Your Survival Guy got caught up in some fog Saturday afternoon halfway through our trip from Newport to Mattapoisett. All was clear while preparing to leave the dock, but I heard the fog horn faintly in the distance. We were cruising right along, and then, on the horizon, we could see the dark fog cloud rolling in. I turned on the radar which overlays the chart plotter map, and had a few minutes to get my bearings just using the electronics. One of my biggest fears in fog is other boaters. Sometimes all the technology in the world isn’t enough. I relate it to SUVs with four-wheel drive … [Read more...]
“An Insurance Company with an Army”
Scary headlines aren’t necessarily wrong, but one mistake to avoid is not being prepared at all times. Spencer Jakab explains in The Wall Street Journal how the federal government has become a heavily indebted "insurance company with an army." He writes: Now, though, the government’s pile of debt has swelled following the War on Terror, the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. Low interest rates and Fed bond buying masked the strain: Interest costs recently were no higher than in the early 1990s as a share of federal spending. But the Treasury barely seized the … [Read more...]
Is the Fed about to Launch a Financial “Death Star?”
In Star Wars, the Death Star had the ability to destroy entire planets and was meant to intimidate the rebellion into submission. According to Congressman Warren Davidson (R-OH), a central bank digital currency (CBDC) would pose a similar threat with its ability to "corrupt...[coerce] and control" Americans through their money. Bethan Moorcraft reports on Rep. Davidson's comments on CBDCs, writing: A U.S. lawmaker has accused the Federal Reserve of quietly working on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — which he likens to “building the financial equivalent of the Death Star.” For the … [Read more...]
AI Mania and the Dot Com Bubble Flashbacks
In The Wall Street Journal, Eric Wallerstein raises the alarm over similarities between the AI-mania and the Dot Com Bubble. He writes: The dot-com bubble taught investors to be wary of stock-market rallies powered by a technological boom—that is, until generative artificial intelligence sent tech stocks soaring this year. Shares of Nvidia NVDA -0.39%decrease; red down pointing triangle, the graphics-chip maker at the heart of the frenzy, have nearly tripled in 2023, while the Nasdaq-100 has climbed 38% and the S&P 500 has gained 16%. For some investors, the surge in Nvidia—now the … [Read more...]
HOT POTATO: S&P Drops Its ESG Rankings
You may have seen that ESG is becoming a hot potato for companies as the scrutiny of both its philosophy and methodology are rising. Now S&P Global (the firm known best for its S&P 500 stock market index) has decided to discontinue its ESG ratings for corporate borrowers. Patrick Temple-West reports in the Financial Times: S&P Global has stopped handing out scores to corporate borrowers on ESG criteria, at a time of rising questions about their utility and political attacks on such metrics. The debt rating agency has since 2021 published scores from one to five for a company’s … [Read more...]
Don’t Get Caught Up on Prices, Do This
When market prices float through space, it’s worthwhile remembering this: prices are a qualitative measure, not quantitative. Prices are opinions. Everyone’s got one. They can change with the wind. But, stock dividends, for example, they’re quantitative. They’re tangible. You can see them enter your account if you pay attention. Trading stocks—a zero-sum game—is not investing. That’s speculation. With most of the world focusing on prices, why wouldn’t you focus on dividends? We learn at a young age how to make money. How to save. But at some point, after they’ve accumulated a pile of … [Read more...]
A Recipe for Lower Living Standards
When you hear the words "energy independence" you probably don't consider everyone in America adopting a Stone Age lifestyle to achieve it. No, you think of America producing enough energy, or enough efficiency, to achieve zero energy imports without sacrificing your standard of living. But according to Harold Hamm in The Wall Street Journal, degrading Americans' standard of living is exactly the strategy Joe Bide is employing, and it's all going to go wrong. Hamm writes: Gasoline prices had their biggest one-day increase in a year on July 25, rising to an eight-month high, while oil passed … [Read more...]
It Can Be Done, But to Be Done Right Takes Time
I want to share a couple conversations I had this week. One was with a client who’s been with us for 25 years. “We just decided we couldn’t do two big jobs at once,” she said. “It can be done, I guess, but to be done right, it takes time.” All these years later, I remember sitting with her and her husband, along with their son, here in Newport, RI. They wanted their son to understand the process of finding a wealth manager. Ironically, he retired last week. Time flies. In another conversation, a client told me some guy called him last week with a promise to double his income. Thankfully, my … [Read more...]
Investing for Your Survival, Not Mr. Market’s
You are my hero. Not Mr. Market. You invested or saved your first dollar for no other reason than survival—self-protection. I know this because I’m Your Survival Guy. You tell me your stories, and I listen. Rare is the occasion where you went from rags to riches by trading stocks. No, you worked for it. Your story is one where your back was against the wall, and you needed to survive. You wanted a better life. You needed to raise your family. The part where you thrived came later, often much later. You appreciate what you have now because you know how hard it was to get. “I don’t want to do … [Read more...]
Bidenflation Is Back at the Pump
During his first days in the White House, Joe Biden unleashed an assault on the oil and gas industry with executive orders curtailing energy companies' ability to supply Americans with the gasoline and diesel they need to survive. Then, to cover up the inflationary mess he had created, Biden dangerously depleted America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. David Uberti reports for The Wall Street Journal: Booming oil prices last year powered U.S. inflation to 40-year highs. That trend was reversing in 2023—until now. Benchmark crude prices are up 21% over the past six weeks, driving up the cost … [Read more...]
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