Locator: 50108TEXAS.
New Apple products being announced today. Start with a new iPhone 17e. No streaming but can probably catch every segment on YouTube. Link here.
It's Texas Independence Day. I will be at events all day. I will try to do some blogging later, but for now, I'm off the net.
Texas' 190th birthday today.
From today:
From a couple of days ago:
Locator: 49103FAMILY.
My son-in-law wanted to raise the interior height of an old shed by a few feet (for another project he has in mind).
This was a solid wood building.
This is how he raised it, gaining two-to-four feet in interior height.
The project was done 100% with recycled wood, old pallets that had been discarded, that my son-in-law picked up over the years.
Hopefully he's not thinking about raising his house by two-to-four feet.
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Locator: 48426VENISON.
Easiest way to send photos to a family and friends and to the individual who shot the deer, and then gave us a lot of venison (steaks, sausage, venison-burger). But other than that, nothing for the blog. Simply for the family and friend archives.
Photos below should be self-explanatory.
Two venison steaks; two different dry rubs.
And then served.
It was very, very close, but we preferred the pork and lamb rub, Grapevine, TX.
Locator: 48313MAG7.
Not on my bingo card today! AAPL. On relatively "bad news" for AAPL it's having quite a day:
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Magnificent 7
New tag: Magnificent 7.
Enhancing the partnership: Amazon and Shopify.
This is so unlike any other sector in which to invest:
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Ticker BRK
Flat.
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Flashback
Copy of Arianna's financial newsletter, April, 2005.
Locator: 47846FAMILY.
Sophia, age 10, on her mother's stand-up paddle board and her mom kneeling on the same board.
Locator: 46510ESG.
Tag: woke.
From the linked article:
Following years of simmering investor backlash, political pressure and legal threats over environmental, social and governance efforts, a number of business leaders are now making a conscious effort to avoid the once widely used acronym for such initiatives.
On earnings calls, many chief executives now employ new approaches. Some companies, including Coca-Cola, are rebranding corporate reports and committees, stripping ESG from titles. Advisers are coaching executives on alternative ways to describe their efforts, proposing new terms like “responsible business.” On Wall Street, meanwhile, some firms are closing once-popular ESG funds as interest fades.
The shift in messaging reflects a reality: “ESG is complicated,” said Daryl Brewster, a former Kraft Foods and Nabisco executive who now heads Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, a nonprofit of more than 200 companies focused on social impact.The movement to bake accountability into business decisions stretches back centuries; the term ESG gained momentum after the United Nations used it about 20 years ago. Over time, the effort became divisive—derided by some state officials as “woke capitalism,” and criticized by others for putting too much focus on measurement and disclosure requirements.
Many CEOs stress that they continue to follow sustainability commitments made years ago—even if they are no longer talking about them as often publicly. A December survey by the advisory firm Teneo found that about 8% of CEOs are ramping down their ESG programs; the rest are staying the course but often making changes to how they handle them.
Many leaders are more closely examining disclosures, wanting to avoid regulatory scrutiny or political criticism. In lieu of lofty pronouncements, advisers are telling CEOs to be more precise and to set goals that can be achieved. Saying as little as possible is recommended.
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The Book Page
I'm back in my Shakespeare phase. In the last couple of weeks I've focused on three Shakespeare plays:
Now, for the fourth play: Measure for Measure.
The books this week. Focus on Measure for Measure.
Most rewarding: I think I. have "discovered" something in The Merchant of Venice not mentioned in any of the several sources regarding the play.
My hunch: Antonio, Bassanio, and Portio represented a threesome of sorts, though not altogether at once. My hunch: Antonio and Bassanio were more than close friends. For staging, one might consider a "Johnny Depp" as Antonio. Portia? Carey Mullilgan. Bassanio, perhaps Antonio Banderas. Or perhaps, better yet, Antonio Banderas as Antonio the merchant, and Johnny Depp as Bassanio.
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The Art Page
Snowmen.
The Norman Rockwell version, by Levi:
The Picasso version, by Judah:
Locator: 46228ECON.
How the Brits see Americans when it comes to the economy:
Something weird is happening in America. GDP growth for Q3 was just revised up from an already scorching 4.9 per cent to 5.2 per cent, more Americans have jobs than at any time in history, but the public is up in arms about economic conditions, with consumer confidence dropping to a six-month low. There really is no pleasing some people.
With headline indicators in such rude health, we would expect the number of Americans who think they’re better off than this time last year to outnumber those who say they’re worse off by about 25 percentage points. Instead, the reportedly worse-offs outnumber the better-offs by ten points in the latest University of Michigan’s index of Current Economic Conditions.
I know what you’re thinking: inflation explains all of this. People really hate rising prices, and are reminded of them every time they buy something. Inflation’s salience drowns out other more distant or intangible gains. It’s certainly a good theory, but countries all around the world have faced steep inflation. Many steeper than the US. Presumably their consumers are also much more pessimistic than we would expect?
Well, no actually. Extending an original analysis by X user Quantian1, I have calculated expected consumer sentiment for a set of countries based on their underlying economic indicators, and compared it to actual sentiment. Relative to the eve of the pandemic, US consumers now appear gloomier than the French, the Germans and even the British. The Europeans all feel about as confident as one might expect based on how their economies are performing. Disproportionate doom seems to be a new American affliction.
