Vital Statistics:
Last | Change | |
S&P futures | 3289 | 43.25 |
Oil (WTI) | 51.38 | 1.02 |
10 year government bond yield | 1.59% | |
30 year fixed rate mortgage | 3.63% |
Stocks are higher after Chinese markets held up overnight. Bonds and MBS are down.
Construction spending fell 0.2% in November, but was up 5% on a YOY basis. Residential construction was up 1.4% MOM and up 5.8% YOY. Public residential construction was up almost 30% YOY.
Manufacturing performed better than expected in January, with the ISM Manufacturing Index rising to 50.9. This is a sharp rebound from December, which indicates that trade issues are in the rear view mirror.
The government is considering an expansion of the Federal Home Loan Bank’s customer base to include non-bank lenders and mortgage REITs. Federal Home Loan Bank borrowers generally get a sweetheart deal on financing, usually much better than even overnight repo lines. The reason? government subsidies. Note that some mortgage REITs currently do have FHLB lines, but I guess they want more mortgage REITs in the business. The Feds have been frustrated by the large banks, who have shied away from all but the most credit-worthy borrowers.
FHFA has hired an advisor to help recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Houlihan Lokey won the deal. This will allow Fan and Fred to hire their own advisors for the equity sale. This is part of the government’s plan to decrease its footprint in the mortgage market. The share sale could top $125 billion, which would dwarf the largest IPO ever (Saudi Aramco in December) by a factor of 5. Lots of details remain, but progress is being made.
Filed under: Economy, Morning Report |
I’ve long argued that the best decade for rock was the 70’s. Was ‘77 the best year for rock? I’m not sure, but is was a damn good year.
https://www.classicrockhistory.com/1977s-best-classic-rock-albums/
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Why do we even have new music? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact.
Homer Simpson
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Lies! Perfection was not achieved until ’86.
And I like a lot of new music. I’m a Billie Eilish fan.
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Stop. The mid-80s were the era of the power ballad.
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Sweet Jesus. Aside from The Clash’s Sandinista!, GnR’s Appetite for Destruction and Poison’s Every Rose Has it’s Thorn, the ‘80’s are a bright on Music.
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Okay, Boomer!
Bah. I was more an alternative, new wave guy myself. But Thomas Dolby, Blondie, They Might be Giants, Eurythmics, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, Tears for Fears, Talking Heads, Queen, Adam and the Ants, Genesis, some J. Geils, Human League, Madness, early Stevie Nicks, 80s Fleetwood Mac, Art of Noise, Dead Milkmen, some of Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Def Leppard, Depeche Mode, AC/DC, Styx, Cheap Trick, Prince, Michael Jackson, etc.
Don’t forget Rush. Tom Waits. Mojo Nixon. And more.
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A chunk of those, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, J.Geils, did their best work in the 70’s. Ditto Genesis.
I forgot that Motörhead’s Ace of Spades was 1980.
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Is everything ok Kevin? These statements are, well, batshit crazy. I was in high-school and college during the ‘80’s, I was there… I know.
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Not going to defend most Power Ballads. Love Total Eclipse of the Heart, though.
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I’m fine. Although our only overlap in 80s music taste seems to be The Clash. Alas!
Remember when Neil Young did Neil and the Shocking Pinks? That was the 80s. The Buggles! How could I forget the Buggles? Damn, I love The Plastic Age. That’s a great frackin’ album.
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I did dig that Neil Young album.and Rush’s Moving Pictures was 81.
Ok, aside from these dozens of albums, the 80’s sucked!
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I was big into the shredders in the 80s, along with alternative. If a hair metal band had a good guitarist with good solos i was in. otherwise no.
loved the smiths, pre-green REM.
but at the end of the day, i was a 70s guy
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but at the end of the day, i was a 70s guy
You’re in the club!
Now, about your weird Boston fixation…
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One of the top 10 guitar solos from the 1970s is the solo in Long Time.
Don’t @ me
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How do you live with yourself? It’s like bragging about how good a box wine is, in the end it’s fucking box wine.
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This is pretty entertaining:
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The entire Super Bowl and all of the ad campaigns were directed towards building up women.
and they still complain.
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Enough is never enough. But I’m kind of glad–it’s an interesting study in how much brand matters. If a brand decides to essentially turn into an emotional abuser of its customer base, how much of their base sticks with them?
Disney Star Wars and Dr. Who and Star Trek have all followed this model: deconstruct and minimize and sideline all men, build up women but don’t burden them with weaknesses or character arcs. All the other stuff that fans obsess over in canon don’t matter, all that matter is grrrrl power.
And it’s interesting. There’s been good reviews of Picard. Less for Discovery. Dr. Who has tanked in the ratings but still has an audience. Star Wars Rise of Skywalker left a billion on the table (and 600 million with Solo) post TFA and TLJ . . . but there’s still an audience. Leaving a billion on the table is bad but making over a billion is still . . . good. I think it’s clear that going all in with the whole “women are all that matters” message doesn’t help build the brands, it doesn’t kill them.
