1. Year to Date TSLA -56% vs. S&P -19%

www.yahoofinance.com

2. Vanguard Energy ETF Broke 200 Day Twice Since Summer Only to Make More New Highs

3. S&P 500 Dividend Ratio Well Below Historical Mean

The S&P 500’s dividend ratio—the percentage of earnings that gets paid out in dividends—is around 30%, far below its long-term average of 50%, according to BofA Global Research.

1. Fed 2009-2021 vs. Today-Howard Marks Oaktree

From Howard Marks Letter

https://www.oaktreecapital.com/docs/default-source/memos/sea-change.pdf

2. 30 Year Treasury Bond Traded Close to 2008 Levels

www.stockcharts.com

3. Worldwide Defense Spending Going Up …Aerospace/Defense Stocks Outperform

Japan Doubled Defense Spending This Year

Rising defense spending is buoying defense stocks. (chart via @ycharts)

(nytimes.com)

https://abnormalreturns.com/2022/12/18/sunday-links-a-power-law-world/

4. U.S. Gross Crude Oil Exports at Record

https://dailyshotbrief.com

5. IPO ETF Makes New Lows Again

www.stockcharts.com

6. 2022 Housing Market is Not 2008 in One Chart

https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/

7. China Vs. U.S. Global Trade Footprint 2000-2020….Staggering Chart

John Mauldin Blog From Blue to Red: Striking Supply Side Shift At the turn of the century, America was the dominant supplier for the world, but in just 20 short years, China has taken that title. And, despite the naysayers, the trend continues.In the last two decades, China’s trade with Latin America and the Caribbean has grown 26-fold, from $12 billion to $315 billion. It also overtook America as the top supplier in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America.

The visual is truly staggering:

https://talkmarkets.com/content/currenciesforex/a-decade-of-roller-coaster-markets?post=377792

8. School of Quant: At $29,000, a Public NYC College Outclasses Princeton-Bloomberg

New York’s Baruch College offers a no-frills financial engineering course that’s feeding some of the world’s most elite global trading firms.

Heather Perlberg

Princeton has its Gothic spires, MIT its Great Dome. But for a no-frills lesson in 21st-century finance, head to a lackluster high-rise on Manhattan’s East 25th Street — AKA, Bernard Baruch Way.

Nine flights up, along scuffed linoleum hallways, a handful of math-loving graduate students consider equations that would make most people’s heads hurt. On the syllabus recently: three-dimensional volatility surface structures for options pricing models.

If you have to ask what those are, you probably don’t belong at the elite financial engineering program at Baruch College, part of New York City’s sprawling, 275,000-student public university system.

Call it Quant U.

Baruch, it turns out, has built a pipeline to Wall Street that rivals those at many richer, more prestigious institutions. Its faculty includes pros from the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Its students routinely graduate into six-figure jobs at big banks or, more likely, head to hedge funds such as Citadel and Millennium Management.

Similar top-rated programs at Princeton, MIT, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon? They’re good, yes — but Baruch bests them all, according to annual surveys by QuantNet, an online forum for financial engineers.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-12-15/school-of-quant-at-29-000-an-nyc-college-outclasses-princeton?sref=GGda9y2L

9. Working-Age Population Decrease

Vanguard

https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/research/pdf/isg_vemo_2023.pdf

10. 3 Powerful Strategies for a Better Brain in 2023

Skip the diet resolutions and focus on your brain in the coming year. Austin Perlmutter M.D.

KEY POINTS

• Limiting consumption of unnecessary, excessive, and stressful media may help improve brain function.
• Having more close friends late in life is linked to a significantly lower risk for dementia.
• Perpetually challenging one’s brain, even by simply exploring an opposing ideological perspective, can help keep it sharp and healthy.

