From NJ94.3:
3 New Jersey Counties Are Among The Richest In America
We all know there is a lot of money to be found in New Jersey. As a matter of fact, the Garden State is home to three of the fifteen richest counties in the entire country.
While most of us are just worried about paying the bills and filling up our gas tanks, others have a little more financial flexibility. And in some cases, much more flexibility.
No New Jersey counties made the top 10 richest counties in the nation, according to Daily Mail, but we managed to log in three counties in the top 15, and that is pretty impressive.
So where is all this Garden State money? Which counties are home to some of the richest people in America? Well, if you’re in South Jersey, don’t expect to see your county on this list.
All of the New Jersey counties that made the list are central or northern New Jersey counties.
Somerset County comes in at #15 with the average resident bringing home over $116,000 a year, and it’s a good thing because the average property prices are almost $530,000.
Morris County is another rich New Jersey county. It’s the 14th richest county in the United States. Each resident pulls in $117,000 annually.
Hunterdon County. This is apparently the richest county in New Jersey and the 13th richest in America. The average resident brings home nearly $118,000 a year. Not too shabby.
Friskies
The clock is now ticking in earnest in the contract negotiations between freight railroads and their labor unions. President Biden’s appointment of a Presidential Emergency Board pushes back potential disruptions in rail services, and the WSJ’s Esther Fung reports the panel now has 60 days to broker a settlement between the Class 1 carriers and unions representing around 115,00 workers. Members of one of the 12 unions have recently voted to authorize a strike, adding urgency to contract talks that have been underway for nearly three years. The rail-labor tensions are the latest sign of workforce strains across the transportation sector. Airline pilots in the U.S., dockworkers in Germany and rail unions in the U.K. are among the labor groups that have recently been locked in disputes with employers. Dockworkers at U.S. West Coast ports also are working without a contract, raising anxiety levels in supply chains.
Really starting to think chits about to get really bad…they should seriously stop raising rates. There is absolutely no need anymore besides credibility/legacy issues. I think they are already overshooting and if they induce a major downturn, employers are going to become extremely desperate to survive and use remote platform to absolutely destroy labor costs. Aka massive offshoring event out of desperation. Buckle up.
Amazon is a leader…they act first and quickly. Look at these major moves to cut costs? Not expanding, but consolidating. Not a good sign.
“Amazon is in the midst of a potentially major upheaval in its private-label strategy. The e-commerce giant has started drastically reducing the number of items it sells under its own brands, the WSJ’s Dana Mattioli reports, and the company is considering exiting the private-label business entirely to alleviate regulatory pressure. Amazon’s private-label business counts some 243,000 products ranging from vitamins and coffee to clothing and furniture. The business line has been a source of controversy because it competes with other sellers on Amazon’s platform, angering third-party merchants and prompting criticism that the company was violating antitrust restrictions in favoring its own brands. Former Amazon executive Dave Clark launched a review of the program. The retailer’s focus now appears to be on its fast-selling items that can be positioned at numerous warehouses rather than high volumes of low-selling items. Amazon in a statement says it isn’t shifting its focus.
Grubhub is striking deals and offering sales as it tries to reclaim its place as a market leader in food delivery. (WSJ)”
Nothing but bad signs.
“Good morning. Companies are whittling down the cash buffers they built early on during the pandemic, putting capital to work through acquisitions, buybacks and, in some cases, buying extra inventory to weather supply-chain backlogs.
Investors in the weeks ahead will scrutinize corporate cash levels to see if they continue to decline, or if they level off, as companies report second-quarter earnings. While corporate balance sheets remain strong overall, high inflation is putting pressure on profit margins and driving up expenses amid fears of an economic slowdown. After issuing record amounts of debt while interest rates were low, companies have pulled back on bond sales and raised less capital as rates have increased.
Median cash ratios—a liquidity metric that compares cash and equivalents to current liabilities—have declined steadily in recent quarters but remain above prepandemic levels, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, a financial data provider. Highly rated U.S. companies had a median cash ratio of 21.5 during the first quarter, down from 29.1 a year earlier, but still above the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic began, when their ratio was 19.5, according to S&P.
Speculative-grade rated companies had a cash ratio of 34.1, down from 47.1 a year earlier but still higher than levels at the end of 2019, when the ratio stood at 28.9. Companies with a low credit rating typically carry larger cash buffers and have a smaller pool of investors interested in their debt. In total, S&P’s data set included more than 10,700 investment-grade and non-investment-grade companies.
The decline in cash ratios shows that companies, after storing excess cash to weather the pandemic, are putting that money to work. Still, trends vary by industry.
Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Prologis Inc. are among the companies scheduled to release earnings today.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect to see the National Association of Home Builders report that confidence among home builders in the U.S. decreased in July for the seventh consecutive month in the midst of rising mortgage rates.
The National Association of Realtors on Wednesday is expected to report that sales of previously owned homes slowed in June.
Initial U.S. jobless claims, due out Thursday, are forecast to have edged lower in the week ended July 16, after reaching their highest level since November 2021 during the previous week.
On Friday, surveys of purchasing managers in the U.S. are expected to point to a slight pickup in activity in early July after high inflation sharply slowed activity earlier in the year.”
Just bad news after bad news.
“Recession Watch
Economists increasingly expect the Federal Reserve, in its efforts to push down inflation, to raise rates enough to trigger a recession, with many worrying the central bank will go too far. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal now put the chance of a recession sometime in the next 12 months at 49% in July, on average, up from 44% a month ago and just 18% in January. Some 46% of economists said they expect the Fed to raise interest rates excessively and cause unnecessary economic weakness. Slightly fewer, 42%, said they anticipated the Fed increasing rates about the right amount to balance inflation and growth. Around 12.3% thought it would raise rates too little, Gwynn Guilford and Anthony DeBarros report.
