Dang!!

I guess all the XMAS presents are where they need to be, now what?

YouTube - Jimi Hendrix - Stockholm - The Wind Cries Mary (live 1967)

For dryfly

Researchers Find Pre-Clovis Human DNA

I see one large train a day usually. The other day I saw one that was at least half Schneider's orange truck trailers. The rest was Chinese shipping names. Schneider seems to be half the trucking I see on I-66

In related news Spain's Generalismo Franco's condition remains unchanged Jan '10 vs Jan '09.

Jan '09 was terrible. Flat doesn't mean flat it means terminal velocity when we are in multiyear doldrums.

In "The New Normal" it appears seasonality has seemingly disappeared. No one sprucing up their house for a Spring sale?

Nice chart on it here

The Big Picture » Blog Archive » Traffic Trends of North American Rail Freight

nova wrote:

The other day I saw one that was at least half Schneider's orange truck trailers.

I never drove for Schneider, but I debated it. A lot of new drivers start with them, but I guess you have to start somewhere. Schneider's and JB Hunt are everywhere.

If only we could trade Rail Traffic futures. Traders would probably run trains to support their bets.

Or use rail to ship their hookers and blow cross country....

nova wrote:

For dryfly

Researchers Find Pre-Clovis Human DNA

Cool. Thx.

I like to look at those charts and visualize what industries connected to them or doing good or not so good. Lumber does not look good.

nova wrote:

I see one large train a day usually. The other day I saw one that was at least half Schneider's orange truck trailers. The rest was Chinese shipping names. Schneider seems to be half the trucking I see on I-66

I saw the longest container train I've seen in years lately - it had three engines in front pulling and two in back pushing and a gazillion double decker container cars in between - all from China heading east across Minnesota. My guess is they either came a shore in Seattle or Vancouver - hard to tell as both BNSF & CN both cover these regions.

You for got Amtak

YLSP,

True. And now that it is no longer burning the question is will there be anything left to catch next time or is it ashes?

Rob Dawg wrote:

Jan '09 was terrible. Flat doesn't mean flat it means terminal velocity when we are in multiyear doldrums.

No, no this is broward's inflection point - like those I saw for blood pressure, you know when it stops going down...oh waitaminnit

nova wrote:

the jobs that are related to rail are not FIRE type jobs. Quarries, Lumber, chemicals etc. A lot of towns are not going to come back from this is my guess.

There's always hope until they start tearing up the tracks.

Great Interview

An Insider’s View of the Real Estate Train Wreck - Casey Research

2.5 months and Geithner still hasn't responded to letters from Liz Warren...

Sorry last post but...can someone explain to me in simple terms how this Greece loan guarantee will be done? I was under the assumption that they had borrowed too much money and are not in a position to pay it all back.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

Or use rail to ship their hookers and blow cross country....

One stimulus that AIG is providing.

He Hate Me wrote:

Sorry last post but...can someone explain to me in simple terms how this Greece loan guarantee will be done? I was under the assumption that they had borrowed too much money and are not in a position to pay it all back.

Yeah, I can't explain it.

the-least-trusted-banks-in-america: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

bottom seven

Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, TD/Commerce, Fifth Third, Citibank, and in last place, HSBC.

Basically Greek will issue bonds with a guarantee from Germany if they don't pay it back.
I'm thinking about the FDIC guarantees for banks.

It costs nothing for Germany unless Greece fails at cleaning itself up. But what are the chances of that?

The idea that the German people would stand for that kind of giveaway is just not believable to me...and after having seen our giveaway so close up.

Obviously NOT a national solution but local folks have to do what local folks have to do when faced with these kinds of situations.

Turning an old railroad bridge over the Hudson into a trail put Poughkeepsie, NY back on the map.

Walkway over the Hudson

sportsfan wrote:

Tracks have been pulled many places, of course, but it seemed to me that the railroads kept the rights of way.

The secret is to tell the railroad to pick one of two prices. Either they name their own price no matter how high or they accept $1. The catch? The name your own price comes with an environmental assessment.

