Friday

Weather and season often offer wonderful metaphors for economics.  Recent storms sweeping the nation are no exception.  Here in Southern California, we’ve had a real winter (by California standards, of course) for the first time in what seems like years; take the above photo from Jerry S.

Economic indicators come is three varieties, differentiated by their timing.  Some offer an insight into the future.  We call these leading indicators; for instance, new orders data help us see a bit over the horizon.  Others tell us more about the here and now; these are coincident indicators like industrial production or personal income.  Finally, there are lagging indicat

Energy is foundational to the global economy.  Wars have been waged over it.  Debates about changes to sources have soured many family dinners over the recent years.  When production gets expensive, that acts like a brake on overall output since there are few viable substitutes; a larger share of consumers’ wallets is diverted to keep lights on and cars running.  In sh

We haven’t quite reached the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, but we are getting close. It’s been nearly six months since the longest day of 2022 passed us. We don’t fret when the days begin shortening, nor trot out world-ending conspiracies once the nights become longer than the days immediately following the autumnal equinox. But why not?

Growing up I had many friends with musical talents. As an adult I partnered up with a musician to start Atlas. Those who were not around when Atlas was on Carnelian missed guitar jam sessions with J R.

Trends never move in straight lines. This is certainly observable in markets. Styles experience the same phenomenon. Perhaps the kernel of a trend is revealed at a fashion show, but it takes the greater population a little time to embrace the new look. A similar pattern is emerging for the globe as it tries trending back to something more normal from the depths of the pandem

Family Feud is a gameshow which started in 1976 and aired through 1985.  After a few years hiatus, it returned in 1988, only to end again in 1995.  Then as the last century came to a close, it managed to make another comeback, one which has lasted through today.  It pits two families against each other, competing to determine answers to survey questions previously asked to a grou

There are many sticking points in the American economy these days.  Inflation comes to mind.  So does our Federal Reserve.  Or what about the growth rate of the economy?  It’s not quite molasses-like just yet, but the pace of output is gaining viscosity.

Atlas is a small company.

Software runs our world.  Whatever apparatus you’re reading this note on has programs and operating systems which allow you to receive and delete (hopefully not too quickly) this note.  Some of the code runs in the background doing things I’ll never understand, but other parts of it create feature or functionality designed to be useful to us as users.  Occasionally, a