Disembarked from the Osaka-Shanghai ferry to behold the video’s opening sequence in ‘88. The Peace Hotel - pyramid-shaped roof at 0:50 - was my accommodation. Which reminds me. The PRC maintained two currencies at the time, renminbi for the locals and FEC for foreigners. Officially the two currencies held the same value, but “Turks” (rough looking dudes from China’s Wild West) were offering stacks of renminbi at a discounted street corner exchange rate (yes, they were literally standing on the street corner). Helped stretch the intrepid traveler’s budget.
Be careful on that Retail Sales data, Wolf Richter made an excellent point it was a massive seasonal adjustment that resulted in the disappointing number, because raw data showed the biggest jump ever.
also, Truflation ain't real. they change their weightings every month, hard to find any statistical value in that. plus, do you believe inflation is 0.68%? Not where I live (and JJ you live nearby :) )
all good points Andy. ADP is 25 million workers from 500,000 businesss actual payroll data. Retail sales is a survey gathered by 700 PHD economists (fact) from 5,000 to10,000 retailers covering sales across various categories with revisions in arrears (meaning they are always wrong in the moment). According to AI searches Truflation leads CPI by 45 days with a 97% correlation using 18,000,000 data points from 60 sources like Amazon live. And its growing globally.
Did you know the price flickering across out screens nd trading ladders are not actual prices? The volume of order flowing into the matching engine at light speed are so voluminous the naked eye cannot percieve them So the exchnage produce a sample implied prices and post trade data in micro and milliseconds.
Assets ARE inflating, English muffins... not so much. Cotton is NOMINALLY 20 cents /pound cheaper than it was in the 1970s... so is pork and soy and wheat and corn. Gasoline in the harbor is cheaper than it was in 2005. I don't buy cars very often but I bought a ford explorer during covid when cars were like chickens teeth for about the same price as the burb I traded in when I bought it in 2016. Coffee is up cocoa is down, eggs!! lol!! Pick your poison I guess. I'll take my quotes from the pit.
I get it, but it's not the grocery store, it's health insurance and housing that continue to be the key drivers and are clearly the impetus behind the affordability crisis. all I know is that my Medicare payment rose 8.7% this year despite CPI rising 2.8%. That is the problem
RE: Eric Trump and Bitcoin...A Trump company that failed. Never seen that one before, or have we? Okay, okay.... he wasn't a two-time sitting President back then. Too bad because the school kids might be eating Trump steaks and going to Trump University.
Disembarked from the Osaka-Shanghai ferry to behold the video’s opening sequence in ‘88. The Peace Hotel - pyramid-shaped roof at 0:50 - was my accommodation. Which reminds me. The PRC maintained two currencies at the time, renminbi for the locals and FEC for foreigners. Officially the two currencies held the same value, but “Turks” (rough looking dudes from China’s Wild West) were offering stacks of renminbi at a discounted street corner exchange rate (yes, they were literally standing on the street corner). Helped stretch the intrepid traveler’s budget.
Filling the bitcoin reserve at 60k. What will they do at $34k?
Bitcoin finally genuinely looks like “A Solution rummaging about and looking for a Problem to solve”
"PS… hodl and wait …" Similar to the FX Poet....sometimes there is nothing to do (paraphrased).
gn sir.
Be careful on that Retail Sales data, Wolf Richter made an excellent point it was a massive seasonal adjustment that resulted in the disappointing number, because raw data showed the biggest jump ever.
https://wolfstreet.com/2026/02/10/not-seasonally-adjusted-retail-sales-spiked-by-80-billion-the-most-for-any-december-ever-by-far-to-817-billion-the-most-ever/
also, Truflation ain't real. they change their weightings every month, hard to find any statistical value in that. plus, do you believe inflation is 0.68%? Not where I live (and JJ you live nearby :) )
all good points Andy. ADP is 25 million workers from 500,000 businesss actual payroll data. Retail sales is a survey gathered by 700 PHD economists (fact) from 5,000 to10,000 retailers covering sales across various categories with revisions in arrears (meaning they are always wrong in the moment). According to AI searches Truflation leads CPI by 45 days with a 97% correlation using 18,000,000 data points from 60 sources like Amazon live. And its growing globally.
Did you know the price flickering across out screens nd trading ladders are not actual prices? The volume of order flowing into the matching engine at light speed are so voluminous the naked eye cannot percieve them So the exchnage produce a sample implied prices and post trade data in micro and milliseconds.
Assets ARE inflating, English muffins... not so much. Cotton is NOMINALLY 20 cents /pound cheaper than it was in the 1970s... so is pork and soy and wheat and corn. Gasoline in the harbor is cheaper than it was in 2005. I don't buy cars very often but I bought a ford explorer during covid when cars were like chickens teeth for about the same price as the burb I traded in when I bought it in 2016. Coffee is up cocoa is down, eggs!! lol!! Pick your poison I guess. I'll take my quotes from the pit.
I get it, but it's not the grocery store, it's health insurance and housing that continue to be the key drivers and are clearly the impetus behind the affordability crisis. all I know is that my Medicare payment rose 8.7% this year despite CPI rising 2.8%. That is the problem
as to the screens, I did not know that.
Thanks Sir JJ
RE: Eric Trump and Bitcoin...A Trump company that failed. Never seen that one before, or have we? Okay, okay.... he wasn't a two-time sitting President back then. Too bad because the school kids might be eating Trump steaks and going to Trump University.
Are you still flying Trump Air?