Odds and Ends: January 2025

 - The only constant is change.

- (Great minds think alike) Heraclitus and Ben Franklin

A week into the new administration and this week begins the new year for the Chinese people. It ends on 3rd of Feburary. The stock market is riding high with Trump euphoria, but there are cracks beneath the surface. Trump has declared openly that he wants rates lower, both here and in Davos. The Fed will announce their first decision for 2025 on Wednesday. The only constant is change.

What We See with the Periscope

Since the president didn't mention the things that we see and none really do, we will offer them here.

Retail: The only thing growing since 2023 is store closings. They are up 69%. Ouch!

They are not alone. Manufacturering shed another 13,000 quality jobs last month. Their share of employment is down to 10% and falling. 

Debt: The budget deficit rose in December. It is now 40% higher than it was a year ago. Many economists see a financial crisis coming during Trump's administration. Sadly, the only thing the Democrats offer is hoping he fails with an eye on the next election in two years. They seek power not solutions. A good reason why they lost.

Housing: Since we are a consumer society, this is the most important. It effects and connects to every- thing. Homebuilders are showing a serious decline on the charts. This is a dark cloud on the market and the economy. Home sales in 2024 were the lowest in 30 years.

Energy: Trump declared, "Drill, baby!" He knows we need more energy. It creates wealth and it helps family budgets when it is cheap. The "experts" predicted coal usage would decline in 2023. Now, they say it will increase through 2027. Trump is against wind energy. We feel he is totally wrong on the issue. He has not said much about solar. Together, this will not help climate and world heating. This leads us to a more dangerous topic, the movement of the magnetic poles. In our deeper self, we, at Evolution feel this is the source to climate change with wind, rain and sunlight. 

Magnetic Poles are shifting. No one knows or has an answer to the problem, but it causes problems to navigation and communication beside our belief in climate change. We also think that the world will see more earthquakes due to the movement.

Tariffs: They start soon for Canada and Mexico. They should be to all nations and much, much higher. This is tokenism to fulfill a campaign promise.

Meanwhile

The Chinese are out celebrating. Maybe they will take time to read? They will find that a BRIC member, India is complaining (as we predicted) about China being a hypocrite. China will not give them access to tech and other quality products. We know why. China fears that foreign forms will move production to India. Then, we read this. China is not accepting Russian oil due to sanctions. Since when did China follow US policy? Maybe they are opening a door to ease tension? We say, do not fall into this trap. This will connect to the Panama Canal and Taiwan. After all, it is the year of the snake.  

Good News

There is a international goodwill concerning wildfires. Nations help each other by offering fire fighters to help in an emergency. Our northern neighbor, Canada has welcomed over 9,000 fire fighters from other countries to help them and now, they sent over 4,000 to LA to help us. We love this, but do not be misled by One World advocates. Just like social security is a great idea, does not mean socialism is a great idea even though this is one of their contributions.   Peace.