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Saturday,
September 3, 2011
05:18 AM
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Doing A Job On Us
There's hardly anything so much fun here lately as getting the government jobs
reports, except, maybe lashing myself with the end of a Grade 70 3/8''x25' Binder chain
It actually would have been worse, but the CES Birth-Death Model estimated a whopping 87-thousand new jobs into being. 6,000 construction jobs? Maybe but ask me if I really believe it.
One thing to note is the claim of a lower the total civilian labor force by 523,000 over the past year. I would have thought more would be working, but says there in the data that nope, not the case.
And the underemployed PhD's flipping burgers or the other seriously under-utilized workers reading in the Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization table U6 is at 16.2% which is within the noise, near as I can guess without getting a calculator our, of last year's 16.4%.
Hey! I got it! Let's celebrate stability! Yeah, dats it....
Good thing we have all these wars going, Man of Peace, otherwise it'd be way, way worse.
Extinction Level (Financial) Events With the end of life on Earth spared from Comet Elenin (maybe), there's still something even scarier on the horizon: Rabid lawyers of the money stripe.
While I try to keep their choke chains tight, there are two biggies popping this morning which may cause massive repercussions when people sober up from the Holiday Weekend Run-Up.
First is the report that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is planning to sue BofA, JPM/Chase, Goldman, and Deutsche over misrepresentation of the quality of securities in their bundle mortgage product.
Longer, more detailed coverage in the NY Times. Down, boy. Whew...lawyers straining at the leash. --- My co-author, Howard Hill has shared a lot of insight into this since his first yet to be published book "Mortgage Market Mayhem" outlines the Big Picture of what really happened.
If I understand him right (and I often don't because he speaks uber-hoch finance (high finance gnome-speak) while I'm stuck in unter fin-speak) but if I follow it right, the pseudo-bond peddlers would stick in just enough crap mortgages to bring the expected payouts more or less exactly to modeled outcomes.
Think of it this way: If I cut you 'such a deal' on gold, for say $1,500 an ounce but with the caveat that some of the 'gold' might be lead, and you went for it, then would I feel bad throwing in 10% lead or copper, so long as a lawyer could argue "Still got your $1,500 worth..." even if it were only true on day of delivery? Nope, serious money got no conscience at all on that one.
Same thing, only in spades and boilerplate in the CMO world.
That's the kind of shenanigans we're talking here. Could be a lifetime career for the lawyers working it. I'm sure Howard will more coherently explain it, so check out his site: Mind On Money later on today. May be in his archieves already. He'll want coffee first before elucidating.
Now, (throwing back the next curtain while the lawyer dogs rip my arm out) here's our second potential extinction level deal...
As a fellow quoted in the Washington Post story said: With the robo signed docs flying about, there's no proof by owners that they bought property, but likewise, there's no proof that the bank owns 'em either.
As what a tangled web we weave (rest of quote here, if you need it). Beer bet says you don't know who wrote that without clicking, btw...
Now, where were we? Down boy... Oh yeah, on to the...
Chrome-plated Brick Dept. That Sucking Noise is Europe Say, now that most of Europe is back from their annual 51 weeks of vacation, or so it seems, we notice that Germany this week has started to develop something in common with Charmin. (Do I need to come out and say "big dumps?).
From a high this week of 5,869 and change, the DAX index was down to 5,579 which may not seem like much, but if it were the Dow, it'd be a loss equivalent to 567 points, which would make for messy lederhosen amongst the "Kaufen und halten Aktien" (Buiy and hold share...) crowd. Es tut mir leid (I'm sorry).
Ich bin immer ein tragen. (I am still a bear...) Gib mir meine Medikamente. (Hand me my meds.)
The Attack on Cash Say, remember how I've been telling you that the government (with the Fed) has been mounting a stealth campaign to wipe out the use of cash? Remember, one of the daughters in law couldn't buy a drink on an airplane with cash and so forth?
Well, comes now word that the government is trying to weasel in to tracking those so-called "cash cards". They figure there's a terror risk there, or something, but near as I can tell, the biggest terror risk in money is up in the boardroom and the offshore proxy banks, but hey, I only lived in an offshore banking center a couple of years...
But sure, let's track the pennies and nickels and skip the hundreds and the shadow banks, and pretend that's the problem. MFTT. --- I finally gave up and did an automatic bank transfer for our water bill but over the long term, I'm not going to have to overtly go "off grid". I'll be kicked off for not going along with the program. The Birchers were right, just early on this crap.
Shaken and Stirred A couple of more quakes this morning: A 7.1 up in the Aleutian Islands this morning fired off the Tsunami Warning Center.
Then we thought there was a 4.7 up in Utah this morning but that was deleted by USGS, but probably relates to the 2.9 quake in SoCal this morning which was off by only 20 seconds or so. But all this gets me to wondering if yesterday's SoCal quake was a....
Prequel Quake? Got some friends up in Santa Clarita...35 minutes north of Burbank, and roughly where the 4.2 earthquake was Thursday about 10-minutes to 2, local afternoon time.
Awful lot of continental stuff to watch here: Virginia area, Colorado, all them lenticular cloud sightings (more in the coping section) and now this one.
No, I don't think a 4.2 is what all this stuff leads up to, but I've been wrong before...it's just not often.
(More in the Coping Section - below - this morning under Quake Trends and Lenticular Cloud Spotting, II...)
Flix Off You might have noticed a decent-sized drop in NetFlix stock yesterday when Starz - where NetFlix buys a good chunk of content from - announced there was no deal despite the NF'ers reportedly putting nearly $300-million on the table.
All of which could leave us, out here at the end of the string in the outback with a sizeable problem. Do we keep NetFlix, or do we finally get back to satellite television to augment our entertainment appetite? Given that NetFlix has raised rates, things are edging that way. When's Bill Maher back from vacation?
Drought and About, Northern Hemi I see that Tropical Storm 13 is about to make landfall in Loosely Anna this weekend. But here in TaxUs, very little precip is expected and here in the eastern part of the Texas Sahara we're only looking at a 20% chance. (About the same as Rick Perry's, near 'nuf).
Loosley Anna has declared a state of 'mergency already.
If that sounds a little too 'insidy' you need to read how the GOP party apparatchik is leaning. Personally, bets this early are as stupid of making Super Bowl bets now when the season is still in diapers. But it keeps the hit count up on the political sites so there'll be even more blather as we get closer to the 'big' election. Pinch me.
Drought and About, Southern Hemi Our Indonesia (and Texas ex-pat) editor Bernard Grover checked in from IndoLand this morning muttering something about "How dry I am..."
Speaking of the honored Chief, we spent a fair bit on the phone yesterday talking about the 'three crashcades' of this fall turning into two, the last of which drags out into next spring, but more on that when the new Shape of Things to Come report pops in about three weeks, maybe less. 20th is a maybe...
The Daily Dumb Say, am I the only one to read the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education this week about how "Online Education is Everywhere. What's the next Big Thing?" and ask this daily dumb:
"If online education is really a cost reducer, how come college costs keep going up at three and four times the rate of 'regular' inflation - especially since teacher wages are flat after backing out inflation?"
Say, couldn't have something to do with all them roll-ups in higher ed, could it? Shame on me. Perish the thought.
Cosmic Rays Make CLOUDS? Don't know if you're aware of this...but it's a huge one. Seems that new research out of CERN (and others) is showing that yep, cosmic rays apparently form clouds in the atmosphere.
Don't look at me, even though I'm the guy who's taken boatloads of crap for even daring to suggest a space/sun link with "climate change".
Neener, neener, neener! Don't tell Al Bore....
Big Vegetarian Ponder Oh, gag me...here's one of the most macabre stories of the week right here: A report from Fox News (so it must be true, ;-)) that the white coats are on the verge of coming up with technology to grow meat without slaughter in the lab.
Pardon me while I use the barf-bag for a minute, but (whew!) if "meat" can be grown in the lab from stem cells and there was no 'death' involved, would it be OK for a vegetarian to eat such (crap)?
Uh....making a hot dog out of pig cells fed with horse serum just ain't...you know...nature. And then, even if you get past that question, could such a product be kosher or hilal?
