EZEtoGRU

One lousy inflation report does not make a crisis.   Let’s see how the trend goes in the coming months. 
 
Recoveries from inflation are almost never completely linear. There will be bumps in the road which are normal and expected. 

One lousy inflation report does not make a crisis.   Let’s see how the trend goes in the coming months. 
 
Recoveries from inflation are almost never completely linear. There will be bumps in the road which are normal and expected. 

One lousy inflation report does not make a crisis.   Let’s see how the trend goes in the coming months. 
 
Recoveries from inflation are almost never completely linear. There will be bumps in the road which are normal and expected. 

The S &P 500 is at all time highs.  I'm making money hand over fist.
Oh, and like everyone middle class, my net worth is way up.  
Here's what YCharts says:
Higher prices suck, for sure.  But wage growth has been exceeding inflation for about a year now.

 
So do I think it's gonna screw up the economy and investing that wages are growing faster than inflation?  No, I don't.  Sorry.  
If we are talking about personal investing, rather than the unchanging dirge about inflation, here's something odd.  I did think we were about to enter into a correction phase in the S & P.  It has certainly been on a roll.  One reason why, among several, is Glenn Neely, who I have mentioned before. It's all kind of voodoo Neowave theory.  But on big calls, Neely has been correct most of the time.  Like when the 2000 downturn started, and when the GFC started and the market plunged. In both times at the very beginning he said, "Get out!"
So in February he was saying, and I quote, "upside progress should be minimal to non-existent for the rest of this quarter."  He thought Feb. 12 was when the decline would start, since the S & P had the biggest one day drop since this rally started right after Halloween.  I actually closed out about half my shares in SOXL, at something like a 150 % profit.  Although the ones I bought last October and still have got up to about a 200 % profit.
Anyhoo, funny thing.  The market kept going up.  SOXL exploded.  Something about all this investment in chips and new factories that the US is leading the way on.  How did that happen, anyway?  So Neely was wrong, and he has now flipped.  He's now saying the market seems to want to keep going up.  Now he's saying "the S&P will not drop much (even if it wastes time) before beginning a new advancing phase."  Rally on!  I bought 1000 shares of SOXL back, hoping to enjoy the next ride up.
Point is, while this unwavering dirge about inflation has been going on, the stock market has been on fire.  And home prices are going up, too.  Again, average middle class net worth is higher than it has ever been.  Inflation, after it's huge jump from 3.09 % in January to 3.15 % in February, is still below the long term average.
If this is how it works when things suck, can we make it so things suck all the time?  😉

People conflate the cost of living with inflation. EV's are more expensive to repair just like luxury cars are more expensive to repair, so higher insurance rates are a downstream effect of more people buying costlier cars rather than inflation per se. But it does increase the cost of living.

My issue with Mr. Dimon has nothing to do with politics.  I don't even know what his political leanings are.  It has everything to do with him predicting the US is imminently going to fall into a recession since November of 2020.  So he's been wrong for over three years with his prediction.   To me, he has zero credibility anymore.  How he manages to hold the top job at JP Morgan/Chase is beyond me.

I agree.  Some of the proportions seem over-exaggerated.  

There is a common culture in the Gulf Arab states, but the hired help, including airline employees are not part of it. These countries are the antithesis of diversity, there is a dominant culture, hired technocratic help (mainly western) who have no rights, and the rest who have even fewer rights, more analogous to slaves than anything else. So they offer no lessons on whether diversity in the West is a good or bad thing.
Interesting as that may be, this thread is about airlines and air travel, not the advantages or otherwise of diversity or of the nature of Middle Eastern societies, so please stick to discussing travel.

I have really enjoyed the transatlantic and Hawaii cruises I've done because I find the days at sea to be enjoyable and relaxing.  Sitting on deck with a book, exploring the ship, and getting to know crew members are highlights for me, and equally important as the days in port from my experience.

A rather repulsive topic imo.

Ah yes...our former poster from California who claimed he was a retired medical doctor.  I never really believed he was a medical professional.  He dished out such dodgy medical advice on Mpox and COVID...it was scandalous.
Anyway, I got the Mpox vaccine early on when it first appeared and I highly recommend it.  I had no side-affects.

Jimmy Garappolo for sure 😛😛😛

It was not the Happy Tap...it was JR's and I went there numerous times in the 1980's.  Totally different location and on the riverfront.  It preceded the Happy Tap and was a much better and busier club with Toronto and Montreal talent rotating through regularly.  Oh....the good old days.

Ah yes...our former poster from California who claimed he was a retired medical doctor.  I never really believed he was a medical professional.  He dished out such dodgy medical advice on Mpox and COVID...it was scandalous.
Anyway, I got the Mpox vaccine early on when it first appeared and I highly recommend it.  I had no side-affects.

Ah yes...our former poster from California who claimed he was a retired medical doctor.  I never really believed he was a medical professional.  He dished out such dodgy medical advice on Mpox and COVID...it was scandalous.
Anyway, I got the Mpox vaccine early on when it first appeared and I highly recommend it.  I had no side-affects.

