The set-up to this is simple:  Dems are screaming as Trump momentum stalls.

But, behind all of it, is a big-ass Economy.  And yes, we still have one. So it’s useful when panic is in the air, or we are midpoint in a rally in a longer time domain decline, to remember inertia.

How do we measure economic inertia?  Well, people are still shopping.  Social Security checks are still hitting banks in a timely manner.  The IRS is still very much in business – you have 28-days to postmark.

So while the whining of the armchair Marxists about “necessary” jobs – from the “Zero Deliverables” class ofd bureaucrats natter away – the Reality is that despite job-jacking and traitorous trade from terrible tyrants who sold our tech out to China (and the rest of Asia), we remain an economic Powerhouse.

How to Measure “Flywheel Stored Energy”

In non-economics (real-world) physics, it’s called the Kinetic Energy formula.

Where:

• E = Stored kinetic energy (Joules)
• I = Moment of inertia of the flywheel (kg·m²)
• $?)$ = Angular velocity (rad/s)

So, the faster the flywheel spins, the more energy is stored.

Then – in a perfect setting like space (which is close-enough for home use) the spinning wheel continues, as Blood Sweat, and Tears instructs, to go “round and round.”

Unfortunately, the “spin” of the Economy is hard to judge. In addition to (political) friction losses, the Economy also runs of an etheric vaporous substance called Hype – whose chemical symbol is BS.

Fortunately, on this particular Tuesday, we have additional measurement tools offering insights to the statute of the “got ta go round” part.

“Shimmer Me Timbers”

Gold was continuing to spin-up with Futures trading $3,038 earlier.  Apparently the “paper gold” people are adjusting to the spin from the Comex – which no longer honors certain London contracts. Silver’s also firmed a bit – trading just 2-bits away from $35.

Fools coins (backed only by the availability of clearing processors, ahem…) were pushing (or sucking) $82,650-ish when we looked.

Lumber prices have been slow on the uptake; we think the need to export from Canada will keep prices in reason.  But we also expect California insurance policies will see record “slow pays” on claims.  (NO, don’t look surprised… The flywheel effects were noticed last week in Commissioner Lara orders insurers to fully investigate consumers’ smoke damage claims following Southern California fires.  What was it Jerry McGuire said?  Something about money, if I recall.

Direct Measures

Heading into our Money Lab, the equipment offers the following readings of flywheel conditions:

Housing Starts

Building Permits
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,456,000. This is 1.2 percent below the revised January rate of 1,473,000 and is 6.8 percent below the February 2024 rate of 1,563,000.

What? No rebuilding boom from SoCal?

Import-Export Prices

“U.S. import prices increased 0.4 percent in February following a 0.4-percent advance in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Higher fuel and nonfuel prices in February contributed to the overall increase in import prices. U.S. export prices rose 0.1 percent in February following a 1.3-percent advance the previous month.

And shortly, the Fed will be along with Industrial Capacity and Utilization data.  And this one will reveal  any new capacity (factories and what-not) being added.  (Too soon, mostly hype) and increases in production (we are expecting muted because of recession fears).

The rest of the story will come tomorrow afternoon when the Waffle Haus  Federal Reserve Rate Decision is handed down.  Expect syrupy talk and something for the pigs.

Stuffing It

We have long expected George Soros-like liberals to back an “early lefty” for the White House in ’28.  No surprise therefore when CNN Compares AOC’s Rise to Post-Obama Republican Party. Watch closely as the population programmers ramp up the bullshit about Ms. Nothing.  And speaking of the architects of division and hate? Soros-Linked Network Attempting to Stop Trump from Deporting Gang Members. With friends like this, who needs….oh, you know…Take a sip of this dialectic tea, Comrade…

Meanwhile, the commies of higher ed are becoming more obvious by the day.  Sedition, Treason, or Insurrection?  Profs publicly speak of collapsing the U.S. by force… WOW -Arrest them all! Oh, this is worse than you thought:  Department of Education is laundering money back to the Democrat Party.

Demising of Gaza continues:  Israeli strikes kill more than 400 Palestinians, shattering Gaza ceasefire.  We notice that many reports make it seem like Hamas sorts were just sitting innocently by…which…well, you it figure out.

The Budget’s a lonely hunter: Donald Trump revokes Secret Service protection for President Joe Biden’s children.

DOGE has managed to piss off another liberal infested (or at least non-responsive) bureaucracy masquerading as a government arm: Trump administration guts board of US Institute of Peace. Group says DOGE arrives | AP News. Read with the asterisk that the AP once a totally fact-based reporting cooperative has over the past 40-years restyled itself (and The AP Stylebook) as change agents; falling into pronoun idiocy and the like.  (My personal pronoun is still “George.” BTW.)

Police State or anti-money laundering? Treasury lowers cash reporting threshold to $200 in some locales. So,taking out$200 in cash in some border zips could be consider suspect?

And what happened to Macron and Trump being “besties”? French lawmaker calls for U.S. to return Statue of Liberty.  Bet me the 98-gender crowd will press for something a little less, oh, you know, binary?

COVID justice coming? Trump VOIDED Pardons Of Fauci & Biden Family, Dems WILL Face Justice w/Eleazar Perez.

Passings: Jesse Colin Young of the Youngbloods.  Not doing so well on his “Get Together” part, are we?

Around the Ranch: Slacker’s Notes

Short column.  At 76 I am done with real work.  Urban – as promised – will shrink the free side as the real work product – like tomorrow’s 6-thousand-odd word treatise on The Secret Life of Death will be on the Peoplenomics.com site.  $40-bucks a year, but AI tells me it’s in the $300 class so yes, raising prices will come but “founder prices” for all who are current will be part of the mix.

Meanwhile I turned off Google ads – the more to the point I write, the less revenue “mysterious” from ads,.  Screw ’em.  You’ll have to suffer with faster page load times, I suppose.

With that, a full menu of dancing with work awaits.

Let’s talk freely here Thursday maybe?

Write when you get rich,

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