Saturday, June 23, 2018
Friday, June 22, 2018
Will this trigger the need for the U.S. to invade Mexico?
Leading Mexican Presidential Candidate Calls for Immigrant Invasion of U.S.
Grant's Almost Daily Interest Rate Observer:
That $70 million sum may not remain the record holder for long: Sotheby’s is set to auction a 1962 250 GTO in Monterey, California on Aug. 24-25, affording collectors another opportunity to outbid one another. Ferrari historian and expert Marcel Massini recently forecast that the GTO will break the $100 million barrier in the next two to three years.
Following the prior benchmark sale in 2013, Grant’s took inventory of the skyward high-end luxury goods market (“Warranty not included”) in the context of the Fed’s then-hyperactive monetary policy, and attempted to determine the motivations of that $52 million car buyer:
Nostalgia? Automotive aesthetics? Suspicion of the currency, and of financial assets denominated in that currency, in this time of unprecedented monetary experimentation? Or maybe he just likes cars.
But, if the last-named hypothesis is correct, why do so many moneyed people like cars now?
Clearly, that was no passing infatuation. According to consulting firm Knight Frank, luxury autos have produced a whopping 334% return over the 10 years through 2017, by far the best performing subcomponent of the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index, which is up 126% over that period (wine takes second place with a 192% 10-year return, while furniture is the worst performing component with a 32% loss).
That 126% gain stacks up pretty well against other asset classes. The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index has risen by 13% over the 10 years ending in 2017, while gold gained 60% and the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Total Return Bond Index appreciated by 48%. Only the S&P 500’s 124% rise, with dividends reinvested, approached the performance of Knight Frank’s luxury gauge, and investors would have been obliged to patiently sit through the 50-plus percent 2008 drawdown on the way to their subsequent gains.
While the upper crust has contended with (or enjoyed) substantial inflation in asset prices, the real McCoy has been far more demure. Headline CPI rose just 17% in the 10 years ending December 2017.
Is the inflationary outcome long sought by policy makers finally upon us? Year-over-year CPI growth has remained over 2% through the first five months of 2018, reaching 2.8% in May to match its hottest reading since 2011. More broadly, the New York Fed’s Underlying Inflation Gauge, which includes CPI components as well as a variety of additional macroeconomic and financial data points, jumped to 3.27% in May, its highest reading since 2006.
Is the inflationary outcome long sought by policy makers finally upon us?
Records are made to be broken. On June 7, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO was reportedly sold in a private transaction for a cool $70 million, shattering the previous $52 million record price established 2013, to say nothing of Wikipedia-documented $10.6 million sale prices in 2004, and $2.2 million in 1997. With only a few dozen models of the vintage race car known to aficionados as the “Holy Grail” in existence, the limited supply likely figured prominently in a sale price equivalent to the cost of around 5,600 2016-model Toyota Camry’s, according to local asking prices on TrueCar.That $70 million sum may not remain the record holder for long: Sotheby’s is set to auction a 1962 250 GTO in Monterey, California on Aug. 24-25, affording collectors another opportunity to outbid one another. Ferrari historian and expert Marcel Massini recently forecast that the GTO will break the $100 million barrier in the next two to three years.
Following the prior benchmark sale in 2013, Grant’s took inventory of the skyward high-end luxury goods market (“Warranty not included”) in the context of the Fed’s then-hyperactive monetary policy, and attempted to determine the motivations of that $52 million car buyer:
Nostalgia? Automotive aesthetics? Suspicion of the currency, and of financial assets denominated in that currency, in this time of unprecedented monetary experimentation? Or maybe he just likes cars.
But, if the last-named hypothesis is correct, why do so many moneyed people like cars now?
Clearly, that was no passing infatuation. According to consulting firm Knight Frank, luxury autos have produced a whopping 334% return over the 10 years through 2017, by far the best performing subcomponent of the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index, which is up 126% over that period (wine takes second place with a 192% 10-year return, while furniture is the worst performing component with a 32% loss).
That 126% gain stacks up pretty well against other asset classes. The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index has risen by 13% over the 10 years ending in 2017, while gold gained 60% and the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Total Return Bond Index appreciated by 48%. Only the S&P 500’s 124% rise, with dividends reinvested, approached the performance of Knight Frank’s luxury gauge, and investors would have been obliged to patiently sit through the 50-plus percent 2008 drawdown on the way to their subsequent gains.
While the upper crust has contended with (or enjoyed) substantial inflation in asset prices, the real McCoy has been far more demure. Headline CPI rose just 17% in the 10 years ending December 2017.
Is the inflationary outcome long sought by policy makers finally upon us? Year-over-year CPI growth has remained over 2% through the first five months of 2018, reaching 2.8% in May to match its hottest reading since 2011. More broadly, the New York Fed’s Underlying Inflation Gauge, which includes CPI components as well as a variety of additional macroeconomic and financial data points, jumped to 3.27% in May, its highest reading since 2006.
From the man who presaged Trumpism, Pat Buchanan.
Does the U.S. have the Will to Survive the Existential Threat Created by the Invasion from Mexico/Central America?
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Good start, much more to go.
