Just One Thing: Trump Shoots the Messenger
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The latest (Shoot the messenger - by Ross Kaminsky - The Ross Report) starts with this:
I see a lot of folks online who seem pleased with President Trump’s ordering the firing of the head of the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after a weak jobs report for July was accompanies by some of the biggest-ever revisions, in this case downward, to the May and June esimates.
Stunning revisions show US added 258K fewer jobs than first reported
From The Hill article: “The U.S. only added 19,000 jobs in May compared to an initial report of 144,000, and only 14,000 in June after an initial report of 147,000, according to the BLS. Those two paltry totals, plus a July jobs gain of 73,000, means the U.S. added just 106,000 jobs over the past three months.”
I just want to get a few things straight that seem to be eluding the folks, mostly MAGA, cheerleading for Trump’s taking out his frustrations on BLS chief Erika McEntarfer. Trump removes official overseeing jobs data after dismal employment report | AP News
Shoot the messenger - by Ross Kaminsky - The Ross Report
More news stories about this topic:
Donald Trump fires BLS commissioner after lackluster jobs report, revisions
Trump's long history of bashing jobs report numbers dates back to 2016: ANALYSIS - ABC News
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Today's Guest
Ryan Pote, who's had a fascinating and multifaceted career including in the US military, just released his first new thriller novel, "Blood and Treasure". It's a really fun and interesting read. It's something like a combination of a paramilitary/spec ops thriller and Raiders of the Lost Arc.
ABOUT | Discover Ryan Pote's Story — RYAN POTE | Veteran & Author
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Other Stuff
Loni Anderson, RIP: Actor Loni Anderson dies at 79 | AP News
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Wait, you left HOW much money on the table? Software company Figma went public on Thursday, selling about 37 million shares at $33 a share. I believe the first trade when it opened for actual public trading was $93.50 and it ended the day around $120/share. In after-hours trading that day, it got over $148 but has since settled back down a bit and is trading around $115 in Monday pre-market trading as I write this. Pick any number in the range that it traded after opening, but just for ease of math why don't we say an average trading price of $113 even though that's too low. That means that of the roughly 12.5 million shares sold by the company for its own fund-raising and 24.5 million shares sold by existing shareholders wanting to cash out, they received, in the aggregate, $80 x 37,000,000, or just under $3 billion less than they would have if they hadn't sold until the actual market demand was determined. To be clear, IPOs are always intentionally priced a little low to make sure the shares in the offering get sold because an offering that isn't fully subscribed is a disaster in terms of a statement of public confidence in the company. But when you see a mispricing as bad as this one, you have to think that investment bankers made a pretty big mistake and I bet the company and selling shareholders are pissed.
From the press release: "Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Allen & Company LLC, and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the offering. BofA Securities, Wells Fargo Securities, and RBC Capital Markets are acting as book-running managers for the offering. William Blair and Wolfe | Nomura Alliance are acting as co-managers for the offering."
Figma Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering | Figma Blog
Figma's IPO was a huge hit. Here are the companies betting markets think are next in line to debut.
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We talked with Jared Polis and CO Budget Director Mark Ferrandino about the $1 billion budget hole nominally caused by a reduction of tax revenue to the the BBB but as the Rocky Mountain Voice folks properly note (and as I've said before but it's worth reiterating), this is absolutely positively the fault of Democrats' addition to socialized medicine specifically and big government generally: They built the budget bomb: Now Colorado Democrats say President Trump lit the fuse - Rocky Mountain Voice
One more: Daniel: Colorado’s Budget Crisis Wasn’t an Accident — It Was a Choice - Rocky Mountain Voice
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Last week's GDP report was MUCH weaker than the 3% headline number. More than all of the gain in GDP was caused by a massive decline in imports, which is actually bad news. The rest of the economy was rather weak: The Weirdest GDP Report Ever - WSJ
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Lots of folks (you know who they are) will cheer this. But it's definitely a double-edged sword. And will probably have some real negative impacts on the economy until the administration figures out a way to get a lot of legal immigrant workers into the country to fill these jobs. Some folks push back on the idea of "jobs Americans" won't do and even if you are among them you must at least admit that there are "jobs Americans won't do unless they get paid a LOT more than the immigrants will work for." And, again, some people will cheer for that but you should ask yourself two things: One, why should government interfere with voluntary contracts, and two, will you be able to afford to buy the various things that are currently produced with significant contributions from immigrant (including illegal immigrant) labor if we lose much of that workforce. Food, in particular, will get more expensive, but other things as well like housing, hotel stays, meals at restaurants, and more. Also, the "just let Americans do everything" crowd seems to forget that we have a fairly low unemployment rate, so where will all those workers come from?
