Screwball

During a computer upgrade I was testing my apps. I happened to find this. 1 year chart. S&P from April 7th (low) to last Friday. From 4835.04 to 6699.52 (this is intraday so we didn't get there). That's a quick %38.5 rip in 5 1/2 months. Bubbles are amazing.

This is correct and it shouldn't even be a question. They play on a field, with a ball, bats, gloves. You still must pitch, catch, and throw the ball. Doesn't matter where it is. And has been said on this very site a gazillion times over the years; in a short series/playoffs anything can happen. For the wanting the bye crowd. Rather not. No live pitching for a few days might **** you up. On the other hand, the Tigers need the practice. 🙂

Speaking of the barchart tweets

That's nuts.

Observation from a distance. Last night they struck out 19 times, which means only 8 guys hit the ball into an out. They had 5 hits, so there is that. They swing at too many bad pitches, and don't swing and hit the ones they should. That's not a very good hitting philosophy no matter when it is in the season. Wee Willie would say, hold my beer.

Unrelated, but I like to watch the market through the charts and my brokers trading software. It gives you much better news too. Unfortunately, my main computer developed an issue a week ago, so it is in getting a tuneup so I haven't been able to do that. My point, while getting fixed, we added an extra ssd drive and more memory. Already has a kick ass NVDA card, so this should be a faster rocket when done. The cost of ssd drives and memory is so cheap it's crazy. I think I spent 2500 bucks back in...I don't know...early 90s for a kick ass rocket ship with a 500 mb hard drive, 8 mb of memory, and a couple of floppy drives. I just spent less than a hundred for gigs. How far we have come. And to think, today, I carry around a memory stick that would hold thousands of that computer. Then there is our phone... I'm old. I remember the days before computers. Now we need huge data centers, apparently. Makes you wonder where it all goes next?

I'm old and have watched a lot of baseball games in my life, but this one was about a crazy of a game as I have ever watched. WTF? In all the chaos I missed the 19 strikeout thing. Really? So only 8 people hit the ball for an out. Outstanding.

I'm about 50 miles SE of Toledo and I can't say I've ever heard of the company nor noticed any solar farms around here. I go from here to Toledo once every few months. Same with Columbus. I'm talking farms. On the other hand, the state college I taught at build a solar farm on campus over the last year. I don't know if had anything to do with that company or not. Over around Findlay, if you drive down I75 you can see some large windmills. Those have been there for around 7 years (?) and were funded by Whirlpool and Ball Corporations, so not affiliated with that company either, but alt energy just the same. There is a small solar farm on the east side of town but I don't know anything about them. I have heard people talk about large solar farms in the area, but I don't remember where. Right now our farmers are probably worried about their harvest this year. We are in the middle of a huge drought. Soy beans are like bee bees.

I don't think so. It goes back to the "last mile" stuff. Who owns the infrastructure. In our case, the old coax lines used the power poles, but that doesn't happen all the time around here anymore (and a lot of other places). As the fiber people started to compete against the old coax people, they ran most of the cable underground. Not only long runs down streets, but from the street to the house. The digging/boring machines are pretty neat. One guy I know who worked in the industry told me they couldn't get fiber to me (few years ago) is because of rivers, creeks, and railroads. Which means no power poles are used to cross them. Don't know, but guessing, regulations to keep the big players in control. Or cost. Maybe more accurate; want to run your cable - bend over. As this technology progresses, it will change once again. They know that, the next big thing is coming. I remember the days when there was a wire coming into your house, to a phone with a wire hooked to a handset so you could talk on a phone. Once the technology gets good enough, we won't need the wires or fiber for our internet either. I know, you can do that now, but it's not common. But, even if you go WW (trademark; worldwide wireless) someone and something are connecting everyone, so it goes back to the first mile. Who designed it - who built it - and who paid for it. After that, everyone else are poachers.

To the first paragraph; so cool, and good on all them. We don't have the ability to do that. Our local TV stations are at least 50 miles away. You can get some over the air, but not all. Part of the problem with getting internet to everyone is it changes all the time. I'm on my third supplier in the last 25 years. I just went fiber optic this spring. I waited over a year, and I'm in town. It replaced the old coax type stuff. It can only grow so fast, and then there is the cost. Are you going to run 5 miles of line or cable to supply 10 people? Probably not. All about numbers. The bad part of teaching is the kids they send us. It all starts at home.

I think it was March 2020, due to the COVID issue at the time, the school I taught at tried to go remote. High school age kids taking life courses, for a lack of a better word. We are in rural Ohio. Kids from 14 surrounding schools were bussed in daily. We couldn't go remote. Over half didn't have good enough internet, or none at all. Another area of needs that has failed miserably. And FWIW, after spending the last 6 years teaching for a state college, our educational system is another epic cluster ****.