At the end of each year, we find ourselves reflecting on accomplishments and struggles while looking ahead to what comes next. For many, this leads to resolutions around improving diet, getting more exercise, and becoming better at work or relationships. Yet far too often in the process of committing to these changes, we miss the fundamental significance of improving our brain health and function. With this in mind, consider skipping the fad diets and quick-fix strategies and instead focusing on your brain. Here are three powerful and science-backed strategies to power your brain for success in the coming year. 

1. Cut out unnecessary brain-draining media.

Our brains are incredibly energetically demanding, comprising 3 percent of our body weight but using 20 percent of our energy in a given day. Most of that energy is used by our neurons, and the amount of energy they use is directly related to how much they are being used. This means that our brain’s energy and function are a reflection of where we direct our focus. 

If you’re like the average adult, most of your focus is going to be on the media around you. American adults, on average, spend upward of 11 hours of their day on screens and listening to the radio. While there’s plenty of healthy and valuable content on our screens and airwaves, it’s also the case that media content (especially news) has grown increasingly negative and sensationalized. 

Stressful and polarizing media content activates stress-responsive parts of our brains and may increase the risk for mood issues as well as damage our brain health and function. To this end, limiting your consumption of unnecessarily stressful, draining, sensationalized, and polarizing media may do wonders for your brain health. And, at a very basic level, removing the unhelpful content frees your brain up to consume the healthier stuff.

2. Consume more of the good stuff: healthy relationships and sleep.

One of the most impactful areas of brain research speaks to the brain benefits of very simple daily habits. Besides the usual (and important) topic of eating right for brain health, here’s why relationships and sleep are fundamental for better brain health. 

Quality relationships are clearly fundamental to overall health as well as brain health. Loneliness, for example, is thought to be a risk factor for worse mental health. In a recent observational study of over 12,000 people, loneliness correlated with a 40 percent increased risk of developing dementiaover a 10-year period. On the other hand, having more close friends late in life is linked to a significantly lower risk for dementia, suggesting a protective effect of close interpersonal bonds. When taken together, this research speaks to the value of cultivating and maintaining close friendships. How to put it into practice? Consider setting a regular phone date, plan a trip to see loved ones, and prioritize date nights (and even group video chats). 

When considering lifestyle factors associated with better brain function and health, sleep is all too often ignored. Yet we now know that poor sleep is a risk factor for everything from dementia to depression to worse decision-making. Getting better sleep may be one of the most important strategies we have for quickly achieving better brain health. The unfortunate reality is that despite this science, most people neglect to prioritize sleep. 

A number of simple steps can be used to help improve sleep quality. These range from minimizing artificial light in the hours before bed to minimizing caffeine consumption in the afternoon. However, if sleep issues are severe or don’t respond to basic lifestyle modification, it’s likely a good idea to seek professional help with consideration for a sleep study or other testing. 

3. Challenge your brain daily.

How can we take steps to constantly move our brains toward a better state? One of the most powerful tools is to perpetually challenge our brains. This can be as simple as entertaining or exploring an opposing ideological perspective. So don’t just be adventurous with travel and new foods; consider opening up space for compassionate conversations with people who have different viewpoints. Another example is learning a new language or practicing an instrument. Even consistent word puzzles (Wordle anyone?) may help keep your brain sharp. 

When we challenge our brains, we may help form new connections between neurons through the process of neuroplasticity (a neuroscience term for the brain’s ability to reshape itself throughout our lifespans). Research has even indicated that regularly exercising our brains may help to slow down and even prevent certain aspects of cognitive decline.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/202212/3-powerful-strategies-for-a-better-brain-in-2023

1. S&P 500 Three Lower Highs

S&P Never Broke 200 Week Moving Average but we may be testing it again.

www.stockcharts.com

2. 50 Basis Points from the FED is Still Historically Aggressive.

