Screwball

I don't know what's going to happen, but I think things are pretty ****ed up. What really pisses me off is these pricks lowering interest rates. I have been piled into short term safe stuff for quite some time, and happy with my returns. I'm old, so too late for much risk. Easy safe money. But I can see how these cuts have hurt. Spit! There are some killers out there if you want to take some risk. Corporate bonds can make you some great yield, but some risk involved. I almost pulled the trigger on some. Banks no less... I hate banks, so it's a moral victory to make money of the slimy pricks.

Kinda funny. The only green on that heatmap is UNH and the healthcare stocks. I have no idea what to think of that, but kinda wild given the recent UNH stuff.

More Fedspeak, as usual, and since forever. People got fleeced today given the move. Not Wall Street. As long as they keep printing money - read debt - this prick ain't going down.

I'm not worried about how the market reacts. This rate cut is insanity given the numbers. Inflation is out of control and hurting many people. Those who deny that are liars or have their head firmly stuffed up their ass.

Happy Fed rate cut we don't need day. 85% chance of a 25bps cut according to what I read.

A 15 year old girl as I understand it. WTF? I wonder what she was dealing with? I have a daughter who was once 15 for the record. Awful stuff.

The problem I have with all this congressional trading is the inside information they know. They buy in way early because they know what's coming down. That is documented, and it matters. It is also illegal. If you have a true market - price discovery - everyone gets the same information at the same time. They should not be allowed to trade at all. At the same time, this is why all these ****wads are there - they get rich - because they are ass kissing ****wads. They are laughing at us while they fleece us.

Wouldn't it be wild if we found out the ****wads in congress were trading stocks and making a killing while having all that inside information? Oh, wait...

OK, some more tin foil hat stuff. RE: the United Healthcare thing. I posted above the day the guy got shot and how goofy the stock price was the overnight before. That obviously didn't go anywhere, so I guess only screwballs like me find interest in it. 🙂 A new twist on the same subject. I happen to see a thing today about the stock price of United Healthcare being down quite a bit lately. I hadn't checked so let's do... As it turns out, and I have no idea what to think about this, but it has taken quite a beating recently. Hummm...So I did some homework to compare, and this industry of stocks have been getting beat up even before this happened. The common ETF, IHF had been beat up too, which started around Sept this year. But this one still looks a little funny. I don't know what happened back in July, just before earnings I might add (see icons at the bottom) but it was a rocket ship right around that time. I wonder what caused that. And now this. I'd be pulling the ripcord on these positions in my portfolio.

Adding: Way up thread Enron and Jeff Skilling were mentioned. This crypto stuff kind of reminds me of that. IMO, Skilling was ahead of his time when it came to "financial innovation" which is why he is on my Mt. Rushmore of financial criminals. It's about creating something out of nothing. Of course, in this case, it seems the mining uses a whole bunch of energy, so there is that. At the same time, who does it benefit? Not society in general, at least not yet, if you want to look at that angle. As an alternative means of exchange to be clear. All crazy stuff. I don't know what to think. My money right now is in KISS mode - keep it simple stupid.

I probably should have said move "some" of their money. I don't know the math, but there is a bunch of money sloshing around out there (especially given leverage - and in who knows what - like crypto). I don't think the government could buy crypto directly, unless they passed a law I guess. Not gonna happen. Spending still comes from the house, then monetized via the Fed. The crypto stuff isn't going to replace that. As said way above, if it was ever a threat, it will be shut down. Wall Street makes money no matter what happens. They own the place, and when they **** it all up they get bailed out.

Here's a WTFOT (way the **** out there); The big money people need somewhere to put their money before the everything bubble pops. 🙂

