Updates
Later, 12:55 pm: in the long note below, I talk about McDonald's and mention the Millennial Generation. Now, this coincidence, the lead story at Yahoo!Finance/CNBC at the moment: economy bad for many, but it's crushing millennials. Wow.
While the continued economic slump hobbles many Americans, the downturn is crushing young people.
Almost half of millennials-those between 18 and 34-think they'll be worse off than their parents, according to research from Demos, a non-partisan policy and research center.Wow. I wonder who they voted for? That mean old business man, or the incumbent.
And voters under age 30 in Tuesday's presidential election identified unemployment (49 percent) and rising prices (37 percent) as the most pressing economic issues they face, according to the Pew Research Center.
Original Post
Wow, talk about a beautiful day in Boston. Bright sun, no clouds, no wind. An absolutely beautiful day.The graph at the link says it all. If this doesn't foreshadow a recession -- and, a very, very deep recession -- in 2013, I don't know what would.
Morning in America.
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Thank you, Don. In a comment I posted just a few minutes ago, I noted that CNBC had an "alert" that "SandRidge was under pressure." Don sent me this just moments ago:
SandRidge Energy on Thursday reported adjusted net income of $29.6 million, or 5 cents per diluted share, in the third quarter, compared with $5.1 million, or 1 cent per share, a year ago.
Analysts had predicted a break-even quarter for the Oklahoma City oil exploration and production company, according to Thomson Reuters research. Shares in SandRidge (SD) were up nearly 2 percent after hours.
The adjusted net income figure reflects the performance of the company’s normal operations and excludes unrealized losses on derivatives contracts and asset sales. In standard terms, the company reported a net loss of $184 million, or 39 cents per diluted share, an improvement over the loss of $561 million, or $1.16 per diluted share, a year ago.
Links from the WSJ.
This is an article for everyone: going for broke to stay out of debt.
You may think it odd that a person could reach the age of 36 without having any understanding of how loan payments worked—that in those early and middle years a person is only paying off the interest—but these were the facts of life I had so assiduously shielded myself from. I called my stepsister, who is also my friend and my real-estate agent, and asked how this was possible. "All those people with houses are just paying off interest?" I asked her incredulously. She told me yes, for the most part. She told me that this was the way of the world.
I got in my car and drove to the bank. I closed out my mutual fund and my savings account, cashed in the stocks. ...... Interest. How does everybody fall for that one?
I remember my father reading "The Godfather" when I was child. When he got to the scene with the horse's head, he told me about it. Mafiosos, loan sharks, cement shoes all came to symbolize debt in my mind. Maybe that's why this happened to me. Then again, maybe there's nothing I can blame it on. All I know is that when I got into bed that night I was in my own house, the house I owned, and I was broke, and I was happy, and I didn't wake up once during the night.And now, with [increasing] property taxes, she is renting her home from the state. She is a writer. She will recognize irony when she sees it. I hope she doesn't live in California. Speaking of which there is an almost full-page book review on Willie Nelson's new book in the Boston Globe. He has homes in two states: Hawaii and Texas. I will let the reader guess which state he declares residency.
Who was Hitch? A short piece on the movie director. I was in a Hitchcock phase some years ago. It's nice to see much of what I gathered about Hitch is confirmed in this article.
McDonald's is feeling fried. This is a tough one: the article says McDonald's problems are due to a) the economy (folks can't afford the $1 value meal? -- I can't make this up); and, b) competition. I don't know. The incessant noise from elites about the "badness" of McDonald's has to take a toll at some point. That $1 value meal? Starbucks is doing gangbuster business selling coffee at more than twice the price of McDonald's. However, I was surprised to see the price of the Whopper meal at Burger King last night, approaching $7.00 (I had the junior whopper at a significant savings). It's no longer "inexpensive" to take a family of four to McDonald's. But, of course, with regard to McDonald's we're talking "growth"; the company is still selling a lot of French fries. Tom Brokaw's "greatest generation" grew up with McDonalds, making it what it is, but has McDonald's adopted to the "millennial generation"? I don't know. Wi-fi helps. But you wonder if McDonald's PlayPlaces are sending the wrong message? Again, I don't know. By the way, for that $7.00 I can buy, at Starbucks, a healthy, faux-organic, chicken tarragon sandwich for $5.95. Of course, the coffee is extra, but I bought that earlier, so it doesn't count. Smile.