Free Home Video Game Shameless plug here for the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. I'm tempted to challenge one of the CNBC big wigs to a mano y mano but I'm afraid he'd say no. Still would be kinda fun if he accepts. Such investing is an art as much as skill. Not unlike poker.
If you've never traded stocks before, here's your chance. Better than sitting on your butt waiting for an Idol rerun, or something. I usually lose by getting excessively aggressive, but that's a lifelong battle I've aged with monkeymind in sports cars, sailboats, and now airplanes.
Game on September 19th.
Say, I wonder if they have extended hours trading in the game? Better, wonder if anyone has written an algorithmic approach to this game...I mean like the big one in real life, yeah? Just go long or short on the 15-minute MACD histogram on an ETF and there you go...
More after this....
Coping: Quake Trends & Lenticular Cloud Spotting, II We were talking yesterday morning about the large number of people who have been spotting lenticular clouds lately. These are the so-called "earthquake clouds" than seem to appear prior to a major swarm of quake activity.
Yup, sure as heck - see story above the ad about the Cosmic Ray - Cloud link. Thanks for sharing, too!
Now, moving on, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have a quake pop off out in Hawaii since a reader there has been lenticular-spotting, too:
Wowzer...so keeping an eye on Hawaii now, too.
OK, so how is the long term trend shaping up with this shaky-quaky stuff? Reader Tony Ring generously shares his long-term data scrunch of the USGS database monthly with us and if we could start with that trend since 1973 of earthquakes 3.0 and greater, please?
While your first impress may be "Way cool...quakes are chilling!" don't go there. More likely: Same forces are at work, just the plates are locked up and so as the number of little quakes goes down, what do you think happens to the Big Ones? Next chart?
And we would be up one notch higher, had the Aleutian quake this morning popped a couple of days earlier, but we shall see as the shakes continue. Still, I think the point is clear: small quakes may be down, but if it really is global plate-lock then when it busts loose we could have 10's down to 6's popping off all over the place.
Got a food, water and meds earthquake kit?
Now, back to that Boulder, Colorado UFO kinda thing that we carried as a report in yesterday's column, more follow-up and we come up with a possible UFO track something like this:
Ah, just so, that would make sense. Too many peeps out looking at 51, so move the newtech and off-worlders out to the middle of New Mexico...makes sense to me.
Wonder how much government transportation travel there is between the Navy Space Command and White Sands here lately.
"Hello, reservations?"
Lawns: Peeps Who Ain't Sheeps Turns out I'm not the only one to notice the stupidity of lawns in a resource constrained world:
Oh-oh. Noticing Grace's company gets me to thinking again about renting a D-6 for a day or two and putting in a monstrous pond and a dam on the lower part of the property. Not a problem with permits, since with the drought, our normal summertime trickle of water down the headwaters of Mound Prairie Creek has turned to...er...dust.
That's not all bad. I can't be the only guy in the Outback to notice this and get to thinking: Since we have this drought, seems if I recall right, I can pretty much do anything I want with my dry land and if that includes putting in a small berm which some day could turn into a 3-acre tilapia and shrimp operation, oh well.
Then again, at present rates, I might not live long enough to see it fill, at least at present rates.
We did have a reader take issue with my displeasure with lawns:
Well, not around here. I drive a two-year old $1,800 Husqvarna riding mower which has been parked most of this year. Even with a 3.5 kW solar rig, we still pushed $300 in power bill last month.
Oh, and if that's not good enough, the gal down at the local water district called and said "Mr. Ure, you know you're over 10,000 gallons of water use this month?" Besides being flat-ass AMAZING customer service, point is this lawn is now a fire trap more than an asset.
My mood will improve if the putting green comes back. Trust me.
I may run septic lines out to all the trees that are dying, though. Watering and fertilizing would be automatically done with me doing enough nachos and brewskis.
Now that there is living in harmony, or didn't I tell you I was an environmentalist?
More Clear-Headed Thinking Although these were passed on to me as "Five pearls of Polish Folk Wisdom" I suspect they are more universal:
Still, my all-time fave is: "Tell the truth and leave shortly thereafter..." and getting to be about that time.
We may post early on Monday, or not, depending on the winds from this TS BS. If winds are light, we're gonna take the plane and go play. If not, well drop by for coffee anyway. I manage to be acerbic even with a full night's rest so long as there's coffee about. Or not.
Send Ure comments to george@ure.net Reader Action Department: Visit: The UrbanSurvival Amazon store. Books, computers & S/w and outdoor gear.
Now on our premium content site: Peoplenomics.com Banking Skills for the End of the World I was half-thinking in background about Hurricane Irene as the sun, a hot orange crescent, was just emerging this morning over the bits of ground fog and scattered clouds east us as we flew southeast toward a small airport at Crockett, Texas (DKR) to [finally] finish off my long-delayed re-entry into serious small aircraft flying, something I'd hung up back in 2000, and before that, 1976. As I set the mixture to rich, touched up the trim tab on the elevator, and announced on the Unicom frequency for the 4,000 foot long runway below, I asked myself "Why are you doing this?" The answer has everything to do with versatility and a strong survival instinct. I bank skills like rich folks bank money. And as we shall see, all the money and good looks in the world can't buy the one thing that might save your life: competence at precisely the right instance in exactly the right thing.
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Thursday, September 1, 2011 Numbers with the Wheaties With the market rallying going into the holiday, what could possibly derail the party atmosphere? I mean besides a big downer today and tomorrow in markets? Well, Europe has turn guess which way? And leading the way down is Germany. No, has nothing to do with the echo of the September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland, or at least we hope not. More likely, they're putting their necks in the Euro-Debt Noose.
The weekly US unemployment report is out: Things improved some...
Then we have a 'productivity report' to ponder:
When I looked, futures were about flat, so until the new H.6 money stocks and tomorrow's unemployment standup takes the stage, we'll just get real work done around here.
Fortunately, Construction Spending at 10 AM and Auto Sales around 3 PM should roughly coincide with planned coffee breaks. Don't want to spend too much time thinking about the economy, otherwise depression sets in.
On Being Fuku'd New report running in the McClatchy media says fourteen additional faults have been found around the Japanese nuclear plants.
But such issues are never simple; being whole-hog in the anti-nuclear camp can leave a country struggling to find additional power, as Germany is finding out.
Oh, wait, who owns that outlet?
See how we can get into layers and layers of detail, some of which might be meaningful, others not? This is the problem with media today: One never knows what the story is....except on a superficial level.
Speaking of Media Might want to look at the actual job growth in Texas where Rick Perry has been pointing as a shining star of economic success. Well, sort of...
And that gets us around to the rest of the political gibberish...
Moving, that is, as to delivery date, not necessarily content. This as Fearless Leader wanted to speak about jobs on the 7th, but quickly enough, Politico calls it a descent into an 'partisan pie fight' which we don't necessary care about either side's behavior on.
But a damn waste of pies, which are one of the few American areas of expertise anymore. Oh, sure, we used to rule technology, but you know where that went, right?
Who Sold Out America? Want to know how the Bill Clinton administration reportedly arranged a tape dump of all 160-years of U.S. Patents to the Chinese? And what does this all have to do with the death of one-time Commerce Secretary Ron Brown?
Go read "Patent Reform Act Threatens 'Engine' of Prosperity" and get back to me...
Who Knew: New Flu? Curious email from our observer up in Winnipeg:
Interesting point: I don't take it as any grand conspiracy stuff, just people with a "B" or more on their personal financial statement tend not to be complete idiots. When word that the new variant of bird flu was popping up in Asia a couple of weeks back around the fringes, I'd sure as hell have moved up the movie release, too. Still...interesting and noted.
CIA Billing You know, yesterday I was bemoaning the government rip of the web bot project, but here this morning, as we're reading about how the CIA has been taken to court over 'poor pay' issues related to CIA rendition flights, I have to wonder if we would have ever gotten paid had we negotiated a deal to turn over the technology.
Huh....interesting how Universe arranged stuff. Nice thing about broke is it carries a lower tax rate.
Like that's any kind of compensation. Still....
Losing Control of Government Case number one: Illinois man gets 75-years if convicted or recording the police.
