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Amazon’s Purchase of Whole Foods: the Investment Implications

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You need food to survive. And as it turns out, so does Amazon. With the purchase of Whole Foods, Amazon has determined how it will get into a customer’s home. More important, it has figured out a way to welcome customers into its home. Whole Foods is Amazon’s “Welcome Home” mat. Obviously the purchase is great news for Whole Foods with its 30% increase in stock value Friday. I love the move for Amazon too. But to me, this is a beautiful move for retail in general. Retailers have been put on notice: You’re in play. Getting into customers’ homes is the future. It’s what Amazon, Apple, … [Read more...]

Summer Plans? Total Solar Eclipse and the Moon House

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What are you doing this summer? I’d love to hear about it. One client that lives is Jackson Hole told me they’re preparing for a huge spike in visitors for the total eclipse of the sun on August 21st. Jackson will be a great viewing spot. Here’s ten more great places for viewing. [gview file="https://www.yoursurvivalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Best-places-to-view-—-Total-solar-eclipse-of-Aug-21-2017.pdf" width="100%" save="0"] In another conversation I was told about a rare opportunity a client had visiting the “Moon House”: An American Stonehenge. He suggested I check out … [Read more...]

This is What Terrorizes the Fed

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Imagine for a moment that you’re the Fed. You own all of these mortgages. You want to get out of them. You also want to increase interest rates. Aren’t you chasing your own tail recognizing that bond prices decline as rates go up? The Fed can fight this battle in the press but they can’t ignore the natural law of bonds. [gview file="https://www.yoursurvivalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/h41.pdf" width="100%"] … [Read more...]

Horror in Virginia: Does the Left Still Refuse to Accept the Outcome of the Election?

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Ann Coulter lambastes the liberal media and politicians for their hypocritical treatment of the president, and of the right in general. Before the election, any thought of questioning what was, at the time, sure to be a victory for Hillary Clinton would have been a threat to democracy itself. As Coulter puts it: Remember when it was frightening for the losing party not to accept the results of an election? During the third debate, Trump refused to pre-emptively agree to the election results, saying he'd "look at it at the time." The media responded in their usual laid-back style: A … [Read more...]

Is Your Home in One of the Best Places to Live?

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I subscribe to Outside magazine. I like the annual Best Places to Live feature and spent some time this morning going through the 2017 list. These towns are great if you want easy access to the adventure and wonder of the Great American Outdoors. Here is a sample from last year’s list, available online for free. Outside's top pick was Billings, Montana. Here's why: When it comes to fitting you for a cowboy hat, the gals at Taubert’s Ranch Outfitters have two ways to go about it. If the hat is a little tight, they’ll point out, your head will stretch it over time. If it’s loose, they’ll advise … [Read more...]

What Good is Money if You Can’t Enjoy It?

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What good is money if you can’t enjoy it? Keep moving. It’s good for you. I like this piece from Outside Online. The message is, your brain is much healthier when you exercise your body. Kate Wheeling writes: Human beings evolved to move. Our bodies, including our brains, were fine-tuned for endurance activities over millennia of stalking and chasing down prey. “We’ve engineered that out of our lives now,” says Charles Hillman, a psychology professor at Northeastern University who has spent decades studying the link between exercise and cognition. The toll our relatively new sedentary … [Read more...]

Space X Will Launch the Air Force’s Secret Space Plane into Orbit

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The Air Force's secretive X-37B will soon be launched into orbit by Elon Musk's Space X rockets. According to Bloomberg, Musk's venture was able to beat the established launch company, United Launch Alliance (a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin) by offering lower prices. Musk promises to launch for $61 million, a bargain compared to UAL's typical price of over $100 million. … [Read more...]

A Temporary Corporate Tax Cut Won’t Help Much

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Senate procedural limits on legislation that will increase the budget deficit are hampering the potential for permanent tax rate cuts. But as Alan Cole writes at the Tax Foundation, temporary cuts won't help the economy as much as permanent cuts. Companies dealing with temporary cuts will reduce their investment as the end of the lower-rate period draws near. Cole writes: In recent months, Republicans in the federal government and in Congress have been considering tax reform ideas. One issue that lawmakers are considering is the difference between temporary and permanent changes in tax … [Read more...]

Opposition to Trump’s ATC Plan is Wrongheaded

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My friend Chris Edwards at Cato Institute examines the motives of the groups opposing President Trump's proposed Air Traffic Control (ATC) reforms. He calls the opposition reasoning "short-sighted." A privatized system in Canada has lowered costs and made the system more efficient. Read more from Edwards below. The airlines are for it, the key labor union is for it, aviation experts are for it, and the second-largest nation on earth did it. Canada privatized its system in 1996, and today the nonprofit Nav Canada is on the leading edge of ATC efficiency and innovation. The image below shows … [Read more...]

A Lawyer Fights Exorbitant 401(k) Fees

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Investors' performance can be quickly sliced down when advisers and managers take hefty fees off the top. Fee abuse has been especially rampant in 401(k) programs, where employees sometimes aren't paying enough attention, or operating procedures are opaque. Fed up with this assault on employee savings, lawyer Jerome Schlichter of St. Louis has begun suing for clients. At first, no one took him seriously. Anne Tergesen writes: When Jerome Schlichter started filing 401(k)-fee lawsuits against big companies a decade ago, the personal-injury lawyer from St. Louis wasn’t taken seriously. “We … [Read more...]