Respondents cut their growth forecasts for 2022, projecting inflation-adjusted gross domestic product to rise 0.7% in the fourth quarter of this year from a year earlier. That’s down from 1.3% projected in June and 3.6% nine months ago.”
I know we are cheering on Gas prices dropping…but wtf does that really tell us? That’s right…economy is decelerating quickly. Demand doesn’t lie.
“Inflation Has Outpaced Wage Growth. Now It’s Cutting Into Spending.
U.S. wages are going up. But those steady gains have been wiped out by high prices. When taking inflation into account, there hasn’t been a single month with year-over-year earnings growth since March 2021. Spending also rose over the past year, and like with wages, it was outpaced by inflation. Americans are spending more because of high prices, but adjusted for inflation, they are actually consuming less, Danny Dougherty reports.
Gas prices—one of the biggest and most visible areas of inflation—rose 60%, while sales at gas stations are up 50%, a gap that suggests Americans are reining in travel.
The notable exception to spending is in restaurants, where sales in June were up almost 14%. Prices rose less than 8%.”
The risk of unrest has risen in middle-income economies as they struggle with the public funds to maintain high social spending to cushion their citizens from spiking food and fuel prices, says Verisk Maplecroft. The firm notes that 10 of these countries, including Brazil, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, and Senegal, will be hit the most over the next six months. Maplecroft says that unlike low-income countries, these nations “were rich enough to offer social protection during the pandemic, but now struggle to maintain high social spending that is vital to the living standards of large sections of their populations” Maplecroft says. “Mass civil unrest in response is therefore a possibility, which we expect will be met with a violent state crackdown.” (Nicholas.Bariyo@wsj.com;@Nicholasbariyo)
Sorry for all the posts…but hope the picture is being made clear. Buckle up.
Sickening. She should be arrested, instead she is speaker of the house.
https://twitter.com/litcapital/status/1548843680483655680?s=21&t=1NJmJK8H3Vx5iNeqkl52DA
“FITCH RATINGS ON MORTGAGE DEFAULTS IN CHINA: SHOULD DEFAULTS ESCALATE, THERE COULD BE BROAD AND SERIOUS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS.”
The big challenge with Amazon private label is that they absolutely have access to competitive sales data, and can very quickly target the most profitable sectors. They have a ridiculous competitive advantage here.
The benefits of owning the marketplace? I’m sure you could argue that supermarkets have a similar capability, but the difference is the sheer scale.
Remember 3b, when were told idiots bc tech giants were fighting each other to get space, making NYC next silicon valley.
Meta and Amazon have scaled back plans to expand in New York City, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. Both tech giants are backpedaling in Hudson Yards, where Facebook parent Meta has suspended plans to build out new offices and the e-commerce behemoth is reducing the amount of space it intended to lease. The adjustments come as hiring has begun to slow at tech companies and after many moved toward remote-work options.
Meta, which also canceled plans for expanding near Astor place, says it will still open new offices at the Farley Building.
Bystander,
That was a time when the Fed wasn’t raising rates like they are now. Get a clue.
That’s not a sign of remote work, that’s a sign of a f’ing hurricane coming for the economy. And you are cheering this chit on. Wild. Way till the outsourcing comes to a remote job near you. It’s coming…you’ve been warned. At least you and 3b can celebrate falling real estate with no f’ing job or an extremely underpaid job.
Remember, amazon isn’t a follower, they are a leader. They are making all types of cuts to scale bag operations. Jobs are next.
Bystander: Agreed. That’s because they understand, perhaps reluctantly that the nature of work is changing. Ironic that tech companies who are always about change and innovation had such difficulty understanding that. But, that’s the way it’s going, and with a recession coming or already here, the hybrid/remote model may increase.
As for the Fed, even they understand that they were behind the curve, and should have started raising rates a year ago. They were still buying bonds up until this past May! Inflation is destructive and impacts everything including productivity, but that’s another topic.
From looking into it, the income figures in the article posted by Grim at the top are MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME.
I just note this because when 94.3 wrote their blurb describing the underlying data, they used language suggesting that the numbers were, instead, average individual wages.
So, the median household income of the households in Somerset, Morris and Hunterdon Counties is around $115k-120k. Loudon County, VA is first place amongst US counties at almost $150k for median household income.
“They [the DC Establishment and other national elites] forgot the forgotten people.”
-Donald J. Trump
Here is a great video showing how pumpkin’s minds works.
https://twitter.com/sherlock_hodles/status/1548671578518552581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1548671578518552581%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Fsherlock_hodles2Fstatus2F1548671578518552581widget%3DTweet
But think of great music to come from this collapse..perhaps less rich, white Gen Z Leadbelly
“Where did you tweet last night?”
“The Block Island line”
“Why should I go to that [American WW2] cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
Donald J. Trump
3b,
Funny how you bash the Fed when rates drop, but then cheer on the Fed when they are raising rates too high/too fast to the point that they are going to destroy lives. They should stop raising rates NOW. They are going to absolutely wreck the economy by overshooting on the way up. Sickening to watch. They are seriously going to kill the labor market. Glad I’m a teacher..good luck to the rest of you.
NJ household income distribution tends to be barbell shaped for most counties, just like real estate distributions. There tends to be a fairly hollow middle, where the median falls.
NJ has 50k more millionaire households than Virginia, and the highest percentage of millionaires per capita.
Comparing to high income Washington DC suburb? Given the grift in DC, I’d have been surprised otherwise.
So for Morris, for example, you’ve got Mendham with a $325k median household income, and you’ve got Dover, with a $65k.
By the time the Fed starts cutting rates, it will be too late (like always) the damage will be done.
