Our financial system is crumbling this week.

[heyzeus]

My form of light yolo'ing is traveling fairly extravagantly while our kids are still young enough to like us and like going places with us. I grew up solidly midwest middle class, with our vacations being primarily to, like, Branson, or to Chicago to stay with family, with one trip to Disney World. I no longer believe strongly in the future of our country, so in the meantime, we've taken our kids to Spain, Hawaii, France, Colorado, upper Michigan, and Italy. Will I be able to retire at 55 or 65? Nope! But [expletive] it. The morons we've elected are going to crash and burn it all so that they can profit of selling off the valuable parts like they're hedge fund managers rather than stewards of the public interest. The time to enjoy life is now, before the mean global temp rises 5 degrees and the [expletive] hits the fan.

[WAR God]

My form of light yolo'ing is traveling fairly extravagantly while our kids are still young enough to like us and like going places with us. I grew up solidly midwest middle class, with our vacations being primarily to, like, Branson, or to Chicago to stay with family, with one trip to Disney World. I no longer believe strongly in the future of our country, so in the meantime, we've taken our kids to Spain, Hawaii, France, Colorado, upper Michigan, and Italy. Will I be able to retire at 55 or 65? Nope! But [expletive] it. The morons we've elected are going to crash and burn it all so that they can profit of selling off the valuable parts like they're hedge fund managers rather than stewards of the public interest. The time to enjoy life is now, before the mean global temp rises 5 degrees and the [expletive] hits the fan.

We’re doing the same.

[sighyoung]

Traveling now is really important, and I'm glad all of you are doing it.

My wife and I sacrificed so that our children could have opportunities, and, indeed, they've been able to travel internationally as young adults. So I haven't been to many places, but both children have traveled to Europe, my son has been to mainland China four times and lived in Taiwan for two years, and my daughter has studied in Colombia, Mexico, and Great Britain.

Travel has given them some great memories, but made them more self-sufficient, resilient, and socially adept. They know how to take care of themselves in all kinds of social situations, which is great.

I and my wife will travel more this year and next, too: we scrimped for years, but we're realizing that now is the time to travel before things fall apart. Seeing my brother in Maui is tops on the bucket list, but we'll day monthly weekend trips and one or two large trips, as well.

[heyzeus]

Traveling now is really important, and I'm glad all of you are doing it.

My wife and I sacrificed so that our children could have opportunities, and, indeed, they've been able to travel internationally as young adults. So I haven't been to many places, but both children have traveled to Europe, my son has been to mainland China four times and lived in Taiwan for two years, and my daughter has studied in Colombia, Mexico, and Great Britain.

Travel has given them some great memories, but made them more self-sufficient, resilient, and socially adept. They know how to take care of themselves in all kinds of social situations, which is great.

I and my wife will travel more this year and next, too: we scrimped for years, but we're realizing that now is the time to travel before things fall apart. Seeing my brother in Maui is tops on the bucket list, but we'll day monthly weekend trips and one or two large trips, as well.

When are you coming to Austin so I can buy you a beer.

[IMADreamer]

My Wife and I have been a little torn between taking long weekends or big trips. Although we did spend two weeks in Canada and New England this Summer. Highly recommend btw. But we are also very much let's go get a cabin in the woods somewhere for the weekend and just chill kind of people. We are headed up to Banff National Park next year and I'm pretty excited for that.

[sighyoung]

Traveling now is really important, and I'm glad all of you are doing it.

My wife and I sacrificed so that our children could have opportunities, and, indeed, they've been able to travel internationally as young adults. So I haven't been to many places, but both children have traveled to Europe, my son has been to mainland China four times and lived in Taiwan for two years, and my daughter has studied in Colombia, Mexico, and Great Britain.

Travel has given them some great memories, but made them more self-sufficient, resilient, and socially adept. They know how to take care of themselves in all kinds of social situations, which is great.

I and my wife will travel more this year and next, too: we scrimped for years, but we're realizing that now is the time to travel before things fall apart. Seeing my brother in Maui is tops on the bucket list, but we'll day monthly weekend trips and one or two large trips, as well.

When are you coming to Austin so I can buy you a beer.

I think one of my scholarly organizations has a conference in Austin next year. If so, I'll be there.

[heyzeus]

Traveling now is really important, and I'm glad all of you are doing it.

My wife and I sacrificed so that our children could have opportunities, and, indeed, they've been able to travel internationally as young adults. So I haven't been to many places, but both children have traveled to Europe, my son has been to mainland China four times and lived in Taiwan for two years, and my daughter has studied in Colombia, Mexico, and Great Britain.

