In Search of the Perfect Investment

I remember this day, 13 years ago. It was glorious. Perfect. 70 degrees. Cloudless. Windless. I was on Amtrak coming into New York City from the north. The train stopped at Croton-Harmon, 40 minutes outside New York. And stopped. The train was suddenly abuzz. Something had happened in the City. No one knew what. Penn Station was closed. We weren’t allowed in. An Amtak train was coming north. Get on it and go back to where you came from. We did.

Everyone was calling their families. But the cell phones didn’t work. Everyone was in panic. New York City was under attack. Our families were dead, or about to be. It was awful. Not knowing was the worst.

Later I found out that Susan was fine. From the roof of our apartment building, she had watched the second World Trade Center tower fall. She didn’t see the people jumping. But friends did. The image is seared into their memories. It was a gruesome day.

I got back the following day to the smell of burning rubble and to find all the streets south of 14th closed. We lived on 19th street. We saw the incredible effort the firefighters put into finding someone alive in the rubble. Anyone. Just one person. The firefighters tried so hard. They breathed in too much bad air from the smoking rubble. Many hurt themselves long-term. But they didn’t know it at the time.

It was a long time before they opened the streets and New York City life came back to some sense of normal.

I remember what it looked like.

Since then, the city has rebounded magnificently. We have a new skyline. We are a center of new high-tech. We have $100 million apartments. We have an inflow of hot money. All the failures and semi-failures of the last 20 years — from Venezuela to Russia, from Europe to China — see us as their safe haven. They love our bonds. They love our stocks. They love our pricey apartments. And they love our contemporary art.

You can’t understand much of what’s happening to “investment” markets — unless you factor in the hot money.

It won’t stop. Russia may want a new “empire.” But empires bankrupt countries. Sanctions hurt the guys applying the sanctions more than those getting hit with them. So Europe will hurt.

Meantime, we explode — especially in technology. Ive seen several really neat startups this week. There’s The Internet of things I talked recently about. And there’s the whole industry of “digital marketing” — applying computer power and intelligence to selling us more of the stuff we may or may not want, but certainly we’re close enough to buy it, that instant. Watch that smartphone become a powerful sales enticement tool.

Mens Journal magazine calls the Apple Watch “a huge fitness aid.” Says the magazine:

This device’s capabilities extend beyond what so many fitness trackers do now. Adding pulse and heart rate monitoring — through infrared and visible LEDs and sensors on the back of the watch — is a huge fitness aid, helping runners, swimmers, and walkers to train by heart rate and get a very real sense of what they’re putting into their workouts (there’s no lying to yourself if your measuring your pulse). The majority of trackers are more rudimentary and only measure steps, distance and calories. It should be noted that any stats are still excellent motivators, especially for the office set looking for movement motivation to lose weight or keep out of their office chairs. But if you want to use a tracker for performance — to shed seconds off your 5K, or minutes off your marathon — a heart rate monitor is a huge advantage.

For more from the magazine, click here.

Several observers are lauding the gold Apple Watch which may go up against (and kill) Rolex, and other Swiss high-end watch makers. This is the 18 karat Apple Watch.

Smitten with Taylor Swift: The woman made over $75 million last year. She’s the highest paid celebrity. And she does it all herself. She runs the show. She’s 100% Theory X manager. Hands-on to every detail. It’s an amazing show. Rolling Stone did cover story on her. The Reinvention of Taylor Swift. It’s a fun read. Click here.

My first exposure to Taylor was several years ago. I was biking to my bank. On the way was a crowd of young girls waiting and waiting. Some had camped our all night. They had sleeping bags and blankets. I asked who were they waiting for? One answered, “The most important woman in the world!” I gulped and ask, in my total ignorance, who was that?

They answered, Taylor Swift. I bet all your kids and your grandkids would agree.

Taylor will be 25 in December.

People send me oodles of these things. Here are three of the best.

The last one would be better if it had had a picture of the cramped coach section on Delta or American or any airline.

In case you missed yesterday Redneck jokes — the ever published anywhere — click here.

What the heck is wrong with Hotmail? I got seven non-deliverables today — all from Hotmail.

Harry Newton got rained out of tennis this morning. We went home and played ping pong. It’s a really wonderful game. You can get sweaty big-time, too.