Deflation is peeking out of the PPI numbers just out:
“The Producer Price Index for final demand decreased 0.4 percent in March, seasonally adjusted.
In March, over 70 percent of the decrease in the index for final demand can be traced to prices for final demand goods, which fell 0.9 percent. The index for final demand services declined 0.2 percent.
Prices for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services edged up 0.1 percent in March after
increasing 0.4 percent in each of the previous 3 months. For the 12 months ended in March, the index for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services advanced 3.4 percent.
To these old, jaundiced, bloodshot, tired eyes this sure looks like costs of production are coming down and that leads us to think a lot of retailers are just using Trump tariffs as an excuse to poke a little pechewzelwhacker at consumers… (Hey! How come pechewzelwhacker ain’t in spell check while cheese wacker is?)
We will dig into the rest of the day from really obscure to really pertinent. Keeps the de-literate riffraff away.
OM and OOB
Been up early today, working on a special Peoplenomics report for next week. On how to super-charge your brain. Using the techniques in the report is more than slightly interesting. Because it allows you to tap into really obscure things in your past. I mean like stuff that you had totally forgotten about at the conscious level.
Need and Example?
When I was young (mid-sixties) I shelved books at the Seattle Public Library. Made a whopping 25-cents an hour. Today, using the techniques in the Peoplenomics report, I happened to recall one title that seemed pertinent. “Up the Down Staircase” – a 1964 novel by Bel Kaufman. So I questioned the Electric George A.I. stack about it.
Book Summary: “Up the Down Staircase”
Bel Kaufman’s novel chronicles the chaotic, humorous, and often frustrating experiences of Sylvia Barrett, a new English teacher in a challenging urban high school. Told through memos, letters, student essays, and school announcements, the narrative highlights the absurd bureaucracy, inefficiencies, and the difficult—but rewarding—process of reaching students in an overwhelmed educational system. The title symbolizes the futility and irony of attempting to make meaningful progress within a dysfunctional system, akin to “going up” a staircase meant for descending.
Analogy to Recent Stock Market Activity:
Applying the metaphor of “Up the Down Staircase” to recent stock market dynamics suggests markets currently face a similar futility. Investors attempting to achieve upward gains (“up the stairs”) are met with resistance from broader downward pressures, such as rising interest rates, geopolitical uncertainties, inflation concerns, and economic slowdowns. Each rally higher can feel like moving against a descending staircase, meaning efforts to advance may be short-lived, as market sentiment and structural forces continue to push downward.
In practical terms, traders buying into short-term rallies might find themselves repeatedly frustrated by pullbacks as systemic risks and economic headwinds persist. Just as Sylvia Barrett faced bureaucratic inefficiencies that impeded genuine educational progress, investors today grapple with a market where upward momentum remains limited by underlying structural challenges and broader macroeconomic dysfunctions.
Thus, the phrase “up the down staircase” captures the essence of current market struggles—investors pushing upward against systemic resistance, achieving fleeting gains within a generally descending environment.
It was a small but useful personality fragment to re-integrate….but not nearly as useful as a couple of charts which we will update along with more than a dozen others in tomorrow’s Peoplenomics report.
My point? Simply that it’s looking (again) like the Easter Rally will be along as we have been yammering about. And just in time to fish the BTFD crowd into the markets ahead of Israel popping Iran which seems likely this weekend. For now? Techs are trying to turn…
Next week we have options, a market close for Good Friday (unless you’re in Tehran, maybe – we’ll see on that one )- and with the closure a four-day workweek. Not here, but somewhere; that’s the rumor.
Let the Headlines Roll
Huge Crypto win is what this is being called: Trump Signs First Crypto Law, Repealing IRS Anti-DeFi Rule.
My, ain’t this interesting, Dept. “UPDATE: Crossfire Hurricane Victoria Nuland Identified being Directly involved in Handling Sensitive Information Potentially Related to the Steele Dossier The mention of Victoria Nuland receiving investigative material from a U.S. firm tied to a former UK intelligence officer…Not rigged, huh?
Time to start packing a Laws Rocket, now? Colorado Gov. Jared Polis Signs Insanely Unconstitutional Gun Control Law With Huge National Implications. No detachable magazine on an M72, right?
Leave while it’s still a country? US ambassador to Ukraine plans to step down: Report
When they are not running phones through India to avoid China tariffs, Apple could have other items on its corporate mind: iPhone 16 buyers aren’t happy – and Apple may have a legal problem on its hands
Around the Ranch: Sniper Weekend
Pigs in the front yard are likely to come under fire this weekend as my friend Kalishnikov and I step out. See, I tried to settle this is a nice way. Offered the pigs a chance to change genders to stop dropping litters…no takers.
The “humane” option – repellents – didn’t get good reviews from the local feet store. Where the advice was “Pigs hate electricity, so a run of electric fence about 8 inches off the ground will work…otherwise a high speed led overdose and give the meat to a shelter…”
Then it got worse.
Three raccoons got up on the lean-to greenhouse off the recording studio. They pried up the polycarbonate clear roofing panel next to the house. Jail brea- in that way.
Again, Humane doesn’t cut it. I put out a banana in a “humane” trap and two of ’em were involved in the banana liberation,. One got the banana, the other “held the door.” Today, I’ll be tie-wrapping the banana in the trap.
All comes back on Elaine’s feral cats, though. Cat food, regular feedings outside…here come the coons, here come the pigs…sheesh.
Next time you think about leaving the city, or some liberal comes around talking gun control, you’ll see why my definition of “gun control” is a two-inch grouping.
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
Read the full article here
