This Blog is for You Mens.

 Mens,,,,That;s the way my late great-grandmother said it.....Some sort of far Northeast Texas pronouncing. It's where I got the " Cold enough to get married " from. Northeast Texas has Scot-Irish roots we do not have down here. A number of us in SE Texas have Coonass roots, including the writer of this blog. 

Okay guys, and this is serious( like there are no womens reading this....She didn't pronounce it womens,,,,I am for fun...) 

You have a project you are going to do.....New deck, porch, boards to replace around the house.....

Even if you are not ready to do it, and some of us are saying,  " I'm going to do it when it gets a little cooler." 

Anything that requires lumber.....Buy it now....

Okay, putting my economics hat on now....( I need a green fedora when I do economics....I'd look like a feckin' leprechaun at St. Patrick's Day.)

The price of lumber is down.....Part of it is the cost of houses and people not buying them. The Federal Reserve of course has raised interest rates and the cost of buying a home has gone up, along with anything with an interest rate, id est ( that is)cars.  ( Again with the Latin, wasting that divinity school education)

And the number of sawmills that have closed down, thus the price of lumber is still low. 

Later this month, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is going to meet and there is a large pressure for them to vote to cut the interest rate. ( Many want large cuts)

So much so, the stock market has gone all in to investing in publicly traded housing construction companies.  The two major companies I looked at, one is up 24%, another is up 40%....People expecting "The Fed" to drop the interest rate at least .50 basis points.....Some are saying, 3 whole points. ( I doubt that.They are still afraid of "caused inflation", and it's bad enough as it is now.)  

And if they do, they are expecting new homes to be built.

Trouble is, with the present economy, can most people afford a new construction home? 

Wall Street is banking, " Yes." ( I am wondering if they are reading this wrong? I keep seeing massive lay-offs in the news, and people not being able to find work.)

And with the low cost right now of lumber, there is nothing in the supply chamber to ship, if lumber, mostly 2x4s, plywood is bought by construction companies. And the old supply and demand takes effect. 

Sawmills have to ramp-up. They have to get lumber cut, shipped to the mill, got to hire workers...This stuff doesn't turn on a dime. In many cases it takes months to get up to speed. 

So, you might want buy that lumber soon, put it in the barn, the shed, in the garage for future usage.  

I may write on the "Labor Paradox" next......Yes, working on a Buna ISD curriculum blog, and it is turning out harder than first expected.  ( I may go deep and talk about Richard Cantillion, the Irish-French economist and his " Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général." Yes, I read it in English. Tell you stuff to scare you.)