Here’s the real news this morning:
1. Gold is up 1.6% to $1,405 this morning. I wish I owned more.
2. From Deutsche Bank. “According to the latest Q3 GDP data, corporate profits rose to $1.64 trillion, nearly surpassing their previous peak of $1.66 trillion in Q3 2006. The recovery in profits has been very impressive: since the Q4 2008 low, they have grown for seven consecutive quarters at an annualized rate of 33.1%. This is the fastest seven-quarter change in corporate profits in history, surpassing the 28.6% rate for the seven quarters ending Q3 1984. Some slowdown in profit growth is inevitable, as companies cannot continue to produce the kind of profit gains that we have recently experienced indefinitely.”
Now for the forecasts.
1. This one came from Hilary Kramer, who’s the editor of GameChangers. I have no idea if she’s as good at stockmarket predicting as she is at selling newsletters.
2. This one compares our recent record with a couple of other analogous times and suggests that we might be headed down. The chart looks daunting, but it’s easy to figure. If you can’t read this entire chart, click here.
3. This one says the stockmarket will go down only if 1241 is broken with volume. We are currently at 1257.
4. My own opinion on stocks for the new year? Profits are holding up. Companies are piling their cash up. Dividends will absolutely rise. There is still oodles of money on the sidelines. Bonds continue to look awful. There’s not much else to invest in — other than stocks. Which suggests (to my brain) we should continue the run-up. But I’m selling newsletters. I’m not investing anyone else’s money. I’m not living on money management fees. I don’t have an incentive to bullshit investors. I’m simply investing my own money. I’m staying in. But I’m keeping my stops tight. I don’t want to lose the gains I’ve made this year.
Unfreezing a frozen iPhone.
Push the sleep/retart button on the top for 20 seconds. If that doesn’t work, hold the Home and Sleep/Restart button down together for 20 seconds. For more, click here.
The most useful gadget on my desk.
The Dymo LabelWriter 450 prints shipping labels. To your children. To the bank. It prints them out of Outlook or its own database you create. It works with PCs and Macs. It saves huge time. I’ve used Dymos for years. They’re ultra-reliable. Amazon has this model for $87. Click here. There are other, faster, fancier models. Ones that even print stamps. I like gadgets that do one thing and one thing well. That’s it. Get one.
Oh yes, the labels are not cheap. This is a razor blade business model. Unless you print millions, you won’t notice the expense.
Always a new wrinkle in real estate. My dear friend bought a condo in an apartment buillding in Cleveland because it had an indoor dog walk.
Stopping Cramps. My friends complained of their cramps this holiday. Stop them:
1. Get up every hour and walk around. You’re no longer 25. Your body can’t take inactivity.
2. Drink plenty of water. The air is dry in winter. Drink water regularly. Don’t wait for the cramp.
Windows 7 remains a disaster. Stay with XP or get a Mac. You don’t want to hear our latest issues with Win 7. They give boredom a whole new meaning.
Don’t mess with Jewish mothers.
Mrs. Fisher comes to visit her son Jacob for dinner. He lives with a female roommate, Rachel.
During the course of the meal, his mother couldn’t help but notice how pretty Jacob’s roommate was. She had long been suspicious of a relationship between the two, and this had only made her more curious.
Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Jacob and his roommate than met the eye. Reading his mom’s thoughts, Jacob volunteered, ‘I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Rachel and I are just roommates.’
About a week later, Rachel came to Jacob saying, ‘Ever since your mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the silver sugar bowl. You don’t suppose she took it, do you?’
“Well, I doubt it, but I’ll email her, just to be sure.’ So he sat down and wrote an email:
Dear Mama,
I’m not saying that you ‘did’ take the sugar bowl from my house. I’m not saying that you ‘did not’ take it.
But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.
Love, Jacob
Several days later, Jacob received a response email from his Mama:
Dear Son,
I’m not saying that you ‘do’ sleep with Rachel, and I’m not saying that you ‘do not’ sleep with her.