Case number two: Time's tight, so the short version is some federal park ranger types rounded up some 30-odd cows that had wandered onto federal 'park' lands in Arkansas and sold them at auction, shot some goats and a dog, and locals are upset. Cattle go for anywhere from $1,000 to $1,200 a head, so that's a not-so- nice financial hit to the owner...feds got the dough...
One of them, a reader, sent this:
Yeah, weird how this is tilting, ain't it?
Loving one's country doesn't mean all of its agents are above the law...does it? Or have we passed that threshold now?
Coping: With the Death of Elenin Oh well. Sky and Telescope outed the story Wednesday: Comet Elenin Self-Destructs.
Damn shame, particularly for my liver. żPor que?
Ah, well, here's what I did. A number of people who had been writing in telling me I should "Quick! Make emergency in ground shelter!!!" were incredibly confident of their end of world scenarios.
So much so that I laid out the typically one-sided Ure Beer Bet as follows in multiple emails:
Oddly, I haven't been exactly overwhelmed with people writing in for that ship to: address since the Sky and Telescope report.
Turn about is fair play, I suppose: Truth is, if the world really had ended with Elenin's arrival, I would have welched on the bet anyway.
Lenticular Clouds and UFOs Linked? Still, as Peter Falk used to say in his Columbo TV role, "There's just one ting bothers me, Ma'am..."
And that - if you're paying attention - is the possibility of a New Madrid quake event. The reason is pretty simple: Clif (and the spiders out and about for the new Shape of Things to Come Report [Sept 20'ish, or so]) have beenb seeing and sniffing growing references to lenticular cloud formations all along the Rockies and the Cascades.
Which wouldn't, in and of itself, be much bother at all. Hell, feed me a few pies and I'm likely as not to get a little foggy on the fructose rush. BUT when serious people who look at the sky for a living start sending me notes like this one, it gets me to wondering: "Hmmm...maybe these lenticular clouds mean something...." Sorry for the [redacted] stuff, but this is a very high value source report:
This is so far in my 62-years, the most credible first-hand report from someone who is extremely expert at what goes on in the sky. The questions that pop out of this are numerous. But the main one is: Is there any way to call someone at the regional air traffic control center and see if anything was showing up on radar about then?
A further question would go to track. If you've got an aeronautical chart, or even a copy of Streets and Trips it ought to be possible make a guestimate of where it was going.
While the {whatever} was first seen in the northeast sky from the Boulder area, my guess is that it was probably on a track which would take it from over, say, Longmont, Colorado and track to the southeast (210ş true heading). From there, the object would likely have continued down into the empty lands of New Mexico, in perhaps a triangle from Dulce to Tres Piedras, new Mexico and up to about Del Norte, Colorado.
The large secret base search would be within the Amarillo, Albuquerque - Pueblo, Colorado area.
As to what it was? Ah.
If I were writing this up as a made-for-TV sci-fi story, the plot would go something like this:
Significantly, though, the Ronan Montana location is near the Flathead Indian Reservation, the procedure turn would be just west of the Prine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, and the 'secret base' might be adjacent to the Jicarilla Apache lands in new Mexico, any of the several National Forests down thataway, or the Southern Ute lands.
Thanks to acculturation, the odds of getting a UFO report taken seriously from those areas might be statistically lower (and cell phone coverage perhaps deficient) compared to the earlier base locations elsewhere.
Wild speculation? You bet, but there's one hell of a movie script. Only thing missing is how to source the nuke to bust up Elenin.
But we all remember the Barksdale Nuke incident in 2007, right? And then there were all the crewmember deaths which followed. Way off actuarial probability charts, if I recall.
Seems we're not supposed to know anything about the 'alternative chain of command' and what assets it employs, but the purely fictional script as outlined here might be a wild-ass-guess, eh?
Say, does the Veep Dick new-book talk about this and the seemingly 'real' shadow government, or it is all blah-blah for the masses?
And will some of the leftovers of Elenin still come raining down in November? Stay tuned. Only question is whether to don tinfoil or Kevlar for the hat on November 8th. or so.
Good Green Lawns Although we are in a drought here in the south, it struck me while flying about Wednesday morning that the increasingly dry weather this year could signal the end of a marvelous period of human history when we could all raise well-manicured lawns that would be the envy of landed gentry in any age.
With something near neutral lighting, Panama captured our seriously burnt-all-to-hell once lawn between the trees:
Shortly after sunrise, the greenhouse it top center-right, the solar arrays just down and left from there, Ham radio tower can be made out left of the panels, the office (white roof left) and house lower center-left. Surrounded by a lovely sea of....er......brown.
If (when?) rain ever returns to this part of the country, and does so when it's warm enough to grow things again, I'll try to remember to get a comparison "all green" shot, but don't hold your breath.
Lawns are, to my way of thinking, one of the sillier things humans do: We don't eat them, and although a flock of sheep to munch things down (or goats, which don't rip out the rhizome roots so much) derives some benefit from lawns if there's enough water, the average community zoning laws sort of frowns on sheep-herding in urban areas.
It's a perfect example of how societal programming works. You ask the average Joe (or Josette) "Why do you have a lawn?" and most times you'll get the same stare reserved for school fundraisers and Jehovah's Witnesses who show up before noon on the weekend in most large cities.
But seriously, or nearly so...why do we put so much time and energy into lawns? Like The Creator/Universe didn't know how to keep things in balance?
There are only three good reasons for lawns: Cemeteries look better with neatly trimmed lawns and people paying respects don't get chiggers so much. Stretched out long-ways, 3,000 feet or more, they make passable runways, and if you don't have a D-6 handy, same length, but without leveling makes for golf.
But other than that, applying thin coats of money to lawns is one of the most curious of all suburban behaviors. A prime example of how once programmed, the 'carry values' of preconscious inputs in our formative years rolls out over a lifetime. Unless you carry a set of clubs, of course.
Think about it: 7-billion people, a tenth of which are malnourished and we throw fertilizer and energy where?
Mouse Story de Jour Several people reportedly spit out coffee, choking with fits of laughter when I reported our serious lack of 20-Amp mice and the breakthrough in correct mouse copper deficiencies, which I'm praying will lead to higher current mice.
Once we get a good breakthrough on high current mice, we can move on to high-powered/high current capacity gerbils and that oughta make everyone from the x community to electric vehicle promoters happy.
But, while we're waiting, our latest mouse-though seems to be found in Nature which reports: "Scale: a chemical approach for fluorescence imaging and reconstruction of transparent mouse brain."
Oh, sure, the story is a couple of weeks old, but I'm pointing it out because in a world of 7-billion people, I'm almost certain there'd be a market for a daily rodent report. I mean beyond the rodents and rats in Washington, which have already spawn umpteen well-monetized sites.
I did a quick search this morning and sure enough, the website www.thedailyrodent.com is available. If you're the sage individual who decided to go monetize this, please cut me in for a piece of the action: I figure between the animal rights ads being played off against the Big Pharma ads, this could be an incredible moneymaker.
So here's your chance to enter the high-powered world of online entrepreneurs for a name registration of $20-bucks and some hosting and 10% to me for the idea and a share of ongoing revenue.
Seize the moment and give it a shot. you don't want to go to the grave saying "Oh, rats, coulda, shoulda, woulda...."
Is moustrepreneur a word...or is it just shortened to Disney?
Wednesday August 31, 2011 A Few Additional Thoughts Nice morning up flying...little hazy, though...
Turning for final runway 18 PSN (Photo credit Panama "Ice Pick" Bates)
If you don't see the runway, (*the vertical strip middle below gray horz. band top center - which is actually 5,005 feet long when you get there...) please find another hobby.
Texas Drought at Sunrise: 500 feet, short final:
More immediately: market runs amuck in pre-holiday binging. ADP says 91,000 jobs were added in August, but the Challenger report is more sober:
Ya'll have fun...but remember what goes up, gravity, and that stuff. How many of them new jobs were min. wagers?
Ship's Hit the Fan There's a report that Israel this morning has sent two war ships heading toward the Egyptian border area. And, not only has Iran reportedly moved ships in response, but we're reading how they also have one of their diesel submarines in play in the Gulf of Aden.
