Here we go again!  

Most of my family is in Florida. My mother, my younger brother and myself are a bit north of Miami, my older brother is in Port St. Lucie and my niece and nephew are around Orlando – where my recently-married niece’s nice new home is dead-center in the path of a biblically-destructive storm.  Isn’t Global Warming fun? 

 They STILL don’t have power in parts of North Carolina from the last storm and that was now 5 named storms ago – in just two weeks! How much damage can we withstand? I guess we’ll be testing those limits year after year (and now they have category 6 storms, which begin at winds of 192 miles per hour – which means debris will hit you like an Indy race car).  

As a frame of reference – other than his penchant for knocking down skyscrapers – Godzilla is far less destructive than these hurricanes are.  Hurricane Milton’s effects would last longer than Godzilla (who usually cools off and returns to the ocean), causing widespread flooding and wind damage over 1-2 days. Milton will likely cause widespread flooding and wind damage, potentially affecting agriculture and tourism for months (go long on orange juice – Beeks!).  In both cases, mobilizing an army against them is a futile attempt to control forces of nature.

Actually, in the image above, I think Godzilla may be making more of an architectural critique than thoughtlessly destroying property! As you can see here, in Godzilla vs King Kong – he’s quite respectful of the cool buildings wile clearing out some old docks to make room for a new waterfront development:  

Meanwhile, people in Beirut WISH it was Godzilla attacking them because at least he’d go away. They’ve already become the nesting ground for one monster (Hezbollah) and Godzilla (Israel) has now come to root out their ancient enemy – leaving a path of horrific destruction in their wake:  

Anyway, this week’s destruction may or may not be wrought by 16 Fed speakers, each with the potential to set the markets on fire in their own right.  Kashkari kicks things off this afternoon at 1:50 pm – ahead of the Consumer Credit Report and after some short-term note actions (yet another epic disaster). Tomorrow we have Small Business Optimism (or lack thereof) and Bostic and Collins sandwich the 3-Year Note Auction.  

Wednesday it’s Bostick Logan, Goolsbee and Barkin talking things up ahead of the 10-Year Note Auction and then we get the Fed Minutes followed by Collins and Daly – oh my!  

As you can see, the 10-Year Note Rate is heading back to 4%, erasing all the effects of the Fed’s half-point rate cut on Sept 18th. If you think hurricanes and Godzilla are bad for the economy – just wait until you see what happens if the Fed loses control of monetary policy!!! 

So, where were we?  Oh yes – Thursday we have CPI, Barkin & Williams and more note auctions and Friday it’s PPI, Goolsbee, Consumer Sentiment, Logan and Bowman. Does this week seem to need steering or what?  

And, guess what? It’s Earnings Season yet again.  3rd Quarter Reports officially kick off Friday morning with JPM, BK, BNY and WFC and then next week we’ll be off to the races with just a few weeks until the election so strap in for a wild, wild ride in October!