Good Amazon news:
Here’s Amazon over the past spectacular year. I’m glad I have a big holding. I wish it were bigger.
How the election will influence the stockmarket
Yesterday J.P. Morgan Private Bank released an excellent report covering equity markets during during US Presidential election cycles. Conclusions:
The U.S. Presidential Election is now entering the homestretch and we expect it to dominate the headlines in the next several weeks. This current race is shaping up to be one of the most acrimonious in recent memory and has been characterized by voters opposing rather than supporting the candidates. In fact, Donald Trump is polling as the least favorable presidential candidate from either party to run over the past 35 years, followed only by Hillary Clinton (see chart below). While we are not predicting the outcome, below we address key equity market implications.
Key Points:
1. There is little historical evidence to suggest that the Election will have a large or long-lasting impact on the broad U.S. equity market.
2. Our base case is that the U.S. will have a divided government in 2017 with control of one or both houses of Congress split with the Presidency between the Democrats and Republicans.
3. We see seven key issues with market impact that are at stake this election season: Energy, Healthcare, Financials, Industrials, Free Trade, Tax Reform, and Immigration.
You need one credit card and one debit card (for traveling). That’s it. Two max. No more.
Close the others. Save all the monthly/annual/and sundry made-up fees.
My cutest fee: Bank of America just dinged me a $1.50 charge because I was “late.”
Yet I was on “auto-pay.” Try this: They were late paying themselves. and charged me $1.50 for their own transgression!
Neat trick.
Why do I not trust banks?
Don’t buy no-iron shirts.
They don’t breathe like normal cotton. They make me too hot.
Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face:
+ If you promise to send someone your contact information, do it.
+ If someone emails you something you asked for, send them back a nice “Thank You” email.
+ For God’s sake, put your phone numbers and address in each email you send out.
Fuse boxes
There are two fuse boxes in my Subaru. The one I wanted was inside the car, behind the coin caddy (which I never knew existed).
Some cars have more than two fuses boxes. The owner’s manual may tell you where they are.
You watched the debate. Now watch Colbert. This video, made within minutes of the end of Monday’s debate is hysterical.
For the video, click here.
Where should I locate my cell phone?
Carrier charges are all equal. The BIG gotcha is local taxes and sundry made-up fees. They can range between 6% and 44% (Hawaii). I kid you not.
Fees have to do with your phone’s area code, apparently. Good idea to check.
No more debates?
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (The Borowitz Report) — Plunging the future of the 2016 Presidential debates into doubt, Donald J. Trump said on Tuesday morning that he would not participate in the remaining two debates if Hillary Clinton is there.
Trump blasted the format of Monday night’s debate by claiming that the presence of Clinton was “specifically designed” to distract him from delivering his message to the American people.
“Every time I said something, she would say something back,” he said. “It was rigged.”
He also lambasted the “underhanded tactics” his opponent used during the debate. “She kept on bringing up things I said or did,” he added. “She is a very nasty person.”
Turning to CNN, Trump criticized the network’s use of a split screen showing both him and Clinton throughout the telecast. “It should have been just me,” he said. “That way people could have seen how really good my temperament is.”
The billionaire said that debate organizers had not yet responded to his ultimatum, but he warned that if he does not get assurances in writing that future debates will be “un-rigged, Hillary-wise,” he will not participate.
“I have said time and time again that I would only do these debates if I am treated fairly,” he added. “The only way I can be guaranteed of being treated fairly is if Hillary Clinton is not there.”
Harry Newton whose Australian friend David emails yesterday with legitimate concerns:
Harry:
The disturbing issue isn’t Trump. Of course he is all the things any reasonably intelligent person with double digit IQ can see. Every society has its Trumps, and its Hitlers, and its Musolinis, and its Berlusconis etc etc etc. So what’s the real problem? The real problem is that we are weeks away from the Presidential election and he is running neck and neck with Hilary. The real problem is that there are clearly A LOT of Americans who think this guy should be in the White House running the country. Even if Hilary wins, those people are still out there with those views. It’s gone beyond a few rednecks, or KKK racists, or fringe crazies with posters of even crazier people on their cabin walls. What’s gone wrong with America? That’s the issue we need to be wringing our hands over because there will be other Presidential and Gubernatorial elections coming up real soon.