Rob Dawg,

It could even be worse. They may have gotten a tax deduction for donating it to the State.

nova wrote:

Even better and uglier

Eric Boehlert:

"If you don't think there's a media double standard that favors Republicans over Democrats, then let's play a game of what-if.

What if, in 2006, at Yearly Kos, the first annual convention of liberal bloggers and their readers, organizers shelled out $100,000 for former Vice President Al Gore to address attendees? And what if the same organizers booked as an opening-night speaker a fringe, radical-left conspiracy theorist who'd spent the previous year pushing the thoroughly debunked claim that some Bush White administration insiders played a role in, and even planned, the 9-11 attacks. What if the speaker (also proudly anti-Semitic) received a standing ovation from the liberal Yearly Kos crowd?

Given that backdrop, and given the fact that the 9-11 Truther nut had for weeks bragged about his chance to share the stage with Gore, do you think the press would have demanded that Gore justify his association with a hateful conference that embraced a 9-11 Truther? Do you think pundits would have universally mocked and ridiculed Gore's judgment while condemning the Yearly Kos convention as being a hothouse of left-wing hate? Do you think Gore's appearance would have become a thing?

I sure do. Gore and liberal bloggers would have been crucified by the press and the D.C. chattering class if the scenario I described ever unfolded in real life.

I don't think there's any doubt."

dryfly,

Glad to hear it's a success. I would definitely use a trail like that on weekends. Small local shops would be a distinct part of the enjoyment of the experience.

As you might imagine, the desert Southwest doesn't offer the same type of natural beauty. Though it's possible to go biking, it seems most people here prefer motorized off-road vehicles.

sportsfan wrote:

Rob Dawg,
It could even be worse. They may have gotten a tax deduction for donating it to the State.

Come on. Use you imagination. The State could be leasing the railbed from the railroads for use as a bike trail.

For sportsfan

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy:: Creating a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines:: Building healthier places for healthier people.

You can search by state for any local rails to trails projects.

Outsider wrote:

What's in it for Germany if Greece can't repay their German loans?

Does Germany get to repo Greece?

German banks & pension funds fail if Greece defaults. Germany is pretending they don't have skin in the game but they sure do. Maybe more than the Greeks do - Greece defaults they're still Greeks [beaches, good food - smallish poor homes in a great place to live]. Germans are still stuck in Germany - now working even harder. Greece is someplace you go - Germany is someplace you leave.

German banks & pension funds fail if Greece defaults.

So Germany loses either way around.

sportsfan wrote:

Though it's possible to go biking, it seems most people here prefer motorized off-road vehicles.

That is done here too but not on these trails - in the local state forests [they are more commercial than national forests & the state allows ATVs to use them - especially since Polaris is a major producer & located in Minnesota & with plants in both Minnesota & Wisconsin].

and in last place, HSBC

I have an account at HSBC, so I think it sounds strange but I'm glad their in last place.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but they are not one of the TBTF banks, or large recipients of the TARP funds.

mp wrote:

11:47:05.0
The clock has advanced 1.0 seconds since 2/8/2010
China Dumps US Asset Backeds and Corporates

They have so much sort paper they don't need to dump. They can just let their positions expire and avoid any accusations.

RE wrote:

They are evaluating several strategies

This sounds so vague as to be meaningless. Tell me at least the Germans understand that this folly can't continue...

badger wrote:

Now in SW WI, there is a town where the trail is in back of 3 bars in a small town.

Or up in NE Wisconsin near Eagle River... ATV/snowmobile trails running bar to bar to bar... To oblivion and beyond!!!

When Iceland went down the tubes, no country stepped in to save them. I guess that's the helpful thing about being in a "union".

Iceland
Greece
?
?
?

My guesses:
Ireland
Portugal
Latvia

if you can find it try these..
great beer
Lost Coast Brewery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aig is part of this greek tragedy..

Greek Debt Crisis: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International 

great visualization- actually depressing at you look at what could have been done...

The Billion Dollar Gram | Information Is Beautiful

This Toyota debacle isn't going to help Japan any. I don't think it's going away anytime soon either.

