16 Comments
User's avatar
al m's avatar

Always a good read!

Expand full comment
Pete W's avatar

Whether this happens to be the first you’ve seen it or it’s old news I’d pay some $ for a livestream of your initial reaction.

Expand full comment
Mr Risk's avatar

You mean the guy who said in January 2008 that the Fed is not forecasting a recession, but in fact the NBER later said the recession began in Dec 2007?

Expand full comment
Rudy Havenstein's avatar

Sadly, I did see it.

Expand full comment
G7Doug's avatar

I'm seeing a number of fintech charts that present data that includes shaded areas for past recessions - KC Fed manufacturing, inverted yield curve, etc. - and the thing that jumps out at me is that all past data points are well into, or even out of the recession at the similar level of today's data point? Does this mean we already had the recession, or is the inevitable recession will be like nothing ever seen before?

Expand full comment
Rudy Havenstein's avatar

I tend to share the charts I see that are the most interesting - bullish or bearish - and yes, I noticed the same thing you did. The people I think are smarter mostly seem to think we are heading to or in recession, but smarts and this market seem to be disconnected. I can't believe that the biggest bubble in history ends with a minor correction, but I am not in charge.

Expand full comment
Kristi O'Sullivan's avatar

Don’t worry about the declining manufacturing index, we’ll be making 155mm artillery shells soon. Failing that cluster bombs. Either way, all will be ok (snark)

Expand full comment
bigfatpop's avatar

My wife and I are owned by a 5-pound Yorkie. He expects cucumber slices in the evening. Two years ago, they cost $.59 each. They’re now $.69. Inflation is real. I may have to take that Greeter job at Walmart.

Expand full comment
Jim Davidson's avatar

One of the points my dad made in conversation about flat tax proposals thirty years ago was they ignored the massive and very popular subsidy for mortgage interest deductibility. The long period of very low interest may have obscured this point recently. But it is a huge difference between renting and making mortgage payments, especially in the early years of a twenty or thirty year mortgage when most of the payment is going to interest.

Another reason for home ownership is the homestead exemption in bankruptcy law. Once you own your home and it isn't collateral for a loan, it, your tools, and one vehicle to get to work are really hard to claw away from you. This is going to be more apparent as tens of millions of Americans face personal bankruptcy.

These are not very humourous points though, so I'll look for silliness next time. 😁🎶

Expand full comment
Kristi O'Sullivan's avatar

It’s interesting the psychology of home ownership too. Germans for instance are happy to rent; however, the tenancy laws are very strong in favour of the renter. I suspect Americans - owing to what used to be the drive for self-sufficiency and the desire to forge their own path to the “American Dream” are like the Irish (who have a different history - centuries of being denied property ownership under the Brits). Both cultures have strong emotional drives to own their own ‘patch of land’ and the inability to achieve home ownership is fundamental to their well-being/life satisfaction IMO.

Expand full comment
Rudy Havenstein's avatar

Yeah, its roughly 2/3 homeowners, 1/3 renters nationally, but it's definitely getting harder to own. Then again renting is no picnic either. Inflation is a bad thing.

Expand full comment
Jim Davidson's avatar

Inflation is terrible. I blame the government.

Expand full comment
Rudy Havenstein's avatar

In high cost states now your deductions are sigificantly limited since Trump's tax bill.

Expand full comment
Jim Davidson's avatar

Trump never loved us.

Expand full comment