Tuesday, October 13, 2015 -- Part III; GDP Now Lowers 3Q15 Estimate

Tweeting now: IEA report says Russia's oil output at 'record high' in first eight months of 2015, up 8.9% on year, on drilling development boom.

No links; story everywhere: Planned Parenthood admits selling baby parts; will discontinue practice. Disingenuous in their press release announcing new policy.

Early winter: Unseasonably cold; early snowfall; winter begins? When growing up in Williston, I remember the weather being "seasonable" until the end of October. I remember most Halloweens as being warm enough to enjoy trick-or-treating, but near the end of my time as a trick-or-treater, the Halloweens seemed to be getting much colder (freezing), but then again, maybe I was just getting "soft."

GDPNow:

The GDPNow model nowcast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2015 is 1.0 percent on October 9, down from 1.1 percent on October 6. The model's nowcast for the contribution of inventory investment to third-quarter real GDP growth ticked down 0.1 percentage point to -2.1 percentage points after this morning's wholesale trade report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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The Apple Page

Apple has released new desktop Macs. Incredible. Base model at $1,099: 21.5 inch monitor; 8GB RAM and one terabyte (TB) of storage. A terabyte of storage and 8GB RAM for the price of what a laptop iMac used to cost (or still costs, perhaps). And, of course, the desktops range a whole farther -- up to 27 inch; RAM configurable up to 32 GB; 2 TB storage; and, retina 5K. And just a few years ago, "4K" was all the rage. My only complaint: to make the Mac aesthetically appealing, the slots are still in the back. It would be nice if they could be up front for easier access.

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6,001 Pounds

Coming in at just over 6,000 pounds, the Tesla Model X qualifies for a $25,000 federal tax deduction. The Los Angeles Times is reporting:

The loophole, identified as section 179 of the Internal Revenue Service code, was originally part of a stimulus package meant to encourage small-business owners to spend more freely on heavy equipment — urging farmers to buy new tractors, or contractors to buy new trucks.

Limited to passenger vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds — most passenger cars and light trucks do not qualify — the deduction became known as the "Hummer tax loophole" because it gave write-offs to buyers of the giant, gas-guzzling Hummer H1 and H2 military-style trucks.

The Model X comes in at "just over 6,000 pounds."

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Speaking of Tesla

Those "falcon" wing-doors added significantly to the weight of the car. The roof of the car had to be significantly strengthened to support those wing-doors. Elon Musk ballyhooed the doors, allowing very tight parking between other cars and still allowing passengers to get out. Unfortunately the front seat (driver and "shotgun") have standard doors which negates any space-saving by the wing-doors.

Originally analysts felt the wing-doors were placed there for "novelty" and most likely they were but by adding weight to the car, buyers qualify for a huge federal deduction.

Most analysts assume the wing-doors will fade away in the next iteration of Model X. If you can't engineer wing-doors for the driver, the major purpose of the wing-doors is ... well, simply not there.