The US media does what they do because that's what they are paid to do. Look at Bubblevision. How TF is Jim Cramer still on TV? Funny to see so many old CNBC anchors now doing political stuff. Experienced and trained liars. Cha-ching. The CPI/PPI numbers provide a huge amount of data, which allows it to be narrated in certain ways. They can take this vast amount of data and make it sound however they want. And they do - it is an industry - both for the business TV news and the insiders on Wall Street. Billions of dollars change hands when reports come out - BREAKING NEWS!!! At the end of the day, inflation is measured in many ways, and it depends on who is affected. Rule #1; inflation punishes the people who can't afford it the most. They tell us the 2.7% CPI print is good, but it's not to many many people. I mentioned the electric bills above, but another example, locally. Cornhole, a few years ago spent I don't know how much money to do a sewer study, then put on a dog and pony show for city council telling them how the only thing they can do is raise rates - due to inflation. They told them to raise the rates 5% annually forever and ever. To thunderous applause. Passed unanimously. Thank you very much. Nowhere, in this who knows how many thousands of dollar study did they talk about how to cut costs. But whatever... Now we know our sewer bill will double in 14 1/2 years. Seems like a long time, but not really. And everything else does too. Things we need. House and car insurance, land taxes (don't get me started on that), utilities. Edward Deming had a thing he called the quadrants of efficiency. Quad 1 was when everything was going good, no scrap and waste. Quad 2 showed some issues, so get right on that. Quad 3 was an oil leak, and it better not it get any worse. Quad 4 was called "state of chaos." That's where we are economically, monetarily, and fiscally. This place is a ****ing mess.

Those who shop for electric rates are in for a rude awakening as well. I have been shopping and going forward our electric bills are going nowhere but up. I don't know how it scales, but my electric usage runs about 27% of my bill. What a friken ripoff. But it's going higher. I'm paying .0582 per KwH right now. Best I can find is .07 something. So for ever 400 Kw the bill will go up $8 bucks, which is only the electric.

Speaking of debt, this isn't pretty; Monthly Treasury Statement - from the Treasury Dept. 40 page PDF. The first chart is quite interesting. If dig deeper, the rate of increase is not good. For the warmongers, we are spending more on interest on our debt than we are national defense. Exponents are a bitch.

That has been lost quite some time ago. Because some just can't resist. But it would be nice to have one thread void of a bunch of stupid BS because of political ****wads.

Credit card debt hits record $1.17 trillion, New York Fed research shows - from CNBC about a month ago HOUSEHOLD DEBT AND CREDIT REPORT - Household Debt Ticks Up to $17.94 Trillion; Delinquency Rates Remain Elevated - From the NY Fed

Shelter is not part of the PPI. It is in the CPI. That said, the CPI report came out the other day and the index for shelter rose 0.3 percent. Rent of primary residence rose 0.2 percent and owners’ equivalent rent was up 0.2 percent. Year over year (a few examples); CPI: 2.7 percent CPI Excluding Food and Energy: 3.3 percent Rent: 4.4 percent Shelter: 4.7 percent Food and Beverages: 2.3 percent Medical Care Services: 3.7 Percent

Full report here; Producer Price Index News Release - from the BLS The CPI is what we pay for things. The PPI is what is payed to make things. And the Fed is expected to lower rates on December 18th. Why?

I agree. So why do so many fall for it? None of these ****wads are going to fix jack squat for we the people.

I'm old enough to remember going down to West Virginia to grandma's house. She was a treat. Hated me and dad. Cooked on a pot belly stove, which also served as a heat source. Fridge need a block of ice which was delivered to the door. This was even in town, a little burg in the hills. Next door neighbor, uncle Ed, had a huge garden. He also used to take a part of a pig and hang it in a root cellar rubbing it down with salt over months. That was the holiday feast. Pies made with lard and the sides from the garden. They all grew up during the depression, but I'm not sure the hillbilly's even knew it. They were really good with corn too - especially if they put a fire under it. 🙂

Go long saltpeter

Good stuff, thanks. I hoped you would chime in. But you did say at the top "Most well run restaurants will be the same way." That is probably key. In my experience, which was not restaurants per se, but clubs, bowling alleys, and bars, the waste was always a problem. They were not very good at managing it. And I'm not sure how many places are well run today. I ran into this with charity events too. You have a dinner, and maybe a band at a club you rented. Figure you can bring in 500 people. It snows and 50 show up - you are pretty much screwed. But that's a different thing so doesn't apply. But an example of potential problems. But you lose your ass and throw out a bunch of food. It has to be difficult because you never know what you are going to get.

Without a doubt. And probably tell us the cabbage in aisle G17 was bad 3 days ago. But it's still there. I'm sure they are efficient, but what about waste.