I believe the UK & Netherlands BOTH stepped in to bail out the exposure their banks had to Icelandic bonds

Oh. As you say, good luck to UK & Neth, and now good luck to Germany.

There doesn't seem to be a good solution here.

I think you can scratch Ukraine - they just elected a pro-Russian gov't. They'll be okay for at least awhile. Putin will do everything in his power to show the others in Eastern Europe they can come back home. He'll leave the lights on for them.

He Hate Me wrote:

Absolutely deflationary, so how will they pay back a bill that was taken under a different monetary situation?

They won't. And good luck making the Greeks work hard to pay Germans back - it will be a lesson on how you really can't herd cats.

honda is not doing to well either

Looks like Ford may just be the #1 car mfg. soon just by - dare I use the term - default.

Outsider wrote:

There doesn't seem to be a good solution here.

No, no there isn't. We're years past a good solution. We're 18 months past a crappy solution. The only choices these days aren't really choices at all.

Like standing with a garden hose in the midst of a house inferno, wondering if you should focus your energy on trying to save the kitchen or the living room. A smoke detector would have been a good idea, but it's a little late.

The only choices these days aren't really choices at all.

Well, the movie heroes keep fighting even against all odds. Sometimes it works, like for Bruce Lee.

Ah well. Better

dryfly wrote:

Outsider wrote:
Looks like Ford may just be the #1 car mfg. soon just by - dare I use the term - default.
Next year they have a contract up - they better not gloat.

The union better listen too. Every other union in the country had better whisper in their ear.

Asian markets...Nikkei up, Toyota up, Honda falls...

The link 'China to sell U.S. Treasuries' is 'China Investo, Global Investo'...is that the way the site spells it...

Rob Dawg wrote:

The union better listen too. Every other union in the country had better whisper in their ear.

Ford knows what they need to do - Ford the ESOP - a very competitive long term contract is within grasp if they did. Ford equity [hedges & pensions & MFs mostly - some family equity] doesn't want that - they want GMs concessions without going dot-gov first.

Isn't going to happen. Ford either takes a long hard fatal strike [ends up dot-gov] OR goes ESOP so as to avoid going dot-gov. If they waffle they go dot-gov anyway.

Author on the site (China Investo) above spells 'proliferation'...'prof iteration'...is this link trustworthy?

merchants of fear wrote:

Author on the site (China Investo) above spells 'proliferation'...'prof iteration'...is this link trustworthy?

I doubt it; pure as far as I'm concerned. But the idea that Chinese military officials are salivating over the idea of using their reserves as a strategic weapon appears to be very real and rather concerning, if not completely predictable.

RE wrote:

I don't know what you mean by " different monetary situation". The trouble I see is that the EU imposed, harsh cutbacks will hugely reduce already low tax revenues resulting in the typical deflationary spiral. It will sound good politically initially and result in a disaster later.

Hmm... Is that kinda like trying to pay back a bill that you couldn't really afford when you were making $100k a year and now your making $40k.

dryfly wrote:

Am I the only one seeing this as theater of the absurd?

I don't take this Chinese treasury selling threat at all seriously. It's is just a little strategic hint to influence U.S. behavior and it is working well. They'd be total fools to attempt it and I don't think they are fools.

dryfly wrote:

Yup sell some US treasuries and see what happens to the yuan then... and exports later.

The immediate effect might well be salutory with respect to the yuan...as selling a boatload of T's would represent a major demand for dollars...it would, however, be extremely short lived as the dollars are then plowed into...what?

Good read:

OP-ED COLUMNIST; America Is Not Yet Lost - NY Times 

Doc,
Awww! Krugman?!?!?!?!?!?

This is pretty amusing when considered in the context of Ben's hyped up Fedspeak tomorrow about an exit strategy.

Yup, he doesn't know shit about the politics game.
When you have a supermajority like the Democrats you try to pass the most extreme legislation you can.
When you have a minority, all you can do is obstruct.

