Russia, like the US, has safeguards for nuclear

deployment. Every nation has contingencies for

when a madman is in charge. 

Hoping they’ll work.

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

– Carl Sagan 

 Miss Ukraine Anastasiia Lenna

 Cartoon Of The Day

Notes Today:

 

• Ukrainian President Zelensky was asked to evacuate Kyiv at behest of US, Zelensky replied “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation- AP 

• American’s views of Russia are tanking. 85% now view it unfavorably -- the highest since the end of the Cold War. 

• At least two of China’s largest state-owned banks are restricting financing for purchases of Russian commodities. 

• “I believe the war must be immediately halted” - Communist Party State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev becomes first Russian federal level lawmaker to oppose the Ukraine invasion. 

• The sums involved are mind-boggling. Novokmet et al. estimate that in 2015 the hidden foreign wealth of rich Russians amounted to around 85 percent of Russia’s G.D.P. To give you some perspective, this is as if a U.S. president’s cronies had managed to hide $20 trillion in overseas accounts. 

 

 

Notes Today:

 

• There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell,’ Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said as he addressed his Russian counterpart, Vassily Nebenzia, during an emergency meeting held by the U.N. Security Council 

• Russia blocs all shipping movements of commercial vessels in the Azov Sea – this will affect grain cargoes.

• Ukraine has asked Nato member Turkey to close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Russian ships.

• Wheat is up 50 (5.65% limit).
• Corn up limit
• Beans are up 75 (4.5%)
• Crude up 5 (6%)
• Gold up 34 (1.8%)
• Bitcoin is down 2985 (7.88%)  Please note DOWN!
• S&P holding together remarkably well, down only 1.5% - so far…
• Ruble tanking
• 
  
  
  

• Russian markets are crashing 1.3 million  shares  to sell Gazprom  and 0 buyers..
• Russia's RTS Index plunges by almost 50%

 Ruble

PUTIN Invades

 Ruble

 

Quick Overview is up to date

Soybeans

 

Dow Theory

 HUI Gold Bug Index

 XAU Gold and Silver Index

 

Quick Overview is up to date

 Russia Index

Unprecedented Soybean prices for this time of year. 

(from Karen Braun @kannbwx )

 Russian Ruble USDRUB about to make all time low

Notes Today:  

Putin is sending “peacekeeping“ forces into Ukraine regions. In other words, Putin is invading Ukraine!!

S&P down some 1.7% Gold up some 0.75%, crude up  3.43%, new high  for the move...  so far - 15 minutes past opening. 

“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind”

- Martin Luther King Jr

 Quick Overview is up to date

 Dow Theory: Worrying!

 

Later

 

Quick Overview is up to date

Notes Today: 

• Amazon appears to do quite well, even if Jeffrey’s tiny boat is a bit of an embarrassment.  (1 hr chart below)

• 
  
  Putin's Russia becoming more and more warlike.

• More than 4 million Texans have lost power (again) after a weekend storm crippled the state’s energy infrastructure (again).  Abbott in action – again... Don’t think I’ll be moving to Texas.

• (Bloomberg) -- Soybean buyers stung by a smaller and slower harvest than expected in Brazil are turning to the U.S. for supply, driving up prices and threatening to worsen food inflation.What was expected to be a record crop in Brazil is now looking far smaller, with lower yields and harvest delays due to adverse weather catching traders and end-users shorthanded. The uncertainty has driven buyers into the U.S. market. More than 110 ships have been chartered on a preliminary basis to load crops at ports in the Pacific Northwest, according to Bill Tierney, chief economist for AgResource Co. in Chicago.
  
  
  

 

Notes Today:

• Investors wipe about $200 billion from Facebook's / Meta’s value (aka the plague on humanity)

• Reno, Nevada, hasn’t recorded a single drop of rain during the entire month of January, a record that goes back nearly 130 years. (Guardian)

• $324 million stolen from blockchain platform Wormhole  

• If you created an online account to manage your tax records with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), those login credentials will cease to work later this year. The agency says that by the summer of 2022, the only way to log in to irs.gov will be through ID.me, an online identity verification service that requires applicants to submit copies of bills and identity documents, as well as a live video feed of their faces via a mobile device.

Facebook (FB) performing as advertised. New members becoming scarcer (15 minute chart below)

More than half of the sea now logs temperatures once considered extreme, threatening countless species, livelihoods, and the air we breathe.

