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A new documentary was released last month called Capturing Bigfoot. Atlas’ film critics have yet to review the 103-minute piece, but its title inspired this note.  In the film, the famous Patterson-Gimlin clip (who knew it had such a formal name) is revisited along with newly discovered footage.

We’ve all learned that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That tends to lead one to believe that the scenic path (e.g., longer route) will take more time to travel. But what if that is not the case? As it turns out, Newtonian physics shows this intuition is wrong.

Metaphorically, the Federal Reserve is like a crane operator for the American economy. They are trying to deliver the economy to a sweet spot that is neither too hot nor too cool. The boom of the crane helps move an object horizontally while the hook causes vertical movement.

This note was on the calendar because it is that time of year, but then Atlas had to rip up the script when the war in Iran started because seasonal issues alone were no longer driving the price of fuel higher.  Initially this note was going to help remind readers that changes to the blend of fuel would be taking place soon as the weather warms.

Periodically rumors about the demise of the U.S. dollar crop up, often making their way through the cesspool of social media. Atlas recently came across one such claim and thought you might have as well. After looking into it, the death of the U.S. dollar has once again been greatly exaggerated.

A map’s accuracy is directly linked to its scale. The more detail one wants in their map, the larger it will need to be. At some point, a tradeoff must be made between a map’s portability and its accuracy. Said differently, the map is not the terrain.

The last piece of confetti hit the floor at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California (home of the San Francisco 49ers) settling one of the least talked about market indicators: the Super Bowl Indicator. As Atlas wiped away the nacho cheese that spilled onto the counter, euphoria was present. The NFC’s Seattle Seahawks won the Lombardi.

America’s economy is not skating on thin ice, but it does feel a bit like the ice could be more solid. It’s frozen enough to etch its direction of travel across the surface, but there are hints of fragility beneath which should not be ignored, especially if one is inclined to do a quad axel.

Atlas has been noticing recently what is called the K-shape of the American economy. In short, a portion of the economy, and a relatively small segment at that, has fared relatively well while a larger ratio of the population seems to be having a different experience.