Go look at how the Demos voted 2006 debt raise

Must watch video from Gary North on Social Security, Medicare, and the state of Americans' retirement. It's long (90 minutes), but worth it.

Retirement Armageddon: The Video Seminar

FRBSF Economic Letter: Global Household Leverage, House Prices, and Consumption (2010-01, 1/11/2010)  (saw this on Paul Kedorsky's site, but h/t goes to Cinco-x apparently)

EconomPic: The Death of the Workforce
puts the 80s into context

When might they do it? If their trade w/ US tanks anyway. Then why not? Until then its all military war game theory.

Indeed. On my list of impending threats, this would rank pretty low. I imagine we'd only see a manifestation of this threat in association with some sort of black swan event. Maybe like some modern version of a cuban missile crisis, or something similar.

Don't mercantilists want to be paid in precious metals?

From the comments in that link we get to Bob Herbert:

OP-ED COLUMNIST; The Worst of the Pain - NY Times

...What you’re not hearing from the politicians and the talking heads is that the joblessness and underemployment in America’s low-income households rival their heights in the Great Depression of the 1930s — and in some instances are worse. The same holds true for some categories of blue-collar workers. Anyone who thinks this devastating problem is going away soon, or that the economy can be put back on track without addressing it, is deluded.

There has been talk about income inequality over the past several years, but what is happening now is catastrophic. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston divided American households into 10 groups based on annual household income. Then it analyzed labor conditions in each of the groups during the fourth quarter of 2009.

The highest group, with household incomes of $150,000 or more, had an unemployment rate during that quarter of 3.2 percent. The next highest, with incomes of $100,000 to 149,999, had an unemployment rate of 4 percent.

Contrast those figures with the unemployment rate of the lowest group, which had annual household incomes of $12,499 or less. The unemployment rate of that group during the fourth quarter of last year was a staggering 30.8 percent. That’s more than five points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the Depression. ...

So I'm wondering with that unemployment article above, why the banks would even lend if they could with foreclosures mounting...consumer credit economy has been destroyed...the greatest credit destruction of all time...messing with the bank regs and capital requirements was a big mistake for a functioning consumer based society...pretty soon the pieces of the puzzle of why this Bust has happened will become obvious which will eliminate some of the superficial reasons being targeted...

noob goldberg wrote:

Like standing with a garden hose in the midst of a house inferno, wondering if you should focus your energy on trying to save the kitchen or the living room. A smoke detector would have been a good idea, but it's a little late.

There was a smoke detector, but someone took the batteries out for the remote.

Wouldn't it be ironic if we wake up on Thursday to find out Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has traded secure Iranian oil contracts with China for all of their US Treasury holdings? He could release a few billion from low helicopters over Greece just to show us he's serious.

mpthompson wrote:

He could release a few billion from low helicopters over Greece just to show us he's serious.

I don't think that crashing the worlds reserve currency would work out so well for Iran OR China.

Kauai_Kahuna wrote:

Slumdog, where would you recommend buying physical PM's from?

The best pricing I've found is at tulving.com.

Hannes Tulving Rare Coin (X900050) A consent order was signed by the court on June 22, 1992. The financial records for this case show that the defendant complied with the order and made all payments between 1992 and 1997. There has been no payment activity since December 1997. As of 09/30/99, there was $245,309 in the account. According to the FTC attorney, because so little was collected relative to the value of the scam (estimated at $10 million or more), redress was never considered.

FTC Office of Inspector General

I hope I get that FBI-type job. It looks awesome.

Speed wrote:

China has a poor sense of timing

China has a long sense of time.

That said, this time they may be big but they are not sophisticated. They start messing with world financial systems and the most likely outcome is crashing their internal economy. Push comes to shove nobody needs Yuan and if they are perceived as not being a fully convertable world currency nobody will want it either.

Man, that "aqua teen hunger force" is brilliant.

sportsfan wrote:

Oddly, I'm sitting here with nothing to say.
Maybe I should start drinking again.

I am drinking, and I have nothing to say.