Well I'm back from my three days in Ft. Lauderdale.  I did go to Johnson's all three nights (Tue/Wed/Thurs).  I stay clear of bars on weekends as they get too busy and packed for my taste.  Anyway, all three nights at Johnson's were quite busy so I guess the high season for Florida has arrived.  Great fun all three nights.  As usual, lot's of latino dancers with a few Italians and Americans mixed in.  Only one fairly big muscle guy there.  He was from South Africa.   Tall with big muscles but strangely fem in the way he moved and danced.  Anyway, I spent time with Tobias (from Buenos Aires with a huge cock), Dorian (from Italy), Gregorio (from Cordoba Arg with a perfect big ass), Fire (from Madrid...super nice), Lionel (from Rosario Arg), and Mateus (from Medellin).  All good fun.  I always enjoy using my Spanish when I'm in the South Florida clubs.  There were multiple Canadians at Johnsons.  I did not recognize any of them but they said they were from Campus in Montreal.  Mostly on the smaller/skinny side so not really my type.  
The club was buzzing on the weeknights that I was there so I can only imagine what the weekend will be like.   Only a few women there...all of whom had a male escort.  Very handsome bartenders.  There are five lapdance cubicles to use.  They were all quite busy all three nights.  
 

It's always hard to say what's "normal" based on a few visits each year.  But I can say for sure that it's much more normal now than it was in the past.  Back then,  dancers were very wary about going back to the hotel with customers they didn't know well (and many just didn't do hotel privates, period).  Typically it would take multiple evenings of lap dances before the question would get a "yes".  (This is making me nostalgic about my first such experience...after asking and getting turned down on night 1,  suddenly on night 3 the dancer, without any prompting from me, told me he'd be willing to go back to my hotel.  When I asked what had changed, he said "now I know you.")
Nowadays,  I am often offered hotel visits by dancers I'm chatting with at the bar, even before we've done a private lap dance.

Just back from a  four night trip to Montreal.  Weather was mostly good with the exception of some storms on Sunday and showers today Monday.   I noticed no smoke smell during my time there.  Things were active in The Village with lots of foot traffic.
I visited both Stock and Campus.  I was at Stock Thursday and Friday nights.  Stock is looking great with all the renovations.  Stock & Soda seems to be successful...at least now during the summer.  Plenty of folks sitting on the patio part on the street.  The inside VIP room (Stock Speakeasy?) was inaugurated on Friday.   Somehow, I managed not to check it out.  Oops!  I saw the new owner, Danny, who I remember from his bartender days.  He seemed really upbeat about everything.  DJ Anthony also made an appearance on Thursday for his hosting duties of the Studio Show.    Stock currently has more employees than I have ever seen previously.   The current level of business seems to support the increased number of staff.  Although, Thursday was relatively slow.  Things didn't really get going till after 11:00pm.  Note the weekly summer fireworks have been moved from Saturdays to Thursdays.  As a result, dancers and customers don't really start showing up to Stock till after 10:00.  They had 10-12 dancers there on Thursday and some didn't turn up till after 10:00pm.  So it was fairly slim pickings before 10:00pm.  Alex the bartender was on duty at the main bar by the shower stage.  He is always good fun.  I ended up hanging out with Jasper & Eric most of the evening.  It was good fun.  The crowd was mostly gay men.  Although there were a few ladies there, they did not make for an overpowering presence.
Friday was a very different night.  It  was, of course, much busier at Stock as a weekend night.  Also, the women were present in force.  It felt like a ladies night.  In fact, when I arrived around 8:30, I was advised that there was a special bachelorette-type party going on and that it would be over by 10:00pm.  It must have started at 6 or 7 cause at 8:30 it was already well underway.  Former Stock dancer Parker was the host and he had 2-3 non-Stock dancers plus Gatuso performing for the ladies.  Several of the bachelorettes were brought up on stage and given lap-dances.  It was kind of fun to watch from afar and I assumed they would clear out at 10:00pm.  Well this pre-show did end as scheduled  and the ladies were told that if they wanted to continue on at Stock, they would need to go out and pay the Stock cover-charge and re-enter.  It seems most of them did that and the female presence just grew larger as the night progressed.   All the chairs closest to the stage were occupied by females.  Men seemed to be in the minority in the bar.  The dancer line-up consisted of many attractive guys (Jo, Jasper, Vinny, Gatuso (from Tunisia), Barack (from Costa Rica), Bran, Denzel, Miguel, and Santiago).  There were a few others there as well which I would consider duds...at least for my taste.  Former Stock dancer Tyler also made an appearance as a customer.  We had a quick chance to catch-up since I had not seen him since before COVID.  He is not currently dancing anywhere.   I had fun both nights. at Stock.  
Thursday, I stopped in briefly at Campus between stays at Stock.  I seemed to be there during the transition from the day talent to the evening talent.  The daytime boys were largely forgettable in my view.  A few of the nighttime guys coming in looked interesting but I did not stay long enough to see any of them perform.  A couple of the daytime dancers were overly-aggressive which I did not appreciate.   Campus had roughly the same amount of clients on Thursday as Stock so , due to its smaller size, Campus appeared busier.  There was only a token presence of ladies at Campus on Thursday.
I returned to Campus on Saturday and what a difference.  It was packed with a whole lot more dancers.  Two very big body-builder types.  Also there were multiple muscular younger guys at Campus that seemed to be lacking at Stock.  I hung out with three dancers Saturday night and had great fun.   The bartender John was a hoot also.  He enjoyed gradually removing his clothes while working.    The former dancer red-headed Manager (I don't remember his name) was working Saturday and I had an opportunity to speak with him.  I told him I first saw him dancing way back when at West Side on Beaver Hall when they had strippers.  That's quite a few years ago now.  There were a few more women at Campus on Saturday than on Thursday but it did not feel overwhelming to me.
I did not go to the clubs on Sunday so nothing to report there.
My conclusions overall:
*  The Stock renovation looks wonderful and is bringing in increased business to Stock & Soda and also the main strip club.
*  Stock still has to work on getting the guys naked on stage.  There are multiple guys (mostly the newer ones) that do not get naked.  Some don't even flash their goods.
*  The dancer talent at Stock has improved over the last few months.  This is partially due to getting back some of the former Stock strippers that had stopped stripping or had moved to Campus.   That is all good, (and kudos to Stock management for achieving this) but Stock also needs to get some muscular younger talent .  We need to have some fresh younger faces to go along with the veterans.  
* Stock needs to get more dancers to come in earlier.  Many dancers not arriving till 10:00 or even 11:00pm  just doesn't work for me.  I like to start fairly early.  I really want to see most of the guys by 9:00pm so I can decide who to spend time with.  I would guess that most older customers 45+ (with bank in their pocket) would much prefer to have most dancers around  by 9:00pm rather than have to wait till 11:00pm to see the top guys.
*  The Women at Stock.  Something needs to be done about this.  I know it's a difficult issue as one cannot discriminate.   But the women on Friday (after the earlier bachelorette event)  were the dominant force for the entire night.  I wanted to tip one of the dancers on the stage and found it very difficult to even get close.  I was told Saturday night was similar at Stock.
I hope to return to Montreal this summer.  I really really don't want to be spending my gay dollars in Florida if I don't have to.  I am happy with the great progress at Stock in just three months but look for further improvements on the items highlighted above.  I really want to return more regularly if possible.
 
