In Search of the Perfect Investment

We did good with Facebook. Eight days ago, on April 20, I wrote

I do love Facebook.

My investment guru thinks Mark Zuckerberg is a genius.Facebook is my guru’s largest holding.

The Economist is also impressed.

What really got me is that a friend told me she’s getting more and better business leads from advertising on Facebook than she is from Google, Yahoo or anywhere else. Facebook leads by a mile.

The Economist talks about Facebook’s skyrocketing advertising income — especially from mobile.

More reasons to love Facebook in the next few days. Meanwhile, read The Economist. It’s the April 9th – 15th issue.

I never did write “more reasons” — but they were all in the Economist, which I hope everyone read. Meantime,  Facebook should be up 10% or so today. If it pulls back, buy some more.

You might look at owning more Home Depot (HD) and PayPal (PYPL), also.

Meantime, Apple and Intel have dropped the ball.

Here’s the story: I’m officially in the market for a new, faster laptop. I float over to the local Apple store. They have three “categories” of laptops — Macbook, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro.

I defy anyone to tell the difference. I defy anyone to tell me why the Intel processors they contain are far slower than the Intel processor I have in my three-year old Lenovo ThinkPad and why none come with more than 16 GB of memory. My three-year old ThinkPad has 16 GB. The worst part is that all the Apple laptops follow Steve Jobs old (but now tired) philosophy that the machines are sealed. You, the owner, can’t carry an extra battery to pop in when you run out, or replace a hard disk with a bigger one, or add in more RAM.

Here was I walking the Apple Store with a full wallet and there was nothing — niente — I wanted to buy. I walked out empty handed.

Sad for me. Sad for Apple. In contrast, Lenovo has 11 models of laptops, all of which are far more “configurable” than Apple’s miserable collection. They have different keyboards, different shapes. Don’t get me started.

Drugs and dietary supplements (cont’)
Readers continue to bombard me with their stories about the ill effects of drugs and dietary supplements — vitamins, fish oil, etc. One writes,

Multivitamins are not necessarily benign. There is evidence in some studies that risk of certain cancers in some patient groups is increased with supplement use. In addition, there may be a higher risk of kidney stones and heart attacks in those who use calcium supplements. Vitamin and mineral supplements can be a significant cause of poisoning in children, and birth defects and liver damage have been associated with excess vitamin A ingestion. The National Institutes of Health panel wrote, “There is evidence, however, that certain ingredients in [multivitamin/ mineral] supplements can produce adverse effects. …Although these studies are not definitive, they do suggest possible safety concerns that should be monitored for primary components of multivitamins.”

For all of these reasons, I propose that you and your readers avoid a general multivitamin supplement.

Another reader, told me his doctor called him after 15 years of heavy drug usage to “cure” his life-long disease and said, “The medicines we prescribed are poisoning you.” My friend old me he dropped the medicines cold turkey, lost weight, became a vegetarian and now walks ten miles a day. He says he feels the best in 20 years. He said the statins he was on were the worst. They caused memory problems, forcing him to take copious notes on everything he did. The moment he stopped taking the statins his memory came back. “The medicines the doctors put me on were killing me, not my genetic disease.”

Another reader wrote, that eating more dark leafy green vegetables, such as raw Swiss chard (a high alkaline food), has noticeably reduced his heartburn.

My take is simple: drugs are for short-term use. Dietary supplements are useless, and undoubtedly dangerous long-term. Lose weight. Stop smoking. Get exercise. Eat right.

Trump gave his first foreign policy speech. Most “experts” said it made no sense. They missed the point. Americans are furious at Washington and all the incompetent, no-nothing, moronic politicians there. They want change, any change.

Donald Trump is not from Washington. He’s a successful businessman who promises to get things done and make us great again. This has huge appeal for the huge numbers of Americans who lost their jobs to outsourcing, have seen their incomes stagnate and have seen executives and a select few being paid obscene amounts of money.

Weren’t these feelings behind the French Revolution? Here’s a little history,courtesy Wikipedia:

The causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolutionary War,[5] the French government was deeply in debt and attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes. Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789. The first year of the Revolution saw members of the Third Estate taking control, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August, and a women’s march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October. A central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. France rapidly transformed into a democratic and secular society with freedom of religion, legalization of divorce, decriminalization of same-sex relationships, and civil rights for Jews and black people.[6] The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy. In a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793.

The storming of the Tuileries Palace on August 10, 1792

Good idea

Meanwhile it’s Spring in New York City. The Cherry Blossoms are out on Roosevelt Island.

And the daffodils on Park Avenue. Note also how Manhattan’s skyline is growing a whole new dimension.

 

It’s Passover and the Hasidic Jews are taking their many kids to the parks and dressing in their finest celebratory robes and hats — fashion of the mid-1800s. This hat is mink. Most of their kids can’t speak English until they go to school, around six. But they’re healthy and the community looks out for its members. The typical Hasidic family has nine children.

Which reminds me of the three elements of a Jewish festival:

1. They tried to kill us.

2. They failed.

3. So, let’s eat.

Harry Newton. It’s a wonderful day. Enjoy it.