Liz Ann Sonders -Schwab

https://twitter.com/LizAnnSonders

3. Bonds Acting Like Bonds Again….Naz -3% and Bonds Up Yesterday

4. Emerging Market Currencies Cheap in Relation to Global Export Market Share

OakTree Capital

https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/insight-commentary/market-commentary/the-roundup-top-takeaways-from-oaktrees-quarterly-letters-4q2022

5. The Biggest Sources of Power by State

The Daily Shot Blog Food for Thought: Here are the biggest sources of electricity production in the US and Canada, by state/province:

Source: Energy Minute Read full article: https://dailyshotbrief.com/

6. Home Rental Companies Sitting on 200 Week Moving Averages.

American Homes for Rent

Invitation Homes

www.stockcharts.com

7. 30 Year Fixed Mortgage Dropping…7%+ to 6.31% Last

Y Charts

https://ycharts.com/indicators/30_year_mortgage_rate

XHB Homebuilder ETF +20% in Last 6 Months

8. Ukraine and U.S. Talking Patriot Missile System

https://militaryleak.com/2021/05/23/romania-to-receive-new-modernized-patriot-air-and-missile-defense-systems-in-2022/

9. EU Citizens Thoughts on Corruption

10. The simple brain hack that will make achieving your goals so much easier-Business Insider

As entrepreneurs, most of us are goal-driven, and we’ve learned how to set clear, juicy goals and then break them down into game plans of smaller projects and tasks. The challenge comes when it’s time for you and your team to actually to follow those game plans.

After the thrill of setting that awesome goal, comes the day-to-day work that’s often not so exciting. So how do you keep yourself and your team moving forward? How can you stay on track and consistently hit your daily, weekly, and quarterly goals?

One of the answers is in the simple brain hack that psychologists call “implementation intention.”

What the research shows

Peter Gollwitzer, a psychology professor at NYU, first coined the term in the 1990s. He realized that many people set goals, but not many achieved them because they didn’t take the action they needed to take. Dr. Gollwitzer showed that the difference wasn’t just motivation — as some people were highly motivated and still didn’t do what they needed to do — but people were much more likely to reach their goals by figuring out “pre-determined goal-directed behaviors” and turning them into habits.

Rather than just coming up with a strategy to achieve a goal and then breaking it down into tasks, Dr. Gollwitzer found that people were more likely to succeed if they trained their brains to choose to do the things that they needed to do by using “if-then” statements (you can also use “when-then” statements).

He and his colleagues ran over 400 studies using every type of goal: quitting smoking, voting, healthy eating, exercising, and even using condoms. All the studies showed that implementation intentions made a massive difference in the results people got.

Get to your goal using “when-then”

How does it work? For example, let’s say that you want to grow your business and getting lots of 5-star testimonials will help. So, you decide to get 100 testimonials this quarter (about eight per week), and you’ll get them by calling 20 past clients per week, just four every day.

Sounds simple, right? But this kind of project easily gets lost in the shuffle. You mean to do it; you know it’s important, but other things that seem more urgent pop up. Eventually, you might even forget about getting those testimonials completely.

With implementation intention, you start with the statement, “When ___, then I will ___.” You not only say what you’ll do, but also give it a specific time and place. In this case, you might say, “When I get to the office, and before I even look at my emails, I’ll call four past clients for testimonials.” This tells your brain exactly when to be ready to make the calls. It sets up your energy and focus. By doing it over and over, your brain is automatically triggered to sit down and make calls as soon as you walk into your office.

James Clear talks about this in his book “Atomic Habits.” He points out that setting up implementation intention keeps you from deciding whether to do something every single time. You don’t need to be super motivated that day, and you don’t need to use your willpower to get yourself to do it. You just do it because, after a while, it would feel weird not to do it, just like not brushing your teeth before bed would feel strange.

Overcome obstacles using “if-then”

Implementation intention also helps you pre-plan for obstacles you might encounter and helps get you through them. Say you know that your morning calls will often get interrupted by team members who need your input. You know something like this is bound to happen, so before it does, you figure out, “If ___ then I will ___.”