F’ing soft landing…what a joke. Standup comedians. Might not have a recession…rotflmao. Good one.
I don’t intimately know Loudon County, Virginia, but a quick search on Zillow shows there are no real low-cost, low-income towns within Loudon County.
So, we’re not really talking apples to apples comparison.
Morris is twice as large with far more variation.
That’s insane. Wow.
“NJ has 50k more millionaire households than Virginia, and the highest percentage of millionaires per capita.
Comparing to high income Washington DC suburb? Given the grift in DC, I’d have been surprised otherwise.”
N.J. breweries getting hammered by strict state rules, owners say.
Boo Hoo.
Boomer has a license. Limited supply, like houses.
Boomer wants to be a billionaire.
Pay Boomer or go out of business.
Americans love capitalism, that’s what this is, and it’s working just as expected.
Americans love laws, this is the law, don’t resist.
https://www.nj.com/news/2022/07/nj-breweries-getting-hammered-by-strict-state-rules-owners-say.html
Well that was a fast morning read…
“107 days Pumpkin-free”
Roughly 25% of married-family households in NJ have a household income of $200k or more.
The hurricane is coming..
“Goldman Sachs $GS said it would slow hiring velocity going forward according to Reuters”
Missing out on some good analysis instead of this worthless post.
leftwing says:
July 18, 2022 at 9:49 am
Well that was a fast morning read…
“107 days Pumpkin-free”
Liquor license lobby is crying because someone is threatening their government protected cash-cow monopoly.
No different from the taxi medallion crisis in NYC. Shitty things happen when you let the government pick winners and losers.
NJ’s competitiveness in the nation is saddled by stupid liquor laws. This impacts NJ downtowns, small businesses, etc.
Insane…And it’s almost all concentrated in the north and central parts of the state closer to the coast. Talk about living in a bubble.
grim says:
July 18, 2022 at 9:51 am
Roughly 25% of married-family households in NJ have a household income of $200k or more.
Was talking to a bar owner in Clifton who was crying about his liquor license.
Runs a shitty bar, the kind of Clifton neighborhood bar that would have catered to factory workers in the 1950s.
Investment since then? Minimal.
Innovation? Zero.
Catering to any modern trends in beverage or food? No, disgusting greasy spoon fare.
Their typical customer is an alcoholic.
Told him, he could easily retool his bar, and cater to younger crowds. I told him, get a millennial partner, and listen to them. Craft beer, IPAs, huge pretzels, how is this a problem?
Nope, same shit, still bitching on the daily. Now he cries about not being able to hire anybody. Typical.
Bar/waitstaff at my place make a MINIMUM $30-35 an hour, that doesn’t include cash tips.
Honestly, he was sitting back hoping someone would offer him a million dollars for his license. Not a chance.
Alcohol.
Next pot is legalized. Magic Mushrooms on the way.
That’s what America needs. Inebriated, intoxicated, medicated, stoned, high, drug addled, anesthetized blobs of protoplasm driving around in self driving Teslas (hopefully) to insulate them from what is really going on in America.
One step up from Russia and it’s Vodka drunks.
That’s the kind of guy who is bitching about breweries and the “unfairness” of breweries being able to serve alcohol and have a TV.
The reality is, none of the brewery customers would ever set foot into his place, ever.
It’s not that the brewery has taken his customers, it’s that his customers have all since died.
Boomer:
Liquor license lobby is crying because someone is threatening their government protected cash-cow monopoly.
Can a brewery buy a license?
If so, just like boomer extorts on housing, boomer can extort on liquor license.
Then later, when millennial becomes the age of boomer, rinse and repeat.
Extort gen Z.
It’s capitalism.
NJ ranks 27th in per capita alcohol consumption, not sure we have much to worry about here.
Holy chit. And they are still raising rates?!!
“NAHB Housing Market Index 55, Exp. 65. Last 67; 2nd biggest drop on record – only April 2020 was worse”
Guess you haven’t met the same alcoholics I have. The type with a liver that looks like the surface of the moon. Or that just killed a teenage girl. Or beat his wife.
Let’s not forget the women drinking wine all day…
Can a brewery buy a license?
In previous discussions with the ABC, they would not permit a single company to own multiple licenses across different classifications.
For breweries though, this is permitted under a special class of license in NJ – it’s called a “brewpub” license. This comes with strict restrictions to distribution, though. This was the “craft beer” license that existed prior to a real craft beer license being created.
I’m sure a number of you would remember the restaurants that built out small breweries to brew their own house beers.
“NAHB Housing Market Index 55, Exp. 65. Last 67; 2nd biggest drop on record – only April 2020 was worse”
Great news.
Amazon PL? Havent been in the industry for some time but syndicated data, ACN / IRI gives participating retailers similar info so Kroger, Wegmans … also have insights.
WalMart has their own proprietary platform, Retail Link. They don’t sell their data to ACN or anyone else.
Shop Rite looks like they have a lot more premium PL on their shelves now. Lidl going everywhere, inc one going up on RT 10 and Aldi going into geographies they previously were not in so perhaps traditional PL is getting price / volume pressure from these two. Apparently, younger professionals like the Aldi model of less variety and smaller stores. Aldi started selling salmon a year or so ago and Lidl i believe has fresh bakery and produce.
Old goat buys house for 20k, sells it for 400k
Old goat buys liquor license for 5k, sells it for 375k
It’s just capitalism. The Cobol that is the source code of America.
“Meta and Amazon have scaled back plans to expand in New York City, Bloomberg reported…Agreed. That’s because they understand, perhaps reluctantly that the nature of work is changing.”
