February 6, 2013 — First item of business this morning is a discussion of  the 8.0 quake last night, a few notes on the possibility of a prequel to a  Global Coastal Event and then we will pick up with what we started on last  weekend, which was what?  A discussion of investment ideas for young families  and at the top of the agenda there is a discussion about how each of us is CEO  of our own business empire – MeCompany for short. Since people are very much  business models which operate like companies, we can then put some benchmarks  out in terms of measuring how we’re doing as MeCompany CEO’s.  First, as always,  the tai chi and yes, now I know why yesterday’s UrbanSurvival piece about the  (possible) global coastal event was such a downer in yesterday’s column….

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February 2, 2013 — People ask some really good questions and this morning we’ve  got a dandy email from a 28-year old Peoplenomics subscriber who wanted some  basic questions about investing answered.  But here’s an example of inflation  for you:  The answer turned into a two-part Peoplenomics report after I jotted  down the first 7-pages of notes on what a young family ought to be thinking  about when it comes to money.  THEN it occurred to me that I need to send this  to our kids, too…and then it got more detailed from there.  So this morning  we’re into the first part of a discussion for young Co-CEO’s of families, after  the tai chi of headlines and that blow-off market rally which our trading model  called right…

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January 30, 2013 — Periodically, I get hate mail…usually from non-subscribers who don’t take  the time to consider other points of view.  But when people question the  Aggregate Index and blather on about markets, it’s time for a quick refresher  course on how money degrades over time.  So this morning, we’ll look at some of  the hard realities of how markets perform when money’s bring watered-down.  As  I’ll show: 2007 was only the market top if you ‘drank the Kool-Aid’ and don’t  correct for inflation.  But that, however, leaves us with a new problem: If you  can’t trust market pricing to be good indicators (since the underlying money is  corrupted) what then becomes the investment yardstick?  First, however, a bit of  mental tai chi with overnight headlines and a strong second cup.

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January 26, 2013 — After our morning jaunt through a few headlines to  warm-up the brain cells, this morning we will do some rudimentary “future  seeing” by setting up our own system of data collection using off the shelf  tools.  Does it work for valuing companies and investment vehicles?  Well, no  reason why not.  Depending on how much time you want to invest in the project,  of course…

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January 23, 2013 — “…psst…wanna make north of 20% with low risk?”   Back to our ‘core” this morning…getting rich.  The economy – more or less –  sucks here lately.  And although there are occasional ways to make something  other than bank rates of interest, most of those come with a fair amount of  risk.  Still, there are a few ‘sneakers’ left – and IF we don’t get a global  coastal event, once Elaine and I get back from summer travels this year (with  Panama Bates taking point at Uretopia in our absence) we will likely wade into  this investment ourselves.  As usual, more on  the sport of  “making money” – a  topic that never goes out of style – after we turn over a few headlines and look  to see what’s under them.

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January 12, 2013 — Reality is funny stuff.  It’s how a person  chooses from a wide assortment of sensory inputs, to assemble a rational  framework to deal with their surroundings.  As in the case of gun (or civil)  rights, much of what is held as core belief set may, upon inspection, be found  to have its roots in parental upbringing and message frequency in media…all of  which is played as a fine harp by those expert in persuasion block principles.   So in order to construct a little different ‘reality’ this morning, I thought it  would be instructive to revisit our fictional Directorate 153 Project, which like the (allegedly fictional) Report From Iron Mountain we can use to sort out conflicting viewpoints on things like Newtown and guns  (among other points) and thus get a little closer to the heart of what’s going  on in America, and indeed the world, today.  But first – as ever – some  headlines to speedy the workings upstairs and dust off the mental cobwebs which  seem to accumulate from Friday nights…

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January 19, 2013 — As you may recall, since I’ve mentioned it a few times, that I’m in  the process of writing my next book (concurrently with finishing the update to  “How to Live on $10,000 a year, or less” [4th edition].  The new book is “Cradle  to Grave: Everything’s a Business Model” and it is an unabashed rethink of what  the sheep have been taught…things like the history of the Women’s Movement.   This week I’ll give you a short chapter first draft on exactly this poiont and  present statistics that show the main beneficiaries of the women’s moment may  have been…MEN  and corporations.  Whether this was a good thing (furtherance  of human rights) or just a business model (more jobs competition) designed to  hold down labor costs and wreck the nuclear family, we can debate all day.   Which we can after first delving into a few warmer-upper headlines to get the  old blood pressure up.  With some help from that hardest working woman of all…Mrs.  Olson.

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January 16, 2013 — This morning we open the mail bag and there are plenty of  ‘forbidden topics’ kinds of questions that we don’t necessarily want to be  looking at or talking about in public.  So this morning, for subscribers only,  some answers to questions that people are asking – hard ones – that we normally  don’t mess with.  After our usual dose of morning headlines, of course…

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January 9, 2013 — I had a chance this week to arrive at something of a truce with a ‘liberal’  friend who is very much in the anti-gun camp.  By sharing our concerns back and  forth we’ve hammered out some ideas that may have some merit.  Then, there’s a  short recap of last night presentation to the local ham radio club – some  thoughts on emergency power systems for ham radio operators should the ‘stuff’  hit the fan.  This is an important issue for a lot of people besides hams – like  seniors and COPD victims who have to use an oxygen concentrator, for example.   But, as always, we’ll start off with a couple of cups of coffee on charts and  headlines, since darn near everything depends on the operating environment  around us…

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January 5, 2013 — In the wake of the 7.5 quake off Southeast Alaska overnight, we recheck not  only our earthquake recovery plans, and I also did a quick check around the  country to sense what’s out there.  And we’ll talk about a very personal  indicator…which even my wife Elaine is coming around to believe in.  But first  – no change to our morning routine here – a check of overnight headlines and a  detailed check of what our trading modelis telling us: Change is at hand…

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January 2, 2013 — I’ve had so  many notes up on the computer that now that I’ve gone paperless they’re all  going to have to turn into reports.  So this morning we look (yet again) gun  control, calls to overthrow the Constitution with a replacement, a check of  famine prospects, plus we pencil out the date when China will overtake the USA  as biggest global economy.  Hint:  Sooner than you think.  First, though, let’s  all wander off to the headlines and have some of that “The Economy is fixed”  Kool-Aid being served up in Washington this morning where the Fiscal Cliff  Kabuki – Phony Budget Cut Act is just getting out… Lace up your  can-kickers…this is harsh…but watch markets rally like mad today.  Until  someone besides me figures out the spending bill may be illegal…

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