“If I get interrupted, I will ask the person (unless they are bleeding to death) to give me 15-20 minutes.” Or maybe you decide, “If I get interrupted in the morning, I will close the door and eat lunch at my desk to make my calls.” The strategy you use to handle the obstacle is up to you. The point is that you already have it figured out and know exactly how to stay on track despite anything that tries to get in the way.

Athletes have used this for years. Marathon runners know they’ll run into “the wall” at about 18 to 20 miles. Rather than getting blindsided, they figure out ways to handle it before the race. They’ll slow their pace and take some sports gel. They’ll pay attention to the cheering crowd or focus on a certain mantra. They don’t try to figure out how to deal with the wall when it’s happening. They have a plan, so it doesn’t throw them off their goal.

When I started coaching, I realized that many of my students hit a wall about three months in. They were learning and implementing different marketing strategies — but these strategies take some time, so they didn’t see any results yet. We learned to warn them ahead of time. “Hey, you might not see results for 4-5 months. That doesn’t mean you aren’t on track. If you’re doing the work, results will come soon.”

Then we help them with “if-then” strategies. “If you feel stuck or discouraged, then call in during office hours.” An implementation intention is a brain-hack tool that helps you take the steps you need to take, whether you’re feeling motivated or not. You set up the implementation intention by saying what you’ll do and precisely when you’ll do it, and you pre-plan how you’ll deal with obstacles to stay on track.

James Clear wrote: “Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work isn’t exciting that makes the difference.”

Read the original article on Entrepreneur. Copyright 2022. Follow Entrepreneur on Twitter.

https://www.businessinsider.com/brain-hack-how-to-achieve-goals-long-term-motivation-2022-12

1. Leveraged Loan Issuance was Record in 2021

Dave Lutz at Jones Trading LBO DEBT– The Federal Reserve’s most aggressive pace of interest rate increases in decades is set to trigger a surge of defaults over the next two years in the $1.4tn market for risky corporate loans, according to Wall Street banks and rating agencies.  Analysts across the industry forecast that defaults will at least double from today’s relatively low 1.6 per cent. But the disparity is stark, with some firms warning clients that anywhere from one-in-20 to one-in-10 loans could default next year, FT reports.  Leveraged loans typically finance companies with high debt levels and poor credit ratings

2. Vanguard-Probability of a Recession Chart

https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/research/pdf/isg_vemo_2023.pdf

3. Tesla Clean Close Below 200 Week Moving Average…..Big Drop in Price to Sales Ratio

Tesla Price to Sales Ratio 2010-2022 | TSLA  ….Still not cheap but Tesla Price to Sales Ratio Drops from 23.5x to 7.5x…Dropping down to 2014-2020 range.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSLA/tesla/price-sales

4. The Last Time Investors were this Underweight Stocks Relative to Bonds was April 2009

Ryan Detrick Carson Group The last time investors were this underweight stocks relative to bonds was April 2009. (BAC Global Fund Manager Survey) With further signs inflation is dropping quickly, this could be more fuel for the equity rally.

https://twitter.com/RyanDetrick

5. Northwestern Europe Cold Weather

Bloomberg ByJavier Blas https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-12-14/peak-oil-demand-is-nowhere-in-sight?sref=GGda9y2L&utm_content=view&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-view&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic

6. Only 8% of Americans have a Positive View on Crypto

CNBC Steve Liesman After a series of crypto-collapses, scandals and bankruptcies, Americans’ views on cryptocurrency have soured sharply, with the CNBC All-America Economic Survey finding a majority favoring strong regulation.

