Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Levels to Watch for CPI Week

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I look at a lot of financial sites, and if there’s one universal theme out there it is this: The Market Is Going Higher, 100% Guaranteed. The financial airwaves are positively flooded with this notion. Even ZeroHedge, which used to be a fairly bearish site, is ga-ga about buying stocks (slavishly following the advice of Goldman Sachs, of all things) and, incredibly, buying Bitcoin. It’s a pretty eye-popping sea-change.

What you’ll also read a lot is that All Eyes Are On Tuesday’s CPI, which is understandable. After all, two months ago, the CPI surprise led the equity market lower, although one month ago, inflation surprised to the downside, so stocks strengthened. The expert consensus is that prices are DROPPING. I’m not sure what planet these people are on, but OK, there ya go. We’ll know soon.

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The Electric Slide

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Hoo boy. The “United” States reveals itself yet again.

It all started this morning when, at 4:45 a.m., the power to my house failed. I know this because I had been awake a while, having never really synched back to west coast time after my Bear Force One trip to North Carolina. Since I shell out over $1,000/month on utilities, and Palo Alto has been losing its power a lot lately, I sent out this bitchy tweet:

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