I sold SolarWinds short this morning. It’s my first short this year.
Blind Freddie can see this company has NO future.
SolarWinds gives sloppiness a whole new meaning. They basically put up a gigantic billboard that read “Russia, Come Hack Us. We’re open for business.“
So what do they do? This nonsense is from their web site:
No one can do all this successfully. Clearly, SolarWinds can. Their key skill seems to be selling, not doing. They brilliantly picked their customers — government civil servants.
It gets even better: You can’t sell a plane in the U.S. without testing, testing and more testing. We even have something called 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 such a board for cyber-security. We desperately need one.
Meantime, SolarWinds is a great short.
The Washington Post has a piece headlined “
“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.”
Sounds like an honest company?
SolarWinds is a great short.
Housing and housing fix-ups are booming
Everyone is moving from the New Yorks and Californias to the nine states that don’t have income tax — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.
Everyone is buying houses. Everyone is fixing their house with At Home, Wayfair, Home Depot, Lowes, Williams-Sonoma. But which ones are proving the best investment? At Home and Wayfair, by a long shot. Dah!!
The best business in the entire world
Reasons for giving?
If you hesitate to hit Continue, you will receive this subtle reminder:
The most delicious part of this money pitch is that every donation — small and large — is automatically entered as monthly, not one time. I entered $2,800 and hey kindly figured I wanted to give that monthly and give an extra $2,800 in December 2021 — my 13th payment. Actually I had no choice. Whatever amount I entered was automatically made monthly.
Apparently, this web site (click here) and other ancillary marketing pushes have already raised $250 million –the bulk of which will go into President Trump’s personal pocket.
I don’t begrudge him the money. (In fact I’m jealous.) It’s clearly far more profitable than the salary you earn as president of the United States — $400.000 a year.
Private Jets for rent
I had this idea: Let’s fly private to Portland, where one set of grandkids live.
Here’s a little I’ve learned:
+ It’s a racket. Half the salesmen are disbarred stockbrokers. They’ll sell you their dead grandmother, and won’t deliver.
+ Many companies charge you a “membership” fee and per hour fees and other fees. By the time you do the math, you have a splitting headache. From both the money and the math.
+ You do not want to travel with BAJit — the outfit that’s heavily promoted on CNBC by a shark of Shark Tank fame. They give expensive a whole new meaning.
+ Rich people and celebrities fly private. Hence money is irrelevant. But add-ons are important. One traveler wanted a naked hostess on his trip. Another wanted an all-white interior. My favorite was the fellow who wanted a stripper pole and a stripper to work the pole.
Unemployed in the U.S.
Nearly 10 million more Americans are now unemployed compared with last February. — today’s New York Times.
How about this?
The headline on the story is
By trusting in its scientists, Australia is down to zero new COVID-19 cases
‘Regardless of who you vote for, most Australians would agree their leaders have a real care for their constituents and a following of science’
You can read how they did it here.
One of the newly unemployed. So sad.
Bitcoin is going up — without me
I’ve studied it. It’s all smoke and mirrors. But it’s going up — at present.
Now you know everything I know about bitcoin.
There is a boom in electric cars and batteries
History: Starting with Duryea in 1895, at least 1900 different car making companies were formed, producing over 3,000 makes of American automobiles. World War I (1917-1918) and the Great Depression (1929-1939) combined to drastically reduce the number of both major and minor producers.
Tesla continues to rise. Anyone else?
I drive a Subaru Outback. It handles today’s snowy roads superbly.
The best Christmas investment advice
The 98-year-old Mother Superior lay dying. The nuns gathered around her bed trying to make her last journey comfortable. They tried giving her warm milk to drink but she refused it.
One of the nuns took the glass back to the kitchen. Then, remembering a bottle of Irish Whiskey that had been received as a gift the previous Christmas, she opened it and poured a generous amount into the warm milk.
Back at Mother Superior’s bed, they held the glass to her lips.
The frail nun drank a little, then a little more and before they knew it, she had finished the whole glass down to the last drop.
As her eyes brightened, the nuns thought it would be a good opportunity to have one last talk with their spiritual leader.
“Mother,” the nuns asked. “Please give us some of your wisdom before you leave us.”
Mother Superior raised herself in the bed, looked at them and said: “Don’t sell that cow.”
Please Zoom with the family over Christmas
Don’t get together with them.
This will be the last Christmas I give this boring advice — hopefully.
I want you to stay well.
See you soon — Harry Newton