The survey shows 43% of the public with a negative view of cryptocurrencies, up from 25% in March. The percentage with a positive view plummeted to just 8% from 19%, and those who are neutral fell almost in half to 18% from 31%

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/07/just-8percent-of-americans-have-a-positive-view-of-cryptocurrencies-now-cnbc-survey-finds.html

7. Worst Bond Year Ever 2022…Back to Back Down Bond Years Very Rare

Ben Carlson Blog Consecutive down years in the bond market are even more infrequent than the stock market: In fact, before back-to-back down years in 2021 and 2022, the only other time this has happened in the past nine-plus decades was in 1955-1956 and 1958-1959 (which coincidentally was another time when rates rose from a low starting point).

Shockingly, if it holds, 2022 would be the worst year for 10 year treasuries in modern financial market history. The only other time we witnessed a double-digit loss on the benchmark U.S. government bond was in 2009.

How Often is the Market Down in Consecutive Years? by Ben Carlson  https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2022/12/how-often-is-the-market-down-in-consecutive-years/

8. Cancellations of Signed Housing Contracts Spike

Cancellations of signed contracts with individual buyers have spiked. According to a survey by John Burns Real Estate Consulting of homebuilders that account for roughly 20% of all new home sales, the cancellation rate spiked to 26% in October, up from a rate of 8% a year ago, and up from 11% in October 2019.

The cancellation rates topped out in the Southwest at 45%, up from a cancellation rate of 9% a year ago. In Texas, the cancellation rate spiked to 39%, up from 12% a year ago (chart via Rick Palacios Jr., Director of Research at John Burns, click to enlarge):

Found at Wolf Street Blog https://wolfstreet.com/2022/12/11/starting-to-be-housing-bust-2-for-homebuilders-new-single-family-houses/

9. 50% of 18-29 Year Olds Living with their Parents.

Quartz ByTiffany Ap

Nearly half of all young adults in the US ages 18 to 29 live with their parents, and this living arrangement is boosting the profits of luxury goods companies, according to Morgan Stanley.

The number of people moving back in with at least one parent spiked in 2020 at the height of the covid-19 pandemic to 49.5%, according to census data. It’s since edged down to 48% last year, but the rate is expected by the bank to remain there for 2022, even as people return to a hybrid work set up.

https://qz.com/nearly-half-of-americans-age-18-to-29-are-living-with-t-1849882457? utm_source=chartr&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=chartr_202212

10. 12 Questions to Ask Yourself If You Want to Reinvent Your Life in 2023

Trying to figure out what you want your life to look like? These questions can help. 

BY JESSICA STILLMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, INC.COM@ENTRYLEVELREBEL

As 2022 winds to a close, I think we can all agree on one thing — it’s been a weird year. With the worst of the pandemic (hopefully) behind us, many people have emerged blinking into the light from two years in survival mode, looked around, and wondered: What do I want to do with my life now? 

That confused determination to chart a new course is reflected in persistently high quit rates, ballooning interest in entrepreneurship and digital nomadism, a surge in labor organizing, and millions of posts, articles, and think pieces about just how many of us are reconsidering our priorities and our relationship to work. 

“It’s not easy to nail down a movement that spans striking nurses and unionizing strippers, Amazon warehouse workers and work-from-home Wall Street bankers,” writes Helaine Olen in The Washington Post. “But what’s increasingly clear is that the March 2020 decision to partially close down the American economy shattered Americans’ dysfunctional, profoundly unequal relationship with work like nothing in decades.”

In short, a whole lot of people out there are determined to reinvent themselves and their lives in 2023. Where should they start? There are life audits, articles from PhD organizational psychologists, and even whole books that promise to help guide you on the path toward reinvention. But one of the most thought-provoking resources I’ve stumbled across recently is a set of questions from Thought Catalog. 

The simple list of 31 questions is designed to get you thinking about what lights you up, what drains your energy, what’s holding you back, and where you ultimately hope to end up in life. You can check out the complete list here, but I’ve selected 12 of my favorite to get you started: 

If the obstacle of money was removed, how would my life look different?

What productive activities do I spend time doing for no other reason than they make me happy? (Bill Gates has recommended asking yourself a version of this question as well.) 