By/3b…also, big tech significantly overestimated their own needs and were hiring like crazy…Watching the entry level part of the industry through one of my kids who is CS/SD, his college classmates and housemates, and his hometown friends it was crazy…Students who were in the liberal arts or general studies of good universities with enough courses in CS (ie, not hard core math/engineering) were getting picked off at 125k or better and writing their own terms – precovid – as to where they would work…I’d give a specific example but may have personal identifiers so broadly a peer with background as above and unstellar GPA who was declined at more rigorous but smaller tech where one would have been expected to be hired because of a unique competitive advantage was hired by one of the majors above at better than the above salary to work hybrid NY for team located in a more established office….ie, he was hybrid out of an office where he team did not reside…fresh out of college. At that comp. With that background.
The level of accommodation for these virgin grads was insane, and that statement is from someone who has been through at least four boom cycles in IB where I’ve been in rooms where we are all looking at each other, shaking our heads, and saying “are we really making an offer to this candidate at this level, 24 months ago his resume would have gone straight into the trash…”
The expansion into NY was panic planning to capture those East Coast grads/residents who wouldn’t move to W. Coast or Austin, etc because the universe of grads looking to go to those established locales was pretty tapped out and even more competitive.
This pullback from NY recognizes that reality, and the huge undergrad hiring bubble in the sector and by the majors in particular. Put it right up there with SPACs, shit-tech, and the rest of the bubbles being slowly and intentionally deflated as the free money period comes to an end.
Liquor licenses in NJ are far more insidious than that Phoenix.
For example, many are owned by the building owners, who “lease” them to restaurants that lease their building space. Not only that, but in those situations, the building owners require a certain % of business ownership to be provided to them.
So, let’s say you want to open a restaurant in some NJ downtown, and the landlord says he has a license. Perfect, you can borrow his license for a fee, rent his space for a fee, and give him 5% topline revenue for use of his license (without any debt liability of course).
Good for you.
You know how many bars in Hoboken operate under this premise? Those licenses have all been tightly controlled for years. Pure profit with absolutely ZERO risk.
Want to buy his license? Sorry, not for sale at ANY cost. Want to buy any license in that town? Sorry, he owns them all.
There are towns in NJ where one family owns nearly all of the liquor licenses, profit from them, but actually own ZERO of the businesses that use them.
At will.
Dump you for any reason, any time they feel. The drop from 125 to 60 is going to hurt when it happens.
Don’t expect her to stick around either when she can monkey branch back to a 125.
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/employment-at-will-laws-by-state/
Grim,
Yeah that sounds like free trade. The American way.
Boardwalk Empire lives.
“According to data from the New Jersey Department of Education, more than 2,500 educational administrators in the state earned $150,000 or more during the previous school year.”
Not bad for 9 months of work, 7-3, Monday to Friday. No holidays, no weekends.
And their spouses get to run businesses while they get government gold plated healthcare.
It’s a good gig-either to be in it, or to be married to someone in it as well.
If the Fed had started tightening a year ago, we might have been a good way through this at this point. Unless there is something catastrophic, the Fed has no choice but to keep tightening if they want to get close to that 4 percent inflation rate, never mind 2.
I’m still at the “huge Pretzel”……mmmmmm
No need to move to Florida, it looks like Florida has moved to New Jersey.
Rain didn’t even drop the temp. It’s like a rainforest outside-Iguanas will be moving here soon.
Having the AC on with the dark sky didn’t prepare me for that.
They do have a choice and they should stop right now. There is zero need for more rate hikes. Absolutely zero reason based on the data. They are overshooting and going to take a lot of heat for this mistake.
3b says:
July 18, 2022 at 10:36 am
If the Fed had started tightening a year ago, we might have been a good way through this at this point. Unless there is something catastrophic, the Fed has no choice but to keep tightening if they want to get close to that 4 percent inflation rate, never mind 2.
Get your whole house generator while you still can:
From today’s WSJ
The West’s Climate Policy Debacle
Utopian energy dreams are doing great economic and security damage.
Soaring oil and natural gas prices. Electricity grids on the brink of failure. Energy shortages in Europe, with worse to come. The free world’s growing strategic vulnerability to Vladimir Putin and other dictators.
These are some of the unfolding results in the last year caused by the West’s utopian dream to punish fossil fuels and sprint to a world driven solely by renewable energy. It’s time for political leaders to recognize this manifest debacle and admit that, short of a technological breakthrough, the world will need an ample supply of carbon fuel for decades to remain prosperous and free.
***
Consider the costly consequences of misguided climate regulation, subsidies and mandates:
• People even in affluent countries are learning they can no longer take reliable electric power for granted. Texas’s grid operator this month told residents not to use major appliances to avoid rolling blackouts amid a heat wave that brought wind power to a near standstill. Sluggish wind power also contributed to a week-long power outage amid freezing temperatures in February 2021.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation recently warned that two-thirds of the U.S. could experience blackouts this summer. Blame shrinking baseload power generation, which has been replaced by unreliable renewable energy. Regulators can’t command the sun to shine or wind to blow.
A third of the nation’s coal power and 10% of its nuclear capacity has shut down over the past decade owing to stricter environmental regulation and competition from cheap natural gas as well as heavily subsidized renewables. Natural gas generators have picked up some of the slack. But they are under stress from having to ramp up and down to balance intermittent renewables.
Ironically, grid operators are having to keep coal plants scheduled to retire on life support. Super-green California plans to buy electricity from diesel generators when supply is tight. Grids in Texas and California are teetering, with renewables making up about a third of generation. And President Biden wants the national grid to run on carbon-free power by 2035, as if he can command it to be so.
• The rushed green transition is driving up energy prices across the board. Peak-time electricity wholesale prices this summer are projected to more than double in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, according to the Energy Information Administration. Blame the left’s war on pipelines, which has constrained natural gas production even as demand grows.