YouTube - Talking Heads - Don't Worry About the Government - Old Grey Whistle Test

sportsfan wrote:

I hadn't heard of that happening. Tracks have been pulled many places, of course, but it seemed to me that the railroads kept the rights of way. With the State (WI) involved, it may have been possible to put a larger trail system together in a way that a private company might not have been able to do. Complete with rent-a-bike: pretty neat. "

Basically what has happend with rail is the final dissolution of the results of the great railroad bubble of the 1890s. and the 1900-1914 period. Recall at that time in the midwest the goal was to cut the distance a horsedrawn waggon had to get to the railroad to 15 miles. If you look at a map of railoads in IA for 1948 for example you see this. (Likewise in Texas for example there were at 1 time 4 rail lines running west out of Houston, now its down to 2. (The four were originally build by different companies and merged during the various rail crises of the 1890s thru 1980s. Today I believe the rail truck point is likley in the 200 mile range. If for example you go to Clovis NM, on the Main BNSF line you see large numbers of container trains heading east, to Chicago, and points east. It is interesting that the first containers were developed in the 1920s but the ICC forbade them.
If you apply a 100 mile rule and recall that we now have essentially 6 railroads instead of hundreds, 2 in the west 2 in the east and 4 in the middle (Kansas City Southern and CN/Illinois Central) (West BNSF and UP, East CSX and NS). So with the larger range trucks can haul to rail 50 mile spacing in IA makes more sense.

sportsfan wrote:

Thanks for the info, Mike. I don't expect to see any rails-to-trails in my area. We just have a triple main line heading NE out of the Los Angeles basin. I don't think that will ever be converted so long as we are using trains to move goods.

Actually the LA area has the line thru Santa Barbra, the line up CA 14 to the central valley, the Cajon Pass line you mentioned, a line along I-10 to the Yuma, and a line to San Diego. Inside the area for example the old Santa Fe tracks to Pasadena are now light rail, although further east not yet. So its lines interior to the basin that have been abandoned, but because basically there were only 3 railroads(UP,SP, ATSF) in LA you did not have the overbuilding that happened further east

I find the idea of Chinese generals waving $2 trillion in American IOUs at us like some kind of weapon a little funny.

Oh, and HSBC is definitely TBTF. In fact, it ranks right up there as one of the most important TBTF banks in the world. The US won't be the one bailing it out if SHTF, though.

Not many banks still get to do this: http://www.joelscoins.com/images/hkpm191.jpg

yeah

poic wrote:

the seizing of my civil liberties via the patriot act was under the Republicans. Personally I find that seizure much more important.

Check the Senate breakdown Oct 2001.

"The Corolla appears to have EPS (electronic power steering) problems: "[I] notice the steering wheel sometimes pulses only when my cell phone is...docked to the right of the steering wheel.."

That all sounds like some nerd's ultimate revenge. "HA! Screw you all. I won't do proper EMP shielding to this circuit board design. Let see whether somebody notices".

Then that circuit schema is printed onto millions of boards in some Chinese subcontractor monkey clone factory and shipped out. Today that guru is laughing loudly somewhere

Their only to escape real scrutiny and revelations. The tinfoil icon even looks like a cover...blanket tinfoil labelling protects special compartmentalized interests from successful inquiries and 'discovery'...

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

Let the bankers try to replace 600,000 skilled workers... Anyone can be an air traffic controller.

Reagan showed that to be somewhat true. There is a pretty decent ATC school in Biloxi.

Kind of. Somewhat. Collisions went up, no?

Thx Juvenal Delinquent. Might Tulving be a major source for counterfeit gold coins?

Slumdog,
Not enuff gold to cover all the 'gold' investments sold probably...so a paper bubble...

damn, for once I had a well thought out post about income statements and their importance but now it seems
there is a time lock on comments!
CR & Koop - aren't you takng yourself a bit too seriously? loosen up! not trusting the commentators reminds me
much about Apple and their locked down kernel.
...
here's a vid snippet of my nominee for CR's new position of Graph Girl YouTube -
...
time for

Oxtail wrote:

Chinese generals waving $2 trillion in American IOUs at us like some kind of weapon [is] a little funny.

