In Search of the Perfect Investment

It’s a momentum market. driven by concepts — e.g. cable is dead; it’s now all online:

Momentum is not easy: FIT and TESLA  did well, but are down heavily this morning, though their earnings reports last night were good. I’m not being panicked into selling them.

This chart comes from BarChart’s 52-week highs. Interesting to peruse it for ideas:

My friends in the Pacific North West are freaking out, with justification. The New Yorker magazine just published a long, detailed article:

The Really Big One
An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when.

 And the answer is “soon.” We’re due.

Elements of your own Big Plan to Save the Family:

Water. Food. Flashlights. Batteries. Bicycles. Cash. Clothes. Designated family meeting places. Someone elsewhere alerted to drive out, and come pick you and your family up.

Read the whole frightening article here.

Useful Things:

+ Eat a handful of nuts each day. They’re great for your health.

+ Drink a glass of water before you go to sleep.

+ iPhone and iPad apps are useless for serious work, like checking houses on AirBnB or shopping. Much better: a real computer, like a Mac or a PC.

+ Muscle tears repair themselves, often far better then surgery. My shoulder tears repaired themselves, though it took 18 months.

+ Don’t brush your teeth after drinking coffee. Wait half an hour.

+ Public WiFi spots are dangerous. Safer to use the Personal HotSpot on your iPhone. Get your carrier to turn it on.

+ Buy yourself an identical computer/laptop to the one you’re using. Keep it as spare.

+ Everything is a pain, until you just do it. Then it’s easy, and done.

The sunscreen business revisited:

While I mull which sunscreen works for me, I received this from reader, Alan123. Fascinating stuff:

Harry – I used to sunburn all the time. 30 minutes in the sun and I was a lobster. I cant tell you how many times my head has burned and peeled, even though I always wear a hat. After some internet research (mercola.com), I had my Vitamin D level tested, and it was ridiculously low. I had a 9 on a scale of 1 to 100. Vitamin D is really a hormone made by the body and isn’t a true vitamin. I began taking 1000iu, then 2000iu, which helped raise the levels but still not high enough, so then later 5000iu of Vitamin D daily. As my D levels went up, I stopped burning and my cold/flu resistance really went up. My winter long sniffles/cough disappeared. I actually began to have the ability to get a small base tan, and my bald head no longer is super sensitive and peels. My ears don’t burn like before and they never are covered. There is an epidemic of low vitamin D in the country- probably because we have indoor jobs and slather on sunscreen when we go out. High Vitamin D levels fight cancer, influenza, colds, sunburn, and much more.

Tomorrow night is the Republican “debate.” Donald Trump will be there, along with the country’s future first lady (?):

Here are some things Mr. Trump has said, according The Week Magazine.

On accusations of racism:

1. “I don’t have a racist bone in my body.” (YouTube)

On his apartment:

2. “There may be no other apartment in the world like it.” (The Washington Post)

3. “I show [my] apartment to very few people. Presidents. Kings.” (The Apprentice)

On his boat:

7. “Probably the most beautiful yacht ever built.” (Washington Post)

On his own books (the ones he wrote):

8. “Don’t let the brevity of these passages prevent you from savoring the profundity of the advice you are about to receive.” (Introduction to How to Get Rich)

9. “I wrote The Art of the Deal. Right? We need the Art of the Deal. We need the Art. They never read it in this administration. They’re the only people that didn’t read it.” (YouTube)

10. “I wrote The Art of the Deal, which is — I guess the biggest — I think the biggest — the biggest-selling business book of all time, and [the Iran nuclear agreement] is not the art of the deal, this is the art of a person that has no idea what he’s doing.” (Right Wing Watch)

On building a border wall:

14. “I would build a wall like nobody can build a wall.” (Mediaite)

On Jeb Bush:

15. “Jeb Bush likes illegals because of his wife.” (Twitter, later deleted)

On Hillary Clinton:

21. “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” (Twitter, later deleted)

On consultants:

24. “With very successful people, we sort of have our own ideas. A lot of people hire consultants. Well, if the consultant’s so smart, why aren’t they rich?” (Des Moines Register)

On Diet Coke:

34. “I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke.” (Twitter)

On himself:

50. “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest — and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.” (Twitter)

51. “What a great honor it must be for you to honor me tonight.” (Comedy Central Roast)

54. “I’m really rich.” (ABC News)

More Trumpisms tomorrow. If you want the whole 123 things Donald Trump actually said, click here.

