Well, it’s Thursday and there has not been any economic news of note to report this week. Raw steel production was down 1.0 percent from the week before. SBQ base prices will rise $40.00 per ton on September 1, 2014. That was announced by Gerdau and Nucor on Monday, Republic followed yesterday. This is interesting: [...]
Raw Steel Output Rose 1.4% Last Week to an ACUR of 79.8% Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) The CFNAI released on Monday reports: Led by slower growth in production related indicators, the CFNAI edged down to +0.12 in June from +0.16 in May. The index’s 3 month moving average (CFNAI-MA3), decreased to +0.13 in [...]
Xander Shawn Last night my son Jason and daughter in law Liz blessed me with the birth of their 2nd child, a 7 lb. 3 oz. bundle of joy, a little boy, Xander Shawn. I am now the very proud papa of 4 angels….and feeling very blessed. Israeli Incursion Egypt attempted to broker a truce [...]
Family is Fundamental 82 people shot with 14 of them killed in Chicago over the 4th of July weekend. I must assume that most or all of these shootings were perpetrated by thugs with illegally acquired firearms. As I have said before, more laws or rules regulating the ownership of firearms (by law abiding citizens) [...]
On Monday the Chicago Business Barometer was released and it eased to 62.6 in June from a seven month high of 65.5, but was still up sharply in the quarter and consistent with a bounceback in Q2 GDP. The Barometer was up considerably from 52.0 one year ago marking the fourteenth consecutive monthly expansion and [...]
Here was some good news to start the week: Led by improvements in production related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) increased to +0.21 in May from -0.15 in April. The index’s three month moving average (CFNAI-MA3) decreased to +0.18 in May from +0.31 in April, marking its third consecutive reading above zero. [...]
Remembrance I have not written in several weeks due to an unexpected health issue, however the earth continues to spin so I'm playing some catch up here, but before I move on I want to take a moment to remember the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. To recall the sacrifices [...]
WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS …..at least we did not in the past. Putting little signs on Face book or Twitter saying “return our girls” is simply ineffective and childish. Who or what kind of people do you think we are dealing with? These are radical Islamists, enemies of freedom and enemies of the [...]
This is great: “Investors undertook their annual pilgrimage to Omaha this weekend to hear Warren Buffet opine on open markets and the world. One surprise is that the Berkshire Hathaway CEO seems to have adapted (NOT adopted) his famous Buffet Rule of taxation when it applies to his own company.” “Readers may recall the original [...]
Is it possible ... that 40 (that we know of) American Veterans were put on waiting lists to receive medical care? And some died waiting for this care? Really? Service men and women? Anyone can walk into any hospital and get immediate treatment and leave-all better and taken care of-without a bill for services received. [...]