What traits and values do the people I most admire have in common?

How much money do I *really* need to be happy? (There are plenty of exercises and experts to help you zoom in on a number.)

How would I most like someone to describe me?

What things do I do only because it makes other people validate me?

What do I most look forward to each day?

When was the last time I felt a big rush of satisfaction?

What did I like doing when I was younger that I’ve lost touch with? (Reconnecting with these is a great way to fight back against exhaustion and impending burnout, according to experts.) 

Which habit do I most wish I could work on getting rid of this year?

What do I want to be remembered for?

What would I be most sad to have never tried? (This reminds me of Jeff Bezos’s famous regret minimization framework.) 

Give these questions a think and you’ll already be at least a few steps down the path to inventing a new you for the new year.

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/12-questions-to-ask-yourself-if-you-want-to-reinvent-your-life-in-2023.html?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IncThisMorning-Dec%2012,%202022&leadId=1548979&mkt_tok=NjEwLUxFRS04NzIAAAGIqnnI8dxjF4JXvoA2B22e3TeBbnn8MmtgZmsytbRWQbca8FuJHEC1qjI7bfpzpbBoEEHGIGHyQQG8MpQf0m6j2KlKw5WjpFWCE3d9Rkhe

1. VIX Volatility Index Technical Signal

Jessica MentonThe VIX, dubbed Wall Street’s fear gauge, measures market expectations of 30-day volatility and can serve as an important indicator of how investors are feeling. The so-called death cross pattern appears when the VIX’s short-term 50-day moving average slides below its 200-day moving average.

For individual stocks or indexes, a death cross is often considered bearish. But when it happens to the VIX it can be a hopeful sign for equities, according to Jeffrey Hirsch, editor of the Stock Trader’s Almanac, and Christopher Mistal, research director at the publication.

“Since the VIX is designed to measure near-term market volatility the lower it goes the better the S&P 500 usually performs,” Hirsch and Mistal wrote in a research note to clients. “Thus, a VIX death cross can be a bullish indication.”

Since 1990, there have been 35 death crosses for the VIX prior to the current one, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac. On average, the S&P 500 has climbed 0.5% and 0.6% respectively one and two weeks following the formation.

With all that being said, equity traders are only confident in one thing over the next week: more turbulence.

Volatility has eased significantly, with the VIX falling below 20 at the beginning of this month after spiking as high as 34.53 intraday on Oct. 12. On Monday, however, it rose above 24 as investors brace for an important measure of consumer inflation on Tuesday, followed by the Fed’s rate decision a day later. Those key events will likely shape what’s ahead for a beaten-down stock market in 2023.

“This would suggest that the current VIX death cross is likely bullish in the near-term, but not a great indication much beyond two weeks,” Hirsch and Mistal wrote.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vix-fell-death-cross-usually-205633380.html

2. Earnings Growth Lagged the Bottom of S&P by 6 Months.

Barry Ritholtz The Big Picture Blog Since 1950, we’ve found the trough in earnings growth lagged the bottom in the S&P 500 by about 6 months — earnings failed to lead the market 75% of the time

Source: TKer

https://ritholtz.com/2022/12/1o-monday-am-reads/

3. ETFS Now Surpassing Fixed Income Mutual Funds

Dave Lutz Jones Trading SWAPPING OUT– Worn down from record losses, investors have fled bond mutual funds en masse. But many aren’t quitting on bonds—they are just turning to exchange-traded funds – One main reason: taxes. Some investors sell beaten-down positions in bond funds to harvest tax losses. In many cases this year, investors have opted to put cash into similar ETFs to maintain bond exposure in their portfolios.

