Three Charts

Certainty is the death of imagination.--Milton Glaser

Another lovely day. Dinner downtown and sat for a while on the beautiful Williamsburg Inn veranda--just terrific.
Ned and Brian are good with a lot positive going on. Chris has settled back into the time zone.

A presentation copy of Origin of Species given to botanist Johann Xaver Robert Caspary was sold in the early 20th century to an English-born psychologist and professor at Cornell University, and descended to the current owner, according to Bonhams, which auctioned the book in New York on June 13. The copy had a presale estimate of between $200,000 and $300,000. It sold for $500,075 — double the amount expected.

According to the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), there are over 5 million vending machines in the U.S. alone. The vending machine industry generates over $64 million in profits each year. And three out of every four vending machine transactions are in cash.

Bad news: Venezuela was among the world’s top ten oil producers in most years, and in the top five in some years, until about 2011 when its oil production declined from the corrosive effects of socialism and it dropped out of the top ten ranking. Last year, despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela dropped to the No. 17 position for oil production by country, and its production has fallen by about another 40% so far this year compared to 2018.
Upside, Venezuela was a good world citizen: Although its ranking has been steadily falling for oil production and will fall precipitously this year, Venezuela’s ranking rose last year to No. 1 in the world for another category: reduction in CO2 emissions. Due its collapsing economy, energy shortages, electricity blackouts, and mass exodus of citizens fleeing the socialist nightmare, Venezuela’s carbon emissions fell by a staggering 13.2% in 2018, the biggest percentage decrease in the world, and nearly 2X the next largest CO2 decrease of -6.8% in Bulgaria!
Sort of the AOC Green Plan. The world thanks them for their sacrifice.

This raises a lot of interesting questions. President Donald Trump has lashed out at The New York Times, saying it engaged in a "virtual act of treason" for a story that said the U.S. was ramping up its cyber-intrusions into Russia's power grid. The Times reported on Saturday that the U.S. has bored into Russian utility systems in an escalating campaign meant to deter future cyber activity by Russia. It comes as the U.S. looks for new ways to punish Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election and prevent a recurrence.

Andrew Yang is running for President. He a former technology entrepreneur who has attracted more than 100,000 individual donors — enough to qualify him for inclusion in the first debates--whose small popularity is believed to be related to his detailed platform. Most of his proposals revolve around Yang’s view that the American economy no longer works for the majority of people. He has proposed a universal basic income — $1,000 monthly checks for all adults — as well as more affordable college, a financial-transaction tax and rebuilding infrastructure. He has dozens of smaller ideas, too: free marriage counseling; more funding for autism; a ban on airlines removing passengers when they overbook flights; the return of congressional earmarks; and the extension of Daylight Saving Time to the entire year.He’s also come out in favor of Supreme Court term limits, ranked-choice voting and statehood for Washington and Puerto Rico.
One interesting element in American politics is that sometimes ideas appear on the periphery, percolate a while, then become mainstream.

                                    Three Charts

Studies indicate that a large majority of working mothers are already offered paid maternity leave by their employers. Between 1961 and 2008, according to the Census Bureau, the percentage of women with access to paid leave to care for new children soared from just 16 percent to more than 61 percent (see chart above). More private employers than ever before offer paid leave for new parents, including all 20 of the nation’s largest corporations. Paid leave for new fathers, once unheard-of, is increasingly common. In short, the want of a federal law compelling or facilitating paid leave has not kept private employers from supplying it.

Here's one of those interesting little things that statisticians discover:




The bullish dynamic for risk assets on Wall Street is beginning to unravel, clearly. Blame it on trade-war fears, at least partly sparked by a May 5 tweet from President Donald Trump, or peg it to worries that the global economy is facing a pronounced slowdown. In any case, major assets are reflecting deepening concerns about the durability of bull run for stocks, which will mark its 10th year in about
a month.