Surging energy prices are causing some steel and aluminum manufacturers to idle plants. In desperation, manufacturers are urging the Biden Administration to limit liquefied natural gas exports to Europe to lower energy prices, though Europe needs the LNG to avoid freezing this winter.
Retail consumers in much of the U.S. have largely been shielded so far because states limit utility rate increases. But average residential electricity prices in Texas’s deregulated power markets have climbed 70% over the past year. Americans can look forward to similar increases in the years ahead—either that, or utilities will go bankrupt as many have in Europe.
• Supply shortages. When European power prices soared last summer as wind power slowed, Mr. Putin took advantage by slowing gas pipeline deliveries. That pushed up prices even more, causing some European manufacturers to suspend production. Now Mr. Putin seems ready to cut off all gas supplies.
Europeans are drafting emergency plans to ration supply to manufacturers. But German leaders are still shutting down their three operating nuclear plants by year’s end. To quote the final word of “The Bridge on the River Kwai”: “madness.” Germany must resort to burning coal and oil, as its trillion-dollar investment in wind and solar can’t make up for Russian gas.
Berlin is contemplating a bailout of power retailer Uniper. The French government recently announced plans to nationalize its financially struggling nuclear giant Electricite de France SA . The U.K. this spring announced a government takeover of National Grid’s transmission system to manage its chaotic shift away from fossil fuels.
During Australia’s power crisis last month—the culprit again was too many coal plant retirements—its grid operator suspended wholesale markets and imposed price controls. Failed climate policies are becoming an excuse for more government control of energy production.
• Empowering dictators. Europe’s climate obsession made itself vulnerable to the Kremlin, but Mr. Putin isn’t the only dictator smiling at the West’s energy woes. President Biden had to beg the Saudis for more oil production, and his Administration may ease sanctions on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro for more barrels of production. Iran may be liberated to export oil next.
Do Western leaders recognize or care that their climate monomania is endangering living standards in democracies and empowering authoritarians? Historian Arnold Toynbee argued that civilizations die from suicide, not murder. The West’s climate self-destruction may prove him right.
“The free world’s growing strategic vulnerability to Vladimir Putin and other dictators.”
Sounds like someone wants more regime change.
Time to bypass sanctions and get physical. It’s time to take out Putin and his manipulation of the market. F him. The answer is to attack Putin, not renewable energy, which only helps add energy supply aka bringing down overall cost.
I have a job in a climate controlled building with TV, WiFi, and all the free stale pizza you can possibly eat.
Studies have shown how much crime increases with the increase in temperature.
More job security for me.
Having thousands of households run dirty generators to compensate for grid and power delivery issues is an environmental catastrophe.
Today, the US has 5 distinct and different energy delivery methods – electric/grid, natural gas, propane, heating oil/diesel, and gasoline.
Thinking that somehow we centralize on electricity only, with single point-of-failure? That means when the power goes out, you don’t just lose the TV, you lose the ability to drive, to heat your home, cook, etc etc etc.
Will we be addressing this single-point-of-failure issue with the power grid? How many tens of thousands of miles of new high tension lines are required? Poles? Wires?
When a hurricane rolls through, now you go from an inconvenience to being an absolute economic disaster on a region. How does one evacuate a region from an impending hurricane if the power has been out and they can’t charge their electric vehicles – because they have been using them to power their homes? You know, because it’s completely unheard of to have back-to-back storms in the US.
Weatherwatch: back-to-back hurricanes to become norm in US
Having thousands of households run dirty generators to compensate for grid and power delivery issues is an environmental catastrophe.
You think Boomer cares?
Hell NO!
Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Janet Yellen, Warren Buffett——
The list goes on forever. They will be just fine. Don’t worry.
Go away plebe. You annoy me.
Grid-tied solar systems do not function when the grid power is out, so good luck with that.
Good posts, Grim. That’s scary to think about. Our leadership is a joke.
“Yeah that sounds like free trade. The American way. [monopolistic liquor licensures under artificially constrained supply]”
No, it’s the New Jersey way…you know, that shining beacon so often held up as the pinnacle of civilization as opposed to those knuckle-dragging heathenistic Red states…
Problem is facts get in the way of that narrative as usual…because in the many flyover locations I’ve been the past few months all one needs to do to obtain a liquor license is make application to the State and municipality, pass background checks, provide some basic backup documentation, and pay a fee usually in the low thousands of dollars…
The armpit State of NJ is one the handful that enable laws to establish the modern sharecropper situation described by grim. But, hey, you’re living the life in paradise, right?
You’d have thought that the American Revolutionaries would have gotten rid of state-granted licenses. Did this stuff pre-date prohibition, or was the excuse for liquor licenses in NJ that somehow limiting the ability to sell would temper the lusty thirsts of the little people?
Like Wegmans being prohibited from selling alcohol on Sunday mornings is somehow keeping people in church. Or Bergen county everything has to shut down on Sunday so that they can remain the upright ultra-spiritual people that they aren’t. Probably designed so that mom and pop stores don’t have to compete against modern retailers I think.
Just like NJersians aren’t allowed to pump their gas because that would take away the labor cost advantage from the Indian families who bring their nephews over from the home country to work as underpaid indentured servants at their gas stations, and they don’t want to compete against fully automated self service machines that anyone could run without an extended family of imported indentured servants.
Why doesn’t NJ pass a law that you cannot plug in your own EV?
I remain surprised that the Bergen County blue laws remain in place. At some point, I would have imagined that State-level bosses would lean on Bergen to change it – if physical retail is open on Sunday, there is more sales tax revenue into the pocket of Trenton. Of course, there is a local pushback by some towns so maybe some incumbent county commissioners get tossed – but, so what.
To that end, maybe the failing American Dream prompts some action on this front. It’s a nice thing to drive down Route 4 on a Sunday with an open road, but the bigshots are losing money on keeping it that way.
