Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Where No House Has Gone Before

‘Star Trek’-inspired Connecticut home is listed for $1.4 million

“It’s going to take a special buyer,” the listing agent said.

https://www.boston.com/real-estate/home-buying/2025/09/03/star-trek-home-listed

The price was dropped by a hundred grand in late June.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/155-Shortwoods-Rd-New-Fairfield-CT-06812/57332431_zpid/

The Star Trek angle doesn’t fit. The original series never featured an exterior or interior set that looked anything like that house. Star Trek: The Next Generation sometimes did, but the house was built in 1985, and the series began in 1987.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, ‘The Inner Light’, S5:E25, 1992

I think they probably meant to say Star Wars. Regardless of that consideration, it’s a cool looking place to live. Somebody will explore this strange property to seek out a new residence.

Maxed-out by de Minimus

As it turned out, ordering those turntable belts from Germany wasn’t a tariff test, because the “less than $800” import rule was still in force for the EU at that time.

Now that I have acquired a vintage JVC VL-5 turntable, to compensate for stupidly letting go of the one I owned long ago, I’ll place another belt order with Thakker to see what happens. A little outfit like that losing its American customers would be a crippling, and perhaps fatal, blow.

https://www.thakker.eu/en/

Mystery Money

The state treasurer’s office is holding onto $3.06 that I’m owed, for some reason that completely eludes me, as I’ve never had any direct involvement with Bancorp. “Miscellaneous Intangible Property” sounds something like one of those silly Non-Fungible Tokens. I’m not going to all of the trouble documented in Part C., just to get a few bucks. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is welcome to keep it.

Dueling Mandates

Seventies Stagflation proved that inflation can’t be allowed to run wild. If it happens, the job market will have to take a hit, even to the point of driving the economy into a recession, as was done by Paul Volcker.

How weak is the job market today, relative to the coming inflation that is not quite here yet, as a result of Trump’s tariffs?

https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/08/25/fed-shifts-focus-to-weak-job-market

Speaking selfishly, being completely debt-free, and with my IRA CDs earning good returns, I wish the Fed wouldn’t lower interest rates.

Cooking the Books

DJ Trump, convicted of 34 felonies, and with six business bankruptcies on his resume, wants to control the Federal Reserve Bank. The charges against Trump were for falsifying financial statements. His accusing Lisa Cook of being dishonest from a single, as yet unproven, instance of that offense is beyond ironic.

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1848/trump-hush-money-trial-34-counts

His actual problem with Cook are the two words that he sees as being presumptive of incompetence and criminality — Black Woman.