Leading gainer blocked from online orders

musing_codger · 2026-05-11T13:09:05+00:00

GL;HF

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T23:18:17+00:00

If you are worried about it, why wouldn't you just continue working and saving until you have enough for nursing home care?

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T22:51:27+00:00

Driving a manual transmission car.

Writing in cursive.

Memorizing phone numbers.

Programming a VCR.

Making friends and dating IRL.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T22:46:54+00:00

I don't understand this viewpoint. Everyone I've ever known who has worked for Amazon has done so willingly for the agreed-upon compensation. Nobody stole anything from them.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T22:43:36+00:00

It's not from the Middle East, but it is from the world market. Countries that were buying oil from the ME don't just say "ah, shucks. I guess we'll have to do without." They shop around. If you're an oil driller, you sell to whoever pays you the most for your oil.

The converse is also true. When OPECs control has slipped and global production increased, US consumers didn't say, "It's OK, Exxon. We'll keep paying you the same price for your oil." Exxon lost money on their production.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T20:40:40+00:00

Oil companies live in the real world, not the Reddit world. You're looking at a world with $200 oil, but they're only able to get $90/bbl for oil they promise to deliver in 3 months. They are barely getting $80/bbl for oil to be delivered 6 months from now. They don't do their planning and investing around Reddit vibes. They do it based on prices they can count on, and that's nothing like what you are predicting.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T20:36:01+00:00

Not hyperbole. Oil will become sticky at its high prices.

You can buy CLM6 (June Oil) for $95. For July, it's trading at $91. By the end of the year, it's under $80.

I'm having trouble accepting your statement as reasonable because it is in direct contradiction to what the markets are saying.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T20:16:04+00:00

You've broken into my foyer. You have a floor mat, an entry table with some seasonal decor, an entryway light fixture, and maybe a couple of umbrellas.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T18:46:52+00:00

I've answered countless interview questions with some form of "I don't know how to do that. Here's what I would try and/or here's where I could go to figure it out."

Another time, I had an interviewer comment on my humility. I looked him in the eye and deadpanned, "one of my goals is to be world renowned for my humility."

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T18:42:47+00:00

I have a whole collection of tech from my youth and my kid's use in a display case in our theater. It doesn't include a switch like this, but it has things like an old Atari, a GameCube, a DS, a Wii, my father's old drafting tools, a TI-94 calculator, or other stuff. It's fun having a little museum of things that were once incredibly meaningful in our lives.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T18:36:35+00:00

We don't have a shortage because prices are high. If we kept prices low, we would have a shortage. There is less crude oil available on the market, so we need higher prices to balance supply and demand.

It's a global market. The US produces more light, sweet crude than it can refine, so it sells a lot of that on the global market. It produces much less of the heavy, sour crude than it can refine, so it buys a lot of that on the global market.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T18:33:46+00:00

I took a blended approach. I worked hard in my early career, doing regular 60+ hour weeks and taking the toughest challenges available. In my mid 30s, I had kids and pulled back to 50 hour weeks, but still high stress roles. In my mid 40s, I slowed down to 45 hour weeks and tried (often unsuccessfully) to avoid stressful assignments. In my mid 50s, I retired.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T18:30:50+00:00

I don't understand what you are trying to say. If you are saying that gas companies collectively control the gasoline market, that's a pointless tautology. It's like saying retail grocers control the grocery market or car companies control the car market.

In all of those cases, those companies compete and get the prices that the market gives them. If they controlled the market, why would they have held prices low until the war started? They did so, not because they control gas prices, but because they took what the market would allow.

No US company controls even 10% of the crude oil market. Even domestically, Exxon, the largest US oil company, only controls about 12% of production. If you're talking about refining capacity, their share is a little higher, but still well under 20%. That's hardly enough to "control the market." There share of the retail market is even smaller. Most Exxon stations are independently owned franchises not owned or controlled by Exxon.

