https://twitter.com/BarrelJumpist/status/1688263359282790405?s=20
o) on the one hand it's a little confusing the general public is so down on the economy. sudden rate hikes? inflation? people not realizing inflation is falling?
o) not surprising at all from this corner of Twitter, where pessimism = seriousness
They're both true at the same time "the economy is better than it was" and "we continue to live in crushing precarity”
https://twitter.com/ObserverSuns/status/1687443114967863296?s=20
Not inevitably, but it’s a problem when plans big and small, financial and psychological, were built on other expectations.
this environment has produced a narrative for everyone
The irony is that it’s a great time to study petroleum engineering. Lower-48 drilling has at least a 30-year career’s worth of runway, and more importantly for kids, the industry’s capital allocation is much improved, so you don’t have the same risk of getting laid off as someone my age did. And even if you’re focused on climate change, inasmuch as oil demand exists (which it does and will), surely it’s best if more petroleum engineers are also environmentalists. The oil and gas PMC has long been very well-paid versus other industries due to compensating differentials in a not-glamorous industry—that’s only going to get bigger with this trend (+cont’d retirements). I’d tell my kids it’s among the least competitive routes to a really good quality of life. Doubt they’ll do it though (hence the charts).
So the 3 biggest producers (IP, WRK, & PKG) representing 2/3 of the market are seeing improvement in volumes.
Berkshire reported 2Q results this morning. As always, there's more under the hood than the reported results. A few thoughts on what is a very mixed bag. BRK is a good proxy for the US economy. The industrial economy is weak, consistent with what other companies are reporting
Either this is a very well-done fake, or we really did just enter the era of room temperature superconductors. What is seen here (stable levitation above a dipole magnet) can only be a result of flux pinning. If the sample was a previously known low temp SC that had been chilled—at this tiny size—it would quickly warm and quench. Also, no sign of condensation in the air.
**[CARS]**Fascinating chart showing % of residents paying over $1,000/month for their cars. Fun fact: More than 1 in 5 shoppers in Texas and Wyoming committed to a monthly payment over $1,000/mth in Q2 (driven by purchases of large trucks)
A new nuclear plant built from scratch has entered commercial service for the first time in more than 30 years.
Output can keep getting produced in short run as a result of past efforts of your workforce, even if you cut to the bone today. Empty calorie productivity gains
There is a very, very important difference between telling someone that their PERSONAL EXPERIENCE is incorrect (do not do this!) and telling someone that their understanding of national-scale trends is incorrect (this is just normal political discussion and happens all the time). If we are forced to accept everyone's subjective interpretations of the world as true, no matter how loosely it relates to their lived experience, we're pretty much living in Trumpland, where everyone's knee-jerk beliefs are always indulged, no matter how contradictory or false
"People seem to thrive—not always in high salaries but in health and life chances—when inequality is low; when landownership is widespread; when social connection is high; and when corruption and violence are rare”
[NEGATIVITY] They twist an upsetting tale to fit cleanly into a socio-political narrative. it doesn’t matter if the causes and judgements posited are “accurate” or half-true or a total falsity