Harry, your friend from Aussie land sounds like a WIMP. Listen to me and listen to me good, boy – DONALD J TRUMP IS GOD. Got it? And when he’s president on Nov. 8 I hope he bombs the shit out of australia, Norway, Aleppo, Syria and Canada. Wise up, this is TRump Country and immigrants must leave.
Harry – your Aussie friend sounds like a typical Liberal elitist who thinks he knows what’s best for everyone and you’re a racist idiot if you don’t agree with him. Comparing Trump to murderous dictators is just part of his elitist strategy. The disturbing thing is that your buddy can’t see the same issues with the lying, corrupt , military and law enforcement hating fellow elitist HC. Is Trump a brash, stumbling , loud mouth – yes he is. And his supporters are supporting him to give the middle finger to the status quo , where the 1% are trying to make all the rules to protect themselves.
Bottom line is both parties are a disgrace and failure to the American people and they are ready to shake things up. They elites have no one to blame but themselves for allowing this slow grind of wealth concentration to occur around the world.
Well said and exactly true, Devo. Thanks for speaking up. America needs more of that, not liberal NYC media Hillary butt kissing BS.
Man that’s the most succinct overview of the American political climate I’ve read, well done. I would add: there are two groups of people: those who understand what you wrote, and those who still don’t know what the hell you are talking about because they just can’t, or refuse, to see it.
Harry, here’s what you’re missing about Donald Trump.
Who Is Donald Trump?
by Don Fredrick – from The Complete Obama Timeline
December, 2015
“Who is Donald Trump?” The better question may be, “What is Donald Trump?”
The answer? A giant middle finger from average Americans to the political and media establishment.
Some Trump supporters are like the 60s white girls who dated black guys just to annoy their parents. But most Trump supporters have simply had it with the Demo-socialists and the “Republicans In Name Only.” They knew there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Hillary Rodham and Jeb Bush, and only a few cents worth between Rodham and the other GOP candidates.
Ben Carson was not an “establishment” candidate, but the Clinton machine would pulverize Carson; and the somewhat rebellious Ted Cruz (justifiably so) would have been tied up with natural born citizen lawsuits (as might Marco Rubio). The Trump supporters figure they may as well have some fun tossing Molotov cocktails at Wall Street and Georgetown while they watch the nation collapse. Besides – lightning might strike, Trump might get elected, and he might actually fix a few things. Stranger things have happened (the nation elected an Islamo-Marxist in 2008 and Bruce Jenner now wears designer dresses.)
Millions of conservatives are justifiably furious. They gave the Republicans control of the House in 2010 and control of the Senate in 2014, and have seen them govern no differently than Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Yet those same voters are supposed to trust the GOP in 2016? Why?
Trump did not come from out of nowhere. His candidacy was created by the last six years of Republican failures.
No reasonable person can believe that any of the establishment candidates [dems or reps] would have slashed federal spending, rein in the Federal Reserve, cut burdensome business regulations, reform the tax code, or eliminate useless federal departments (the Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, etc.). Even Ronald Reagan was unable to eliminate the Department of Education. (Of course, getting shot at tends to make a person less of a risk-taker.) No reasonable person can believe that any of the nation’s major problems will be solved by Rodham as she is simply the third verse of Obama waning swan song.
Many Americans, and especially Trump supporters, have had it with:
• Anyone named Bush
• Anyone named Clinton
• Anyone who’s held political office
• Political correctness
• Illegal immigration
• Massive unemployment
• Our out of control federal spending
• Our National Debt that exceeds our GDP (Can you say Greece?)
• Phony “official” unemployment and inflation figures
• Welfare waste and fraud
• Money being spent on Illegal immigrants
• People faking disabilities to go on the dole
• VA waiting lists
• TSA airport groping
• ObamaCare
• The Federal Reserve’s money-printing schemes
• Wall Street crooks like Jon Corzine
• Michelle Obama’s vacations
• Michelle Obama’s food police
• Barack Obama’s golf
• Barack Obama’s arrogant and condescending lectures
• Barack Obama’s criticism/hatred of America
• Valerie Jarrett
• “Holiday trees”
• Hollywood hypocrites
• Cop killers while Black Lives Matter
• Gun confiscation threats
• Stagnant wages
• Boys in girls’ bathrooms
Whiny, spoiled college students who can’t even place the Civil War in the correct century… and that’s just the short list.
