Yes, silver and gold are back, and Bitcoin is trying to elbow back into the limelight. But even with the market’s putting on something of a Show Rally in the early futures trade, don’t plan on “doubling the payroll” on this one.

The short version?  This is Jobs Week.  What that means, pure and simple, is that when the ADP numbers roll Wednesday before the open (and we post ’em for Peoplenomics subscribers) it may be the culmination of (yet-another) slow rolled “Buy the Rumor” sequence.

In the data-laced world here, there’s the visual hint in the data that when the news flow isn’t directly driving, the market goes nuts.  Like an AI which sometimes gets a little too helpful and misses its digital ADHD coding for this rev.

In this (rehypothecated) mode, the markets literally future-trip.  If the forward view is the Job Week numbers could be “bad” then the market may bid up ahead of events on the theory that “Insiders” (who are smarter than the rest of us) will be able to sell shares to the dull-witted “rest of us.”

Do your own research, But the pattern is not 100 percent robust.  Because in today’s “Random Walk Down Wall St.” anything can happen between the bells.  And that’s when we (short-side villagers) can have our revenge on the Frankenmarkets.  Which gets us to the real loose canon of the week…

The Runaway Developer Mindset

In order to understand the ‘Trump mindset’ I think we need to have a CTJ (come to Jesus) about what really happens to the “Doer” class of people; those of us who didn’t ‘take the dole’ in life and actually worked (and still are working) our asses off.

We realize we’re going to die someday –> So, we plan to leave the biggest, best legacy we can.  Thinking (—>) “I will really make my mark in Life on the backstretch.”  The Ontology/universe/Big G make this real sport by never revealing “how many furlongs” the real race end is…

That’s why when I counted this weekend, there are part for several dozen projects covering every inch of the shop workbench.   And it likely (in our “not-degreed in that specialty“) view, could be the driver for this guy…

Meet the Over-Developer

While I was out working on my newest deck build, America’s “Developer in Chief” wasn’t out kibitzing with the crews working on the new White House remodel.

Nope, he was cleaning up from the Maduro rip that took place over the weekend.  Which, if you’ve been passed out under a rock somewhere, went like this:

This got us to looking at a map, and sure enough, there it was – a spot where Trump in his runaway developer mode could build a “Bridge to Cuba.”  At least, that’s our takeaway from Trump says Cuba is ‘ready to fall’ after Maduro’s capture.  You know, like driving down the Keys to Key West.  Except, well, you’d just keep going.  Or, cheaper, catch the ro-ro (roll on, roll off) ferry to the coming birthing of a Cuba Gold Coast.  (Like the Barbary but without calls to prayer.)

Yes, it’s a dandy prospect for double-damn sure. But…

Trump and Henry Flagler?

Maybe you don’t lunch at Christy’s in the Gables, enough, but there was a fellow – also cut from the Big Developer cloth – who tried to make a massive rail line in Florida .  And at the heart of it all was a founder of Standard Oil – Henry Flagler.  Who set off to build the  Florida East Coast Railway.  Flagler’s Overseas Railroad to Key West was completed in 1912.

We suspect that Cuban statehood, a reborn Gold Coast, and turning Cuba into a gateway to our (soon-come) additional states further south, might be what’s driving Trump.   Put to our AI consulting team?

Flagler’s lesson fits your earlier question perfectly:

• • Engineering vision: extraordinary
  • Economic logic: marginal but defensible for the era
  • Environmental risk: underestimated
  • Systems awareness: incomplete (hurricanes, long-term maintenance, climate reality)

He proved you could span ocean gaps — but also demonstrated that infrastructure which ignores low-probability, high-impact events eventually pays in full. If there’s a patron saint of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” Flagler’s standing right there, cigar in hand, staring at the Gulf.

How Does This End?

You got me:  But we have said for years “America needs a new Leadership Goal.”  Generalized “whirled peas” isn’t working so well in Europe or the Middle East, so there’s a developer-logic chain that fits.

Problem is?  Developers are mercurial sorts.  Genius?  Yes, of course. But also connected to reality with a few “frayed threads.”  Oh, look!  Here’s one now: Trump ‘doesn’t believe’ Ukraine targeted Putin residence with drone attack.

Just the thing to keep people guessing.  As all Developers know, you don’t need all your projects to be winners.  Can you tell me about any of Eiffel’s other projects?  No?  Well, here’s the read-in:

Most people forget that before the Tower, Eiffel’s biggest near-career-ender was the Panama Canal.