But the fact remains that if she were sleeping in her OWN bed, she would have found the sugar bowl by now.
Love, Mama
Harry Newton who dislikes snow storms for the time they waste and the backaches they produce. Shoveling snow is not exercise. I creak this morning.
Just an anecdotal observation from my latest trip to Costco.
The sheeple are back to buying crap they don't need. About a year ago I noticed only staple in the carts, … instead of mostly electronics and appliances it had changed to being food, paper supplies in bulk, etc.
Today? Yup — when you just can't do without a flat screen for each bedroom and blue ray versions of all the movies you've ever watched, … then you too would fit right in with what I saw in line today.
In other news, Silver popped up through price levels not seen since 1980. I'm curious how much xanax is being prescribed. I don't get it. http://finviz.com/futures_char… http://finviz.com/futures_char…
Harry,
Tell your friends to put a bar of soap under their bedsheet to stop cramping. I swear by it and so do my friends that I'll told about it. I heard about this remedy a few years ago when I was experience nightly cramps from my medication for my MG, so I tried it, figuring I had nothing to lose. I don't understand why it works, but it does for me. Here's what Dr. Gott has to say about it although he's says he didn't discover the remedy.
http://askdrgottmd.com/?s=cram…
September 14, 2010 By Dr. Gott
DEAR DR. GOTT: My wife follows your column in our local newspaper. She read about placing a bar of soap under the bedsheets, but needs more explanation. She suffers a lot of pains and seeks whatever help is available.
DEAR READER: The soap-under-the-sheets remedy is very simple. Place an unwrapped bar of soap under the bottom bedsheet nearest to the affected area. Some readers have had success using wrapped soap, as well. It was originally recommended for nighttime leg cramps but has also been found to be beneficial for other nighttime aches and pains in other areas, such as the shoulders, feet, back and neck. The soap may need to be replaced once in a while, say every three to six months, but it still retains its cleaning ability so it does not need to be thrown away. I suggest your wife try it since she has nothing to lose other than her pain.
Cramps – get them in feet, calves, and thighs at night. Can walk out the feet and calf cramps, but not the thigh cramps – and they hurt more intensely than the other two. Have a solution, though. I found that drinking a half glass of water with about a teaspoon of vinegar, while the cramp is cramping, will eliminate the cramp almost immediately (within about a minute).
Also, one of the best things for health in general is to drink about a half glass of water with about a level teaspoon of baking soda in it, after dinner. Will keep everything working right, digestively speaking. My autistic brother suffers from seizures, and can also become impacted, which keeps him from absorbing his seizure meds. This baking soda treatment – in his case, in the AM and PM – has eliminated this problem completely.
I just noticed that people were complaining about getting cramps during the holidays. I do find that they are more likely to occur when 1) we overeat or 2) we eat chocolate and/or dairy products. Of course there is always that moment when you have a choice between that fantastic dessert and the possibility of a cramp … the choice is even easier now that I know about the vinegar. 🙂
Shoveling snow is not exercise.
Hmmmm. It may not be as glamourous as donning those new Lululemon duds you got for Christmas and driving down to the fitness center where everyone can admire your new clothes and comment on your good taste while standing around sipping lattes.
However, done in a slow, methodical, non heart attack inducing manner, shoveling snow is great exercise.
It also goes by it's other less well known name…work.
Harry, can't say I agree with you on Win 7. I am the epitome of the “power user” and I have had NO problems with it. Better than that, it runs perfectly on my desktop and both my high-end laptop, and my netbook. Couldn't be happier.
Running OK yes. But quirky, yes too. Wife has trouble getting on WiFi with her Win7. XP always worked better for her. I may switch her back. My Win7 test machine kills its battery with only a few hours on standby. I don't know why. XP doesn't. We've also found a bunch of software that we like that won't work on Win 7. My philosophy remains: If works, don't mess with it.