Unknown Marin-Dell dairy truck, San Francisco Mar 1 1945 • US Retail Sales Down Sharply, Likely Cuts to Growth Forecasts Ahead (Bloomberg) • US Retail Sales Drop Most Since June 2012 – It’s Not Gas Prices (Zero Hedge) • The December Retail Report: “Disappointing” Isn’t The Half Of It (Stockman) • Swiss Franc Jumps 30% As Central Bank Abandons Ceiling Versus Euro (Reuters) • What, Us Worry? Economists Stay Upbeat as Markets See Trouble (Bloomberg) • Here’s Why Wall Street
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Frances Benjamin Johnston Edgar Allan Poe’s mother’s house, Richmond, VA 1930 • Commodities Tumble to 12-Year Low as US Futures Slide (Bloomberg) • Oil at $40, and Below, Gaining Traction on Wall Street (Bloomberg) • Oil Fall Could Lead To US Capex Collapse: Jeff Gundlach (Reuters) • The Stock Market Is Overvalued Any Way You Look At It (MarketWatch) • Slide in Oil Means Tighter Budgets and Fewer Perks for Gulf Arabs (Bloomberg) • OPEC’s Squeeze On US Oil Independence
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Unknown George Daniels Pontiac, Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco 1948 I was thinking about something along the lines of The Center Cannot Hold and Something’s Got To Give earlier, but then I thought there’s no way I haven’t used those titles before. And then it occurred to me that The Automatic Earth started 7 years ago this month. Just looked it up, it was January 22, 2008. Party next week! Of course Nicole and I had been writing before that
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DPC Madison Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 1906 • America’s Going to Lose the Oil Price War (Bloomberg) • Oil Extends Drop Below $45 as US Supplies Seen Speeding Collapse (Bloomberg) • Here’s Why Oil Is Such A Problem For Corporate Earnings (CNBC) • Oil Crash May Whack Earnings Of Top US Home Builders In Texas (MarketWatch) • Falling Oil Reveals The Truth About The Market (MarketWatch) • U.A.E. Sticks With Oil Output Boost Even as Prices Drop (Bloomberg) • US Manufacturing
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DPC Market Street from Montgomery Street, San Francisco, after the earthquake 1906 Filed under Be Careful What You Wish For, once again here’s our friend Euan Mearns, this time on how well-intentioned green initiatives may bankrupt and eviscerate entire nations. Euan’s site is Energy Matters. Euan Mearns: I last looked into the details and consequences of Scottish energy policy in the pre-referendum post Scotch on the ROCs. The expansion of Scottish renewables is progressing at breakneck speed and the purpose
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DPC Chicago & Alton Railroad, Joliet, Illinois 1901 Boy, did the ‘experts’ and ‘analysts’ drop the ball on this one, or what’s the story. Only today, Goldman’s highly paid analysts admitted they’ve been dead wrong from months, that their prediction that OPEC would cut production will not happen, and that therefore oil may go as low as $40. Anyone have any idea what that miss has cost Goldman’s clients? And now of course other ‘experts’ – prone to herd behavior
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DPC Pere Marquette transfer boat 18 passing State Street bridge Chicago River 1901 • Why Falling Oil Prices Won’t Delay Fed Rate Increases (MarketWatch) • Goldman Sees Need for $40 Oil as OPEC Cut Forecast Abandoned (Bloomberg) • UK Oil Firms Warn Osborne: Without Big Tax Cuts We Are Doomed (Telegraph) • As Oil Plummets, How Much Pain Still Looms For US Energy Firms? (Reuters) • Oil’s Plunge Wipes Out S&P 500 Earnings (Bloomberg) • How Falling Gasoline Prices Are
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Ann Rosener Reconditioning spark plugs, Melrose Park Buick plant, Chicago 1942 We need to do a lot more thinking, and take a far more critical look at ourselves, than we do at present. We’re not even playing it safe, we’re only playing it easy. And that’s just not enough. The marches in Paris and numerous other cities today were attended by people who mean well, but who should ask themselves if they want to be part of what was predictably
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DPC Sloss City furnaces, Birmingham, Alabama 1906 • Foreign Ownership Of US Equities Hits 69-Year High (MarketWatch) • US Retakes the Helm of the Global Economy (Bloomberg) • Fed’s Lockhart Says Jobs Report No Reason to Raise Rates Sooner (Bloomberg) • Legal Challenge Shows Rocky Path To ECB Money-Printing (Reuters) • Voices Join Greek Left’s Call for a New Deal on Debt (NY Times) • Anxiety Rises Over Eurozone’s Falling Prices (Observer) • Spectre Of Deflation Horrifies Bankers, But Japan
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DPC “Steamer loading grain from floating elevator, New Orleans 1906 • Global Economy On The Verge Of A Once-in-a-Generation Transformation (Telegraph) • Oil Derivatives Explosion Double 2008 Sub-Prime Crisis (ETF Daily News) • Energy Stocks Brace For Many Quarters Of Earnings Pressure (MarketWatch) • Don’t Bank on Oil Rebound Says Fund That Foresaw Collapse (Bloomberg) • Oil Glut Spurs Top Traders To Book Supertankers For Storage At Sea (Reuters) • The Oil Industry Still Managed To Add Jobs In December
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