I am seeing so much ink being wasted on saying the US economy is headed into the tank. Even FOX is getting in on the act. New unemployment figures out, bad. Really? The shutdown would really mess with the numbers.
Yes, I have lost a fair amount over the last few days. It will come back. Today, this morning it is up 6oo+, but how the day will end nobody knows.
Volatile markets today. Up strongly on Nvidia’s strong report and good labor numbers, then wham… a rapid decline. Lot’s of negativity.
There sure is a lot of economic pessimism around. Some of it is IMO well-grounded. For starters:
* Record global debt which is increasing everywhere and won’t be supported by collapsing demographics.
* Russia and China, powerful and nuclear-armed, are getting wobbly and more belligerent.
* AI, whatever its gifts, is going to hit employment hard in the short-term plus pose its own threats.
We have to remember that Mr. Market is a schizophrenic. His mood can change rather suddenly and usually has nothing to do with actual conditions.
The greed-fear index https://www.cnn.com/markets/fear-and-greed
is showing extreme fear. That’s where Mr. Market is right now. Much of it is based on two things.
1. Will the Fed keep easing interest rates? If no, the selling will continue. If yes, there will be a rebound.
2. There is a great deal of concern about tariffs – mostly because few of us understand how they will help the economy. Tariffs = taxes, and taxes are bad. So, things must be getting worse and more expensive. Right???? Trump says no. Wall Street doesn’t believe him. The truth will out, but that takes time.
At my age I have only a small portioned my savings in socks. When the greed-fear index is in extreme fear, it’s usually a good time to add some money to your stock positions but that takes cajónes because the fear can last for quite some time.
The affordability issue will not disappear quickly either. I lived through the inflation of the 1970s and saw how Reagan turned things around. (Similar to what Trump is doing minus the tariffs.) But I didn’t really notice things becoming more affordable until about 1985 – the fifth year of Reagan’s two terms.
I wish that Trump had lowered taxes and regulations and gotten the economy rolling before he started using the tariffs to rearrange the world’s trading system. But he’s in a hurry, and he may well succeed. Let us all hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYzgjFoqIEI
==
There’s been some controversy about Trump and Vance not being invited. Was either man ever in the same room with Richard Cheney? If you would not have attended had his name been Richard Jones, you should not attend even if ‘invited’
==
Rachel Maddow was in attendance.
==
A three hour long service is de trop. I’ll give Mrs. Cheney kudos for selecting tasteful music or assigning the task to someone who would.
==
Rather odd that a notional Methodist is given a send-off in an Episcopal Cathedral.
==
Having a military guard as his pall bearers and a clergyman making remarks about ‘serving one’s country’ were inapposite. However you evaluate his choices over the years, he was a political officeholder; he was never in uniform.
==
Neither his brother nor his sister were among the eulogists. Were they present at all?
==
You often see the phrase, “services at the convenience of the family”. You have family. You have true friends. You have people you work with in vocational or avocational activities. Services in Caspar with these people present would have been preferable.
J.J.
At my age I have only a small portioned my savings in socks.
———————–
Even at my age, I have about a third.
Plain white is meh, but, with the coming season, the green and red argyle is doing well.
Sorry, it popped into my head and I couldn’t resist.
Caroline is in DC and here interviewed by her friend Mike Doran.
buddhaha, good one.
Excuse my errors. My macular degeneration s not getting better, nor, short of a miracle, will it. I try to proof my comments but obviously not always successfully. I probably should give up commenting, but I’m an opinionated old geezer and it’s a habit hard to kick.
I admired VP Dick Cheney’s demeanor on the Sunday morning talk shows: tough but friendly. He was demonized by the Demoncrats. I lost my admiration when he and Liz went over to the Dark Side.
= = = = = =
Ha ha re sock market! 🙂 Please keep commenting, J. J., if you enjoy it. I’m sure many others besides me value your comments, and no one is prefect!
I lost my admiration when he and Liz went over to the Dark Side.
==
What they told you was what they actually valued. Which differed from what you might have thought. They also told you they had an unlimited tolerance for political fiction. The Bush family has been cagier about this sort of thing.
==
Wyoming has one county which votes Democratic. Father and daughter owned vacation properties in that county. That was her Wyoming residence. The place contains the Jackson Hole resort; it’s Wyoming’s answer to Aspen. She’s spent > 80% of her life living in metropolitan Washington. A comfortable majority of people who live and work around Washington are townies doing work you find in any metropolis in the nation. About 20% are rank-and-file federal employees, which are much more common in Washington than they are elsewhere. “Political Washington” – the elected officials, the judges, the patronage holders, the flunkies, the lobbyists, the journalists, those in the employ of the political NGOs, the lawyers in firms with a ‘government relations’ practice, the employees of foreign governments – amount to perhaps 2% of the total. Her father, her mother, and her husband have all been lifers in the world of ‘political Washington’.
I am seeing so much ink being wasted on saying the US economy is headed into the tank. Even FOX is getting in on the act. New unemployment figures out, bad. Really? The shutdown would really mess with the numbers.
Yes, I have lost a fair amount over the last few days. It will come back. Today, this morning it is up 6oo+, but how the day will end nobody knows.
