The Daily Feather — Beautimous, Bruiser & Liberty
“Cease the day, dear. It’s special because a wonderful young lady was birthed 16 years ago. Blessed you’re in my life.”
“Huge doors are opening to you now that you’ve hit 16. Enter them with caution and wisdom, son. You deserve only the best, settle for nothing less.”
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
Sixteen years ago, yesterday, “It’s a girl!” was followed by “It’s a what?” Forty seconds later, “It’s a boy!” was greeted silently with “Whew!” On December 7, 2007, my wise mom explained that God is a stickler for specificity. Though I’d always prayed for three sons, I’d never included or excluded the chance of having a daughter. With Baby A’s & B’s identical heartbeats for 35 weeks and 5 days, my working ass-umption was that I’d prayed for three and would get four…boys. That day, my mom also said to count my blessings. Provenance had deemed the twins be born on the date her father, my grandfather, was blasted awake by bombs dropping around him and lived to tell.
Blessed I was at Culver yesterday, in person to celebrate my Beutimous’ Sweet 16, and that of my prayers answered, my third son, a.k.a., Bruiser (he topped the scales at 5.1 pounds, while petite she was 4.15 pounds). When you read this, I will be in the air on the way to the warmth of Florida for some much-needed rest & relaxation. Before I unplug, there’s this major moment of November nonfarm payrolls to take in, absorb and contemplate.
It was with some relief that Bloomberg’s Anna Wong, in previewing today’s jobs data, stated that she, too, thinks the recession of 2023 will be dated as having started in October. Aside from myself, she’s the only one I know to have made such a public declaration based on every labor market metric save initial jobless claims and nonfarm payrolls, flagging a contracting job market.
Ok, OK, OK…There is one more exception. As we’ve written since March 2023, when nationwide continuing jobless claims flipped into the positive (that’s bad) year-over-year (YoY), the holdout state has been, and remains, Kentucky. Of all 51 states, including Washington D.C., it’s the only one that’s not succumbed to the indistinction of rising YoY continuing claims. Defying reason, we’ve asked ourselves, “Is there something in the water? Why the perfect track record in defiance of every other state?” The biggest employer there is Kentucky Fried Chicken, and we know that’s finger lickin’ good. But is that fried chicken so good to qualify an entire U.S. state as the holdout?
Digging a bit deeper, we found that while no single Kentucky employer has the same footprint as Colonel Sanders, many automakers have a sizable non-unionized presence in the business-friendly state. With that preamble, we highlight the national dueling phenomena of rising car inventories and falling used car prices. Both flag dwindling demand hitting an interest-rate sensitive sector, in keeping with the intent of the Federal Reserve’s current policy stance.