As long as the securities within the ETF aren’t nearly identical to those in the mutual fund, swapping the so-called wrapper around the holdings allows investors to stay invested, while capitalizing on tax benefits – “More sophisticated investors are employing tax strategies, as well as trading up in credit quality,” said WSJ

4. Muni Yields the Highest in 10 Years

Advisor Perspectives Muni yields are near the highest level in over a decade

Muni Outlook: Back in Vogueby Cooper Howard of Charles Schwab, https://www.advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/2022/12/11/muni-outlook-back-in-vogue

5. Technology Capital Expenditures vs. Energy

https://privatebank.jpmorgan.com/gl/en/insights/investing/tmt/the-year-ahead-five-dynamics-that-matter?pid=&programName=20221209-NAM-NL-INV-Top%20Market%20Takeaways&utm_source=email-pb&utm_medium=Other-NA&utm_campaign=%20UPDATE%20WITH%20DATE%20OF%20SEND%20(Format:%20YYYYMMDD)TMT&utm_content=CTA&mkt_tok=MzkyLUhLQy04NzYAAAGIlwCyKXlKqEVk8Ms2aEPoKAHhD61RcxOEwc6d4988mCcwX0SXcW7L23iFM9_6li3T8-HWAZ6koe9eVwEA0ZkYk6uszY1ZU_kE-Zt5cVk3fUMW4A

6. NY Fed 1-Year Inflation Expectations Plunge At Fastest Pace On Record To Lowest Since 2021

BY TYLER DURDEN Zero Hegde With long-term inflation expectations (those 3-Years ahead or more) peaking more than a year ago, and even shorter inflation expectations – at least according to the NY Fed Survey of consumers – now sliding after hitting a record high 6.8% in June and dropping alongside 2Y breakevens which recently hit the lowest level in 2 years…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ny-fed-1-year-inflation-expectations-plunge-fastest-pace-record-slid-2021-levels

7. Gas Cheaper than One-Year Ago

The United States: A gallon of unleaded gasoline is now cheaper than it was 12 months ago.

Source: Daily Shot https://dailyshotbrief.com/

8. 1.7M Job Openings Per Unemployed Persons

Irrelevant Investor Blog

https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2022/12/07/animal-spirits-a-bear-market-in-housing/

9. Eating 400 calories a day from these foods could raise your dementia risk by over 20%

By Nicole Lyn Pesce

More than half of the calories consumed by Americans come from this high-risk food group, which is associated with cognitive decline, cancer and heart disease

A growing body of research suggests that ultraprocessed foods like frozen pizzas and breakfast cereals high in sugars, fats and empty calories are bad for your health. Now, a new large-scale study presented at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in San Diego this week offers more evidence that people who get a high percentage of their daily calories from ultraprocessed foods are also at a higher risk of cognitive decline.

A team of researchers from the University of São Paulo Medical School in Brazil followed a diverse sample of more than 10,000 Brazilians for up to 10 years. The subjects filled out food frequency questionnaires to note how often they were eating foods including: unprocessed or minimally processed ingredients (e.g., whole foods like fresh, dry or frozen fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meat, fish and milk that underwent minimal processing, like pasteurization); processed foods (canned fruits, artisanal bread and cheese, and salted, smoked or cured meat or fish); and ultraprocessed foods (industrial formulations of processed food substances like oils, fats, sugars, starch, artificial flavors and colorings, but containing little or no whole foods).

The subjects also took cognitive tests up to three times a year, including memory tests and word-recognition tests, to monitor their cognitive functioning — mental abilities such as learning, thinking, reasoning, remembering, problem solving, decision making and attention. They also took regular verbal fluency tests to track their executive functioning — the mental skills that help an individual plan, monitor and successfully meet their goals.

The findings? Those who got 20% or more of their daily calories from ultraprocessed foods had a 28% faster rate of cognitive decline, and a 25% faster rate of executive-function decline, compared with the subjects in the study who ate the least processed foods. In other words, someone following a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet who consumed 400 of their daily calories from ready-to-eat frozen meals, processed meats, breakfast cereals and sugar-sweetened beverages each day saw a faster rate of cognitive decline.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/eating-400-calories-a-day-from-these-foods-could-raise-your-dementia-risk-by-over-20-11670350860?mod=home-page

10. Neuroscientist: ‘Bookend’ Your Days With Reading for a More Peaceful and Productive Life

Sometimes the most impactful daily routines are also easy and pleasant.