How would NJ shake if the state legislature passed a law that made liquor licenses available, in any infinite number, assuming certain objective criteria are met (no felons owning the relevant business, no multiple violations for selling alcohol to minors, not within 100 feet of a church or whatever)?
You mean the way it exists across 90% of the US?
left,
Sounds about par for the course. When you work in IT at IB you see the whole labor supply chain differently. The free money socialist bailout of 2020 created a bonanza of venture investment that simply overwhelmed the IT labor market, particularly in India. We lost our entire team between Q3 2020 – Q4 2021. 50 people quit and we replaced maybe 40 but it took one year to fill some roles. Leavers have slowed tremendously in Q2 but most are here under 6 months. We are giving director level pay to 2-3 year experience candidates. Pure insanity. The tightness of India market caused over-spill into tech rich cities like NYC but bad ideas are bad ideas. The money runs out then so does the frenzy. The situation that you mentioned in strictly bc companies balked at paying $250k for experienced people and thought could pay tech savvy college grad 100k and groom them up. It won’t work. The problem is never talent but leaders. You won’t get real leaders for 100k. They know this but rolling the dice to see if some of the kids willing to take on more responsibility and not ask for much in return. Delivery will grind to a halt with too much young staff who need direction.
12:24 . . .
Yes. And, I strongly believe NJ would be better-served by conforming to how most of the USA does it. Similarly, I ‘m against the strict zoning laws in the NY metro despite the fact that my net worth would sink by 100’s of K’s if they were reformed to serve, say, the median renter (i.e., a whole lot more competing new construction apartments everywhere).
But, my point is that the TRANSITION would be rocky. People with an asset that is worth sometimes $1m+ will have that asset’s value drop to $10k, almost overnight. How will they react?
This is why NJ has a shitty newcomer restaurant scene, the kind that is absolutely booming across the rest of the country.
Hotshot new chefs can’t afford to open their own restaurants, or if they do, open as BYOB, which is incredibly challenging. Without beer, wine, or spirits, it’s incredibly difficult to survive here in NJ.
This is also why there are so many decrepit downtowns in NJ – because restaurants have shifted to highway affairs where they can attract far more traffic. There would be far more vibrant downtowns across the state if more licenses were available. Nearly every town in NJ that has seen a highway with retail cut through, has seen their downtowns die due to the fact that all the restaurants and bars closed up. Applebees can afford the license, young chef X can not.
To give you an example, Red Bank has 5x the number of licenses that they should have given their population.
24 licenses, by NJ standards that requires a population of 69,000 (1 license per 3000, less the first license).
Red Bank has 12,000 – they should only be permitted 5 retail consumption licenses.
This is because of grandfathered licenses and historical population.
So what do you do? Towns like Red Bank absolutely benefit from having such a large number of licenses. Red Bank wouldn’t even exist as a downtown with only 5 licenses. 19 of their in-town restaurants would need to have liquor privileges stripped.
You see towns who want to rebuild their once-vibrant downtowns absolutely saddled by the regulations, for example, Scotch Plains:
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/2021/10/15/scotch-plains-joins-fight-new-jersey-liquor-license-reform/8451565002/
The township is joining the fight for reforming New Jersey’s liquor license laws which some call the most restrictive and archaic in the United States.
The Township Council voted earlier this month to join the New Jersey Liquor License Reform Alliance, which had been created by Downtown New Jersey to lobby the state Legislature for a change in liquor laws.
Current law caps liquor licenses based on a municipality’s population – one license per 3,000 residents. The average price of purchasing a liquor license in New Jersey is $350,000 with prices more than $1 million in some cases.
Municipal officials throughout the state, including Central Jersey’s Mayors for Main Street, have been pushing for reform because the state’s restrictions and limited number of available licenses impede the economic growth in communities, especially downtowns that are being revitalized.
“One of the prime reasons we are redeveloping our downtown is to create a place where our residents can socialize and connect,” said Scotch Plains Mayor Josh Losardo. “A key to this success is to create the type of amenities that people will want to visit, such as unique restaurants and bars. But if Scotch Plains continues to be limited under 60-year-old liquor license laws, how can we truly fulfill our vision for our downtown?”
Perhaps we need to start pushing to close down 80% of Red Bank’s alcohol-serving establishments?
God forbid we have so many licenses available in one spot, it’s impossible to compete, right? Think of all the alcoholics in Red Bank?
Hey Lib,
Bringing kids to visit CA family in July/early Aug. Flying back via Vegas. Any recommendations for good pool area/kids place for two nights? Was thinking Shark tank at Nugget. I have no comps so paying out of pocket. Mandalay etc are way out of budget.
When we have threads like today’s, I wish I could be folding chair guy and Pumps was #10.
https://twitter.com/Jakob_BburgTV/status/1548534385040932865?s=20&t=apCtW_lnXgciq89-BbOV3w
REIGN’S OVER: For much of the pandemic, tech companies big and small went on hiring sprees where would-be employees could name their price and expect rich, work-from-anywhere perks. Now, that leverage is under threat as fears of a recession loom, more employers are scaling back or freezing hiring, rethinking how many of their positions should be remote and in some cases even rescinding job offers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-workers-long-got-what-they-wanted-thats-over-11657877406?mod=djemCJ_h
Under current law, Hoboken should only have 18 retail consumption licenses.