Trump supporters believe that no Democrat wants to address these issues, and that few Republicans have the courage to address these issues. They know that Trump is their way of saying, “Screw you, Hillary Rodham and all the Do Nothing Republicans!” The more the talking head political pundits insult the Trump supporters, the more supporters he gains. (The only pundits who seem to understand what is going on are Democrats Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell and Republican John LeBoutillier.
But America does not need a tune-up at the same old garage. It needs a new engine installed by experts – and Hillary Rodham is not a mechanic; she merely manages a garage her philandering husband abandoned. Trump is also not a mechanic, but he knows where to find the best ones to work in his garage. He won’t hire his brother-in-law or someone to whom he owes a favor; he will hire someone who lives and breathes cars.
“How dare they revolt!” the “elites” are bellowing. Well, the citizens are daring to revolt, and the RINOs had better get used to it. “But Trump will hand the election to Clinton!” That is what the Karl Rove-types want people to believe, just as the leftist media eagerly shoved “Maverick” McCain down GOP throats in 2008 – knowing he would lose to Obama. But even if Trump loses and Rodham wins, she would be nothing more than a caretaker, not working to restore America’s greatness but merely presiding over the collapse of a massively in-debt nation. A nation can perhaps survive open borders; a nation can perhaps survive a generous welfare system. But no nation can survive both – and there is little evidence that Hillary Rodham understands that. The United States cannot forever continue on the path it is on. At some point it will be destroyed by its debt.
Yes, Trump speaks like a bull wandering through a china shop, but the truth is that the borders do need to be sealed; we cannot afford to feed, house, and clothe 200,000 Syrian immigrants for decades (even if we get inordinately lucky and none of them are ISIS infiltrators or Syed Farook wannabes); the world is at war with radical Islamists; and we cannot continue trying to spend our way out of debt.
Is Trump the perfect candidate? Of course not. Neither was Ronald Reagan. But unless we close our borders and restrict immigration, all the other issues are irrelevant. One terrorist blowing up a bridge or a tunnel could kill thousands. One jihadist poisoning a city’s water supply could kill tens of thousands. One electromagnetic pulse attack from a single Iranian nuclear device could kill tens of millions. Faced with those possibilities, most Americans probably don’t care that Trump relied on eminent domain to grab up a final quarter acre of property for a hotel, or that he boils the blood of the Muslim Brotherhood thugs running the Council on American-Islamic Relations. While Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s greatest fear is someone giving a Muslim a dirty look, most Americans are more worried about being gunned down at a shopping mall by a crazed Islamic lunatic who treats his prayer mat better than his three wives and who is fool enough to think that 72 virgins are waiting for him in paradise.
The establishment is frightened to death that Trump will win, but not because they believe he will harm the nation. They are afraid he will upset their taxpayer-subsidized apple carts. While Obama threatens to veto legislation that spends too little, they worry that Trump will veto legislation that spends too much.
You can be certain that if Hillary wins in November 2016 her cabinet positions will be filled with the same people we’ve seen before. The washed-up has-beens of the Clinton and Obama administrations will be back in charge. The hacks from Goldman Sachs will continue to call the shots. And American will continue her continuing decline as other great democracies in history.
If the establishment wins, America loses.
A long comment but I agree with all of it……………..
This should be on the front page of every newspaper in the United States!
Wow, wow, wow, said so well and right on. Thank you.
I predict Harry will not get past the 2nd paragraph before his hair catches on fire and refuses to read further. This is because it does not echo the sentiment of the NY Times, or the Economist, or the New Yorker, or CNN, or any of a dozen “media” outlets who (think) they know all there is to know behind Trump. He will discount the whole article as a “right wing” screed and quietly go back to the comfort of Rolling Stone or similar echo chamber of the Left. Ah well, thanks for posting anyway!
This is the dumbest, most asinine post I have ever seen. Delete it.
YIkes!. That’s what America (and the world) needs – our own trumped up Kim-Jon un!