The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+6 -- May 14, 2018

Updates

Later, 1:38 p.m. CDT: interesting. Under Trump -- the US Supreme Court okays betting on professional sports in all states. Wow.

Later, 12:15 p.m. CDT: wow, this connects the dots. See my note below regarding GE in the original post. It now makes sense. From a reader:

Mark Hanes on CNBC. .. the CNBC staff was given GE stock  as 100 % of their 401 K ... your matching $$$ were also in GE stock ...

GE went from ~ $60 to $30, and then to $ 6 at the bottom of the 0bama depression ... When Hanes called the bottom in Dow/market in mid march of 2009, he talked about all the $$$$ the NBC employees lost in their 401 K's.

So maybe now the NBC staff is doing a "Cramer" and talking up GE stock so they can retire ... ( remember that Cramer got caught selling/shorting/buying before his recommendations of a stock and paid a undisclosed $$$ figure in about 2004 or maybe earlier.

Original Post

Chatter: I had a great bike ride home. I love my Diamondback Hanjoon Metro 1 x 9; with no extra work, I think I'm 25% "more efficient," whatever that might mean. I get home, turn on television to CNBC, and then turn on the shower. While waiting for the shower, I see the Power Lunch panel has just begun talking about GE. I take a long shower. After the shower, they are still talking about GE. I have nothing "against" GE, but certainly ten minutes is a bit much for one company, especially when I can think of 1,499 companies I would rather invest in than GE.

Chatter: years and years ago -- actually decades ago -- when I first started investing, I thought it was impossible to lose. I thought more and more people would want to invest and at some point there would not be enough shares for everyone. I did not know who publicly traded markets worked. I did not know companies could issue more shares. I did not know there were buybacks. I did not know there were splits. I didn't know squat. And then, today, after they "got off" GE, the most sour of the Power Lunch panel was concerned there may not be enough shares for all the demand. Wow.

Chatter: top story -- breaking news -- update on a CBS lawsuit. Then, nothing else. I would have thought the Mideast might have been a more important story. LOL. And everyone thought the Mideast would blow up today. Nope. Apparently it's all about CBS.

Treat: later, when I have lots of free time, I have a great blog coming up with regard to my thoughts and observations regarding cable, satellite, network, television. Stay tuned (pun intended).

Dow: still up 125 points and WTI right at $71.

Talking turkey: US has lost "mediator role" in the Mideast -- Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Yippe-ki-yay! He's talking to his base but if he really believes that, Turkey will be a Putin satellite in less than ten years.

The yip part of yippee is old. It originated in the 15th century and meant "to cheep, as a young bird." The more well-known meaning, to emit a high-pitched bark, came about around 1907, as per the OED, and gained the figurative meaning "to shout; to complain."

Yip is imitative in origin but probably also influenced by the 16th century yelp, which has an even older meaning of "boasting, vainglorious speaking." Yawp is even older, coming about in the 14th century, but now is primarily associated with Walt Whitman's late 19th century "barbaric yawp."

Yippee came about after yip. The earliest record of this exclamation of delight is from 1920 in Sinclair Lewis's novel, Main Street: "She galloped down a block and as she jumped from a curb across a welter of slush, she gave a student 'Yippee!'"

Now how about the whole phrase, yippee-ki-yay? It seems to be a play on "yippie yi yo kayah," a refrain from a 1930s Bing Crosby song, "I'm An Old Cowhand."

Comment: I don't think I learned anything from this article. Nor worth the time spent on it (three minutes).

Protect the environment. From Aljazeera, "Palestine: a distinctive voice for climate action. Those illegally denied control over their natural resources must be heard in the global climate conversation."

More from this link:

Fake news. I may be wrong on this, but think not. The mainstream media keeps telling us that "Trump canceled the Iran deal." He did no such thing. There was a negotiated "Iran deal" some years ago. It was quite harsh and it took a lot of arm twisting to get US allies to go along with it. Then, out of nowhere, President Obama unilaterally weakened the sanctions. It was the weakening of the sanctions that Trump had problems with. It's my feeling he may not have liked the original deal, but he certainly did not like Obama's deal to water-down the sanctions. It's possible Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi confused water-boarding with water-downing the sanctions. I digress. As it stands now, I don't know what "Iran deal," if any, remains in place. The way I understand it, the US is back to the original deal. The rest of the world? Blaming Trump for kidnapping three Koreans from North Korea.

Bowling tournament. Scott Adams' periscope a couple of hours ago was incredibly good. Helps me understand the "McCain is not a hero" trope.  Warning: strong language.