Wow, this is progress? Mississippi plant is set to become first to make gasoline out of wood, a race to meet us fuel targets.
KiOR's technology uses chemicals to "crack" away oxygen atoms in wood, leaving hydrogen and carbon. Those elements are the building blocks for oil, which the company then refines into gasoline or diesel fuel. Fred Cannon, the company's CEO, said it is like fossil fuel, "just made from today's carbon rather than carbon from a million years ago." KiOR says its gasoline can be sold to refiners or fuel distributors, which can combine it with conventional gasoline.So, this is where the faux environmentalists have brought us? Slicers and dicers killing insect-eating bats and raptors? Burning food (corn) for SUV juice (ethanol)? And now clear-cutting forests for gasoline and diesel refineries? I can't make this stuff up. As the CEO said: "it is like fossil fuel, just made from today's carbon rather than carbon from a million years ago." Okay. The country of Turkey was once a forested paradise; there are no forests in Turkey any more; they disappeared a long time ago when the Turks used them for heating.
Page A3: aftermath of Sandy, three links -- rethinking waterfronts; nor-easter vexes region's recovery; storm expected to trim growth, not spending. If there were any references to global warming, I missed them, but they were there, no doubt. We've known since 1992 (thank you, Al Gore) the impending disasters coming due to global warming, and still, Sandy took us by surprise). Wow: in the most advanced nation in the world, the power is still out in many places where Sandy hit -- how long has that been? I've lost count; but the power is still out? Wow. And now they are rationing gasoline. In the United States.
Another great book review: an explorer beyond parallel. The Last Viking, by Stephen R. Bown (no typo), c. 2012 about Roald Amundsen.
Born into prosperous family in 1872, Amundsen grew up in Christiania (now Oslo) in a country not yet independent from Sweden [and thus the spelling of his name]. He made a halfhearted attempt to study medicine, but all he wanted to was explore ...I probably won't buy or read the book but the review is, again, great writing. One example:
Amundsen exuded that mournful Scandinavian longing one associates with the music of Sibelius or an Ibsen play. He was permanently restless and prone to what Mr. Bown neatly refers to as "piratical gambling." Amundsen might not have been a true pirate, but he sailed close to the wind.Ahh, the good ol' days.
Kimberley A. Strassel confirmed what I blogged about earlier: what where they thinking? Rick Berg defeated by Heidi Heitkamp.
And finally, we will end with a story, not for the story but for the accompanying photograph, perhaps the most sad photograph in the journal today at Syrian rebels press plan for governing body. These folks just want to get on with their lives.
[Blogging today was made easier by listening to Roy Orbison and Willie Nelson. Thank you.]
Hardly a bright optimistic Morning in America. I think America is about to wake up to a 100% chance of a severe storm warning that will last for four years.
ReplyDeleteAn appalling video on the internet at right scoop shows on the street interviews of young college students in South Boston waiting to vote. Their main interest and issues were the war on women in the form of abortion and contraption, gay rights, and drug legalization to name a few. There was nothing about the economy and the outlook for their future. When asked about the constitution they knew very little. They had a hard time naming the three branches of government, or who held the leadership of those branches. They didn't even know how many members of each branch.
In other words they were ignorant of what our government is and the Constitution that forms it. Some were even political science majors.
This nightmare is the result of the progressive liberal lefts takeover of our education system. They have been indoctrinated to be good little lemmings that focus on self and what someone else gives them by force.
The brave new world!
Agree completely, as usual.
DeleteThe cycle will continue. Reality will hit these youngsters in another ten years. Sad.