18 bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
Interesting point on Red Bank…it’s had that very nice new restaurant scene for a while and I never thought of the disparity in issued licenses v. what would otherwise be the limit currently as a basis…also explains as you note why other downtowns have not developed similarly…
“The situation that you mentioned in strictly bc companies balked at paying $250k for experienced people and thought could pay tech savvy college grad 100k and groom them up…”
I love Zuck…his recent maneuver of “many of you do not belong here” is basically tacit acknowledgement that they opened the checkbook for anyone with a pulse to fill seats but now with so much spec-tech collapsing actual talent is available to fill those seats at not much, if any, comp premium…
Some Companies Are Going Remote—and Upgrading to New Offices
Companies embracing remote and hybrid work are still betting that employee collaboration would benefit from regular office use
https://www.wsj.com/articles/some-companies-are-going-remoteand-upgrading-to-new-offices-11657627200?mod=djemCJ_h
Grim, thanks for the write ups on the liquor license issue. Feel like a movement should be started to change this bs and allow for new restaurants to thrive. Restaurants are everything to the millennial demographic I belong to.
By the way, Hoboken has roughly 80-90 more licenses than they should have per current law.
European workers have put in fewer hours than Americans for decades. Now, they are working even less than before the pandemic—almost one day a week less than Americans in 2021, according to data for the five biggest European Union economies.
Since the start of the pandemic, Americans have increased their working hours by about 1%, on average, while Europeans have trimmed theirs by around 2%, according to data about the five large EU economies from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
That is partly because many European companies tried to avoid pandemic-related layoffs by reducing workers’ hours. Nearly two million Europeans still are in Covid-19 furlough programs, with governments, for now, covering a portion of their lost pay. The U.S. economy recovered more quickly, and many American workers who kept their jobs or found new ones have continued to work the same or longer hours.
Europe has long had a reputation in the U.S. for less demanding work hours and more generous vacation practices, which many Americans attributed to a different approach to work-life balance. The pandemic labor picture shows that the differences aren’t strictly voluntary.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europeans-work-less-short-workweek-employment-pandemic-11657889680?mod=djemCJ_h
Any math/view on Morristown grim? That’s really ripped recently (although some BYOB, like Millies…).
Hey, I like this new outfit on you…free trade, anti-regulation, established successful business owner…when do we get not just your politics but also your vote over here on the dark side…?
;)
My European IB now offers 1 year paid paternity even for US workers..you heard that right. I was talking to guy from another team and he said his PMO support person just had kid about 4 months ago. He was out two months, came back and now leaving for 10m.
By,
Shark tank is a good pick, but it’s a pretty small pool. Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock (Both Stations properties, so cheaper) have amazing pool/beaches. On Strip, Flamingo has a great pool and Cosmo has three rooftop pools. Personally, I prefer the quiet and serenity at Green Valley. Great restaurants, movie theater on premise too.
Thanks. I have to stay close to downtown as booked bus tour to Zion for day. One of my bucket list parks. By time I pay for car, gas, park fees, it would be $250 for day trip. Found a bus that takes 4 of us RT to park (park entrance fee included) for $330 total. Saves me 6 hours plus of driving as well. They are 8 and 6 (soon) so just small pool with slides is best.
On a down note, my dad passed away last Thursday. Was a bit of a surprise. He was on vacation visiting family down on the west coast of Florida. Man, is that guy going to be missed, not just by family, but by the huge number of people that he knew, and helped, nearly on the daily. Didn’t a week go by that he wasn’t fixing something for someone, always for free. There wasn’t anything that guy couldn’t fix, not many people like that anymore. While I can hold my own with a meter or scope, that guy was something all together.
Oh man Grim…so sorry for your loss. Best to you and your family at this tough time.
Sorry to hear Grim….condolences.
grim, sorry. Best wishes.
Grim, my condolences to you and your family.
great writeup for liq-licenses. I am amazed at the parking lot crowds on Rte 17 rochelle park (Ascend cannibi). Looks more like a club scene
Jesus, Grim. That’s terrible news. I have to talk to my mom.
My condolences to you and your family. Good people like that are hard to come by. Old school fixers that help people out of the goodness of their heart. RIP.
Regret reading that Jim.
So sorry for your loss Grim. Sounds like a wonderful man and a great dad.
Our condolences Grim.
My deepest sympathies Jim. From all of the posts in which you mentioned your dad of which there were many I can tell his was a great father and standup fella to everyone that knew him.
Condolences JB, sounds like he was a great guy and dad, and will live on in many hearts.
By.
Definitely do Angel’s Landing over the Narrows. You’ll have to stop when you get to the chains since your kids are so young. If the wife if going, have her watch the kids and spend the half an hour finishing the trail. To this day, and I’ve hiked thousands of miles, that is the best view I have ever witnessed from the ground.
And they are still raising rates like lunatics. What more evidence do you need than this?
“* APPLE PLANS TO SLOW HIRING AND SPENDING FOR SOME TEAMS IN 2023
* APPLE WON’T BACKFILL ROLES OR ADD NEW STAFF IN CERTAIN CASES
* APPLE SPENDING SLOWDOWN NOT COMPANYWIDE, WON’T AFFECT ALL TEAMS
Sure … recession secured”
So sorry to hear Grim.
Goldman Sachs profits falls 47%
Bank of America profit falls 32%
JP Morgan has suspended buybacks.
Banks are starting to feel it.
Pumps. Put your head between your legs and brace for https://youtu.be/L_1Up5eFlYo
“Goldman Sachs profits falls 47%
Bank of America profit falls 32%
JP Morgan has suspended buybacks.
Banks are starting to feel it.”
Good news
Jim,
I am so sorry to hear about your Dad, He sounded like a great Father. I am sure your pain is deeper than anyone here can imagine.
Grim: My condolences to you and your family on the passing of your Dad. It is so hard, and even harder when it’s sudden. May he Rest In Peace.
So sorry for your loss Grim
Grim,
I haven’t talked to my mother or mother-in-law since Friday due to busy weekend. Spoke to both of them. My mother told me the details and I’m happy there was no suffering. If anything positive that can be said from a loss like this, at least no suffering. God looking out for a good guy in his passing.
