Category: Aggregated

Editor’s Note: Published by the American Automobile Association, Sportsmanlike Drivingwas a popular driver’s education textbook used in high schools across the county during the 1950s. It’s a gem of a book, and what’s so interesting about it, as compared to manuals of today, is the way it frames driving behavior not simply in terms of what is legal and advisable, but in the light of character traits. “The Motor Age Citizen,” the manual argues, “must accept the moral responsibility of properly using the power machines he has devised.” The excerpts below outline the “mental make-up” of various types of poor drivers, who … Continue reading →

Another release of Fed minutes with no answers.  Big surprise.  It’s been six years of waiting for the Fed to tell us that we are no longer living under “exceptional economic and monetary conditions.”  It’s been six years of waiting for a true economic recovery, instead of unsustainable and stupefying housing, bond, and stock market bubbles.  And it’s been almost a year that we have been waiting for the Fed to raise interest rates by just 25 basis points. You would think that at this point the Fed could at least show us the courtesy of telling us what the … Continue reading →

They were among the first Stone Age humans to abandon the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle in favour of living in settled villages around 15,000 years ago. Now archaeologists have discovered the Natufian culture that lived in the Levant in modern-day Israel may also have pioneered the concept of church bells to summon the community together. Researchers have discovered strangely shaped boulders they believe were used as ceremonial ‘gongs’ that were pounded during burial ceremonies. The giant stones were thought to have been used as mortars to pound food but scientists have found the action would also have produced a distinctive sound … Continue reading →

Don’t you love farce? My fault, I fear I thought that you’d want what I want Sorry my dear But where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns Don’t bother they’re here . –        Stephen Sondheim . I haven’t posted anything for several days.  I have remained stuck on a couple of topics, one of which I will attempt to address here.  This will be a somewhat rambling post; I have several seemingly disparate thoughts jumping on top of each other as if they belong together.  Who am I to argue? This post represents my attempt to make some … Continue reading →

The Federal Reserve July monetary policy meeting minutes were scheduled for release at 2 p.m Eastern Time, today. At 1:47 p.m., the Fed put out a statement saying that the embargo on the minutes had been broken. The minutes are extremely sensitive information as traders often react to details of the minutes, and considering that the Fed is close to increasing rates, the minutes are even more significant. But Bloomberg blasted this headline out before the embargo expired: MOST FED OFFICIALS IN JULY SAW CONDITIONS FOR RATE RISE NEARING. It appears that the embargo was broken at aprox. 1:35 p.m. Bloomberg … Continue reading →