Travel has given them some great memories, but made them more self-sufficient, resilient, and socially adept. They know how to take care of themselves in all kinds of social situations, which is great.

I and my wife will travel more this year and next, too: we scrimped for years, but we're realizing that now is the time to travel before things fall apart. Seeing my brother in Maui is tops on the bucket list, but we'll day monthly weekend trips and one or two large trips, as well.

When are you coming to Austin so I can buy you a beer.

I think one of my scholarly organizations has a conference in Austin next year. If so, I'll be there.

YES! Will it be on the University of Texas campus? Also…I hope it’s not in the summer.

[sighyoung]

YES! Will it be on the University of Texas campus? Also…I hope it’s not in the summer.

It's the MELUS Conference (Multi-ethnic Literatures of the U.S.), and co-sponsored by UT-Austin and SMU. The dates are April 30th-May 2nd, which is a perfect time for me (my university wraps up the spring semester early to get out of the way of the Kentucky Derby--seriously). Full information about the conference isn't even up on the organization's website yet--I got notice by e-mail.

I think part of the conference will be on the UT Austin campus, but I don't know how much--there's at least a tour of the Harry Ransom Center planned, as well as showings of films by Austin-area filmmakers.

So I will definitely follow up. It would be great to meet you in person.

[heyzeus]

YES! Will it be on the University of Texas campus? Also…I hope it’s not in the summer.

It's the MELUS Conference (Multi-ethnic Literatures of the U.S.), and co-sponsored by UT-Austin and SMU. The dates are April 30th-May 2nd, which is a perfect time for me (my university wraps up the spring semester early to get out of the way of the Kentucky Derby--seriously). Full information about the conference isn't even up on the organization's website yet--I got notice by e-mail.

I think part of the conference will be on the UT Austin campus, but I don't know how much--there's at least a tour of the Harry Ransom Center planned, as well as showings of films by Austin-area filmmakers.

So I will definitely follow up. It would be great to meet you in person.

Please do keep me in the loop! I have some UT connections (serve on a board, and Mrs. Zeus works for UT) so I enjoy getting to campus. It's a nice campus, dominated of course by the massive football stadium and the Tower, which of course was the site of the infamous Whitman mass shooting.

The Ransom Center is a truly amazing archive. Among many other amazing collections are David Foster Wallace's, and some day when I have the time I intend to spend a day there looking at whatever they'd let me look at.

Late April/early May is a great time to visit Austin. It'll be warm but probably not screaming hot yet. But a great time to sit out on a patio enjoying a beverage, which I hope we get to do.

[mikechamp]

Interesting article worth a full read, if for no other reason than to understand their perspective.

I am not as confident as these guys are. Part of my cynicism is tied to the last half of the last sentence of my overview. What if those buyers can't pay later?

A 'K-shaped' economy has investors on edge. BofA says it may hold up.

A growing chorus on Wall Street is warning that the US economy is becoming increasingly K-shaped, with higher-income households powering spending while lower-income consumers struggle with affordability. It mirrors what investors have seen in the stock market, where Big Tech continues to drive the major indexes even as other sectors lag behind.

The concern: How long can those two realities coexist before something breaks? “I don't think they're going to coexist forever,” Bank of America senior US economist Aditya Bhave told Yahoo Finance during the firm’s 2026 outlook call this week. “Our view is that the bottom of the K will stabilize before the top of the K collapses. That's underpinning our more optimistic view of the economy.”

Planned layoffs hit their highest November level since 2022, according to Challenger, Gray, and Christmas. And private payrolls unexpectedly shed 32,000 jobs in November, with small businesses hit hardest, yet another sign of the Main Street divide.

Bhave emphasized that the “haves vs. have-nots” split is real but not necessarily destabilizing in the near term. Higher-income households spend significantly more on services, which dominate the US job market. And despite the mixed signals, one piece of data pointed to ongoing resilience: jobless claims fell to a three-year low on Thursday. “One reason to be less pessimistic is the following: Who spends more on services — higher- or lower-income folks? It's actually higher-income folks,” he said. “So if you take $1 of spending and you tell me that it was actually spent by a higher-income household … I’ll say that’s more likely to have been spent on services.”

That matters because “5 out of 6 jobs in the US are in services,” Bhave noted. More spending on discretionary services “could actually be more supportive for the labor market” and “increase the chances that the labor market will stabilize.”

Black Friday online sales hit a record $11.8 billion, up more than 9% from last year, according to Adobe Analytics, and Cyber Monday sales climbed 7.1% year over year to $14.25 billion. Shoppers leaned into electronics, apparel, and home goods, and tapped buy now, pay later at record levels to secure deeper deals.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-k-shap ... 13215.html