Short sellers used to be the gumshoes of the markets. They sniffed out the fraud, waste, and BS. I'm guessing most are out of business or broke by now thanks to all the money printing and this current bubble of all bubbles.

Jim Chanos Tweet; Stock is up almost 4% as I type this. For those who don't know who Jim Chanos is;

Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of data center buildout - CNBC We will love our future electric rates.

I wish I could read this, but I can't get around the block. Depending on your plan, money market stuff hasn't been a bad play. I'm not going to look it up, but even Buffett was doing this more than usual from what I read. I can say, after playing this kind of stuff myself, short term too, has been pretty good. No risk. I'm old. No complaints. That said, like others mentioned, you could have made an absolute killing over the last... I don't know - since 2008/2009 the last time they blew up the financial system. March 6th, 2009 the S&P 500 hit an intra-day low of 666. Ain't that wild? If I remember right. This was 9 years after the dot-com bubble that blew up. And now, if you look at a chart, this puppy looks like Mt. Everest. The everything bubble. Over the last 14-15 years since the great financial crisis of 08/09 they have pumped and dumped "everything" with this AI stuff being the latest flavor. I remember the old guy Art Cashin of CNBC who spent 50 years on the floor of the NYSE say in an interview one time "we came in here every day thinking today is the day it's all going to pop. It took 3 years." Like the old saying; the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. So very very true. At the same time, we are flooded with money. And they keep making more. The market is no reflection of things on the ground in America, or the world. This is a debt fueled bubble of all bubbles. All it needs is a pin. For fun, I searched the 2009 low to see how close I was. I thought it was the 9th, but it was the 6th. I got a kick out of the google search result though (bold mine); Bear market my ass, it was a ****ing crash! While I'm on with searches and quotes, no matter what monetary theory you follow and believe in, I always thought the one below made sense. The Fed target is 2%. Doesn't sound like much. We've ran hotter than that for a long time because they do a piss poor job of measuring it. We continue to get less for the money we have. To fix problems they create more money via debt. Cheaper, easier money. It works till it don't. Then of course there is this little thing called interest. I've heard that will bite you in the ass. It's all about the math. Exponents are a bitch. This won't end well once again. And the banksters will get bailed out.

If I were Kimmel, I would tell them to stick it and go start a new show. Maybe women jumping on trampolines could be a part of it.

Suicide always an option.

That adds so much, congrats.

You asked, I told you. If you don't like it, FO.

No ****.

Hold hard assets like land. Start a garden. Reduce or eliminate debt. Limit your lifestyle. Learn to cook, fix things at home, your car if possible. Find a place in the county who sells food for when it becomes unavailable in the big stores, like farm markets. Get to know your neighbors. Install security cameras (have 4). Just a few things. If you have a job, STFU so they don't have an excuse to eliminate you. Robots and AI will take every job they think they can do - and you may be next - so don't piss them off. If you are just getting out of high school, you are ****ed. In 1984 (ironically, thinking of the book) you could feed a family of 6 for an annual salary of 14k. You didn't live like like kings, but you ate and had heat. A search will tell you today it's around 44k for a family of 6. Exponents are a bitch. It's already starting. I see it in Cornhole. We now have an official soup kitchen. In the last year I have noticed more homeless sitting along the streets asking for help. And entire family was sitting at Kroger begging for food. Don't see them know, probably got run off. Today is as good as it's going to get. Plan accordingly.

The financial guys have it figured out now, as they always have. Is anyone naive enough to think all these pukes give one good **** about us? The finance guys "are" the smartest guys in the room, and it ain't even close. But sure as hell not for us. Anyone remember Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. I went to a a presentation from the Enron whistleblower lady at a local college. Amazing stuff. The banksters are the smartest guys in the room, and it ain't even close (go watch them vs. congress people). They are here to take our money. This is nothing new to anyone who's ever followed the markets and paid attention. What the Fed did today will only make the rich richer, and the poor more poor. It's what they do, and have been doing it for as long as I can remember. Like Carlin said; they don't give a **** about you. They also know, eventually this entire facade of an economy will all come tumbling down. They will run off with their riches to their gated communities, yachts, and private islands while millions more of Americans will end up in the streets. Many more will teeter on the edge while they fight for food where they live. The second great depression (my parents lived through the first one) will evolve. When **** gets real - you need a scapegoat - enter Donald Trump. He will take the blame, and he won't care. He might be too stupid to know he was the "mark" or if he does, he doesn't care. None of them do. They have no conscious, none of them. Like G. Gordon Liddy said in his book "tell me what corner to stand on." Total loyalty to the party. Right out of 1984. That's what they all do. They got a real winner with Trump. He's like the Rodney Dangerfield character in Caddy Shack. He keeps everyone distracted while the smartest guys in the room run off with all the money. What's not to like? And when they finally blow up the whole ****house, he gets blamed. It will be a spectacular blow up, one of the best ever! LOL! What a ****ing world we live in.

Well done FOMC