What to make of this? Well, we have a couple of thoughts, the first of which is "What did you expect? War in Libya is on the verge of winding down, since despite reports that Gadhafi loyalists are still 'hanging in' there's likely to be an end to that conflict...."
This is all so pathetically simple, it pains me: The Global Defense Industry is about the only thing keeping the planet's fragile and highly inter-locked economy from imploding. Ergo, we need wars to keep people employed and with enough fear of war whipped up, people hand over tribute (taxes) less some scimitar-wielding camel-rider comes to Small Town, USA. Is this really so hard?
Well, OK, maybe it's a little more complicated than that. But, not much.
The Big Pile On is underway. Israeli settlers are about to be given tear gas and grenades to defend their homes. (Note that, gun rights activists, in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California!)
And even more curious is the Nobel Peace Prize winner himself, is showing up in headlines like "Obama hails 9/11 generator of US warriors."
Don't make me say "Told you so!" yet, since events are still in the gestation period, but remember our chat recently about a PMF (planetary mind f**k) which ought to be along shortly to get us all riled up, nice and compliant-like?
Not that this is the only possibility: Health officials in the Philippines are keeping an eye out for Bird Flu, and the stories are popping up again about healthcare workers being told "You vill take deese flu shot, or else you vill not vork here..."
While Col. Klink from the old TV show "Hogan's Heroes" (or the German soldier character on Laugh-In) would have quipped ":Veweee intawesting..." we can't help but see the bird flu as a mass-marketing hypstercise with the signing of a major Bollywood star to be the spokesperson for one of the Big Pharma outfits which makes the flu goo.
One technical question comes up when we put on our marketing helmet to ponder such things: What is the advertising cost per injection versus cost of gross impressions (ok, GRIPS then)? And how does this compare to the bullet cost per vote and bullet cost per defense lobby contribution?
This is the real stuff that runs the world. Sad commentary, but nice to know level-headed marketing experts will answer this is in the best possible way. When the outcome is clarified, I should be able to decide whether to buy Sanofi or General Dynamics.
The situation is still developing and we're trying to calculate the die-namics in play. Investing in death seems paradoxical, but it's no more so than lowest common denominator media programming, is it? --- "World stocks rise as selloffs create bargains" is certainly one way of looking at it. Another might be Good dividends in death industries, but perhaps I'm just too cynical about such things.
How about "Wild-eyed Greed Runs up on Pre-Holiday Bubble as Commercials Warm up the Clippers"?
Panama and I are going flying this morning, so watch the Challenger jobs forecast and the ADP numbers due out shortly.
North Anna Blues Good article in The Hook about the nuclear jitters west of Washington, since the earthquake there last week. Tritium Trouble? is interesting and a little more comprehensible than the techno babble about plant risks, unless you are a six sigma something or other...
Weird Warning Canada has reportedly warned Canadian genetics shopper to be leery of buying "fresh" semen on line. --- Let's how quickly the sexual marketers can roll this one into second grade curricula, shall we, eh hoser?
Band Wagoning Someone sent me a like to a News With Views article "Obama's Flaunting of Rule of Law" for comment.
Seriously?
Listing things like "Taking jobs from Americans" as evidence of Marxism is one hell of a stretch and of the 13-items listed, not one can be solely laid on Obama. In fact, oftentimes during the Bush administration I wrote about the corporately complicit republicorps doing nothing on these very items.
Maybe I'm just not drinking enough fluoridated water here, but we need a new phrase to describe the ever more intensely emotional, fact-less attacks which are highly charged emotionally. Am I kthe only one who's noticed the price of Mexican dirt weed has gone up, not down, since Obama?
I'm just guessing that's as good as gauge of border porosity as anything.
Not that we'd know first-hand, of course. But, well-baked sources tell us....
Get a grip, fer crying out loud.
Lingo Lango What Does It All Meme? Department So, reader sends me this note from Cleve Scene about how the "Cops Confiscate Lakewood Lady's Arsenal; Motive Pending."
The story - is a fairly routine one about local cops confiscating private property with no apparent legal grounds (we live in a creeping police state world where not everyone had equal rights on such things, after all), but the last sentence is part of a meme we've been seeing develop since it popped out of Washington several months - maybe a year back:
Curious turn of a phrase in the coverage. To be sure, the whole concept can be traded back to Richard Matheson's novel "I am Legend" circa 1954. White House staffer, I think it was used the term a while back and it popped back into the lingo-lango stew bgy which we communicate (althought our preference is for sigils or the next higher level, graphemes which word more directly on the reality substrate (as in alchemykal symbols, ancient Rites, and such. And, ultimately it leads to the GLAS - the graphic language application substrate, which is why symbols are so important to non-Earthers, showing up on purported UFO's and lost pieces thereof, but I digress.
Hand my my magykl Möbius, would you, and let me know when schools start including serious coursework on engineering advantageously with topologically anomalous devices, would you? There's more to space-time than taking Die Glocke for a spin.
I can't be the only ham radio guy trying to engineer a perfect antenna matching unit using Möbius capacitors, can I? I mean, the flux capacitor was a hint, right? --- Anyway, best I can decipher, the the Matheson meme should become noticeably more powerful time; perhaps it's because of so many religious expectations that people will eventually rise from the dead at the moment of End Times. Ergo, as we get closer, a few make wake up early and there's your feedstock for the meme. Hate people who show up for the party early.
Still, curious to see it pop up like this. Not sure if it's meaningful, but in a massively interconnected world, it must be. Problem is whether the connection is to something more meaningful than a bowl of porridge, or a can of cat food.
Definitely at least "lukewarm" (not Luke, warmed) on the emotional scale, so keep an eye out for this kind of thing.
The more difficult the socio-economic muddle-through, the more End-Time-ish things will appear, and thus the power of the Zombie apocalypse should provide a curious kind of End-Times process benchmarking. --- Oh, and save a few silver rounds to melt down for stakes and bullets. Can't be too careful in covering all bets. Them Zombie crits might bring a Beast of Gévaudan with them, and we may yet get around to rediscovering what the PTB already know full well: There's a reason why silver is also a precious metal.
I mean
besides killing off infectious agents, directly. Which is why a few packages of Curad Silver Extra Large Bandages
Meme - or hint? Remind me to ask Igor. --- More practically in the lingo-lango: the Urban Dictionary has a dandy this morning on their word of the day email: Eater's Remorse.
Coping: Dear Government: While some say "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", in our case, it kinda feels like imitation may be the sincerest form of rip-off.
I refer, of course, to a press release issued a week ago by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which, upon close scrutiny sure looks like the U.S. Government is about to try and re-invent our Web Bot Project!
Now, mind you, I've only been associated with - and revealing bits about THE FRIGGING FUTURE SINCE 2001(!!!) which was when I started to collaborate with genius/nutter/pie-master, boatsmith, and master of all he C's Clif High which was - note this part: well before 9/11 changed the world in what we forecast would be a 'tipping point'. I don't supposed you noticed that that little call? Still here.
Not like we kept any of this a big dark secret: Forecasting future events by looking at language shift is something we've been very publicly doing (right and wrong) since way back when. Really.
Oh, sure, so we got many aspects of 9/11 right. 45-days in advance. Oh sure, we got many parts of the anthrax attack right...couple of weeks ahead. Oh, sure, we got many parts of the 2003 Northeast power Outage right. Weeks before. Oh, sure, we got the 300-thousand dead, land driven back to previous age right about the Banda Aceh quake. August wasn't bad on a December quake, eh? Oh, sure, we got Katrina and her 'dark companion' Rita right. Oh, sure, we got....well, I don't want to go on all day long, you get the point.
(Or, maybe you don't...which would be terrible, but you do know about the Chinese Ting (cauldron) project which is still eating posts for linguistic shift last I heard?)
When we responded (patriotic types we are) to the DoD Broad Area Announcement in 2001 to come up with novel ways of fighting terrorism - we got what? A complete blow off.
In 2002 (or was it 2003?) the venture arm of the C.I.A. communicated to Clif a nice "go away note", too. "...meritorious technology, but not in our general research direction presently..." or some balder like that.
Times change, huh? So what came out last week? Why is Ure on a rant today?
Uh...just this lil gem......