Facebook's sensation-seeking, hate-speech nurturing algorithms are ripping apart the fabric of many developing countries, especially India. (FB)

 

Quick Overview is up to date

Rise, Fall and Curious Revival of Vaseline The gelatinous oil-sludge byproduct emerged in the 19th century as a strangely popular women’s beauty treatment. And yup, it’s emerged again.

Made by Unilever (UN)

Notes Today:

 

• Officials at the Pentagon warned that Russia has enough troops near Ukraine to invade the entire country. And is adding more!!
• Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum  - Russia has an abortion rate nearly double that of the United States. Any form of Christianity outside of the state-controlled Orthodox Church is liable to be considered a cult. Only 15 percent of Russians are even interested in religion; only 5 percent have read the Bible.

• Hedge funds bought +104k contracts of ag futures last week - on Brazil damage and Crude Oil strength.   

• Two Long Island nurses made more than $1.5 million in a fake vaccine card scheme, prosecutors say.

• Plam Oil at all time high at 5628 

• The Tennessee school district bans Holocaust novel ‘Maus’ over violence and profanity – now sold out on Amazon. 

• Jake Tapper @jaketapper Another school board removing another heralded book from its curriculum: "To Kill a Mockingbird" will be removed from the Mukilteo WA School District's ninth-grade English/Language Arts required reading list. Selling out on amazon??

Imagine taking a long, hot shower without wasting water and energy.

If Apple Inc. made a shower, it might look something like the Orbital. 

“I sincerely hope that other artists and record companies will move off the SPOTIFY platform and
stop supporting SPOTIFY’s deadly misinformation about COVID,” Young wrote on his blog on Wednesday.

Joni Mitchell stands with Neil Young. 👍👍

After losing billions and thousands of subscribers in one week, Spotify CEO: "Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, it's become clear to me (slow learner) that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time." ( balance ?? 👎👎)

 

Quick Overview is up to date

Notes Today:

 

• Domestic US growth outpaced China's economic growth in 2021 for the first time in decades. 

• Apple posted its highest revenue in its history. Sales rose 11% to $123.9 billion in Q1.

• Tesla on the other hand lost some $100 billion on the day.

• Warren Buffett is once again richer than  Zuckerberg (CEO of the AKA plague on humanity)   a reminder that value-investingworks.

• The markets sold off when Fed head Jerome Powell said interest rates could rise further.

• Well, something that’s quite positive about higher interest rates is that we will, at long last, have safe and meaningful outlets for savings again. Your CD’s may just start to earn more than pennies.. 

• Global investment demand for gold suffered a more than 40% drop in 2021, even as bar and coin demand climbed to an eight-year high and investment demand for the fourth quarter more than doubled, according to a report from the World Gold Council released Thursday evening.

 

U.S. Stocks Historically Deliver Strong Gains in Fed Hike Cycles

In fact, stocks have risen at an average annualized rate of 9% during the 12 Fed rate hike cycles since the 1950s and delivered positive returns in 11 of those instances, according to Keith Lerner, Truist’s co-chief investment officer. The one exception was during the 1972-1974 period, which coincided with the 1973-1975 recession.

S&P

Russian ships, tanks and troops on the move to Ukraine as peace talks stall

 And a large military force, including Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, elite spetsnaz troops and anti-aircraft batteries, has arrived in Belarus from Russia’s eastern military district, an extraordinary deployment that western officials and analysts say could enable Moscow to threaten Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

• Russia and Ukraine akkount for some 29% of global wheat exports.

 

How Did ID.me Get Between You and Your Identity? 

Should we be entrusting private companies with a responsibility that would naturally fall on governments—such as verifying the identities of their own citizens? Just as we probably don’t want Amazon or Facebook controlling access to our tax records or a government lifeline when things go wrong, it isn’t clear we should want ID.me to be everywhere we want to be.

Economist: The price of orange-juice futures surged, after this year’s orange crop in Florida was forecast to be the smallest since 1945. The Sunshine State’s orange groves are plagued with tree lice. Orange prices are also sensitive to a drought in Brazil, which has hurt citrus production there. The overall demand for orange has lost some zest in recent years, as consumers switch to low-sugar drinks.

The Video game industry is now far larger than the movie business. FT

It’s Not Complicated. Microsoft Wants Activision for Its Games. NYT