The election silly season is in the full swing.
Everyone is panicking. The wrong person will win, they say. And, your investments, your net worth, and your sanity will crater.
The Silly Season is perfect for Wall Street — all those advisors, brokers and bankers.
It’s a great opportunity for them to get you to do something and to pay them fees.
Bloomberg Wealth has a story:
Rich Americans Are Protecting Their Fortunes From a Possible Biden Win
Advisers are urging them to transfer wealth to the next generation to take advantage of the Trump administration’s generous estate tax rules.
It gets crazier. Some advisors are telling clients to sell everything and go 100% to cash because (a) Biden will win, (b) the Democrats are devil incarnate and (c) the stockmarket will crater.
Goldman Sachs says sell the dollar because of “the blue wave.”
Meanwhile, tomorrow Apple will hold its most significant press conference ever. That stock is up nearly 6% today. Whew!
Walmart and Amazon are about to sell you oodles of cheap stuff (on sale) — which you don’t want and certainly don’t need.
Bloomberg’s story says:
Wealthy American families are being told by their advisers that they should act now or risk losing millions of dollars later.
That’s in case Democrats win back the White House and U.S. Senate in November. Former Vice President Joe Biden has proposed substantially higher taxes on the rich, including making it much harder to avoid a 40% levy on large estates.
By transferring fortunes to the next generation now, the wealthy can exploit the generous estate tax rules ushered in by President Donald Trump.
The article continues:
Some millionaires have worried about giving away too much of their fortunes to children and grandchildren. A popular option for these clients is the Spousal Lifetime Access Trust, which lets an individual pass wealth out of their estate but allows a wife or husband access to the money. Called SLATs, these vehicles “are the flavor of the day to say the least among married couples,” said Marshall Rowe, president of business owner services at the Colony Group. …
One relatively simple option for the wealthy is to loan the current exemption amount to a trust benefiting their heirs, or directly to their children, Renn said. Then, if Biden wins in November with a wide Democratic majority, they can simply write a letter forgiving the debt.
(Better yet, give me your money. And I’ll forgive you!)
You can read the Bloomberg piece here.
The “funny” thing is markets typically do better during Democratic reigns.
Remember four years ago when everyone and their uncle predicted if Trump got elected, the market would crater by a minimum of 20%. It didn’t. It went up. Which was a pity for everyone in cash then. Prediction at work again. (I wish I had an emoji of a happy face. I can’t find it in this software.)
Meantime, today the market is on a tear. My friend Ed says the tear is because of $3 trillion to $4 trillion of stimulus by January and hopes for new therapeutics. I don’t know what therapeutic upper they put Donald on in recent days. I’m not envious. I prefer sanity. I’d rather play tennis and stick to learning how to do a forehand like Nadal. (Fat chance.)
In short, Harry is not doing anything crazy like selling. In recent says, Harry has nibbled at a few stocks he has read good things on — BE, FVRR, NCNO, SPLK, and TXN.
Great news
I’ve won the Weekly Trump Patriot. If I give them money, they’ll match it 700%. Talk about giving desperation a whole new meaning
Get yourself a flu short
If you’re old, get the extra strength one. Susan and I had it. We’re had no reactions. Most local pharmacies have it. It’s free if you’re an alta kaka.
Useful stuff
+ Masks don’t work. They harm your health. Nonsense. Read here.
+ It safe to get on a plane now. And the fares are super cheap.
+ EyeBuyDirect is the best place to buy glasses online. Much much cheaper than Warby Parker.
+ The more water you drink, the better you feel.
Marketing gimmicks
+ Car insurance. “You only pay for what you need.” Every insurer will drop their prices based on your travel, your accident record, your age, where you live, etc.
+ Microsoft is ending “support” for Office 2010 this week. I’m still using Office 2007 and it works fine.
+ And, the best, If you have an erection lasting more than four hours….
The weekend and this morning in Columbia County
This is the view from my office a few minutes ago.
The iPhone is not great for foliage. It has trouble focusing. But it has some powerful editing features. In the middle of the top of the camera screen, you’ll see an up arrow. Click it and make it face down. Then at the bottom of the screen, you’ll see these buttons appear:
The most useful is the +/-. That allows you to reduce or increase your picture’s brightness. I found the fall colors became brighter when I overexposed by +0.3 to +0.7. That’s just under a stop in normal film photography.
Here are some more weekend Fall photos to enjoy. The locals say it’s best Fall they ever seen.
That’s the Catskills on the other side of the Hudson River.
He visits us regularly. He stood there for ten minutes to be photographed.
These are all great Kodak Moments. You know the story: Kodak invented digital photography but didn’t pursue it. Ditto, the old AT&T invented cellular technology but never did anything with it.
Enough already. See you tomorrow. Harry Newton