I especially like this key part (little early for fine print, I'll admit):
No shit, Sherlocks.
You mean like our 10+ years exactly this kind of crap?
Not to be pissy here, but if Clif came up with this in '93-'94, where were our tax dollars going? Never mind, don't want ya'll to get angry. I watch Burn Notice, you know. Genius don't build empire...gotcha.
Worse? No one ever bothered to call Clif or me when Recorded something or other started, and no one has even extended so much as a collegial (paid) invite to a conference on predictive linguistics. Worse? Some academics are claiming that they invented the sport in 2006 which is another pant load of academic bullshit for the research-impaired, but I digress.
So here's what let's do:.
Call if you need help. I'm normally $75 and hour, but since other services charge you way more and we don't add on lobbying and spendy DC lawfirms, I'm willing to mark up blocks of my time for your consumption at a modest $3,000 per hour - plus expenses, natch.
Did I mention the internet goes away problem in Q2 2013? Might want to work a joint noodle on that...unless that's when your licensing or closing down social media happens?
Remember: Seem it may We things back asswards do. Innovation is dyslexic or at least several diopters astigmatic.
We'll play nice and not file notices of prior art on all the crap recent your recent newbies lay claim to. Everyone's gotta make a buck...seems our main problem is we are not integrity-impaired.
Have a nice day. One team, one fight, yada, yada...
Electric Mice Department Speaking of government and such: I can not tell you how thrilled I am that the National Institutes of Health has come up with this: "Gene replacement treats copper deficiency disorder in mice".
It's been a huge problem here around the ranch. Why, most of our mice have been blowing up above 3 or 4 amps of current. Once in a while we'll find a 6-Amp mouse, but its rare.
I'd sure like to meet the conductor of this study. Bring on the 20-Amp mouse with no cooper deficiencies. I'll take a case.
From Uruguay to Ure Yesterday's rather longish epistle about email sigs was not the post popular thing I've posted this week, but it generated this dandy follow-on idea from a reader from the other "down under"...Uruguay:
Damn. Dangerous things these random sentence generators - from playing with one, a new meme is loose in my head: I can hear it in this morning's landing checklist read-back:
As the meme wells up, I press the mic button on the yoke and confidently announce: "Tyler traffic 21 Lima : We'll be doing a a chartreuse zimple-finger's woven pretzel score."
(static sounds, long pause, and then...) "21 Lima....You're What????!"
"...Uh....I mean touch and go on 22, climbing straight-out departure to two-thousand and then right to the Frankston 210 radial...."
"21 Lima, you OK?"
No, but thanks for asking.
Tuesday August 30, 2011 Housing: Up - Well, Sort of.... As promised, the folks at Case Shiller-S&P have just released their latest take on the nation's housing picture:
But, you know cynical old me: If the first quarter was down 4.1% and the second quarter was up only 3.6% that doesn't exactly sound promising. In fact, it's in keeping with my outlook for a double dip.
Besides, no matter how much lipstick they put on this pig, every market in the survey (look at the right column here) is down from year ago levels. That there's some change ain't it?
Futures are still up - I must be the only one sober this morning.
Reader Note: Two things on the calendar this morning: Case-Shiller/S&P Housing data for the month comes out in a few minutes, so check back about 8:30 Central to see how fast the sky is falling. The other thing on the calendar is my teeth cleaning at 10:20. Why mention this? Any shaking in Texas this morning is not an earthquake, just the hygienist's jack-hammer working on the calculus.
So, How Far Is Up, Anyway? Our "Adventures of the Village Idiot" continue this morning with the V.I. (moi) doggedly holding onto his massive short position confident the stock market will come to its senses in short order and notice that the world really is ending since double-digit profit increases can continue with fraction-of-digit sales increases without either hyperinflation, further jobjacking, or (my favorite) total economic collapse.
Not that I'm alone in this. My friend Robin Landry up in Shawnee, Oklahoma, who moved there years ago because he knows what's coming, too, sent a short note to his colleagues in the investment community last evening and was kind enough to share it with me:
After being up as much as 70% for the year, my own trading (not Robin's) is up a pathetic 20.3 percent in value year-to-date. Yeah, yeah, don't talk to me about stops....
I'm not the only guy singing the Hallelujah Chorus about the end at hand. Several people sent me the story from the UK Telegraph which says "Market crash 'dould hit within weeks", warn bankers."
Not that it's a tonic for seeing a Lexus, or so, go away in the collapse of gold and the rally in the market. But, better than nothing, I suppose. So we'll look to the Housing report for solace and if not there, the liquor cabinet shortly thereafter.
With Relatives Like This Dept. Remember all the adulation heaped on Tony Blair for getting the Brits to go blasting away in the Middle East with us? (From the Western money-centers, that is...) Well, how's this for a turn of events: "Blair's Sister-in-LawIncites Muslims to 'Liberate' Jerusalem" claims this report.
Protect the Rich! I know you get sick of me pointing out the The Rich live by a whole different set of rules than us plebes, but here you go again: Italy drops proposal for levy on high earners.
Oh, and you did see the NY Post story about how Berkshire Hathaway is said - in this OpEd piece - to owe back taxes dating to 2002. If that seems like a good while to wait on taxes, it's because of complexities in the law. But seems to me that if I have a refund coming, I pay first and deal later.
I should become a frigging corporation. Corporations get to trump humans, in case you missed that subtext.
Not that I don't respect Buffett, it's just my dad wasn't a US Congressman and I didn't have the right connections young, I suppose.
PhD. Versus Ma Nature Since I'm sitting on my butt, lazily trying not to work too hard today, a nice summary of 'coming attractions' showed up in the I-Ching Inbox from our consulting PhD. in a medical field. This fellow has a keen might and some astute observations, if you please...
More on quake-spotting and some celestial happenings that may bear on future events in the 'Coping" section this morning, but the Bird Flu Three is of interest. And since our correspondent in medical affairs happens to be in an epidemiological corner of medicine, we'll keep you posted on his comments as we move forward.
What's struck me is the apparent resistance to current vaccines. While I sit here recalling that Clif's predictive linguini has been pointing toward a new planetary mind f**k (PMF) this one - or the one which is developing in space would sure seem to fill the bill.
And speaking of bills, how big would the profit be from developing a new super-killer bug and then rolling out the "break-through" solution? OMG what a money-making ploy, huh? A kind of ultimate pay-to-play or you die. Yup, that sure would be efficient way to keep people in line, no question about it.
Got to be at least one corporation who'd rather people be hemorrhagic than their P&L. Yup, only takes one...and no government agency is looking at the potential for corporate high jinks like this, but it's already been in the movies, and like our source near TPTB tells us, the movies are the message...
But alas, we're busy pulling out people's snakes from their pants at airports. Alas, Paraquat Kelly's "trouser trouts" can't be far off. "Argh, sayeth I", and I be the Gar-fish from back in the day. But that was a few degrees ago...
Banks A Lot, Pal The Federal Reserve is out with the Large Commercial Bank Asset Report. If you run out of paint to watch dry, you can click through the report here and be lulled to sleep.
If you think size matters JP Morgan/Chase is at the top of the heap followed by BofA and City. Curious thing to note is Citi is only 49% in domestic (US) assets, which may be one of the lower. So I might go look up their details and see where they're planting money to grow. Or not, I have a life, after all.
Fed is due to release FOMC notes at 2 PM today. I don't know whether to observe a moment of silence or what.
Foaming at the Mouth Big environmental battle shapes up in Kalifornia where styrofoam containers are about to become a hot (at least for a few minutes) potato. Restaurant types and not pleased. But, gotta tell yah, during our sailing days it was absolutely amazing how much of that crap ends up at sea killing wildlife.
Say: Here's a thought: Try a lifestyle which includes time to sit down and digest a meal! Harder on a treadmill, but being a gerbil is a choice.
Coping: With Another "World Ender" As anyone who becomes aware knows, having a bit of awareness is a most burdensome thing. Whereas once you could turn on the TV and veg out, the world turns into a place of many threats to the continued existence of the 'way we were' and one develops a kind of morbid fascination as each successive key is placed in keyholes that unlock our future. But, that's how it goes, I guess: Trading off aware for an appreciation of the dangers.