White House proposes sweeping reorganization of federal government
Currently a cheese pizza is regulated by the FDA, but a pepperoni pizza is under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Department.
White House proposes sweeping reorganization of federal government
Currently a cheese pizza is regulated by the FDA, but a pepperoni pizza is under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Department.
On this day in 1964,
On this day in 1964, three young Freedom Summer civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman (a former Honors Program student at the University of Wisconsin), Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney, were murdered in Neshoba County near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
The three had traveled to Longdale, MS, to meet with members of a black congregation whose church had been burned by the KKK. As they left the church, they were arrested allegedly for speeding, and thrown in jail for a few hours. When they were allowed to leave, they were followed by the local police and others, including members of the KKK. The police pulled them over again as they were about to leave the county and, with the mob, took the three to another location, tortured Chaney, and shot all of them at close range. Their bodies were buried deep in a nearby earthen dam. Their burnt-out car was found three days later near a swamp and their bodies were found two months later thanks to a then-anonymous tip to the FBI from a member of the local police force.
On the day he was murdered, Goodman wrote his last postcard to his parents:
When the State of Mississippi refused to prosecute, the federal government took over and successfully prosecuted several individuals with civil rights violations but failed to find all those involved. Forty-one years later, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged and convicted of three counts of manslaughter. Killen is currently serving a 60 year prison sentence.
In 1980, in what many believe is a black mark on his career, Ronald Reagan opened his campaign for president by giving a speech at the Neshoba County Fair Grounds near Philadelphia, expressing his support for states’ rights.
MISSISSIPPI BURNING
THREE "FREEDOM SUMMER" CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS MURDERED
"Mom & Dad - The people in this city are wonderful and our reception was very good."
On this day in 1964, three young Freedom Summer civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman (a former Honors Program student at the University of Wisconsin), Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney, were murdered in Neshoba County near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
The three had traveled to Longdale, MS, to meet with members of a black congregation whose church had been burned by the KKK. As they left the church, they were arrested allegedly for speeding, and thrown in jail for a few hours. When they were allowed to leave, they were followed by the local police and others, including members of the KKK. The police pulled them over again as they were about to leave the county and, with the mob, took the three to another location, tortured Chaney, and shot all of them at close range. Their bodies were buried deep in a nearby earthen dam. Their burnt-out car was found three days later near a swamp and their bodies were found two months later thanks to a then-anonymous tip to the FBI from a member of the local police force.
On the day he was murdered, Goodman wrote his last postcard to his parents:
Dear Mom and Dad,
I have arrived safely in Meridian. This is a wonderful town and the weather is fine. I wish you were here. The people in this city are wonderful and our reception was very good.
All my love.
AndyThe murder of the young Freedom Summer workers enraged the nation and helped guarantee passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
When the State of Mississippi refused to prosecute, the federal government took over and successfully prosecuted several individuals with civil rights violations but failed to find all those involved. Forty-one years later, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged and convicted of three counts of manslaughter. Killen is currently serving a 60 year prison sentence.
 |
| Edgar Ray Killen |
On this day in 1863,
West Virginia Secedes From Virginia and Becomes 35th State
On this day in 1863, West Virginia was admitted into the Union as the 35th state following its secession from secessionist Virginia.
After Virginia seceded to join the seven southern states that had originally seceded to form the Confederacy, western Virginians, who were mostly non-slave-owning farmers and laborers, felt increasingly alienated from and controlled by the eastern oligarchical planter-slaveholders. This sentiment had existed from the days of the American Revolution when area residents had unsuccessfully petitioned the Continental Congress to form the state of Westsylvania.
On June 11, 1861, western Virginia delegates voted to secede and wanted to name the state “Kanawha”. Western Virginia was immediately invaded by Confederate forces who took over the region claiming, ironically, that the westerners had no right to secede.
Notwithstanding the presence of Confederate troops, western Virginians voted in a public referendum for secession from Virginia and drew up a state constitution.
Although it took two years from the initial delegate vote, President Abraham Lincoln, who had his own reservations about West Virginia’s legal right to secede from Virginia, admitted West Virginia into statehood on this date two years later.
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
The man who presaged Trumpism,
Pat Buchanan: Trump Battles The ideology of Western Suicide - Open Borders
Monday, June 18, 2018
Althouse: A Look Back at how Political Pundits mocked Trump's Announcement he was running for President
But over the 3 years, my attitude has changed. I'm thinking of mining my archive to write a book with the title "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Donald Trump."
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Wait, wait, I thought these jobs were gone and weren't coming back?
Wisconsin Ranks 2nd Nationally in Manufacturing Jobs Added Over Year
60 Years Ago Today,
Billboard #1 Song
Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley
Well, I saw the thing comin' out of the sky
It had the one long horn, one big eye
I commenced to shakin' and I said "ooh-eee"
It looks like a purple eater to me
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
(One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater)
A one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (one eye?)
Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
"I wouldn't eat you 'cause you're so tough"
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (one horn?)
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line?
He said "eatin' purple people and it sure is fine
But that's not the reason that I came to land
I want to get a job in a rock and roll band"
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