Friday, March 27, 2015

There yet?? II

Carrying forward the reporting being done in the There yet?? post. Photo from Nov. 2014. Now, almost 210K. 


Taken by phone camera. Not bad. 
What vehicle has not had recalls? Can we get to where cars are not tested once released out on the road (yes, ala the regimen that FAA puts airplanes through)? That is, let's look at how we got to where customers are the test subjects, albeit without their knowledge.

Disclosure: Wikipedia log, Kelley Blue Book (image at bottom). One large factor is that the miles are 80% highway with little hot dogging (who can resist moving up a mountain with alacrity when there are multiple lanes to use?). The original brakes are little worn.

Remarks: Modified: 03/27/2015

03/27/2015 --

Kelley Blue Book comment,
rated the vehicle as a 10


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Assorted

Today is a slump day (markets down over 1% by noon). Yesterday was a seeding day. Both of these effects are influenced by the magical multiple which feeds the illusion of liquidity.

The Monday WSJ can be always full of insightful comments. The close of last week allows a breather and a better look (review). So, then, one gets the real deal prior to the week's openings. This past Monday was no exception. There are three articles that will be looked at here. Each has an image that is worthy of note.
  • Stock Bulls Run on Shaky Ground -- Spencer Jakab -- iterates the theme of expanding multiples (we'll get back to Minsky on this) and cautions that there will be an implosion, eventually. 
  • How to Survive a Bear Market -- E.S. Browning -- provides a nice (squished via log view) look at the mania since the 1940. Why mania? Lots of reasons but see the next buller. 
  • Prepare for New Money-Fund Rules -- Kirsten Grind -- there is a little image (Ahh, remember 5%?) that I will augment showing how Ben/Janet have been thrashing the savers (taking us behind the woodshed - plus, flaying us to within an inch of skin) these past few years. So what? Well, conservative/stable approaches are more rational than not (somehow the brains [best and brightest - so called] have made life to be a joke, essentially game based without proper consideration of the issues - yes, unbalanced view abound).  
...

Now, where else to talk about this continuing set of problems? Oops are all around; albeit, those who suffer are, for the most part, not party to the choices that affect them. ... But, we will get there. For now, see the notes about our research at Fedaerated (in particular, Browning's article).

Here, we will show an image from each of the above with comments.

Jakab's article: This approach does reduce things
 to a game where we can identify winners/losers in
the sense of the metrics involved. However, Near Zero
shows how those metrics are insufficient; in some (many?)
cases, we look at the wrong thing. 
Browning's article: See Fedaerated (link in above text). 
Grind's article: Remember 5%. Lady, I remember 8%. With this
image, I will overlay my experience over the same timeframe
as a saver who was (is being) flayed by the Fed's policies. Yet, there
is no complaint other than concern that it did not have to
be this way (the players are too tied to their game to see). 

Remarks: Modified: 03/10/2015

03/10/2015 --