In some ways, it like a person from a small town walking down a dark street in a big city. At first, there's no appreciation of the dangers that lurk at every dark all or blind corner. The person walks - confident as ever - but over time, reports filtering into this subject's life from various sources begin to alert them to crime, robbery, and the mayhem of the streets.
To adapt, they become wary and watchful. Some will change schedules, so as to avoid walking the same place at the same time. Others, seeing a character or two approaching will cross to the other side of the street to hold maneuvering room. Still others will slink, slouch, and become ideal victims; such is their face when confronted with fear. --- Not to get too far off the track, but as I was on the commute to the office this morning - a whole 50-feet to the other building where my offices are - Zeus the cat was howling it out with a strange cat that had dared to walk on His ground.
With a few million candlepower in hand, I illuminated the situation and the strange cat took off running. Zeus, initially, came running toward the light and whistle when called. Yet, in an instant, he reconsidered and took off after the intruder and within seconds he was beyond the safety of the human and the light.
It struck me as a decent metaphor for how people react to their "personal threat board" - an imaginary whiteboard which has a list of all possible threats, a private ranking system to indicate how to shade the odds on this thing or that, and how sometimes - in trying to avoid something - we make it inevitable as a result.
Much as my intention was to intervene of Zeus' behalf, the effect was exactly opposite: I gave him support so that more of whatever a neutered large male cat does in the way of turf-protection-hormone kicked up another notch, and off he went again.
Seen it work this way in the job setting, as an example: Someone knows they are not doing a good job at something, corrects their deficiencies but in the process irrigates a third party who - when changes in the power structure happen, then moves into a position where the irritant may be disposed of.
Think of it as a variation of the Hawthorne Effect, which management geeks like me think about on an almost daily basis. Zeus thought he was being studied and thus his performance (catosterone of whatever it is) kicked up a notch and the battling resumes. --- Still there's a new feature on the threat board this morning spied by my friend "Age of Desolation" author G.A. Stewart. Stu will be putting a more thorough version of this on his website, www.theageofdesolation.com, shortly, but he has been kind enough to send me an advance with permission to post it here.
Now just as a bit of background, Stu's the follower of Nostradamus prophetic works and with that we'll just jump right into an email and article from him...
Don't know about you, but when a serious academic-type sends me an email with "This is the killer of Northern Europe" - well, let's just say I sit up and take notice, shall we say?
He then included some prints from the JPL ear-Earth asteroid center. The first to consider is this one:
OK, Elenin is going by us. Fine, but now he notices the larger view:
His letter picks it up from there:
Anyway, it's about here, says my colleague, this is when things will get extremely dicey! He included a link to a Christian Science Monitor report while came out on May 9, 2011 but which you likely missed: "Huge asteroid to buzz Earth in November: On November 8 and 9, the quarter-mile-wide asteroid 2005 YU55 will zoom past the Earth, coming within about 200,000 miles, a distance closer than our moon."
Back to Stu's email:
So yes, bookmark the Age of Desolation website www.theageofdesolation.com, and drop by there in a day or two and Stu should have more details.
By the way, this is not to say that the Earth gets wipes out right then. That might be a little more complicated. The odds of the two objects hitting is probably close to zero. But the thing to look at it changes in orbits. since that's a lot more complicated than I'm willing to take on, I'll leave that for the bigger brains to figure.
Still, two scenarios may be considered: One is that 2005 YU55 might have an effect on the debris tail of Elenin while the second is that one, or both, could have their orbits changed to move right up there with Apophis which - as any catastrophist worth their salt knows is asteroid 99924 which is due to be dangerously close to a life ender that there's already an official JPL/NASA website tracking it.
As long as we're talking about wide-eyed scary shit (world ending might actually be one of those kinds of events) I hope you noticed that there's talk circulating once again that the International Space Station may have to be evacuated?
Seems a Russian resupply rocket blew up on the ground and the folks upstairs are going to run out of food and other things you can't just hop down to 7-11 or the Kwikee Mart to pick up. Soon.
Where this gets to be a potential worst-case roll-up of numerous threats is when we remember that according to many "seers" and "prophetic" types, shortly after the Space Station is abandoned (threatened by a meteor show, which loops back to Stu's insight and noticing the connections) then shortly after the forced evac will come the biggie: The collapse of the Three Gorges Dam in some accounts, or the "killshot from the Sun" - or both with an intermissions for popcorn and calamity/war in between.
Other than wild prepping and hole digging (at decent elevations) not much one can do about any of these things. One travel note, however: If you're planning on visiting the Three Gorges Dam - and over one million people did this year, says Beijing, then we'd recommend doing so in, oh, let's say the next five weeks...
Oh, did I mention the report that Elenin may be disintegrating? That'd be your rain of stuff, alright..
Answer the Bot Phone Right about here - as Universe was skillfully sliding pieces of this morning's WuJo/Coping section in my direction the Bot phone rang. It was Clif from www.halfpasthuman.com with whom I've worked on the web bot project since mid summer of 2001 when the new technology that looks at how our future seems likely to show up, based on subtle changes in language on the internet, was going through the earliest bits of high immediacy values for the next Shape of Things to Come report which may come out in mid-September...
The main one, which I can talk about, is that people up in the Pacific Northwest, all the way from California to British Columbia have been seeing lenticular clouds the past few days all around the Cascade Mountains. Good reports popping out of the web bot spiders, as well as first-hand reports...
And this matters, why? While they are not terribly rare as meteorological events go, and a bunch of pictures show up on Wikipedia here if you need help "lenticular-spotting", the main thing to remember is that they are often associated with major earthquakes.
While the common/street wisdom is that the government is planning for a major quake in the New Madrid region, centering perhaps on Tennessee, the thing that seems to be peeking out of the data (very, very preliminarily) is that either there's a chance of a Northwest or West Coast biggie - or, alternatively, the busting of a New Madrid might set off either harmonic events or that's what the lenticular clouds could be associated with.
Not too much a regular person could do about such a thing, unless, of course, you happen to have an ultra-high precision external time-base and you know your way around differential GPS. In which case, if you were in one of the low-lying central states and you work up one morning to find you're an inch (or three) lower, then I'd probably skip work and drive east or west to the first 2,000 foot (or higher) patch of ground I could.
Don't try this with a regular GPS - or even an aviation GPS with WAAS (the Wide Area Augmentation System) though, since there's enough drift in these systems that you'll lose your job on false warnings. WAAS accuracy might be as good as one meter in 3D space, but you want the kind of ultra-high definition that comes from real differential readings of the sort used by survey crews and oil exploration teams.
Short of that, you're going to get fired for all the time off work, so forgetaboutit.
Oh, I also asked Clif "...We got any planet-enders coming up in, oh, the next month or so?"
In a word, the answer was "No." But a spirited conversation about how that may not mean anything, since we don't know for sure - when reading the linguistic entrails - if the future we see is a "projection" or a "report back" from a likely future.
Think of it this way: If predictive linguistics is a roll-up of all events projected forward by the Universal Subconscious Mind, then if the whole world rana into a solar-system wide brick wall, we might not see it coming at all.
But, on the other hand, if it's a "leak-back" (to the future's past, if you will) then we'd see it. So while Clif does all the work (it's his technology, I'm still at the junior time monk in training, pupa stage) I get the luxury of sitting back and...uh...worrying.
Puttin' It In Perspective, II I have been flooded with emails about the post Monday where the mechanics of humans being raised for an "emotional product" which is harvested by higher entities was discussed. Here (from the www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm page only)
The best "compilation of additional source material" came from a reader on the Big Island (for now, anyway) of Hawaii:
Da kine, bro.
As expected, several readers assured me I'd burn in hell for posting such 'out of the box thinking' but I carefully explained in return emails that with our Drought here in East Texas and what's the umpteenth day of 100şF plus temperatures, that might actually be a little cooler than present conditions here. If I could bring Elaine and the cats, we might be interested...
Then on the even lighter side, a reader who seems to have taken our post-graduate course in cynism sent this short, butt to the point, commentary:
And, there's always back issues of my writings, should he run low.
