Of my recommendations, CENT and SQ are going ultra-well. AMZN, FB and TSLA are down a little. This is not panic time. It’s hiccup time.
Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting is this Saturday
Yahoo Finance will be streaming the meeting live, starting at 10:00 AM ET. Meantime, it’s hard to knock this ten year success:
This is called a fidget spinner
It’s probably the world’s most popular toy at present. So popular some schools have banned it. It’s a sad story. The Guardian writes:
As the inventor of the original fidget spinner – the ubiquitous new toy that has quickly become a craze in playgrounds around the world – Catherine Hettinger should be enjoying the high life.
But the Florida-based creator is not making a penny off her genius invention, even as global sales of the gadget she envisioned two decades ago as a way to entertain her seven-year-old daughter soar into the tens of millions and suppliers struggle to meet massive demand.
Hettinger held the patent on finger spinners for eight years, but surrendered it in 2005 because she could not afford the $400 (£310) renewal fee.
“I just didn’t have the money. It’s very simple,” she said.
You can buy one here or at your local gas station. It costs the grand sum of $4.34. But watch shipment date. These things are popular.
How to negotiate, New York style.
This delicious piece comes from Art Cashin’s Market Commentary of May 4, 2016:
On this day in 1626, a Dutch explorer stepped out of a long-boat onto an island teeming with rich green vegetation and local fauna. The explorer was Peter Minuit and the island was Manhattan. Three days later Minuit would begin a 300 year tradition in Gotham by trying to buy wholesale. He paid a group of Indians about $24 (or 60 Dutch Guilders) in shiny trinkets for the whole island.
Little did Peter realize that the Indians were starting another New York tradition – selling something they didn’t own. Rather than being the locals, the group that sold the island was a tribe from Long Island called the Canarsees. They were only in Manhattan on their way to the huge and rich oyster beds which lay where the Statue of Liberty now stands. And the chief of the Canarsees, one Seyseys, was not going to let a simple thing like not owning the property get in the way of a good sale. So he took his loot and went home – – leaving Minuit to renegotiate with the Weckquaesgeeks, the tribe that really owned the joint. (Actually a subdivision of the Weekquaesgeek tribe called “the Manhattes”.) Chronicles do not say if the Canarsees introduced Minuit to another New York tradition involving a cardboard box and three bent playing cards.
To celebrate have a Manhattan (a drink) and ponder the fact that if the Indians had invested the trinkets at a nominal compound rate, they would now have ten times more money than Donald Trump regardless of which source you cited. Invested at 6% compound interest the value today of the $24 would be approximately $120 billion dollars today.
Latest hearing aid nonsense
A reader says SportEAR has great products to protect your hearing. Your need to protect your hearing. It doesn’t grow back. Click here.
Readers like Audicus hearing aids, which are “cheap. Click here. But Audicus won’t sell you anything unless you have a hearing test and send them the results. Which is a major hassle. Meantime, their people give rudeness a whole new meaning.
Starkey is the only American maker of hearing aids. But they’re also not responding to emails.
Readers like Costco. But they’re a marginal pain. They insist on a hearing test, which they’ll do. You pay for your hearing aids, then wait 10 days for them. They don’t keep anything in stock — which is weird. You can return your hearing aids for a full refund within six months. Which is about the most generous of the lot.
I’m attracted to the $130 Siemens Lotus 12P for the simple reason that it has great reviews on Amazon. eBay sells them for $99. But it’s complicated — The Lotus 12P comes in three different models. I cannot tell the difference, which is irksome. For Amazon click here.
This whole hearing aid “business” defies all my attempts to do a scientific technical comparison — like I’ve done with thousands of technology products — and figure which one makes the most sense. My two previous pieces were here and here — which has headlined “Our world is killing our ears.”
Travel
+ Alitalia has entered bankruptcy again — for the third time. Don’t worry. The Italian government has lent it $435 million — enough to keep it flying until the day you want on.
+ American Airlines is adding more seats to some of its planes. It’s doing this magic by (surprise, surprise) reducing legroom. Three rows will lose two inches – from 31 to 29 inches – and the rest of the economy cabin will have 30 inches of legroom. This pushes American closer to budget airlines like Spirit, which provide only 28 inches of cramped legroom. Upgrade to business class, if you can. Or chop off your legs.
+ When you come back, your DirecTV receiver will be dead. It’ll need “refreshing.” Do this online through your account at DirecTV.com. Click here.
+ Another place not to visit. Years ago I visited Turkey scouting investments. Fortunately I said “NO.” Turkey now blocks access to Wikipedia under law that allows it to ban websites deemed obscene or a threat to national security. Wikipedia?? Turkey has also banned TV dating shows. Following last year’s failed coup, about 120,000 people have already been suspended from jobs ranging from the civil service to the private sector, and more than 40,000 arrested.
I remember when I was in Indonesia in 1966. The Western news media reported Indonesia had had a coup and had killed 500,000 “communists.” When I checked around for the “communists”, I was told they were Chinese money lenders. Killing them erased a whole load of debt. Would that work here?
Favorite Australian business card
Eat your hearts out
This is my gorgeous, handsome, intelligent, ultra-successful daughter-in-law, Anne, with me at Tuesday’s night charity gala.
The gala raised more money than my teeth cost. Anne’s are original, free from God.
Harry Newton, who is relishing how much taxes he’s going to save after they deprive so many people of health care. Are they all money lenders?
Harry, Have you ever had a thought you can call your own or does the NY Times do all the thinking for you?
ObamaCare is a complete and total disaster. 100% designed to fail, so that people would be forced into total Government Health Care. How the fuck can you not figure that out for yourself?