Like The Market, Temperatures Continue To Fall -- August 24, 2015

The other day it was noted that the Obama administration fudged temperature data in the Washington, DC, area, of all things.

About that same I mentioned that it appeared winter was coming early this year in the midwest with surprise snowfall in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) in the middle of summer, and in a post yesterday a reader wrote to tell me how cold it was in North Dakota. There was a hint that Hettinger, ND, hit a record low. Today we learn that indeed Sunday's low for Hettinger was a record low (dynamic link).

I may be misreading the almanac, but Hettinger's low for yesterday was 37 degrees, a record; the previous low for yesterday in Hettinger was 42 degrees. Today, the previous low had been 42 degrees. Today, the low went to 32, a new record. If I'm reading that correctly that's a 10-degree delta. Wow. I'm probably misreading something. [I wonder if the sensors/thermometers are working correctly; NOAA may have to send out a technician to replace the sensors, as they did in Washington, DC.]

And frost is now being reported on the roofs in Bowman, ND.

Freezing -- 29 degrees -- in Casper, Wyoming.  The previous record low was back in 1966, and get this: it was 41 degrees. The "normal" low for this time of year is 50 degrees. And indications, again, are for a colder winter than usual.

Yes, this is just weather I know, but 19 years of weather starts to add up to climate.

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Scare-Mongering By The Warmists

MichiganLive published an open letter from a solar-installation owner that "net metering would destroy solar investments:

I am writing in regard to [Michigan] Senate Bill 438. My interests are self-preservation, ensuring Michigan is looking to and working toward a sustainable energy plan, and reversing the effects of global warming.

Self Preservation I have a 10 kilowatt net-metered Solar Panel System. I have invested my time, ingenuity, and money in establishing this system. It was not done with grants, handouts or contracts with public utilities (under the Experimental Advanced Renewable Program). I chose net metering as defined by PA 295 and entered into an interconnection and parallel operating agreement with Consumers Energy.

S.B. 438 is payola legislation to reverse the net-metering law and return domination to fossil fuel and the monopoly that the utilities so enjoyed. With the responsibility of changing the status quo comes the assured certainty of offending those who have worked so hard to preserve it. This Senate bill is a transparent attempt to eviscerate solar from the ownership of individuals such as myself.

And then yada, yada, yada about global warming and the need to "wean ourselves" from fossil fuel. The writer of the letter does not mention whether he owns three gas guzzling SUVs.

The writer also does not mention whether he provides the bookkeeping or maintains the transmission lines for the utility company, or if the utility company "absorbs" those costs.

It will be interesting to see how state governments work this issue. Fortunately "we" had the opportunity to see what happened to Germany.  Bottom line: if the Michigan folks agree with the individual who wrote the above letter, Michigan folks will help subsidize this individual's solar panel installation.

Based on the content of his letter, he should feel happy for doing his part to save the world, even if it costs him a little bit more in the long run.

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This Is Not An Investment Site

Do not make any investment or financial decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Idle chatter, my world view, a myth: most of the market, on a daily basis, is run by computer algorithms. The algorithms start each day fresh. They don't have any emotions about what happened the day before. So, for the algorithms, every day is a new day.

Mr Algorithm saw what happened in Europe earlier today, and in China overnight, and Mr Algorithm reacted accordingly.

Once Mr Algorithm started reacting, other algorithms followed, and that moved Mr Algorithm into further free-fall. Once Mr Algorithm starts falling, there really is no guaranteed bottom or stop.

[On the other hand, when the market starts moving up quickly, it won't rise as fast or as high as it would fall. Why? Human greed. Once folks make a fair amount of money on the ride up, they well. Going down, fear is the human emotion, and fear will bring the market down a lot farther than greed will take the market up. Going down, there is only fear. Going up, greed is tempered by fear.]

Even those shorting the market are probably a bit worried. I doubt many folks short the entire market; more likely they short individual stocks, and most folks have a large number of equity investments if they are appropriately diversified. Not only are the few companies the shorts shorted falling deep and fast, but also even those companies that were fairly priced or under-priced are falling. Overall, I would think this is bad for everyone, except for guys like Warren Buffett who have a long, long horizon, own companies outright, and don't have many needs in life.

It's also times like this one hopes he/she has good fund managers managing one's investments. They need to get out fast, and then get back in just as quickly to take advantage of some great opportunities.

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Politics

It's Valerie Jarrett vs Huma Abedin

... and Huma's going down.