Author: DOuG pRATt
Locking In Rates
I paid off the mortgage on my house twelve years ago. Now I’m aging in place and depriving some young, deserving family of a home.
I’ve said it before. We’re living with the consequences of interest rates being kept too low for too long.
The Three Wise Men
Tomorrow morning I will be meeting with the surgeon, the chemotherapy oncologist and the radiation oncologist, for my first post-treatment consultation. I’m feeling nervous with a dash of hopefulness.
Update: I have been told that I am now free of cancer!
Chrome Chimes In
Why did my Windows 11 laptop start chiming? I don’t know, but through the process of elimination I figured out they were notifications coming from Chrome.
Notifications about what? Don’t know, don’t care. Checking the settings in Chrome, I stopped site notifications.
The chimes stopped, but this morning they’re back. The setting had been reset.
Grrr…
Monetary Money
Today, Fed Chairman Jay Powell is widely expected to announce another interest rate cut. Recently, I predicted that rates won’t change this month. Am I wrong? Stay tuned.
Update: Darn, they did it. Another 0.25% cut. It was an academic question, as the change doesn’t affect me.
This graph spans my entire working life, from 1971 when I started my part-time job in high school, through my retirement in 2017.
So now Wall Street goes into full-blown panic mode. They’ve had an incredibly good year, with all-time highs, but having everything is never enough for these guys.
It’s hilarious that uncertainty is often given as the reason for market instability, because here they’ve been told what to expect in the coming year and it has the same effect. Count on Trump putting pressure on Powell.
KHAAANNNNN!!!!!
Two Sci-Fi movie favorites and a silent Max Fleischer cartoon, with its own Sci-Fi elements, have made it into the National Film Registry this year.
I am especially pleased with the addition of Invaders from Mars.
Also getting the nod this year is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the feature that put Trek on a different track from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Speaking of Trek, William Shatner is scheduled to appear once again at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York. I’m semi-seriously considering being there. A lot this coming year will depend on my medical status.
https://startrektour.com/product-category/2025-06-shatner/
Kudos to animation historian Jerry Beck for helping to make the restoration of “Koko’s Earth Control” happen.