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The Trump Rally may be over, despite oodles of money on the sidelines

My friends bemoan the money they have on the sidelines, but fear buying stocks because they may be too high.

Barron’s runs a piece

 Stocks are Overvalued
From growing insider sales to a very high Shiller valuation, there’s a strong case that the stock market has gotten awfully rich.

Read Barrons here. 

None of my friends are keen to sell stocks. Their taxable gains would hurt too much.

I’ve just invested in a student housing syndication. I’m eyeing stocks warily.

Maybe banks? With a rate increase soon…

Snap’s miserable two-day round-trip

SnapsTwoDayTrip

It went public at $17, opened at $24, rose to $29.39, then closed last night at $23.79.

Market cap is now $28.33 billion — a lot of money for a company losing money.

Where it goes next is your guess. The selling pressure is over? There’s more to come?

This is me next to our new, wall-mounted Samsung 65 inch TV set.
TVWallInstallation

Here’s what I learned:

+ Installing one of these things on your wall is a huge job. At least four hours of measuring, drilling, snacking cables, etc.. It’s a lot easier to simply stand the TV on a shelf or table. It comes with metal legs. You need 13″ width.

+ I got talked into installing a Sonos sound bar. That’s the black thing beneath the screen. It enhances the TV’s sound. It’s nice, but over-priced. Bose has one for the same price.

+ All TVs get the same signal. The larger the TV, the less clear the picture is. The best clarity is a small TV.  But a big TV looks spectacular.

+ None of this is cheap. My 8000 series Samsung cost $1700. The Sonos sound bar $700. Cables, a mounting bracket, installation cost another $700.

+ The TV is “smart.” It connects to the Internet by cable or WiFi. You no longer need a Roku, Apple TV, or Google Chromecast to bring in Netflix or Hulu.

+ How big a TV you “need” depends on how close you watch From a couch, 65″ is nice. On a desk, 24″ works just fine.

+ Sonos is brilliant. It works on WiFi. You can scatter Sonos speakers all around your house. Just plug them into your AC. Control them with the Sonos app on your iPhone.

+ Cable boxes (like the ones from Time Warner) are stupid. They work on line-of-sight infra-red. That means you have to be able to “see” your cable box when you want to change channels. But you can get to Netflix and Hulu without Time Warner. One day soon, our “smart” Samsung TV will let us receive on the Internet what Time Warner gives us on the cable. I’m praying for that day. Time Warner is a rip-off.

Politics

From John Cassidy at the New Yorker:

Trump has learned a couple of things since the start of his Presidential campaign, in 2015.

The first is that the media, especially the broadcast media, has an insatiable desire for “news breaks,” even fake ones, and thus is easy to manipulate.

The second is that he can say virtually anything, however false or outrageous, without suffering any political consequences with his base. He can call a female journalist a “bimbo,” insult a political opponent’s wife, make bogus accusations of widespread voter fraud, say Obama founded ISIS, claim he won a bigger majority in the Electoral College than any President since Reagan-and none of it alienates his core supporters. Arguably, these outbursts make them like him more.

For the rest of Cassidy’s piece, click here. 

Washington is now calling Trump “The Chief Deflector” for his amazing ability to deflect. An example: He faces scrutiny for Russia. He deflects that to Obama tapped my phones.

God bless innovation. Here’s my favorite new product.

HatwithHair

Two constables

Two policemen report in.

“Hello. Is that the Sarge?”

“Yes?”

“We have a case here. A woman has shot her husband for stepping on the floor she just mopped.”

“Have you arrested the woman?”

“No sir. The floor is still wet.”

HarryNewton
Harry Newton, mulling the market.

5 Comments

  1. TomFromVa says:

    The other thing that is handy is remote wireless speakers and headsets. I put the speaker next to me and the headset on my wife. Works much better than trying to listen to sound from the TV

  2. Glenn says:

    Wait for the Alexa/Sonos Combo. That will be really nice…

  3. Lucky says:

    Lucky you…my 65″ Samsung UN65F9000 cost me $4500. in 2013, (tax free) from B&H Photo however we have enjoyed it for the past 4 years. Samsung sound bar was $350.
    Now, since you have a Slingbox to pick-up your favorite channels in NYC “Cut the Cord” and get rid of your cable TV. You should be able to pick-up many, many “free” OTA channels with an indoor antenna…if allowed at your condo get an outdoor one…$25-60.00 will pick-up more channels than you probably need within 25-50 miles.
    If you get a Roku-4 you can shoot the picture from your computer to your big screen without any connecting cables.
    Don’t forget…now that you have an all digital TV you will need a J-Tech digital to analog converter (around $25-30.00 from Amazon) also pick-up a Toslink connector for it to be able to use your Sennheiser ears. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A1HQE38/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

  4. Gary S says:

    Stop renting cable boxes and buy the TiVo Bolt+ which has RF signal remotes so the box can be anywhere in the room. Best feature is QuickMode – watch recordings 30% faster with good sound quality and it retains closed captions.

    I replaced my (4) Verizon FIOS cable boxes with (1) TiVo Bolt+ and (3) TiVo Mini with a break even at 15 months followed by annual savings of $700 even after TiVo’s $150 annual service charge which also includes Continual Care Warranty on the Bolt+.

  5. Kent Kjellgren says:

    Harry, if you can find a universal remote control for that TV system please let me know. I put in a 60″ Samsung last year and tried to make my old Logitech Harmony run the Smart Hub. No luck, I bought a new Harmony and spent 3+ hours on the phone with Harmony tech support and I ended up sending it back to Amazon. Hint: The IR remote will work if you can put the components where the IR signal will bounce off the TV and control them. Mine component console is at a 90 degree angle from the TV about 8 feet away.