BY JESSICA STILLMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, INC.COM@ENTRYLEVELREBEL

Just about everyone agrees that how you start and end your days has an outsize impact on your mindset and productivity. Which is why the internet is jammed packed with complex morning routine prescriptions and tales of A-listers’ superhuman start-of-day rituals.

Far be it from me to criticize Tony Robbins’s morning ice baths or Tim Cook’s 3:45 a.m. wake-up time if these extreme routines work for them, but wouldn’t it be nice if there was an impactful routine out there that was also both easy and pleasant?

According to one Harvard-trained neuroscientist, there is, and it’s already in serious contention to be my New Year’s resolution this year. If you’re looking for more peaceful and productive days without any additional dawn hours discomfort, maybe you should consider adopting it too.

The most pleasant daily routine I’ve read about in a while

What’s this miracle tweak? Nothing more complicated than starting and ending your days reading a well-chosen book. On Ezra Klein’s podcast recently, Maryanne Wolf, a UCLA professor who specializes in how our brains learn to process written language, shared her simple morning and evening routine for a clear mind all day long (hat tip to Austin Kleon).

“I begin my day with meditation. And then reading at least 20 minutes a philosophical or theological or spiritual or sometimes political — something that will absolutely take me out of myself and center me, completely center my thinking. Slow it down. It prepares me for, if you will, clearing the deck of whatever detritus from the night or even the day before. And readying myself with a particular mindset for whatever the day brings,” she shares.

She begins the day with a book but she closes the day with one too, usually a classic essay by Montaigne or Marcus Aurelius. “They give me a kind of peace that I find in very few places,” she explains. “So I end and I begin each day with books.”

Why you should bookend your days with books

Counteracting the franticness of most of everyday life with the slower, deeper pleasures of reading something excellent has intuitive appeal. But there are plenty of more scientific reasons to think Wolfe might be on to something.

First among them is Wolfe’s own expertise. As a leading researcher into how reading affects our brains, she has written before about the way deep, focused reading trains us to be able to focus longer, wrestle with complexity, empathize with others, and appreciate subtle beauty. All of which are skills that can feel in danger of atrophying amid the hustle and bustle of daily life and our very online world.

But other experts have also noted how reading can reshape your days. Bill Gates, for one, claims to always read before bed. A variety of studies suggest this habit helps reduce stress and improve sleep.

Other recent research showed that people who take just a few minutes to reflect on their goals at the start of the day experience “a cascade of positive experiences during the day.” By choosing to read something that focuses her mind on larger questions of spirituality and meaning, that’s just what Wolfe’s morning reading does.

You might not have much appetite for Montaigne (though I personally found this book on his writings surprisingly compelling and readable, so don’t let the fact that he was a 16th-century philosopher scare you off). But just about everyone can find some sort of book to pick up in the morning and the evening that helps remind them of what they think life is truly about.

Not only will devoting 15 or 20 minutes to reading those books at the start and end of each day feed your mind and give you joy, but all the evidence suggests bookending your days with reading in this way will help you feel calmer, more rooted, and more genuinely productive all day long.

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/neuroscientist-bookend-your-days-with-reading-for-a-more-peaceful-productive-life.html?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IncThisMorning-Dec%2011,%202022&leadId=1548979&mkt_tok=NjEwLUxFRS04NzIAAAGIpVN64S2QomAH4IokOw7BrMUQioVqy__h2B5L0Wt2v3ZaLkVT5rm6NYwbv8tLds7mX-xeVhcoMnBOPtEK4NSZwSxI6V8XO6oErIplUeGU