This week in 1964, The Kingsmen's hit song "Louie Louie" was under intense investigation by the FBI for vulgarity and profanity despite the song's largely unintelligible lyrics.

The story goes like this: The Kingsmen were an unknown and jingle-heavy band from the West Coast. They wanted to cover the original song by Richard Berry (whose original is much better than the cover, in my view). They paid $50 to rent a studio and recorded the song in one take, gathered around a single microphone placed several feet too high near the ceiling.

Because of this, the Kingsmen's version was of such a low quality the lyrics just weren't very clear. Some teenagers in Indiana who bought the record thought they heard some profanity. They wrote to the Governor of Indiana, who also bought the record and listened. When he couldn't tell what the lyrics were, he alerted the FCC, who alerted the FBI.

It's funny now to think that a song that gets regular rotation at college football and basketball games could ever be considered, as one parent wrote to JFK at the time, "pornographic or obscene." But back then, it was a big deal to thousands and thousands of concerned parents.

After two years of investigation, the FBI would conclude the lyrics contained nothing raunchy nor inappropriate in any way, but not before they played the song at 78 rpm, 45 rpm, and 33 1/3 rpm to determine whether it violated federal obscenity laws.

This month's economic indicators are a bit like that—often investigated but never obscene. Wages are still up, spending is still high, and the cost of housing is leveling off. There are nice valuations, and inflation is still in the 3% range.

But something is still a little bit askew, and that thing is most definitely interest rates. They're just too high.  

We've written about it before. The Fed needs to begin cutting interest rates ASAP. Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, thinks it's still a little early to begin cutting. Still, he's dead wrong, and you don't need a degree in economics to see it. Just read about the recent layoffs across the country or check out the real estate market in most large cities.

A few more months of prime at 8.5% will be not just a slow poison but an actual overdose. The Fed doesn't have a great track record on getting in front of cuts, so the fear is they'll wait until it's too late.

And that will be obscene.

Stay safe and God-speed.

Tom