I fully support doing as much as possible to end illegal immigration. Kicking out all current illegals, including those who have been here a long time and working and not committing crime, is a much harder question. But of course also having a policy that allows them to stay creates an incentive for others to come and try to get that "amnesty" so it's not an easy thing to deal with.
If we really are having net negative migration, I do hope that the vast majority of those leaving are illegal (and I suspect that's the case) but, again, the economy will suffer if we don't replace the workers somehow, and consumers will suffer if we try to replace them all with American workers at higher wages.
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They've tried this before. Ended up failing. Grab the popcorn.
Texas House Democrats flee to block GOP congressional map | The Texas Tribune
Texas House Democrats plan to flee state to try to stop proposed congressional maps - ABC News
Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over Trump-backed redistricting
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I say give her a chance. People do change. But watch her carefully. More often than not, they get wiser when they get older. I mean, Joe Biden didn’t but maybe she will:
Colorado's new State Land Board director says she won't destroy agriculture - The Colorado Sun
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A week old but still fun: Someone has eaten artist Maurizio Cattelan’s $6 million banana – again | CNN
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AI price-setting is inevitable. Indeed, it's already happening. The question about trying to scour a potential customer's personal information to try to determine whether, for example, the buyer might be "desperate" and willing to pay more (the example being to fly somewhere for a funeral) should be off-limits. Delta Air assures US lawmakers it will not personalize fares using AI | Reuters
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Wait, they found WHAT by the pond? I need to get to this pond! Road rage suspects allegedly shoot at driver, toss guns in Colorado pond - CBS Colorado
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I don't think this goes anywhere as far as a lawsuit but it's interesting: The WNBA and Caitlin Clark’s Civil Rights - WSJ
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Awesome:
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This doesn't break my heart, and it also doesn't mean the stations are going away: CPB Will Close Its Operations Sept. 30 - Radio World
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Fun one I didn't get to last week: Etsy Witches Charge for Jobs, Sunshine and Knicks Wins. Business Is Booming. - WSJ
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I hope it's true that they are backing away from the 3,000 per day quota. I absolutely believe it's real. And it caused ICE to start focusing on arresting your gardener or bus boy when they should be devoting more resources to catching illegal alien criminals and those with existing orders of deportation: Judges scrutinize the latest mismatch between White House deportation rhetoric and DOJ’s position in court - POLITICO
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Interesting business story, including the dynamic about why loan covenants might prevent lowering rents even if buildings have high vacancies0: High rents, empty desks: The mystery of downtown Boulder’s office market
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I can't say as much as I'd like to because I had lunch, at a friend's request, with Mr Oltmann so I consider much of what I learned as stuff I shouldn't share publicly. I don't mean he talked about anything that I thought was criminal behavior. Just things that if I had heard any other way I might be much more aggressive in publicly criticizing. In any case, I'll just say I've rarely if ever met someone so full of bluster and ego and "look how smart I am" and "look how rich I am."
I'm exceptionally disappointed in Randy Corporon whom I've known (not well, though) for a long time. I think Randy decided that he could get in on the MAGA grift or else he really believed the "stolen election" nonsense (the first version of it, before MAGA changed from "machines stole votes" to "the media lied"). I don't know which is worse, actually, whether he intentionally lost his ethics to chase power or money, or whether he was just that gullible. I hope Randy looks in the mirror and apologizes to the state and to the GOP and to anyone else he's lied to.
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Seems about right: American Eagle Apologizes, Replaces Sydney Sweeney With Fat Transgender Double-Amputee Of Color | Babylon Bee
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The idea that China would stop buying Russian oil is nuts. China rejects US demands to stop buying Russian, Iranian oil - ABC News
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Today's Videos
Have you ever wanted a baked potato this much?
Can anybody explain this to me?