Toys are expensive.

Today's Tids Issue 4,128

For Unencumbering:

Keeping up with the Jones is killing the Smiths. Every time somebody over-pays to be accepted into a desirable neighborhood, everybody who just wants to live comfortably in a pleasant neighborhood will have to pay up over time. The government says we have no or little inflation. Of course, that’s because housing is not included in inflations statistics (CPI). Maybe we will have to import our neighborhoods from China.

Well, you knew it had to happen. Things were just going much too smoothly between the US and the historically erratic Kim for there not to arise a possible stumbling block. Obviously, Kim feels he has given and is now looking for some “Good Faith” in return before the summit. It's called negotiating.

Thanks for explaining the word “many” to me, it means a lot.

I have been extremely busy doing absolutely nothing so far this week. I fact, this is the first morning where I feel I’m out from under any compelling time crunch. But, alas, I seem to have lost out in my quest for words to type. I guess they don’t call me “Panic-Man” for nothing – writing my best stuff when under time constraints at the last minute. This reminds me of college.

Music appreciation has always been in the ears of the beholders, and the music of today isn’t beholding to the ears of yesterday.

The Question:

How old were Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI when they got married? Bonus: Who was Pierce Brosnan’s co-star in the TV series Remington Steele?

The Headlines:

--NK Threatening To Cancel Summit; Revelations Unnerve Wall Street; Stocks Above Water After Early Morn Sinking; Macy’s Routs Sales Estimates And Projects Strong Rest Of Year.

-- Gina Haspel Passes Through Senate Judiciary Committee; On Track To Be First Woman To Head Spy Agency.

--1800 Pages Of Transcripts For So-Called Trump Tower Collusion Meeting Between Russian Lawyer Natalia and Donald Junior Shows No Indication of Any Collusion; Meeting Was About Adoption, As Young Trump Had Said Earlier.

--Powerful Northeast Storms Kill 5, Knock Out Power And Snarl Commuting.

--McConnell Prefers Inter Party Cooperation For Approval Of Trump Appointees Over Nuke Option; Senate Leader Says Cooperation Is Picking Up this Year.

--Guatemala Follows US lead And Moves Embassy To Jerusalem.

--Putin Walks Across To Open Crimea Bridge; Stray Cat Beats Russian President Across; US protests: Putin Answers, So?

--The Voice Final Four Selection Begins With Upset As Spensha Baker Surprises And Joins Favorites Brynn Cartelli, Kyla Jade and Britton Buchanan.

--Amazon Cuts Whole Food Prices For Prime Members.

--Carolina’s NFL Team The Panthers To Be Sold For $2.2 Billion.

An illegal is a sick bird.

In our long history, only two presidents have been impeached – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. But neither were found guilty by the Senate -- Johnson winning out by merely one vote shy of the two third’s majority needed. Clinton needing 67 votes for conviction only received 50. The thing is, the wild crazier Dems can shout impeachment, but the chance of getting any president of office is minimal as long as the opposing party has less than 67 members. Rabblerousing works in loose cannon, third tier countries, but not in civilized Republics.

My Grammar-Check system seems to be having a bad spell today.

In case you are interested, the Housing costs are not included in the CPI because housing is not the price of something consumed because within that number is the capitalized value of future housing consumption. The fact remains, that people can’t afford housing today, so they will never understand the value of long term capital growth. And if wages rise to afford new high cost homes, companies paying those wages will necessarily increase the cost of consumed products. And higher mortgages sucks money out of current day consumption. So while you can make sense out of the explanation it is not necessarily common sense.

Christie’s International has revealed that so far this year there have been 36 homes offered for sale with price tags of $100 Million or better! It is a signal that the global wealthiest have gotten over the uncertainty associated with Brexit and the Trump Election. The most sought-after markets for the trophy homes are Hong Kong, New York, London, Singapore and San Fran. But, the hottest could be Paris, Washington DC and LA. How come Wash DC, which should be the model for Affordable Housing? Oh, it is? Yes, for lobbyist and retired lawyers.

Nobody was more in shock last night at The Voice results show than Spensha Baker after being named as the first singer for the final four. That immediately pushed the pre-show favorites one rung lower. And surely enough, one of the most consistently high vote getters, Pryor Baird, missed out.

Liberals often cross the line into the capitalist corner when they see their towns add whopping taxes on corporate sales and profits.

The first computer dates back to Adam and Eve. It was an Apple with limited memory, just one byte. And then, everything crashed.

Warren Buffet Sells stocks Seldomly but when he does it is for one of two reasons. First, to raise cash to buy something eh sees as having a better future, He will even sell at a lower price in order buy something even cheaper. (With $100 Billion in cash today, this does not happen often.) The second reason does occur more often and it seems more often in these times of rapidly changing fundamentals and landscapes. For instance, he sold IBM because he misjudged the company’s competitive challenges – or, “When your original thesis no longer applies get out”. In other words, don’t keep a company because it is historically simply big and powerful.

A North Carolina man lost his lawsuit against the city for whom he worked. While on a coffee break on a job he lit up an eCigarette and soon started coughing violently, so much so that he died. He died from his own smoking and sued the city because he was at work at the time. Shoot me. BTW, the court threw it out. Thank God.

Spell-Check says Unencumbering is not a word. But the way I see it, to go from encumbered to unencumbered, you have to go through the process if unencumbering.

There is no truth to the rumor that Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Loretta Lynch were seen talking to Kim Jong un about how to make Trump bend before the summit.

The Tids Economic Department has often suggested caution when investing in Chinese ventures. Of course, the problem being the enduring threat of surprise government interventions. I was talking to an ex-commodities trader yesterday who told me the sad tale of the demise of a one super successful grain transport compony Trans Coastal Supply. All was well until one day when a Chinese inspector rejected the grain shipment due to the discovery of a non-Beijing approved genetically engineered strain. Bingo: Company dead. Part of the problem was also that the company had dropped all of its eggs into the Chinese soup.

The Answer:

Marie was 14 and the King to be was 15 when married. So, basically the couple reigned in statuary rape. Bonus: I always thought Pierce Brosnan got too much of the publicity when I liked Stephanie Zimbalist much better.

No matter how much a wannabe tries, he or she can never afford a bigger boat than the people they are trying to catch.

I can afford to go to a gym, but I can’t afford the clothing you need to work out there.