My mother-in-law stopped by and first thing she mentioned was your Dad’s passing. Told her I just found out. She mentioned how he looked great at your Mother’s memorial remembrance mass at church.
Hang in there. Stay strong.
“BLACKROCK STRATEGISTS: AFTER AN EXPECTED 25 BPS HIKE THIS WEEK, THE ECB COULD HALT HIKING RATES SOONER THAN THE FED DUE TO A LOOMING RECESSION.”
Oh crap, Jim I am so sorry. Lost my Father 4 years ago. It does slowly gets easier but to this day I still think of him every day.
Sorry to hear the sad news. My condolences and I am sorry for your family’s loss.
Morristown has 23 licenses.
Population is 19,000 – which would be 7 licenses under the current law (6+1 base).
So Morristown is benefitting from the large proportion of grandfathered licenses that existed pre-current regulations.
Not very surprising.
Homebuilders have struggled for well over a year with supply and labor shortages and ridiculously spiking costs. In addition, this year, the new holy-moly mortgage rates added to the woes, and unsold inventories surged to levels not seen since 2008, as sales fell. And homebuilder stocks have gotten hammered across the board, down year-to-date between 24% and 40%.
So, not all that surprisingly, the confidence of builders of single-family houses, as depicted by the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for July, released today, plunged by 12 points, the second biggest drop in the data going back 35 years, behind only the April 2020 lockdown cliff-dive, as “high inflation and increased interest rates stalled the housing market by dramatically slowing sales and buyer traffic,” the NAHB said.
It was the seventh month-to-month drop in a row. In other words, it’s been all downhill so far this year. With today’s index value of 55, it is now back where it had been in May 2015. And it’s right back where it had been in February 2006, though it was dropping a lot more slowly back then.
Grim, sorry to hear about your loss
Ex,
Explain to me the point of more rate hikes? The damage is done. Doom and gloom have taken over all the markets. There are no bulls left. So why keep raising rates and inflicting even more damage that might be very difficult to reverse. I just don’t understand… my only thesis is they want to crush the labor market and get workers back in line. Can’t make sense of it otherwise. It’s clear workers are in control and it’s starting to hurt managements ability to drive their companies they want they want to.
Pumpkin,
Your missing the whole point of raising rates , not sure if your doing your troll crap or you are just that ignorant. Inflation is the problem , and will only stop after many more increases… remember the 1980’s??? Real estate , economy be damned , we will all have some sacrificing to do, although being a teacher and with the NJEA you are more protected than the majority of Americans. Reality is public workers are more protected than most of us.
With the current inflation rate SS is predicted to go up 10-11% and that will be catastrophic , wife and I will get $550 to $600 more each month….that is absolutely insane. Get the picture? Real Estate will be crushed if Powell acts anything like Volker. Read up on it, history repeats itself.
Grim,
My condolences. So sorry to hear of your loss
No one
Got a notice today from electric company asking us to conserve electricity. They want us to unplug all electrical things not in use, raise thermostats to 78, and not to use major appliances from 2 PM to 9 pm.
Got emails like that a few times this summer. Definitely making me lean more towards getting a hybrid Santa Fe instead of a plug in hybrid or electric. Local grid has trouble with current demand, how can it handle a few hundred thousand electric cars?
I’m not trolling, being serious. All commodities/assets are getting destroyed. The only thing left to destroy is wages. Like I said, the only justification I see for more rate hikes is to destroy the labor market. Prove me wrong. What else is inflating at this point?
Jim says:
July 18, 2022 at 9:29 pm
Pumpkin,
Your missing the whole point of raising rates , not sure if your doing your troll crap or you are just that ignorant. Inflation is the problem , and will only stop after many more increases… remember the 1980’s??? Real estate , economy be damned , we will all have some sacrificing to do, although being a teacher and with the NJEA you are more protected than the majority of Americans. Reality is public workers are more protected than most of us.
With the current inflation rate SS is predicted to go up 10-11% and that will be catastrophic , wife and I will get $550 to $600 more each month….that is absolutely insane. Get the picture? Real Estate will be crushed if Powell acts anything like Volker. Read up on it, history repeats itself.
Hold,
Not being a dick, but this is what happens with uncontrolled growth in Texas. Too fast with no planning whatsoever. At this point, who in their right mind wants to move to Texas? Of course, they will blame renewable energy is which is just a cop out for not managing insane population growth. Just build without thinking about the future consequences…and how many times did I say this would happen to Texas and all these other places growing out of control. Now come the rising costs to pay for all this population growth. I said this for years on this blog…hope all those businesses are happy they made the move to save money…now it bites them in the ass.
JJ Thailand edition
https://www.yahoo.com/news/12-women-thailand-fear-lawsuit-005910536.html
This post appears to be my first entry on these threads.
chicagofinance says:
November 29, 2005 at 12:14 pm
All you need to consider:
NASDAQ
3/10/2000 5048
3/15/2000 4582
3/24/2000 4963
4/5/2000 4149
4/14/2000 3321
As grim noted, we have no confirmation as to the veracity of these numbers anyway.
I WILL say that do not let your overall conclusion cloud your judgement. You must remain objective in order to prevent ignoring the information that doesn’t support your viewpoint. Just because history, economics, and logical is on your side doesn’t mean that this situation will unfold in the way we expect or at the velocity we would hope
No idea if any truth, but wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
“One #Chinese entrepreneur tells me that local officials are demanding that he convert his factory so that it can make military hardware. #China is preparing to go to war.”
https://twitter.com/gordongchang/status/1549141821401489408?s=21&t=0A6c5jhJ1AuCV0LB2WoRWQ