Today in 1969, the Supremes made their last TV appearance together on CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Shew, with a somewhat ironic selection:
Today in 1970, Army veteran Elvis Presley volunteered himself as a soldier in the war on drugs, delivering a letter to the White House. Earlier that day, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had declined Presley’s request to volunteer, saying that only the president could overrule him.
Saturday is going to be an historic sports day in Wisconsin. Thanks to the vagaries of the coronavirus and TV scheduling, it will be the first time the Badger basketball and football teams and Packers will play on the same day.
The day will start at the Kohl Center at 11 p.m. for Louisville at Wisconsin …
… before shifting to Camp Randall Stadium for the 3 p.m. kickoff of Minnesota and Wisconsin for Paul Bunyan’s Axe.
To the northeast, the Packers, presently with the number one NFC seed, host Carolina at 7:25 p.m.
This is the first time the Badgers are playing regular-season football in December, so there have been no home football/basketball doubleheaders I’m aware of. There have been football/hockey doubleheaders back when the hockey Badgers played at the Dane County Coliseum, and, yes, I played at them.
Adapting the schedule of my band days, we would have had a very early Camp Randall practice (when hardly anyone was really awake), then gotten out the band sweaters and headed to the Kohl Center by 10:30 a.m. to start playing when the basketball team hit the floor a few minutes later. After the game, we would have gotten into our band uniforms and headed to Union South for the 2 p.m. concert, headed from Union South to Camp Randall, and hit the field at 2:40 p.m. for pregame. After the Fifth Quarter, off to watch the Packer game, followed by the mandatory post-Badger-game party.
Other than the party or parties, none of that is happening tomorrow, since the band has not been able to play at any Badger football or basketball game this season due to COVID.
We begin with an entry from Great Business Decisions in Rock Music History: Today in 1961, EMI Records decided it wasn’t interested in signing the Beatles to a contract.
The number one single over here today in 1961:
Today in 1966, a friend of Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, Tara Browne, was killed when his Lotus Elan crashed into a parked truck. John Lennon used Browne’s death as motivation for “A Day in the Life”:
The number one album today in 1971 was Sly and the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Going On”:
President Donald Trump didn’t start the dishwasher rebellion. But after hearing the legitimate complaints of consumers, he has led this nonviolent movement to an entirely peaceful series of victories for common sense.
Two years ago this column noted that a band of stout-hearted liberty advocates at the Competitive Enterprise Institute was petitioning the government for a redress of dishwashing grievances. Federal regulations on appliances were making household chores more difficult, time-consuming and expensive. Team Trump took up the cause and began to seek public comment on how to improve the rules. Numerous consumers shared their views, including someone named Gregory, who wrote to the Department of Energy:
Please mother of God, allow someone to make a dishwasher that will get my dishes for a family of 5 clean enough, fast enough to empty the dishwasher by bedtime! Currently, to get a load clean, we have to run it on the hour long cycle, then the four hour cycle to get them clean. This saves neither time, water or electricity.
The Trump administration has now reformed not just dishwasher rules, but other bureaucratic annoyances as well. This week the Department of Energy reports it has completed two additional final rules:
The first rule ensures that Americans can have access to high-performance, time-saving clothes washers and dryers. The second rule ensures access to showerheads that can provide enough water for quality showers.
“Today the Trump Administration affirmed its commitment to reducing regulatory burdens and safeguarding consumer choice,” said Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “With these rule changes, Americans can choose products that are best suited to meet their individual needs and the needs of their families.”
The department is concerned that cycle times for washers and dryers could become very long in the future—reducing the value of these critical time-saving devices. The final rule on washers and dryers allows manufacturers to offer new products that meet consumer demand for clothes washers and dryers that have shorter cycle times. The rule establishes separate product classes for residential clothes washers and clothes dryers with cycle times of less than 30 minutes (45 minutes for front-loading clothes washers)…
“Today’s final rulemakings allow consumers to choose products that can make their lives easier, more comfortable, and save them time,” said Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. “That time and effort saved can be better spent on the more important things in life.”
