Lion ponderings

    Party's over.     Some reloads created some dry patches.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2nd big benefit cut, on a mid week holiday when no-one was expecting it.   The 1st was the temporary loss of 401k in 2020.  They're now dropping all health coverage for dependents, which is a big hit for the ones with kids & the breadwinners, not so much for the rejected lions.  Generally, employees in the top tier companies have to pay for part of their health insurance premium.  We've been 100% covered so far.  In tiny startups, lions have been 100% covered since 2007, last paying in big companies before 2007.  However, the dependent hit is worse than what the top tier companies charge. The hardest workers were pissed & they really worked hard, outright believing in the promises.  Never hire anyone over 15.  Probably going to lose more key animals wit...

The blue wave jokes are in.  Trump tried regime change in Iran & got regime change in US.  It is now safe to blame democrats for inflation again.   Musk hasn't tweeted in hours.   Funny how no-one ever gets out of their Teslas, no-one knows what the hell is on the bike path, yet they all voted to raise their sales tax to fund BARF pensions.  In the past, the pre-election period was considered a time of uncertainty for stonks, depressing prices, while the post-election period was considered a time of certainty, temporarily boosting prices.  The winning party had no lasting impact.  The lion kingdom did well enough on the post election bump to ponder quitting early again.  There's still 4 years until the definite cutoff, pending employment.  The S&P did not recover its record high but the lion kingdom's BRK shares exploded. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ...

 Latest survey of consumer finances dropped.  The top 10% continued shooting upward while the rest stagnated.  The top 10% is the inflation of inflation targeting  & the bottom 90% is the deflation of inflation targeting.    The demographic under 35, gen Z & all the influencers bragging about getting rich actually lost a lot of ground.  35-44 or millennials gained some ground because they're famously rich & invested.  45-54 or generation X lost some ground because they're famously poor & made hail mary house purchases like mad in 2022.  Baby boomers are still living the dream.  35-44/millennials definitely lived up to their reputation as large living rich yuppies between the 2 forsaken ones. They replaced all the 70's ranch houses with frank lloyd wright airbnb's.  They repainted the world grey.  They started investing at the bottom in 2009 & rode the mountain of printed money up.  They became the...

 Pondered how a lot of retail investors on the sidelines since 2008, on the cusp of 1M, jumped in the stonk market during the dip in 2020, at the same time, then instantly crossed 1M.  Then based on stonk market returns, they all hit 2M 6 years later & now are getting the hell out at the same time.   Investment behavior is like a row of metronomes that all synchronize over time.  Large events of selling & buying eventually tend to line up.       Military defeat was not on the lion kingdom's bingo card.  Defending a shipping channel was pretty important for bond prices.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Magic  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34dAyDUglrI  From the department of stuff you didn't know.   No open source/stack overflow/claude. Just bookshelves.   No sampled audio or captured video. Just text ...

  Feel the pain of 30 million rejections.  Truth be told, polyamory & cohabiting replaced most of that.  The percentage of truly single men is much higher in silicon valley.  60% is a more likely number here.    ------------------------------ As expected, the delayed trades after Friday's inflation miss executed over the next 2 days & then we were down 3% from the all time high in August. Then the fall accelerated after the interest rate hike. Now they're saying to expect 4% by year's end.  It could be more jawboning to lower long term yields.       The retiretube permabulls of the last 5 years are now bailing out of the S&P index fund because for the 1st time in 20 years they can get a bigger return from bonds than stonks.  The Dave Ramsey plan just about died in as much time as it grew. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------  The day job completed a long awaited...

 Not surprising that AI models all discredit government subsidies as the reason for inflation.  What is surprising is that no-one questions AI anymore.  The invisible paw indeed.     That time of the month again.   Lions before the last rent increase burned $43k/year.  $2300/month was rent.  $200 was electricity delivery.  $1100 was the rest.  Healthcare was day job subsidized.  Merely getting a measly 5% from investments would be a dream.  It's been closer to 2%, for the last 2 years.  The 10% of internet fame is fiction.  No-one is 100% invested in the thing which is going up 10%.      Put it all in bonds & face a high chance of rates going to 0.  Put it all in stronk & you know.   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------  After many months of headlines about the government's reliance on selling short term bonds, the twist was made of...