So what’s going on? Last weekend FocalData ran a poll for me, asking a representative sample of 2,000 US adults whether they thought economic circumstances had improved or deteriorated over recent years. The results were startling: Americans are consistently wrong in the negative direction on almost every measure we polled. By huge margins, they believe inflation is still rising (it’s falling), that it has outstripped wage growth (wages have outpaced prices), and that they have become less wealthy (they’ve become much wealthier).
Attempts to justify this sense of gloom often emphasise the challenges faced by less prosperous groups, but this also goes counter to the evidence. One explanation I heard is that the despondency comes from young people struggling with runaway rents. But wages have risen faster for them than the old, outpacing rents. Plus young consumers are the most positive, per the Michigan survey.
So much more a the link.
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Debonair
The In-N-Out edition.
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And Now We Get Down To Business
First things first. After a long, long, long trip to the northwest several things stand out -- more when I get back home:
The Bakken: a random note from a reader that tracks this stuff very closely --
Investing:
CHIPS:
Re-posting:
Bakken revolution:
Dumbest politico of all time? Probably not, but I may have to add new category of posts to cover such inanity;
Teller on climate change: link here.
Lana Del Rey:
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Favorite Activity
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WTI
It all comes down to this, reading the headlines:
Me? My thesis? Outside of major geopolitical events, we're never going to see another shortage of oil in my lifetime.
I think oil company CEOs know that and they're going to start selling oil sooner than later.
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Graduation Photo
Three weeks.
California high desert.
Soloed at "first opportunity."
Locator: 45049B.
Two wells drilled the same year, 1245 feet apart, same field:
Much could be said. "This" has been going on for fifteen years. Yes, much could be said.
The map:
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Jiu-Jitsu Tournameent
Dallas -- July 8, 2023
A Silver Medal
Sophia milestones:
Locator: 45887ARCH.
Happy Father's Day from our younger daughter.
Locator: 45089ARCH.
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The Book Page
The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, c. 2015, 828DOU.
Locator: 45047FAM.
End of first of three weeks of flying.
On Friday, fourth day of flying -- they were practicing "power off" and "stalls."
She says she literally "held her breath" the entire time power was cut!
Olivia in left seat -- was in left seat from the very first day.
Hasn't washed out yet. LOL.
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So Far, After Three Days
A challenging puzzle.
LOL.
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IPOs?
Locator: 45039BRANGUS.
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Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Sophia turns nine later this summer.
She has been training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for about a year.
This past year she earning four stripes on her white belt.
Today, in her Jinho academy belt ceremony, she was awarded / she earned her grey belt.
I have to get a better photo of her with her grey belt. The photos below show her with her "old" white belt around her neck.
Of the 21 (?) students in the "belt ceremony" photo, approximately 15 earned a new stripe for their white belt. The remaining six were promoted from white belts to grey belts.
Sophia is engaged in numerous after-school and summer activities -- to include sailing. Her favorite activity is jiu-jitsu. She says she lives and breathes jiu-jitsu. LOL.
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Mark Zuckerberg
It appears in the photo at the linked article Mark Zuckerberg is also a "grey belt."
One can barely see his belt but his opponent clearly has a grey belt, and opponents are "always" same belt / same level of skill.
Mark also has a "green-yellow" belt which is worn by the victor following a match. The winner does not keep the belt; just long enough for the photo op.
Tournaments: based on weight class, gender, and skill level. Not age.
Actors in action movies often take Brazilian jiu-jitso to "learn how to fall."
Locator: 45036MISC.
To say the least, after Wes Anderson and Asteroid City it's hard to return to the real world, but return we must.
"They" say the Russian "mutiny" will fail but "they" don't give us their definition of "failure." [Later, same day: it’s over. Putin appears to have won. Prigozhin “exiled” to Belarus. Back to where we were.]
But even for Russia, this Russian invasion seems bizarre. Interestingly enough, but ironic, I suppose, "nukes" are not an option. LOL. Unless Putin wants to be the first commander-in-chief to do above-ground nuclear testing in his own country.
Time to learn a little bit about the history of Rostov. Seems like an important city, historically.
I've never seen so many construction sites on a major highway.
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Get Out The Popcorn
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Another EV
I would have absolutely no interest in this story except I am building a position (as they say on CNBC) in Ferrari. LOL.
Price: $200,000.
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Wuhan: An Inconvenient Truth
Just when you thought you had it all figured out: no, Virginia, there was no Covid-19 virus at Wuhan before the pandemic: The WSJ.
There is no evidence a Chinese laboratory at the center of the debate over Covid-19’s origins conducted genetic engineering on viruses related to the one that caused the pandemic, or held such viruses in its stockpiles before the 2019 outbreak, U.S. intelligence agencies said Friday.
In a report required by Congress, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it remains unable to pinpoint the pandemic’s origins, with spy agencies divided on whether the virus passed to humans via an infected animal or a laboratory accident. The report is a summary of findings by major U.S. intelligence agencies.
The report acknowledged publicly for the first time the assessment of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Energy Department that a “laboratory-related incident” was most likely responsible for the pandemic that has killed nearly seven million people worldwide, while other agencies believe natural infection was the cause. The Central Intelligence Agency and another unnamed agency say they are unable to pinpoint the cause, the report said.
Another story Tucker won't cover. If he does, it won't be reported accurately.
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Sophia's Workspace