“This is good news for those who like a more powerful shower, as well as those who like a less powerful government,” summarizes Ben Lieberman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Amen.
You are reading the work of the household’s dishwasher, so I can’t attest to that. I can attest that modern clothes washers and dryers are crappy, taking too much time to clean, not always adequately rinsing, and frequently needing more than one cycle to completely dry clothes. Energy efficiency completely misses the point if things have to be washed and dried twice because they’re not adequately designed.
Of course, the presidential administration that finally took the side of consumers over radical environmentalists is leaving Jan. 20, to be replaced by an administration from a party that bends over for the tree-huggers. This rule probably will be changed in minutes after Jan. 20.
Today in 1963, Carroll James of WWDC radio in Washington broadcast a Beatles song:
James, whose station played the song once an hour, got the 45 from his girlfriend, a flight attendant. Capitol Records considered going to court, but chose to release the 45 early instead.
(This blog has reported for years that James was the first U.S. DJ to play a Beatles song. It turns out that’s not correct — WLS radio in Chicago played “Please Please Me” in February 1963.)
Today in 1969, 50 million people watched NBC-TV’s “Tonight” because of a wedding:
The number one British single today in 1965 wasn’t just one song:
Today in 1970, five Creedence Clearwater Revival singles were certified gold, along with the albums “Cosmo’s Factory,” “Willy and the Poor Boys,” “Green River,” “Bayou Country” and “Creedence Clearwater Revival”:
The arrival of a highly effective vaccine seems like as good a time as any for politicians to consider pausing their massive interventions in the U.S. economy. The Journal’s Peter Loftus, Melanie Grayce West and Christine Mai-Duc report:
The first U.S. Covid-19 vaccinations outside of clinical trials began Monday, kicking off the most urgent mass immunization campaign since polio shots were rolled out in the 1950s…
Pfizer is shipping out nearly three million doses in this first wave, with more expected in coming weeks. Pfizer expects 25 million doses will be available in the U.S. by the end of the month.
Another Covid-19 vaccine, from Moderna Inc., could add to the supply of doses this month if it is authorized, which could happen later in the week. Both vaccines are given in two doses, three or four weeks apart.
…Federal officials expect about 100 million Americans will get immunized against Covid-19 by February or March. The general public could be inoculated in the spring or summer.
Stocks rallied Monday morning on the vaccine news. And for some reason many investors also seem to want another round of debt-fueled Washington spending. It seems likely that at some point there will be a reckoning in the value of the dollar and/or the size of federal tax bills from the 2020 Beltway Covid response. But for now unfortunately the question is whether the response should be expanded still further. Fortunately not everyone is eager to accept Beltway premises.
“Do We Need More Stimulus?,” asks Donald Luskin of TrendMacrolytics in an investment research note today. Mr. Luskin writes:
In client calls this week, we’re hearing a strong consensus that the economy is in a sustainable V-shaped recovery, and that 2021 will be a very good year. We’re not going to say this consensus is wrong. Indeed, it’s what we were nearly alone in predicting all the way back in March and April… Will there be short-term setbacks? Of course, and the formation of a consensus is what usually provokes one…
If anything, our biggest difference from the optimistic consensus is that we’re now thinking past recovery to expansion, and we don’t see it as a stretch that 2021 could be a downright boom.
A downright boom? Mr. Luskin continues making his case:
US households have accumulated $2.5 trillion in personal savings this year, unable or too cautious to spend the prior stimulus money. That’s a moneybomb of pent-up demand equal to 11.8% of GDP, and it will detonate next year when the “third wave” of Covid-19 tops out and 50 million inoculations with the new vaccine are administered through January.
Profit at community banks—small, local lenders—jumped 10% in the third quarter from the same time last year, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Total loans rose 13.4% in the third quarter, compared with 4.9% for the industry. Deposits surged 16.7%. Noncurrent loan rates have risen slightly this year but are still far below levels seen during the last financial crisis.
Do you think Donald Trump will get any credit for any of this? Of course not.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 