About Those Savings Figures You may recall that Monday's column also had a problem with the latest government figures on Personal Savings. I promised, after suggesting that even an annualized Savings Rate wouldn't make sense, because if $4,183 savings per worker was real and if their "5% savings rate" was correct then necessary even my grade-school math teacher would have to admit the implied average income would have been $83,660 per worker.
But I also said I would check with our high-power consulting economist who is a real-life expert at such things. Here's his reply and an interesting sidebar which you may wish to think about if you use a "sig" line on your emails:
As I gloated, I happened to read his 'sig' line - you know, those cutsie little eny-things people put at the bottom of their emails...
Something was seriously wrong here! So I sent an Uregent note to this colleague:
Further Email Sig Line Advice A Great Technique I often use top find pithy email endings is to open any book in our large library and just pull out one sentence and leave the reader the nearly impossible task of comprehending just what the hell I’m getting at. An example:
Or this dandy:
You see, the writer must be constantly aware of the audience and therefore write with intent to create a desired outcome. So, writing to people I wish to impress with the breadth of my knowledge, I might pick an nearly incomprehensible statement and leave it to the reader to discern my meaning. Since I have none, they can project as they will and that’s good for reputation. As much as possible, such uses of other people’s time without their permission, delights the hell out of me. A good time-waster (which might be used on someone whose time I really want to waste, might be something like this one:
My propensity to pull random quotes is a new-found skill I’m still honing. Occasionally, if I’m in a particularly lazy mode I will simply use catchy phrases out of junk mail the postman delivers to infect people’s minds.
…is a good one. Another one, more on the Zen path is…
On the other hand, if I just want someone to smile at the end of an email, I’ll simply be frank:
Losing lottery numbers and ingredient lists from highly processed food are eligible for bonus points. If you're really trying to screw someone up, consider something like: PS: here's the juicy dirty sex chapter you were looking for the other day. Paste in something really raunchy and several pages long. CC: everyone in management. Then, simply sit back and wait for the people from HR to come question you. Remember, if you get fired, (you're on your own here, and we don't have any liability) in most places unemployment kicks in right away. If you quit, you'll starve waiting for benefits. Should be a nice fall, though, and who wants to be stuck indoors in a cube farm? Since the corporate agenda really seems to be to downscale our standard of living, by out-sourcing all real work, consider getting fired a strategic decision. You'll be avoiding the rush and be making room for another automaton with no sense of humor. Hive-workers don't spend as much time fishing. Monday August 29, 2011 Anything Can Happen Week I suppose first slopping of swill for porcine financial press this morning will be this news release on Personal Income. I look forward to it as a comic relief a knee-slapper because of the reported Personal Savings Rate included as a punchline:
Now, the punchline:
I don't know if you have ever put a pencil to this number, but here's how I figure it's a figment of "crack-o-nomics": America has 311 million people, roughly. Personal savings for the month was $582.8 billion says right there in the news release, eh?
So let me see, doesn't that work out to monthly savings for everyone in the whole freaking country(!!!) of $1,873 in a single month EACH OF US - WTF??? Ain't passing the 'sniff test' with me.
But wait: If we limit the Personal Savings claimed to just people with jobs who show up as employed which Table A of the latest Labor Department Report on employment (it will be updated Friday of this week) says the number of working people in the USA is 139.296 million.
Which means (crack pipe and calculator ready?) that by using government figures on "Savings" the average worker last month saved $4,183.89.
Which we assume is "savings" of the real kind... after kids, mortgage, healthcare, food costs, and so forth.
Don't know about you, but how frigging stoopid do they take us for? I'll ask my PhD forensic economics consultant to double-check me on this because this is so "in your face" unreal I must be doing something wrong.
Maybe if you don't eat it, it's "savings" in the mind of some number pushers...I have no clue how they can go so far off on this savings rate stuff. Declining market, falling real estate prices...hell, even pension funds and housing can't account for it, near as I can figure.
Maybe it's an annual rate, but it doesn't say that...and at 5%, wouldn't that make and average worker somewhere north of $85K? I must know below average workers!
--- Once you've recovered your composure, and my hands stop shaking with rage, we will see the Housing Index from Case Shiller/S&P Tuesday so tomorrow's report should be posted as a two-fer: The regular report around 8 AM Central and then the Housing update a half hour, or so later. Depends how much caffeine I have rolling.
Consumer Confidence is due tomorrow, too. But the only read that matters around here is if you feel good about the economy and what's ahead. If you feel particularly good, send us some of whatever it is you're smoking. (Just kidding!)
Assuming we have a Wednesday, that'll be like the old Mickey Mouse Club "Anything Can Happen Day". If you're under 60, that was when Jimmie Dodd, who played Head Musketeer would announce "Anything Can Happen!" (Many males didn't notice, as looking at Annette Funicello was much higher on the agenda...). Anyway, where were we? Oh! Wednesday! Right.....
That's when we will get the ADP Employment Change report - which will size up August and the more forward-looking Challenger Jobs cuts. Like I said: Anything Can Happen!
Weekly unemployment Thursday is a yawner as is Productivity report, so you can sleep till noon and still get Auto Sales due out at 3 PM, depending on time zone, of course. Don't try this in Hawaii.
The biggie of the week will come Friday as the Unemployment Rate is unveiled and we'll be ready to tear it apart and scratching our heads asking "Where'd the workforce go?"
But we already know the answer is Asia and India.
Waiting for Europe to Implode Whether the European markets are rising because their currency is dropping in price on global markets could be debated. As you know, when a currency falls on international markets, it's often accompanied by a rise in stock prices which just seems paradoxical.
It isn't, if you think of it this way: If a whole stock market was worth $10 and then the value of the money was cut in half, then it would take $20 of the depreciated currency to buy the same companies. Thing is: It would look like the companies shares had doubled, when in fact, they might have actually dropped in value.
So yes, the European (*not to be confused with Ure a pee'in) markets may seem to be up, but I'm not holding my breath. The end of the month comes this week and with it, a possible "end-of-month" crisis as the creaking financial system globally tries to stumble-through what's really and end-game situation.
At some point, the globalistas run out of third world sh*t holes to exploit cheap labor and then the who game ends, but I suppose you don't like to be reminded of such things first thing on a Monday. -- The Swedish bank Nordea is about to roll hand grenades from their HR department (figuratively speaking, of course) with 2,000 jobs about to be axed. -- The global paradigm is shifting and Europe is starting to feel the leading edge of the change no one can articulate: Although, a check of the Bloomberg/BusinessWeek report "The Slow Disappearance of the American Working Man" certain lays out enough hints.
Don't know if you have ever asked yourself this, but if factory automation becomes sufficiently well-advanced, what will people do for jobs?
Oh, sure, the "shop-keeper economy" model seems to work, but just until the primary jobs are gone and what was the "virtuous cycle" flips over as the accumulation of 70-odd-years of debt since the last Depression rolls over and takes 100% of everything as debt service.
"Can't happen!"
Stick around a few years: Double digit corporate profit growth is finite. If it weren't, the South Sea Company would still be the biggest company in the world. Or, one of them Tulip Dealers from Holland circa 1637.
If you need further confirmation of long wave economic cycles, a click to Leviticus 25:10 advises "Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you - and you shall return every man unto his own clan, you shall return every man to his family. " Sure sounds like the Kondratieff (variously Kondratiev) long wave to me.
All that whining in Europe will do as much good as yelling at the tide, in the end. We're patiently waiting for Europe to implode, and our markets shortly thereafter.
Remaining Questions So that only leaves a very limited number of questions to be resolved this week:
Will Gadhafi stay in power the rest of the week? Not a good family to work for, if you read this CNN account of how the family treated the help.
OK, sounds bad. But wait! There's a video that popped up this weekend on YouTube that actually comes to Gadhafi's defense - and 14˘ a gallon gasoline and wonder if having a non-Rothchild central bank might be part of what NATO is fighting... YouTube as a front in war: Who'd have thought?
Irened A Lot Next in the Monday ponder-pile there's the question of how bad the flooding will be in the Northeast.
A reader, by the way sent this:
We'd take it! All you can send! This part of Texas is at 12.83" year to date, normal is a shade under 29 inches. Bring it on! End this damn drought. Please. Although it may rain before the week's out here in the American Sahara, but only spit & a promise.