Harry Newton whose friends are not selling or buying. They’re all away in some glorious location, unconcerned that the world is coming to an end. Or maybe not.

You don’t have to read this. except know that Howard Schultz, the talented Starbucks CEO wrote it into today’s New York Times and it’s good.

FROM the earliest days of Starbucks, I’ve been captivated by the art of leadership. I was mentored over three decades by Warren G. Bennis, the eminent professor and scholar on leadership. I’ve gathered insights from peers, and I’ve drawn inspiration from our 300,000 employees. But nothing I’ve read or heard in the past few years has rivaled the power of the image I viewed on my cellphone a few years ago: Pope Francis, shortly after his election, kneeling and washing the feet of a dozen prisoners in Rome, one of them a young Muslim woman, in a pre-Easter ritual.

In recent weeks, I have taken to recalling that humble, inspiring act of servant leadership as I observe the antithesis: a field of presidential aspirants unable to rise above petty politics. I know candidates want to play to the party faithful during the primary season, but the challenges facing us today are too dire for another status-quo election. We cannot afford more false promises, slogans, theatrics and fool’s gold. Our nation has been profoundly damaged by a lack of civility and courage in Washington, where leaders of both parties have abdicated their responsibility to forge reasonable compromises to expand the economy, rebuild our infrastructure, improve schools, transform entitlement programs and so much more. We have become too desensitized to the horrendous metrics that define today’s America, from student-loan debt to food-stamp dependency to the size of our prison population.

As a boy growing up in public housing in Brooklyn, I was told by my mother that I could be the first in my family to graduate from college. A scholarship and an entry-level job at Xerox created a path upward that was typical for many of my generation.

For too many Americans, the belief that propelled me, that I had the opportunity to climb the ladder of prosperity, has greatly diminished. I hear it from coast to coast as I sit with customers in our stores. Six in 10 Americans believe that the younger generation will not be better off than their parents. Millennials have never witnessed politics devoid of toxicity. Anxiety, not optimism, rules the day.

Despite the encouragement of others, I have no intention of entering the presidential fray. I’m not done serving at Starbucks. Although we have built an iconic brand while providing even part-time employees with access to health care, free college education and stock options, there is more we can do as a public company to demonstrate responsible leadership.

The values of servant leadership — putting others first and leading from the heart — need to emerge from every corner of American life, including the business community.

While Americans have diverse views in what they want from Washington, I reject the notion that our divided and dysfunctional government is merely a reflection of what the political class calls the red-blue divide. Too many of our political leaders are putting party before country, power before principle and cynicism before civility. The common purpose that created this great nation, which has united us in difficult moments, has gone missing.

Our country is in desperate need of servant leaders, of men and women willing to kneel and embrace those who are not like them. Everyone seeking the presidency professes great love for our nation. But I ask myself, how can you be a genuine public servant if you belittle your fellow citizens and freeze out people who hold differing views?

Every one of the candidates offers grand promises about new leadership and new solutions. But where do they stand on working with their rivals? Regardless of who wins the presidency, the odds of the same party controlling a filibuster-proof Senate are slim. If we want to turn the nation around, we have to act differently. Save for the most rabid partisans, most people don’t want one-party rule. They want Democrats and Republicans to work together.

Americans who are tired of politics as usual should demand a clear answer to a simple question from every candidate: What will you do to unite all of us?

Our country deserves a candidate courageous enough to select a member of the other party as a running mate. Our country deserves a president humble enough to see leadership not as an entitlement but as a privilege.

The speculation about my candidacy reminds me of a lesson from a great Jewish leader. A decade ago, I visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem with Nosson Tzvi Finkel, a widely respected rabbi in Israel. As we approached one of the holiest sites in Judaism, the rabbi halted about 10 yards away as a crowd of admirers gathered nearby. I beckoned him further.

“I’ve never been closer than this,” the rabbi told me. Astounded, I asked why.

“You go,” he said. “I’m not worthy.”