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.
American Gothic
So, honestly, I want to make sure I’ve got this straight.
- There was relatively free trade;
- We enact tariffs on agricultural imports to make them more expensive to American consumers;
- Other countries retaliate with their own tariffs, diminishing demand for American products;
- Farmers are selling less and making less money;
- So the U.S. government starts writing them checks to compensate with money we don’t have (in case the whole “$21 trillion in debt” thing wasn’t quite clear yet)
So, net result – – American consumers worse off with higher prices. Foreign consumers worse off for the same reason. American taxpayers paying for billions of checks being written to farmers.
Brilliant. (more…)
Commodities Breakdown
Between weakness in gold (which is nearing its 7th consecutive year of its own private bear market) and an oil market that’s down over 4% so far today, commodities continue to tumble away from their reversal pattern. I’m not expecting a hard fall, but things certainly seem poised to continue melting away for weeks to come.
Hi Ho, the Dario, The Farmer in the Hell
Agriculture sinking into oblivion…………
Two Mighty Runs
Hello, Slopers, and remember today is a shortened trading day, with equities closing three hours before the normal time.
My “Big Short” for 2018 remains bonds. The bond market has, since May 18th, had a powerful push higher, but as I so often write, it’s all about context. The multi-decade uptrend has decisively broken, and my view is that this bounce is nothing more than a push back toward resistance.
