Bill Owens

Scientists have reported the discovery of the oldest black hole in the universe which developed 470,000,000 years after the big bang making it about 132 billion years old. When you get to those numbers, a few hundred million, or even a few billion seems inconsequential. What will this tell us? It will give us more insight into the development of the universe, which adds to our growing knowledge base, and may well lead to other types of scientific discoveries. At worst, it’s incredibly interesting.

It has recently been reported that scientists looking for fossil fuels beneath the ground of northeastern France used a highly sophisticated specialized probe to go hundreds of meters down. What the probe found was not the typical fossil fuels but rather hydrogen whose concentration thickened to the point of a 20% level. They estimated the deposit to be between 6,000,000 and 50,000,000 metric tons of hydrogen, known as white hydrogen, and also frequently referred to as natural, gold or geologic hydrogen.

Our Congresswoman, Ms. Stefanik, voiced full-throated support on the House Floor for Mr. Jordon which was a bad bet. She hasn’t made many bad bets in her career as she moved from a moderate to a hard right Republican fully supporting Mr. Trump and all of his wild claims. It does surprise me that she supported Mr. Jordon who has no legislative accomplishments in 18 years, and is largely perceived simply as a disrupter with no real talents. As I indicated last week, there is no evidence of leadership in the Republican Party, just a collection of elected officials who have diluted themselves into believing they are exercising leadership. I suspect that our maga-friends will be unmoved by any of this chaos, and continue to cheer on the lunacy.

Fortune Magazine is highlighting five economic shocks that they say are “about to hit the US all at the same time”, they include the national debt being over $33 trillion, which obviously will have the effect of increasing the interest paid on this enormous debt (2) oil is headed north of $100 a barrel; (3) the UAW strike could crush the car market; (4) student loan borrowers are faced with the restarting of payments; and (5) mortgage rates are nearing 8%. Interesting facts, more for the Fed to ponder.

Closure averted by Democrats as more of them vote in favor of the CR than Republicans. Next drama, what happens to McCarthy? He may need more Democratic votes to survive, more than a little irony.

Scientists are reporting that iron dust could reverse the course of climate change. It appears that oceans cool when iron dust enters the water. This can happen in natural ways, but it can also happen, if you will, artificially by deliberately dumping iron dust into an ocean or other bodies of water.

Recent reports indicate that the Medicare budget has leveled off at a range no one anticipated. Analysts had projected that by 2023 the cost per beneficiary would be $22,006.00, when in fact, it has leveled off at $12,459.00 which is slightly under the per beneficiary cost in 2011. In terms of impact on the U.S. budget, this will have an enormous positive impact, even if the reasons for it are not understood. This is the kind of outcome that frequently happens when budget forecasting is utilized, in other words, it’s wrong for reasons that may or may not be obvious to the experts. In any event, this is good news for all of us.

Job openings have fallen to the lowest level in several years at 9.6 million, from a recent high of 10.3 million. The number of employees quitting jobs fell to 3.8 million from 4.1 million, while applications for unemployment fell for week ending August the 12th. Mixed signals from the labor front.

Job openings have fallen to the lowest level in several years at 9.6 million. The recent high was 10.3 million. The number of employees quitting jobs fell to 3.8 million from 4.1 million which is a further sign of the job market cooling.

US-Canada-Mexico trade was up 20% during the first three years of the USMCA, and many trade commentators believe that that can be increased even more. In the AG sector alone, there was an increase from 2020 to 2022 of US exports to Canada of 27%, and Canadian exports to the United States of 47%.