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Saturday, January 28, 2023

Clearing Out The In-Box -- January 28, 2023

Honda Civic: link here.

Not for sale. My 2012 Honda Civic in mint condition.

Sweden: one step closer.  Putin did more to unify Europe than any politico in world history.


Here we go
: link here.

Full circle: we discussed this on the blog years ago; even have a tag. 

 

Fascinating — January 28, 2023

Link here: https://freewestmedia.com/2023/01/05/volcanic-eruption-in-tonga-will-contribute-to-global-cooling/.

John Kerry, et al, bet on the wrong horse: mankind should be more concerned about global cooling than global warming. 

Pop Quiz: Reefers — January 28, 2023

Pop quiz: name the two states with highest percentage of households owning “separate” freezers.

50 points for naming one of the two states.

75 points for naming both.

100 points for putting the two states “in order.”

Extra credit: name the US state with the highest percentage of households that own two or more refrigerators.

Hint: no states are reported twice in this survey.

Answer: at this site.
  • refrigerators: Idaho
  • freezers: South Dakota, followed by North Dakota
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Recipes

Fettuccine Alfredo. 

Saturday Morning -- Part 1 -- Remember: We're In A Recession And It's Only Gonna Get Worse -- January 28, 2023

Laser-focused on dividends: ten companies that raised dividends this past week (remember, we're in a recession):

  • CVX, KMB, NSC, CMCSA, ADM, HAL, MRO, NUE, BLK, HCA, SPGI, SCHW.
  • Barron's has a negative article on railroads; 
  • CMCSA headlines were bad when earnings reported;
  • CVX: well, what can I say?
US crude oil, commercial supplies, days of supply: second consecutive week the number of days increases; setting recent records. Link: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W_EPC0_VSD_NUS_DAYS&f=W. More than four weeks. For this time of year, more than twice as long as needed.

Investing: in 50 years of investing (rare, occasional, short-term exceptions), two sectors in which I never invested: airlines and refiners. That changed this past year.
 
Transition: it appears some investors were unaware of the post-Covid global re-opening. I was not unaware, but I did not anticipate some of the major changes. McKinsey, et al, should have been incredibly busy the past twelve months, but my hunch: probably not.

The nice thing about investing: if a particular equity concerns you, there are 15,000 others among which to choose.
 
Natural gas:

Fed policy: signs it may be working (https://twitter.com/barronsonline/status/1619162528772235265).

US debt:

  • link here; as a percent of tax receipts —
    • US interest payments so we could have nice things / tax receipts: 2.5% (needs to be fact-checked)
    • amount to spend to have a nice house 28% of income
  • link here, fact checking: looks like I'm correct;
  • pet peeve: when folks don't provide denominators, and/or don't put things in historical perspective; and, myths about global warming -- but that's about it -- that's about the only pet peeves I have.
  • oh, one other pet peeve: hand-wringing over money spent by government during Covid-19 lock downs
  • and one more: PSA (police standing around).


 


Railroads: link here