The world is awash in money. Stimulus from Europe. Bank of England, China and soon the U.S. will have it own stimulus. Maybe two loads even. One this year and one when we have a new president.
There will be a correction. But the higher it goes now, the less painful the correction will feel. Moreover, no one (certainly not me) can predict bupkaz (anything).
There are always corrections. But we come back. This chart is from The Visual Capitalist. Here’s what they wrote:
Shortest Bear Market in History Ends
In a stunning reversal, the bear market of 2020 ended on August 18 when the S&P 500 exceeded previous February highs. As trillions of dollars in stimulus response got injected into global economies, markets recovered in record time.
They have many fascinating charts of the year in 2020. Here’s another one I liked:
You can access all their wonderful charts here.
Solar Winds and the Feds gets hacked
This is the headline in the Washington Post:
Top investors in SolarWinds, the Texas-based company whose software was breached in a major Russian cyberattack, sold millions of dollars in stock in the days before the intrusion was revealed.
The timing of the trades raises questions about whether the investors used inside information to avoid major losses related to the attack. SolarWinds’s share price has plunged roughly 22 percent since the company disclosed its role in the breach Sunday night.
On Dec. 8, the cybersecurity firm FireEye announced that hackers had broken into its servers and stolen sensitive security-testing tools as part of a breach they’d discovered in recent weeks. FireEye determined by Friday that SolarWinds’ updates had been corrupted and contacted the company shortly after, according to people familiar with the matter.
Here’s Solar Winds year to date:
I am not an expert in cyber security. But 50 years in technology taught me:
+ Don’t rely on one company, like Solar Winds — especially a tiny, barely-profitable company like Solar Winds.
+ Most hacking comes through email attachments. But this one came through a faulty software upgrade. A good rule is Don’t upgrade immediately. Wait. Our government didn’t wait. I remember when we used to delay installing Windows “upgrades.” Many were faulty. ONly to be replaced a week later with one that worked.
+ Make sure you have backups. Extra computers, servers, flash drives is cheap compared to what ransomware could cost you.
+ Federal Government agencies are a disgrace. Congress or the Administration should form an oversight agency, like the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates every civil aviation accident in the U.S. and significant accidents in other modes of transportation. Based on their investigative findings and special studies, the board makes recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents. We don’t have one for cyber security. We desperately need one. Tell your people in Washington.
Love these
+ Trump declined to appear at his own Christmas Party, held one floor below his residence in the White House.
+ White House aides say it is unlikely he will attend Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021.
+ Ten of thousands of requests for presidential pardons have been submitted (via email, phone, FedEx, mail, etc.) to the White House and the Justice Department. If you’re asking for a pardon, you must be guilty of something.
+ Six weeks after Election Day, Trump has spent more than half of his days with no public appearances. but nine days on the golf course — at taxpayer expense.
My guess as to the most profitable “business” Trump has ever had is raising money for his “Official Election Defense Fund.” (Click here.) I hear he’s already raised $250+ million — most of which is going into his own pocket. If I were him, I wouldn’t acknowledge Biden’s win either, with all these monies sloshing in. Why stop the flow?
We got our 24 inches
This is a table on our patio. The center post holds an umbrella. It’s still snowing.
Give some money to Georgia
If the Democrats win the two seats in Georgia at the runoff on January 5, the Senate will be Democrat controlled. That means Biden will have the power to quickly pass a decent stimulus bill. That won’t hurt the market, and should help millions of unemployed and shuttered businesses.
My preferred place to give money is Turnup. They focus on driving young voters to vote.
Their accomplishments already in Georgia:
+ 1,157,537 young potential voters reached via social media with voter registration information three times each.
+ 23,421 17.5 year-olds that will be 18 by Election Day connected with a voter registration application.
+ 234 youth TurnUp volunteers and app users called about 18,000 young voters in Georgia to help them register and/or request a ballot, spending a total of 600 hours.
Writes my friend Zev Shapiro from Turnup:
Our goal from now until Jan 5 is to replicate this digital strategy on Snapchat but with the goal of getting young voters to vote early or request their ballot. There are 3 million young people between 18 and 29 in Georgia on Snapchat and we intend to reach all of them 10 times before Jan 5 with election information and the ability for them to click to request their ballot. That is where the majority of funds will be spent. We will be continuing our text and phone outreach with our volunteers but that won’t be where we need to spend money.
Any money you give them is tax deductible. They are a 501(c)(3). There are no contribution limits.
Give money here. I have and some have many of my friends.
See you tomorrow
I’m on a roll. Have you been watching our stocks? Some of our weirdest stocks are up bigtime today — MDB, CVNA, CHWY, ETSY, TDOC, ROKU, PLTR and LULU (which I’m newly impressed by).
Please give some money to Georgia to swing the Senate and save the world from Mitch McConnell.
— Harry Newton
