Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Notes From All Over, Part 1 -- January 8, 2020

The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, the runway behind you and a tenth of a second ago.

For an investor, the most useless thing: dry powder.

Boy, I'm going to take a lot of heat for that. LOL.

For more pilot rules of flying, click here.

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Great Mood

Media: my media bookmarks are decreasing in number. I have pretty much quit checking in on Drudge -- maybe once a day or every two days -- unless there are hints of really important news. If I don't see a rotating beacon, I move on. My go-to source for political op-ed: Power Line, or is it, Powerline? Whatever. Really, really good writing.

Fox News is the only news site I go to for headline stories.

For business news, Fox Business News.

Casualties:
  • 0: 15 ballistic missiles targeting Iraqi air bases: 0 casualties
  • 56: funeral march: at least 56 Iranians died in the funeral procession
  • 176: Ukrainian airliner shot down by errant Stinger missile
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Profound

Before the speech:
  • Dow up 48 points
After the speech:
  • Dow up almost 200 points (later: up over 200 points)
  • S&P 500: a new all-time high
  • NASDAQ: at an all-time high
  • WTI: breaks below $60/bbl
  • oil companies down huge (share price)
The speech: everyone who wants peace had to have liked the President's speech.

Perhaps the best US presidential speech on Iran. Ever. And the speech lasted all of six minutes? About the length of the Emancipation Proclamation.

President: "Iran appears to be standing down." Standing down. Those words are only used by presidents when referring to "wars." If so, was this the shortest "war" ever -- overnight missile barrage with no US response?

Words being used by talking heads:
  • nothing from the US Democrats ... yet
  • dramatic turn of events
  • "everything is telling us everyone is happy with this" -- the markets
  • are the markets ahead of their skis?
  • the speech: calm, measured, not bellicose
  • speech could be translated into Farsi in ten minutes; will go viral in Iran 
Fox Business News:
  • anchors: best and brightest, it seems
  • guests, analysts: excellent
  • Varney: a bit too treacly
  • Cavuto: good 

4 comments:

  1. Bruce you for got the fourth useless item to a pilot, which is a subcategory to item three, "hey watch this"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ever see the movie Command Decision. It is sort of like Twelve O'Clock High, but more about staff disagreements.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not seen the movie, but reading the synopsis (at wiki) validates/confirms/corroborates everything I saw while attending Air War College for senior officers being groomed for general officers. Generals and admirals have incredibly strong personalities; within a given service they can have many different opinions and among the services, much, much internal rivalry -- because they see things differently.

      I am incredibly impressed by the restraint shown by the commander-in-chief and his military general officers on the night those Iraqi bases were under attack.

      Delete