An Urgent Appeal for Duane “The Master of Disaster” Peters

Posted on August 18, 2023 by MN Gordon

Duane Peters worked really, really hard at being “The Master of Disaster” for over 40-years.  Day after day.  Year after year.  Decade after decade.  He gave it his all.

It was a tough job.  The broken bones.  The knocked-out teeth.  The many face pummelings.  But he was good at it.

When inducted into the skateboarding hall of fame in 2015, Peters delivered, what must be, without question, the greatest acceptance speech of all-time.  This was the high-water mark of a turbulent life and career.

The last several years haven’t been kind to Peters.  The Master of Disaster was never supposed to live into his 60s.

Yet, somehow, he did.  And like the rest of us, he’s trying to make the most out of life in America circa 2023.

This week, the yield on the 10-Year Treasury note eclipsed 4.3 percent.  A 15-year high.  If yields continue to rise, and credit markets continue to tighten, this one thing will change everything.

Where to begin? Continue reading →

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Tasting the Forbidden Fruit

Posted on August 11, 2023 by MN Gordon

False price signals distorted by decades of extreme government intervention have compelled Americans into reckless spending, saving, and investment habits.  The wide range of mistakes that have taken place are irreversible.

Low-interest rates, courtesy of Federal Reserve balance sheet expansion, made people think they could borrow more money than they really could.

The yield on the 10-Year Treasury Note is currently at about 4.11 percent.  Apart from a brief moment last fall, the 10-Year Treasury yield hasn’t topped 4 percent since mid-2008.  In other words, borrowing costs haven’t been this high in over 15 years.

The direct consequences are obvious.  And should have been expected.

As the price of credit increases, debt servicing costs increase too.  This is no mystery.  Borrowers – including individuals, businesses, and governments – must now direct a greater share of their capital into paying their debts than they did a year ago.

For some, this is no big deal.  They didn’t take the bait of the Fed’s artificially cheap credit. Continue reading →

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How the Fed Retarded the Residential Real Estate Market

Posted on August 4, 2023 by MN Gordon

The US economy and financial markets often behave in confounding ways.  Something that appears to be obvious never materializes.  And something of little apparent prospect becomes a major theme.

With little indication, for example, gross domestic product (GDP) may expand in the face of menacing economic fundamentals.  Similarly, an extended bear market rally may appear to be a new bull market.

What’s more, when central planners have a heavy hand in extreme market intervention the distortions and false signals are especially puzzling.  Prices may avoid logic for extended periods of time.

Will Fed Chair Jay Powell successfully pilot a soft economic landing?

That’s what Marriott CFO Leeny Oberg believes.  On the company’s earnings call this week she said, “it now seems more likely that the US economy could have a soft landing.”

“What you’ve seen lately is still really strong employment numbers, increased expectations for GDP growth.  You’re also seeing that inflation is calming down, which I think … helps everybody think, ‘Okay, you know what?  We could actually have kind of a soft landing without a huge downfall.’” Continue reading →

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Lies, Witch Hunts, and America’s Next Rendezvous with Madness

Posted on July 28, 2023 by MN Gordon

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

– Exodus 22:18

Something Wicked

No one seems to know for certain Tituba’s actual origin.  Was she of the old world?  Was she of the new world?

Over the centuries, history, like an eroding creek bed, becomes muddy.  Things that were once known as facts become lost or obscured by the silt of time.  Sometimes they’re rewritten to better accord with prevailing prejudices.

What is known about Tituba is that she had an abstract mind.  And that, when called upon, she was willing to use it to appease the expectations of her masters.

This powerful combination, like thunder and lightening, sparked one of the more disturbing episodes of mass hysteria to ever occur on American soil.

Tituba likely sailed from Barbados to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1680 with Samuel Parris, where she remained his servant.  Nine years later, Samuel Parris became Reverend Samuel Parris, Salem Village’s first ordained minister.

For reasons unknown, in January 1692, Parris’ nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth, and eleven-year-old niece Abigail Williams, started having violent and uncontrollable fits.  They screamed, threw things, barked peculiar sounds, and twisted themselves into strange positions.  Another girl, 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr., experienced similar episodes. Continue reading →

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