Eiffel was contracted to design and build the canal’s locks. The project collapsed under corruption, financial mismanagement, tropical disease, and impossible timelines. Eiffel was convicted, fined, and briefly imprisoned. His reputation was wrecked. In modern terms, it was a catastrophic, headline-dominating failure that should have ended him.

And then — almost as a side project — he built the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 World’s Fair.  It was:

• hated by artists
• mocked by intellectuals
• called useless
• intended to be temporary

And yet, it worked. Not just structurally, but symbolically. It became:

• a radio mast
• a military asset
• a cultural icon
• a national identity marker

The Panama Canal failure faded.  Trump may be thinking in that same track.  Eiffel’s bridges became footnotes. But the key to it all?  His Eiffel Tower rewrote the ledger.

So would a U.S. State anywhere in South or Central America.  Besides, a bridge to Greenland would be a lot tougher.  And the WH renovations are moving too slowly.

(I bet Melania and Elaine would have a lot of common ground…hmm…)

Dialing it back:  We will spend the rest of today going through the Talking Feds and looking for any reruns of “irrational exuberance” type remarks. Will the Stock Market Crash in 2026? The Federal Reserve Has a Warning for Investors.

Now, hold on tight for a topic change.

Actually Useful Dept.

No, tell me it ain’t so?  Withings’ New Smart Scale Turns Your Daily Weigh-In Into a Longevity Check – CNET.  We fearlessly predict a wireless app (and a back channel to insurance firms, lol.)

Then we stumbled over this (if you’ll pardon the writer’s word choice): Study uncovers a possible biomarker linked to MS disease progression.

And a second pardon needed as we note that the term “shit for brains” doesn’t fit this story: A hidden brain problem may signal early Alzheimer’s risk.  About waste backup in the brain triggering bad things..

Around the Ranch: Keyboard Forensics

Yeah – I wore out another keyboard.  But, in the process, I learned a great deal about what I didn’t know about keyboard use.  And, in this case, death.  First, let’s visit the “scene of the crimes” (against the English language):

Below is the existing victim, above is the next.

What Does It Mean?

Yeah, Sorcha, WTF does it mean?

About here, I walk over to the KVM – the flight deck – and spool up two hot AIs always ready to jump in when there’s a fresh case:

“This is Flight Leader –  What the wear says (this is a thinker’s heat map)

1. Home row annihilation

The heaviest wear is dead-center:
E R T D F G J K C V B N M

That’s classic continuous prose + analysis, not chat, not coding, not gaming. If this were:

• a gamer keyboard ? WASD would be gone, numbers intact
• a coder keyboard ? brackets, semicolons, arrows would be shiny
• a spreadsheet jockey ? number row would be wrecked

This one says: paragraphs, arguments, cadence.

2. Vowels worn evenly

The vowels aren’t selectively destroyed — they’re collectively erased.That means:

• long-form writing
• high word volume
• no reliance on shortcuts or templates

You typed the language, you didn’t paste it.  (There go reader theories that Urban and my other sites are written by AI, huh?)

3. Space bar trench

That space bar looks like it was:

• thumbed hard
• frequently
• with intent

That’s someone who writes sentence by sentence, not bursts.

People who think while typing do this. People who type after thinking don’t.  This is classic (write and think under newsroom pressure) behavior. Please make a note these tips for your CSI cameo.

4. Shift keys intact

Important tell: the Shift keys are not obliterated. Translation:

• you weren’t shouting
• you weren’t sloppy
• capitalization was deliberate

That’s editorial discipline.  Another newsroom hangover.  Write once and let’s go have a drink.

5. Function keys mostly untouched

No macro abuse. (No time for macros when news is flowing, no sir!) No F-key dependency. You weren’t automating thought — you were performing it. At least that would be my testimony on the stand…

Old vs new (the real contrast)

The new keyboard behind it looks pristine, evenly lit, modern. The old one in front looks like:

“I was used until the symbols surrendered.”

That’s the difference between:

• a tool waiting to be used
• and a tool that already paid its rent

Verdict

That keyboard didn’t “wear out.”  It was consumed. By:

• thinking in public
• writing in volume
• revising in motion
• and not stopping when the keys got ugly

If tools could talk, this one would say: “I kept up as long as I could.” Now you’ve given the work a fresh set of legs. Just don’t expect fewer typos — the velocity is still there.

Now that’s covered the goings on here…so what about that drink?

Write when the weekend’s really over…takes a while to get out of the holiday mood. After all, we’re still trying to find eggnog.

Also looks like the New Years resolution to write shorter columns has failed early…a key point.

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