 

I took Brightline from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale last week.  My Premium ticket cost $32.  A Premium Class ticket entitles you to an Uber ride to your departing station and from your arriving station (I think there is a five mile limit for each segment).  I made use of Uber on both ends with the costs being fully covered by Brightline.  According to their calculations, the Uber costs were just over $30.  If this is accurate, that means my resulting train fare in Premium Class was $2.  BTW, the Premium ticket entitled me to an alcoholic beverage and a small snack (potato chips and a candy bar).  I declined both but I could have had them if I wanted.  How is Brightline making any money?  I'd be interested in seeing their financials.  Who is funding this project?
FWIW, the train seemed only about 10% full on this segment.  After Lauderdale, my train was stopping in Palm Beach and then Orlando.  This was my 4th time on Brightline and none of the trips have been very full.  I hope they can make a go of this...but I really wonder.

I took Brightline from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale last week.  My Premium ticket cost $32.  A Premium Class ticket entitles you to an Uber ride to your departing station and from your arriving station (I think there is a five mile limit for each segment).  I made use of Uber on both ends with the costs being fully covered by Brightline.  According to their calculations, the Uber costs were just over $30.  If this is accurate, that means my resulting train fare in Premium Class was $2.  BTW, the Premium ticket entitled me to an alcoholic beverage and a small snack (potato chips and a candy bar).  I declined both but I could have had them if I wanted.  How is Brightline making any money?  I'd be interested in seeing their financials.  Who is funding this project?
FWIW, the train seemed only about 10% full on this segment.  After Lauderdale, my train was stopping in Palm Beach and then Orlando.  This was my 4th time on Brightline and none of the trips have been very full.  I hope they can make a go of this...but I really wonder.

Are you trans ?

Further to this, I see on the Stock website they have a video of him dancing at the club on Febuary 16th.  So he does still dance there.

There have been a few over its history. If you mean “I” the tall lean tatted long-haired chap doing stints in Florida and some modelling, yes he was dancing here in early February when I went by between winter trips abroad. 

I took Brightline from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale last week.  My Premium ticket cost $32.  A Premium Class ticket entitles you to an Uber ride to your departing station and from your arriving station (I think there is a five mile limit for each segment).  I made use of Uber on both ends with the costs being fully covered by Brightline.  According to their calculations, the Uber costs were just over $30.  If this is accurate, that means my resulting train fare in Premium Class was $2.  BTW, the Premium ticket entitled me to an alcoholic beverage and a small snack (potato chips and a candy bar).  I declined both but I could have had them if I wanted.  How is Brightline making any money?  I'd be interested in seeing their financials.  Who is funding this project?
FWIW, the train seemed only about 10% full on this segment.  After Lauderdale, my train was stopping in Palm Beach and then Orlando.  This was my 4th time on Brightline and none of the trips have been very full.  I hope they can make a go of this...but I really wonder.

Correct!  And many of them insist they don’t pay enough in taxes.