Time once again to get really grounded in our view of the
U.S. economy using the most non-partisan economic report I can think of: A
check of actual port traffic coming in from Asia via the US west coast. I
won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what to expect, we’ll just roll with
data, as always. Meantime, we also have a dandy ChartPack update which
features a sizeable bounce that we anticipated in last week’s report. But
first, deck the halls with boughs of coffee…time to welcome this morning’s
second cup of Mrs. Olson’s half-caf and get on to our First Things topic…
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Is Poverty a Choice?
Statistics are ugly little buggers. We begin this morning with a scandal story or our own, assess why Japan’s mini-crash this week means something in longwave econ terms, and then we get into the good stuff: As we look at the problem of whether poverty is a “choice” we quickly descend into harsh realities of self-deception. We develop some
notes on how humans (like us) can still us shortcuts to get great economic results. What we find, I think is interesting and useful. But not as useful as our “first things” column and a few headlines, along with that first cup of coffee…
The Anti-Marketing League
Want to fix almost everything that’s wrong with the world? IRS Scandals, the ultimate surveillance state, income disparities, lack of time off, world hunger and all the rest? Well, today we offer some thoughts on how the Grand Unified Theory of What Went Wrong
(GUTOWWW) arrives at a simple conclusion: Too much marketing! First, as usual, we will sort some of the wheat from the chaff and notice that in terms of our propose Anti-Marketing League, there’s not much that can’t be set right in the world with a lot less hype and a lot more thoughtfulness….
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Vacations on the Cheap
After our Vacation Economic School report Wednesday, a number of readers suggested that while my analysis of most cost-effective ways to vacation (paying full retail) was pretty good, a number shared ways to really vacation on the cheap. So, since this is summertime (or will be in two weeks, officially, but everyone starts the “vacation season” at Memorial Day), I thought we could run down a number of ways to “vacation” while penny-pinching. After all, why work is there’s no carrot out there? First, however, we’ll look at our scandal sheet and see what spiked the punch bowl on Wall St. and make a call to our Water Department in our never-ending quest for trends that matter behind the headlines…
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V.E.S. (and it deals with Vacations…)
June 5, 2013 — Take a drive through almost any city in America at this time of the year and you’ll see signs up in many neighborhoods proclaiming VBS! It’s usually accompanied by fine print for us heathens to remember it means something other than Visual Basic Scripting. Most times, it means Vacation Bible School, but if you were to see such a sign in a certain part of Redmond, WA, if could just be someone with my odd sense of humor. “What’s this VES stuff, Ure?” Indeed: Vacation Economics School…wherein we provide some cost comparisons between different vacation modalities. After a Danish, a splash of Mrs. Olson’s (if double Daning can be forgiven), after a look at just crossing headlines, you’ll read Brother Ure’s preach on the Gospel of More Time Off. In Excel see us, daily, et cetera.
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The Nature of the Invention
June 1, 2013 — I’m sure that by now you’ve memorized my Seven Major Systems of Life (food, shelter, communications, transportation, energy, finance, and environment) and you know that I have al least a passing acquaintance with teoriya resheniya izobretatelskikh zadatch (TRIZ), the Russian science of invention. This morning we toss items in the blender to come up with what may be the first in a series of Peoplenomics Notes: 20-Years Out in which we will consider present trends, resource and economic realities and try to project what that world will look like for the kids when 20-years from now shows up on the alarm clock one of these mornings. So…I’m pleased to share a draft Provisional Patent Application for a new kind of Housing which I expect will be here in 20-years, or less. But, before we tickle the brain cells, a few headlines to wash away the fog of Friday night…and the winds of Oklahoma…
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The Collapsing Velocity [of money] Problem
May 29, 2013 — As the self-proclaimed People’s Economist I’ll share a little pet theory of mine with you: The reason that America is not in the throes of wild hyperinflation is that although the Fed is printing money hand over first (and has been for a long time) the reason we don’t see prices doing moonshots is that the velocity of money is dying on the vine. So that’s this morning’s economic munchies after we get some more coffee and a few headlines under the belt. How about we start with Working Moms lead the crime rate by 15 years?
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See Spot Run
May 25, 2013 — Economics, in a perfect world would make sense. However, since we are all living in the “alternate universe” (you did watch Fringe, right?) conventional relationships which have withstood the test of time are no longer working. We have, as the characters in the series used to say “crossed over.” Or, at least we’ve got the portal between universes out on the frozen lake and we’re testing the power on it now. Before we get into what happens when world’s collide, a look at some of the headlines to see what shakes (and quakes) out of ’em…
Reader Note: We will post a special Peoplenomics update if/when the follow-on quake activity shows up as the weekend progresses.
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America’s REAL Growth Rate
May 22, 2013 — One of the toughest tasks any investor can undertake is to understand – and thus be in a position to profit from – any advance or decline in the US economy. If you do nothing else as an investor but this one thing, your fortune is assured. Get it wrong – more than once – and your Life can hit the skids in no time. Humans – couples in particular – don’t do well in the absence of life’s modern necessities: Food, shelter, transportation, and a good load of cash to keep it all working. So I thought we could spend some time today looking at how the real growth rate of America is doing. As we’ll discover, just finding out how the economy is doing (and how to make a buck on it) isn’t as easy as it once was. First, though, we’ll pause for coffee, some headlines beginning with…
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Are We Past Peak Retirement? Back to the 1960s!
May 18, 2013 — I’ve been thinking a lot about retirement lately, perhaps because Social Security is a major financial carrot that I expect government will try to snatch just as I get ready to take a bite out of it. So this morning we ponder a very interesting question: Did the current generation (on average) miss Peak Retirement? That and some interesting ponders on designing the retirement lifestyle after we paw through some headlines and the week’s look at investing…which any more is akin to staying one step ahead of the highwaymen.
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Winners & Losers
May 15, 2013 — I decided to make a cut at the data in our twice-weekly ChartPack this morning and develop a couple of charts to show which countries and regions have been particularly “hot” from an investment standpoint since the market lows in 2009. The reason for doing this? To get a better sense of where to park money…since overseas investing via index ETFs is pie-simple. After, that is, we get through some of the morning’s headlines…
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You Want Advice? From ME?
May 11, 2013 — Lots of reader email piled up this week as I am now all but 30-pages from being finished with the proofreading on Real Time Machines: The Future is an App which should be up on Amazon (with any luck) by mid week. I thought this morning I’d run through some of the mail because much of it is thought-provoking and I’m always willing to help the Victims of Process and the downtrodden in general. We’ll also run through some expectation for next week and the week after, since big earthquake and options expiration for the month are just ahead.
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