–The Godfather, “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHzh0PvMWTI
Volatile markets today. Up strongly on Nvidia’s strong report and good labor numbers, then wham… a rapid decline. Lot’s of negativity.
There sure is a lot of economic pessimism around. Some of it is IMO well-grounded. For starters:
* Record global debt which is increasing everywhere and won’t be supported by collapsing demographics.
* Russia and China, powerful and nuclear-armed, are getting wobbly and more belligerent.
* AI, whatever its gifts, is going to hit employment hard in the short-term plus pose its own threats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkZ5o3NofEY
What a beautiful roadside picture.
We have to remember that Mr. Market is a schizophrenic. His mood can change rather suddenly and usually has nothing to do with actual conditions.
The greed-fear index
https://www.cnn.com/markets/fear-and-greed
is showing extreme fear. That’s where Mr. Market is right now. Much of it is based on two things.
1. Will the Fed keep easing interest rates? If no, the selling will continue. If yes, there will be a rebound.
2. There is a great deal of concern about tariffs – mostly because few of us understand how they will help the economy. Tariffs = taxes, and taxes are bad. So, things must be getting worse and more expensive. Right???? Trump says no. Wall Street doesn’t believe him. The truth will out, but that takes time.
At my age I have only a small portioned my savings in socks. When the greed-fear index is in extreme fear, it’s usually a good time to add some money to your stock positions but that takes cajónes because the fear can last for quite some time.
The affordability issue will not disappear quickly either. I lived through the inflation of the 1970s and saw how Reagan turned things around. (Similar to what Trump is doing minus the tariffs.) But I didn’t really notice things becoming more affordable until about 1985 – the fifth year of Reagan’s two terms.
I wish that Trump had lowered taxes and regulations and gotten the economy rolling before he started using the tariffs to rearrange the world’s trading system. But he’s in a hurry, and he may well succeed. Let us all hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYzgjFoqIEI
==
There’s been some controversy about Trump and Vance not being invited. Was either man ever in the same room with Richard Cheney? If you would not have attended had his name been Richard Jones, you should not attend even if ‘invited’
==
Rachel Maddow was in attendance.
==
A three hour long service is de trop. I’ll give Mrs. Cheney kudos for selecting tasteful music or assigning the task to someone who would.
==
Rather odd that a notional Methodist is given a send-off in an Episcopal Cathedral.
==
Having a military guard as his pall bearers and a clergyman making remarks about ‘serving one’s country’ were inapposite. However you evaluate his choices over the years, he was a political officeholder; he was never in uniform.
==
Neither his brother nor his sister were among the eulogists. Were they present at all?
==
You often see the phrase, “services at the convenience of the family”. You have family. You have true friends. You have people you work with in vocational or avocational activities. Services in Caspar with these people present would have been preferable.
J.J.
At my age I have only a small portioned my savings in socks.
———————–
Even at my age, I have about a third.
Plain white is meh, but, with the coming season, the green and red argyle is doing well.
Sorry, it popped into my head and I couldn’t resist.
Hudson Institute — “Israel and the Global Strategic Environment: A Conversation with Caroline Glick” (1:11:30)
https://www.youtube.com/live/r6y1cJqp9JM
Caroline is in DC and here interviewed by her friend Mike Doran.
buddhaha, good one.
Excuse my errors. My macular degeneration s not getting better, nor, short of a miracle, will it. I try to proof my comments but obviously not always successfully. I probably should give up commenting, but I’m an opinionated old geezer and it’s a habit hard to kick.
I admired VP Dick Cheney’s demeanor on the Sunday morning talk shows: tough but friendly. He was demonized by the Demoncrats. I lost my admiration when he and Liz went over to the Dark Side.
= = = = = =
Ha ha re sock market! 🙂 Please keep commenting, J. J., if you enjoy it. I’m sure many others besides me value your comments, and no one is prefect!
I suppose people are sick of hearing about Jeffery Epstein, but I like Ann Coulter’s column on the story,
https://anncoulter.com/2025/11/20/epstein-cover-up-in-disarray/
which is based on https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article256377142.html
It’s an appalling scandal.
I lost my admiration when he and Liz went over to the Dark Side.
==
What they told you was what they actually valued. Which differed from what you might have thought. They also told you they had an unlimited tolerance for political fiction. The Bush family has been cagier about this sort of thing.
==
Wyoming has one county which votes Democratic. Father and daughter owned vacation properties in that county. That was her Wyoming residence. The place contains the Jackson Hole resort; it’s Wyoming’s answer to Aspen. She’s spent > 80% of her life living in metropolitan Washington. A comfortable majority of people who live and work around Washington are townies doing work you find in any metropolis in the nation. About 20% are rank-and-file federal employees, which are much more common in Washington than they are elsewhere. “Political Washington” – the elected officials, the judges, the patronage holders, the flunkies, the lobbyists, the journalists, those in the employ of the political NGOs, the lawyers in firms with a ‘government relations’ practice, the employees of foreign governments – amount to perhaps 2% of the total. Her father, her mother, and her husband have all been lifers in the world of ‘political Washington’.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/11/theyve-banned-our-free-speech-documentary.php
==
Another piece of evidence toward the proposition that the nonprofit sector is run by garbage people.