The "Bus Tour" That Wasn't No mercy from the folks at LiveLeak in their report that explains how little actual 'bus time' there was on the recent Obama "bus tour".
I was about to let it go as a "Anyone really give a sh*t? Besides, someone - maybe down on RV row around Elkhart, Indiana got to make the busses used..." Wait a minute! Didn't someone say the bus was made in Canada, anyway?
Turns out even this is debated (politics being the stoopid time-water it is, and all...). FactCheck says yes, the shell was made in Canada, but the finishing employed people in Tennessee. --- Oh, but wait: The pitch of political reporting is already rapidly rising with such questions showing up as "Is Rick Perry dumb?" on Politico.
While it may be tempting to answer that with a "No!" the fact is, he's made it this far.
While there are some who suggest Texas has had way more than its fair share of Presidents lately, I see an equally spotted record turned in by Presidents from, oh, I dunno, Georgia and Arkansas come to mind....
Correction: In our Friday lead story "A little Ben'll Do Ya?" I mistakenly referred to VO-5. The correct analogy was Brylcreem.
The lineage of the product is pretty interesting, too, but even more interesting is the advertising of the period. "A little dab'll do you" was a progenitor of the modern-day positioning statement .
Wonder if this had something to do with the phrase "slick marketing"?
A "Must-Have" for Chavez Say, with Hugo Chavez ordering all his gold back into more friendly hands for storage, we wonder if he's put himself on the list for one of the new ultrasound rigs that can sniff out gold counterfeiting?
I'll let you know when the pocket-sized version - suitable for rounds - for under $99 comes along, lol.
Have Submarine, Will Travel Seems like a new river - maybe a thousand miles or longer and underneath the Amazon may be waiting to be explored. Of course just one tiny question: How'd it get there?
Pack up your 6-passenger nuclear powered mini-sub with food and supplies and get back to us with a report?
Coping: With How the World Might Work I'm not sure just how to classify the following email which popped up Saturday afternoon. Maybe it should go under 'WuJo' because it certainly is 'out there' from the normal lines of thinking. But maybe we need a new way to classify things around here; maybe a worldviews category, or something like that.
A worldview, plain and simple, is the framework over which people stretch the events of their lives. Maybe it's part moral/ethical, or maybe something else. The mainstream religions get their worldview "sold" in any number of ways: They have lots of churches and so forth, and they engage in lots of name-calling or labeling ("Sinner!) and then promise quick transport to the "Hell!"
Worldviews are what society at large program into us: Mighty Mouse, South Park, church on Sunday, the value of hard work, patriotism, and so forth.
But the Judeo-Christian view is not alone, the sole worldview contexting system. There's the Muslim view which is a hybrid government-church (theocratic) business model and that worldview system is in conflict with the Western view of things now.
Both sides seem to feature a kind of vengeful, easily ticked off God (or whatever other labels are used) such that 'followers' are first cajoled and later smoted (if need be) into obedience. If there is one Supreme Being, why all the fighting? It's a vexing problem.
Eastern traditions are a little different and amongst martial artists, there's a keen appreciation of the Zen of it all; the Yin-Yang, if you will. It also comes with a study of the underlying 'energies' which adherents call up, and seemingly work directly with the materium by manipulation qi, ki (or chi) and in other cases kundalini.
Still, wars in Asia have been around and in fact there's even evidence of part atomic warfare, if you want to believe along those lines. Or not; there are three sides to every story.
It's not my intent by sharing this to agitate any group of followers/adherents. I'm just laying the foundation of "worldview systems" for this email, which by now I reckon you're ready for...
Not overwhelmed, but certainly interested since it's a coherent worldview so I responded that indeed it was interesting and requested the author's permission to post both his story and to further ask "How did you come to this perspective?" as it's such an interesting one and certainly explains the ritual sacrifices seen in things like wars where both sides operate under occult symbols like stars with various point-counts, swastikas, circles, stripes, and so forth, and it frames a whole lot more, too.
Here's his reply:
This is one of those emails that I print out, put aside and think about. The Western-Reductionist in me agues it may simply be a manifestation: "Trauma-induced mind-shift, woven into a complex schema to make coherent an irrational world as a coping mechanism (along with supporting projections) to cope with the passing of a deeply loved friend."
But the the other side comes the Little Voice in my head - the intuitive/differential/Radom-access processor that says "No, there's a grain (if not a lot more) of Truth in here and ya'll really oughta pay attention because insights this clear don't just pop up all the time and you may wish to expand your worldview to incorporate at least some of its major features, particularly the "agnostic product/output as high emotional states" which implies 'fgarming' of humans could be as perfume is farmed from flowers, except, or course, a different vibration."
Hmmm...
So please pardon me this morning if I'm standing here like a kid who has picked up a shiny stone on the Road of Life that's caught his eye: Do I idly toss it aside and keep walking as I have? Or, do I bring the stoned home and add it to my collection of other "sparkly rocks"? I've already acquired a larger collection than most.
There doesn't seem to be a clock running on the decision - or so I sincerely hope. --- Whether you want to add it to your personal rock pile, is entirely up to you. But a really good 'thinking piece" from the I-Ching Inbox. And the hell of it is, it all seems to fit.
Did you happen to notice the big whip-up of emotions this weekend over the hurricane? And have you noticed how fear smells one way, and love another? Yet they both have 'emotional ordors', one sweet with openness, one visceral. As in perfume.
Definitely a second cup of coffee needed on this one.
Flying Notes Got signed off on my biennial flight review Sunday morning after a short perfectly executed short cross-country. An hour plus of tough questions, too, like "Tell me everything about this airport," as the instructor points at a map.
"DKR, 348 feet of elevation, 4000 feet, 75-feet wide..." and on it went. Good fun and fine mental exercise.
If I can fly an airplane, anyone can. Affording it is another story. In a way, flying is like marriage: A lot less people would do it if they sat down and considered the long-term costs. Boat ownership and RV's are the same way.
I'll try to hold the flying stories to a minimum, along the lines of ham radio stories, sailing stories, farm & garden stories, shop practice stories and.....Still, it's a fine business tool which can get me to new places, which means new content for the website and occasionally, pictures along the way.
Virtual Vacation Monday A Reader sent in this absolutely first-class virtual vacation shot down at Hellgate on the Rogue River in southern Oregon on Saturday. Blow this up to full screen and enjoy!
Thousands of dollars cheaper than doing it yourself...and way cool video.
You know, there's an idea in here: Monetize a website devoted to best of class "15-minute video vacations." Just the thing for a lunch minute break. Beer, sandwiches and sptiz of water and you're there...well, kind of.....
Before the chart, a little background: Once upon a time, a long while ago, I observed during my quest for 'truth' in economics, that the PowersThatBe, the talking heads on the teeve, and the other information sources that actively engage in the programming of humans not to think, had conveniently swept several trillions of dollars that disappeared in the Internet Bubble's bursting (since spring 2000) under the rug. Surely, it wasn't unnoticed by the thousands of people who called brokers and said "Where is my money?" "Gone, but hang in there as you're a long term investor!" was about all they heard back.
So one of our charts for Peoplenomics subscribers oughta be widely circulated - it shows that if you line up the peak of the Dow in January 2000 with the peak in early September of 1929, we're on a very very close replay track. Much closer than even the chart shows if you were to back out inflation, and put in the effects of 1929 deflation, but that'd be real work, and I'm sort of lazy if the truth be told.
No, it's not a perfect replay of 1929, but history doesn't repeat exactly, it only rhymes. So think of this as the rhymes and the crimes chart:
"George, that's only a coincidence!" your monkey-mind will protest.
Why sure it is...you bet. A 11-year long coincidence...yessir....just a coincidence, we're like SO sure... (Shhh...don't tell anyone that major Depressions are two-part coupled affairs like the linkage between 1920-21 and 1929, OK? Damn, dude...don't spoil it for the sheep...)
Oh...don't forget to "Write when you get rich!"
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for example. Got your chain ready? This is a bad jobs report....and
it's gonna hurt. Just wait till the markets open if you don't believe
me...
So
let's start with this dandy picture and the following note:
(99˘, Amazon or 