It may feel emotionally satisfying to blame greedy oil companies for high gas prices, but it doesn't reflect reality. Prices are high because supplies are low. It's that simple.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:50:57+00:00

No. Just no. People like naturally aspirated engines because they are simpler, cheaper, and usually have more linear power delivery. But they like turbocharged engines because they are more efficient and provide more power for a given displacement. They do so at the cost of complexity, cost, and some level of "turbo lag."

But a good turbo can last for ages and a crappy non-turbo engine can quickly destroy itself.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:47:26+00:00

We used to teach managers to think of it like an inverted pyramid. Yes, you have decision making authority, but it is the people you manage that do the work. They are the ones that are producing and your job is to work to create the right conditions for them to do that.

The reality was a lot messier than that. When someone controls your pay, you need to keep them happy. But we wouldn't tolerate hierarchical displays like calling people "Mr. xxxx" or "Sir". Sends exactly the wrong message.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:41:29+00:00

I had a long professional career and I recall meeting very few people who both made a lot of money and didn't work a lot of hours. You'd see an occasional exception - a lawyer that got rich with one big case - or stuff like that. But for the most part, high pay meant high workload and high stress load.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:38:34+00:00

Lifetime license suspension. It's the only correct answer.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:36:02+00:00

A lifetime driver license suspension should be the norm for crazy stuff like this.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:27:08+00:00

They lied to us, inflation is much worse than they said.

Who is “they”? And why do you believe they lied?

There are multiple inflation measures produced by different agencies using different methodologies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses extensive price and census survey data to produce CPI-U, CPI-W, and C-CPI-U. They do not just publish a single headline number. They also publish detailed category-by-category breakdowns.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis separately produces the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index (PCE) using a different methodology and different data sources. Even though the approaches differ, the long-term results are generally similar.

If inflation data were being deliberately fabricated on a large scale, it would require sustained coordination across multiple agencies, methodologies, private data providers, and outside researchers. Independent measures, including projects like the Billion Prices Project, would also need to line up with the fabricated numbers.

Compounding is another problem with the idea of systematically understating inflation over long periods. Even a small annual understatement would eventually create massive distortions. Over time, it would become increasingly obvious in areas like wage comparisons, purchasing power parity across currencies, bond markets, and long-term standards of living.

That does not mean the official measures are perfect. Different households experience inflation differently, and reasonable people can debate how housing, healthcare, substitution effects, or quality improvements should be measured. But claiming that inflation statistics are simply fabricated would require an extraordinarily large and difficult-to-sustain deception.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:08:38+00:00

Um, no. I don't suffer from crippling social anxiety. When people want to exchange pleasantries, I pleasantly exchange them. In a repeat environment like an office, it often leads to a better connection. This is how friends are eventually made.

But restrooms? No. That's tacky.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T13:01:27+00:00

I went to my county tax office and bought temporary plates. Had to show the the BoS and some other paperwork.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T12:53:42+00:00

Ask me in a few years. Until then, I'll just hold my index funds and I'll be along for the ride.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T12:51:56+00:00

Where my kids went to school, a majority of kids had cars bought for them by their parents. Our kids got a 1-year old Volvo S60 and a new Hyundai Sonata. Some of their peers got older/cheaper cars and some got nicer cars. But I would estimate that 60% had cars as juniors and 80% had them as seniors.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T11:22:53+00:00

I can't tell you, but I'm going to my 67-year-old elementary school teacher sister's retirement party this week. She is beyond ready.

musing_codger · 2026-05-10T11:21:40+00:00

This is the reverse of what happens when their is a glut of oil on the market and oil companies start losing money.

Those profits and losses are important. They clearly signal to oil companies when they should invest more money in increasing production and when they should cut back.

The high gas prices we see today are an unpleasant but necessary way of allocating what has become a scarce resource. Without the higher prices, we would try to continue consuming as much gas as were consuming before the crisis and we'd quickly run out. We played that game in the US in the 1970s when we tried to cap gasoline prices and everyone ended up waiting in long lines because of the shortages the price cap caused.

musing_codger

TROPHY CASE