rnwys 00/18.
And yeah, there’s a local gulfstream that stays pretty busy with etex oil, politicians, and nonlocals shopping for land.
Being a weird critical-skill freelancer to one of America’s Great Corporations has some nice perks. Among them is a extremely rare but highly enjoyable ride on The Jet — G-IV — when the Big Guys were not on the trip. (People who live on paychecks are always as nervous as a long-tail pussycat in a room full of rocking chairs when The Man is on board. But when He is NOT, it’s a happy break for them, and we simple short-sleeve white shirt slobs get treated very well.)
Heaven. I wish everybody could travel this way all the time.
Years ago, I had a nice one-time ride on an urgent trip on a King Air. Slower, smaller, but still VERY Nice. They had to thread around some early summer thunderstorms, but they did a nice job, and we didn’t die. (And they let me keep my small silver hammer in the plush-lined case, too — the reason for the trip.)
Not to rain on your parade, WORR, but you knew somebody would have to try to top your story. In 1971 I rode from Addison Airport (Dallas) to Bergstrom AFB, Austin on one of the Air Force One fleet (there were three at the time). I was a photographer with Collins Radio at the time, and we had just installed a Collins Flight Director System in the plane. I got invited to fly in the jump seat so I could photograph our system in flight. They left the paper runners on the floor so my clodhoppers wouldn’t soil the nice blue carpet, but I totally enjoyed the trip. We shot 3 approaches at Bergstrom before returning to Addison.
Zillionaire neighbors are anything but a blessing. If the first time you meet they want you t sell out, don’t bother talking to them again. Just call the cops if anyone on their property gets out of line. Voice of experience.
I’m actually a bit entertained by the “pond scum” … same scum that says, if you pay higher taxes, we can change the temperature and resolve climate change.
And just like many other (opportunities) once again, “The government is here to help.” -Gotta Love Ronald Regan (sometimes)
All to become a blip in history like the bank failure of 1985. Of which most folks are unaware of.
Yes, “This Too Shall Pass” say’ith The Dude. But be careful of the carrot tied to the stick.
Funny, we’re supposedly headed for “smart cities” but don’t ya need smart people first? – okey dokey.
Have a good day, George.
A coincidence?? Today is the anniversary of the reopening of US banks after FDR’s 1933 Bank Holiday. This was after the Emergency Banking Act was passed. A coincidence….. asking for a friend
The Farm Bill will be here soon. LOL
Business is good for submarine dealers. But a wait for obsolete tech. Talk about continuity bias.
Australia to command eight nuclear subs in $368b deal
“In a bid to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific, Canberra will acquire three US Virginia-class nuclear submarines as a stop-gap from approximately 2033 before a new SSN AUKUS-class hybrid vessel arrives in Australian waters a decade later.”
https://au.yahoo.com/news/australias-nuclear-submarine-vision-ready-163013875.html
(Money has to come from somewhere, after all. Often it’s just made up.)
what amazes me is they assume that the guy making 15 dollars an hour can pay for it … well… with prices going through the roof and cutting the EIC tax credit for those on set incomes..the influx of fifty plus million illegals all not paying taxes and on assistance programs..
well.. from my point of view and having survived the financial death spiral we are entering.. it will even out..but …
oh hey there’s a song.. down down down into the ring of fire..
https://youtu.be/QfCOJLRk2D4
39 million dollar loaf of bread not to far off now..
brick and mortar takes money to operate..the pyramid comes to mind..ask any preschoolers how to build a tower.. you need a strong base..old industrialists knew this..they kept their profits moderate and yook care of their business family..my father worked as a delivery man for a multi national company with hundreds of thousands of employees.. the ceo knew not only his name but all of us kids..today’s executive doesn’t know or care to know the housekeeper or maintenance man that empties his trash..
https://philipchircop.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/the-janitors-name/
instead today’s executives have piled the perks on the to ten percent and threw the ones aside that they feel are worthless eaters..those worthless eaters lifted them to their positions..with the trillions that have been printed up to repair our infrastructure and secure our nation that hasn’t hone to any of that.. there’s only one way this can play out..at this point I seriously doubt it can be turned around..but then who knows. how about another hundred billion for Ukraine …fuzk the wage earners seriously who do they think they are. only the important people deserve
Just trying to tie some threads together here. You won’t remember but a while back I shared what I think may have been a prescient dream from March 15 2022… swimming in a large semi-enclosed bay on an island or white sandy coastline…..sudden lifting sensation as the water/ocean expanded into an all-consuming giant blue bubble….female lawyer Robyn?
Then Ray had this comment on George’ dream….
“I hate being the wet blanket, but y’all DO realize Beaufort’s bay is 14 miles up the coast from the Marine Air Base at Camp Carteret and 26 miles up from Camp LeJeune, right?
Not that anyone would remember, but a couple months back I projected the ideal point at which to detonate a Russian Poseidon “continent killer” to take out our entire East Coast would be half-way between Bermuda and the East Coast. Beaufort and Smyrna are the first towns the tsunami would hit…”
Got me thinking so had a look at a map of Bermuda. The Great Sound is actually close to what I had visualised in my dream. Found a list of female lawyers practicing in Bermuda – there IS a Robyn who works for a large insurance company owned by Arch Capital Group, a Bermuda-based company with more than $15 billion in capital. Hmmm…
Then I recalled a supposed prediction from ChatGPT (posted link by d’Lynne?) that the market would crash on March 15. Thought this really strange at the time because I had asked this question myself and got the expected response…. “I am not able to predict future events”. If so had someone circumvented the ChatGPT protocols…or had someone planted this story……seeded the date as a message?
Interesting for sure….
For fans of Astrology the spring equinox is:
Mar 20
Yes – I posted that Chat prediction.., and yes, it was done by a subset ChatGPT – that has the safety and filter protocols removed. Supposedly anyone can do this [ remove the filters ] but I haven’t discovered how. Yet.
Fo the po foke,
SPX gathered steam below descending trend line. Carter Braxton Worth (chart-meister) has a great retort to them who dispute charts: the lines draw themselves. My chartery amuses friends (guffhaw-ish) until spam hits fan, then they gawk having seeen, go oooh aaah. Barring Fed / _PPT_ intervention I’m sure we’d be vastly lower. But, it’s all part of the great game.
observations:
first time in a year stks / bnds display inverse correlation.
some _BIG_ playahs were at the table yesterday…
people don’t use Milquetoast nearly enuf.
always, Egor