My guess is the brand has to be strong or unique or in demand. Charlie’s Angels, Terminator: Dark Fate and the upcoming Birds of Prey all go full identity politics with an emphasis on “men are bad, women are perfect” and all flopped or, in the case of Birds of Prey, will flop.
I don’t know how Gillette’s campaign of “you’re an awful human being and an utter piece of garbage that abuses women, buy our razors” campaign went for them at the end of the day. But I’m not buying and Gillette products going forward. And I’m not a big boycotter but when you show such business ignorance and display open contempt for your customers, I’m kind of done when I can buy plenty of other razors.
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the launch unfunny comediennes into space ad…
the female football coach (like the dudes are going to do anything more than humor her – please)
I guess Goodell is petrified of Blue Checkmark Twitter for some inexplicable reason.
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Their inner voice whispers, Are there any more nachos? I don’t even think it would occur to them to feel bad, or try to emulate what they saw.
You can’t read minds. There are guys out there with body-image problems and feel bad because they aren’t at some largely unattainable level, especially guys who weightlift and measure their body fat. Competition kicks in, and they feel bad, just like the ladies.
However, in that case, as with the author, that describes issues of the person–not the half-time show or the athletic fitness of the footballers.
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So much schadenfreude at watching the MSM and the Democrats (to the extent that there’s a difference between them) trying to persuade everyone that the Iowa caucus problems aren’t a conspiracy after three years of doing nothing but hyping election conspiracy theories.
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I foresee a hoisting upon their own petard.
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unpossible.
worse comes to worse, they’ll blame it on russia
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Hilarious:
https://thefederalist.com/2020/02/04/cosmo-yanks-bachelor-contestant-cover-for-previously-modeling-fish-conservation-swag/
Fuller, along with Bachelor Peter Weber, shot their Cosmo cover in a waterfall in Arenal, Costa Rica.
After the Monday night episode aired, Cosmo announced they were pulling Fuller from the front cover of the magazine because pictures of the bachelor contestant modeling “Marlin Lives Matter” clothing and a logo reading “WLM” or “White Lives Matter” were unearthed over the past week.
The “WLM” logo does not stand for “White Lives Matter,” or represent the group which was established in response to the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The “White Lives Matter” movement describes itself as “dedicated to the promotion of the white race.” But the “WLM” logo and coinciding “White Lives Matter” slogan Fuller modeled for is a parody label which promotes the conservation of billfish such as the white marlin.
Yes, you’re reading this correctly. The editors of Cosmo are so woke they pulled Fuller’s cover photo because she wore an off-colored, humorous baseball hat calling for the conservation of fish…
…“It’s been reported that what she modeled for was actually a Marlin Lives Matter organization focused on preventing white and blue marlin from being overfished, which used ‘white lives matter’ and ‘blue lives matter’ messaging on its promotional shirts and hats. In my view, the nature of the organization is neither here nor there—both phrases and the belief systems they represent are rooted in racism and therefore problematic,” Pels wrote in a letter from the editor published after the episode aired.
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Reminds me of when some guy was fired for using the word “niggardly” which has zero racial connotation.
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Thought crime. They “knew” what he was trying to imply. They “knew” he used the word to be racially insensitive on purpose. Because mind reading.
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Back before Plum Line there was The Fix.
My first politically incorrect stumble there involved my correct usage of the word “niggardly”.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/04/iowa-caucus-low-turnout-110674
For more than a year, Democrats have been preparing for high turnout in 2020, powered by an electorate juiced by rage against President Donald Trump. But in their first test of the year, early data suggested Tuesday that turnout was “on pace for 2016,” the Iowa Democratic Party said, far below levels many observers predicted.
In other words: Democrats were counting on Barack Obama-levels of enthusiasm. They got Hillary Clinton numbers, instead.
I think it’s social media–Facebook, Twitter–and the MSM distorting their perceptions. The general public is not that excited about getting rid of Trump, or picking which of the Democrats goes on to represent the party.
And it wasn’t just the turnout totals that were worrisome for Democrats. It was the makeup of the electorate.
Entrance polls showed first-time caucus-goers down this year, to about one-third of all caucus-goers. That fell lower not only than 2008, when nearly 60 percent of caucus-goers were first-time participants, but also 2016.
If they could do it any year, this would seem to be it. Turnout had surged in the 2018 midterm elections, fueling a strong year for Democrats.
And the Democrats did nothing but bitch about and impeach Trump. Where are the projects and pork and going through a list of issues important to voters? I feel like this was a lesson that the Republicans learned in ’98 . . . Not everyone voted for them to “get Clinton”. And not everybody appreciated their later singular focus.
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Lol!
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-had-americas-top-tv-news-anchors-over-for-lunch-and-ate-them-alive
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Dayum!
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Well, yes
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.
P. J. O’Rourke
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