Americans bursting into laughter all over the world.

"Foolish, Chinamen! We take you good!"

Article said that China will raise salaries.

Sounds more like capitulation than victory to me.

I like the Duke.

I need an outrageous persona to eclipse me and to aspire to.

I'm going to sleep, I have a serious RL interview tomorrow.

Kauai_Kahuna wrote:

In short, the shell game is about to be exposed. It may be covered with QE cement for a while longer, but sooner or later it will crack again.

Ben and his press have kept it together so far... It should be interesting to see what happens when he takes his foot of the accelerator... he might be driving a Toyota.

Uh, yeah, risk committee meetings in DC used to do that to me in '08.

You are in the hills. They are heavily defended, and it's warm. There are many worse places to be.

C

Tulving was running a scam, and as per the FTC link, he paid about a quarter of a million dollars to the Federal Trade Commission, for the scam estimated to be around $10 million.

Slumdog, don't you do any due diligence?

You're probably off to bed but perhaps you'll come back and read this. I get anxious, very anxious too. Realize life goes on, even during previous Depressions and social unrest, political uprisings.

I think the large metropolitan areas will suffer most, historically this is true. Extremely rural areas aren't a good idea either as some these areas have been depressed for a very long time. Unless you live there for a long time, its difficult to become accepted by those whose have lived there lives there. Crime is already rising in some rural depressed areas including home invasions in these areas where there are no jobs.

Being as self-sufficient as is possible is important but no man is an island. Live in a 'community' where you can get to know people, merchants and where there are still people who would rather help you than hurt you. Plan and plan some more, this eases my anxieties, plan for the worst, and hope for the best. I know its a trite saying but it is true particularly during uncertain times.

Learn balance in your life, I have to step away from it sometimes and count my good fortunes. We here in the US forget to do that, by sheer accident of birth, most of us never have experienced hunger, cold, fear and other harsh realities a lot of the world deals with every single day. Keeping in that thought, learn to enjoy what are those simple parts of life which is a lost art form here in the US, but exceptionally rewarding. Learn to garden, learn to cook whole foods, use your hands to create something out of nothing, write about it; look upon this time as an opportunity personally, not in how to play the casino, but how to live life well. Take care of you and yours and then remember to do what you can for those not as fortunate in whatever way you can without judgments of who is deserving and who isn't, not blindly but with compassion that is also a lost value. Money isn't always the answer to everything particularly when building relationships, community and coping during difficult times.

I hope this helps, its common sense but often its forgotten that we are a nation with vast resources misspent; human and otherwise. Once we understand that, perhaps we will progress and flourish again.

traderwalt wrote:

Chinese exports and imports rose

I'm increasingly less believing of anything. These people, who have never made payroll, hired and managed, or know the first thing about being a decent human animal decide that some arcane data point is any kind of indication of anything.

VTV, yup, but the other side of the coin is that there is a vast underground economy that under reports business to avoid taxes, corrupt officials, etc. However, as you say, we really don't have a good idea what's happening...

And it is efficient!

It sure is, I dumped out yesterday, I seriously think we are going down. That 100 plus yesterday was pure speculation. I feel the Market is grasping for the smallest bit of good news and is moving on nothing but emotion at the moment.

I made a little money yesterday, but I am going on the sides, maybe we will see some bargains pop up. But right now....cash is king.

shill wrote:

the Market is grasping for the smallest bit

and that singularly unpleasant person (Liesman) on CNBC asked somebody moments ago, "Will Bernanke's remarks be a tradeable event?"

Hell, the sun came up this morning, trade the news. We're going to lunch, trade the event. The trains aren't running, trade the event.

I been out, out, out of the market since 2007. Nothing in the market.

And I'm running out of popcorn.

hopium butter, ummmmm

Someone needs to update the (outdated) Monopoly game.

The New Millenium version needs to include swaps and derivatives, big banker bonuses, and needs to go global.

Now that would be an educational game for kids to play.

Monopoly - Product Catalog