Tag Archives: Hot Topics

An across the board downturn for housing permits and starts in May Housing permits and starts declined across the board in May. In the past year there has been a unique divergence between permits and starts due to construction supply shortages.  This has been reflected in the number of housing units authorized but not started increasing to a near-50 year records of 298.4 in March. In May that number increased from April by 1.5 million...

On the road, and missing all the fun on Wall Street . . . I’m still on the road, and there is no important economic statistic to report, but I will make a brief market comment. YoY stocks are now down 10%. Except for the very bad 1982 and 2008 recessions, and the 2000 Nasdaq bubble and the 1987 crash (which were prolonged bear markets), that has typically been close to their YoY lows: And with rare exception that level has only been hit...

RJS Focus on Fracking Summary: Oil price sees highest weekly close in 13 years; natural gas price hit new 13 year high before falling back Oil prices rose for a seventh consecutive week as record high fuel prices showed no signs of dampening demand. After rising 3.3% to $118.87 a barrel last week as China ended their lockdowns and the EU banned 90% of Russian oil imports, the contract price for US light sweet crude for July delivery jumped to...

I have been bugging Alan at Student Loan Justice to talk more about Student Loan interest, etc. accumulating on these loans. As you can see it is not unusual to accumulate more interest or other costs than the original loan amount. It is also not unusual for the servicer to collect interest before paying down the principal. These loans will be with these people forever and to their graves. I do not know of any consumer loans...

To Be Discontinued: The Postal Service identifies 170 suspended post offices for permanent closure, Save The Post Office, Steve Hutkins Earlier this week the Postal Service shared a list with the Postal Regulatory Commission identifying 170 post offices that were “temporarily” suspended several years ago and that will soon be closed permanently. The list was submitted as part of the PRC’s Public Inquiry into what can be done to push the...

“Ten Bears” poking at Fox News and Republicans downplaying the January 6 Insurrection by not broadcasting the 1st of six Hearings and probably the rest. One can only hope they will change their minds and take ownership of what they helped to sponsor. It is evident with their continuous denials, Homeless on the High Desert, Ten Bears, June 7, 2022 in g’da said Personally, I want to hear more about Benghazi … ! The spectacularly successful...

Why In The US IS D-Day Memorialized While The Battle Of Midway Is Not?  Today is 6/6/22, 78 years after 6/6/44, D-Day, when American, British, and Canadian troops stormed beaches in Normandy to push the Germans out of France.  It was a dramatic landing, with many dying heroically, and depicted in several highly popular movies with famous actors in them, including The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. While not a full-blown holiday, it was...

Coronavirus variant update: and on to the BA.4/5 wave Last week the CDC update showed variant “Ba.1.1.526” increasing quickly to 6.6% of all cases. Although they did not note it, I wrote that this was almost certainly Ba.4/5; they simply had not made the change yet. Well, this week they did. This morning’s “nowcast” update of variants shows Ba.1.1.526 having vanished, with Ba.4/5 having taken its place, and having doubled to 13% of all cases in...

In the commentary, Steve Hutkins is addressing is Post Office Suspension of operations. In this case, there are 454 Post Offices in suspension with no resolution. Some Suspensions have been as long as 5 years. The issue is the Suspension and a potential the policy of a Suspension being used to close a Post Office permanently with no public input. “A Suspension occurs when the Postal Service stops operations at a post office due to an emergency or...

“The day before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff called the lead Secret Service agent to his West Wing office. The chief of staff, Marc Short, had a message for the agent, Tim Giebels: President trump was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it. VP Mike Pence’s former Chief of staff, Marc...