When in doubt, stay out.
Repeat Tdd’s mantra again.
When in doubt, stay out.
Moving to the iPhone 14 — Part 2
Old philosophy of mine: Don’t trust your life to your iPhone or Apple’s iCloud.
+ Have a special notebook. Write in accounts and passwords. Paper still works.
+ Take pictures of important screens. Photos in the iPhone’s photos folder are safe.
+ Back up your iPhone to your Windows laptop. Apple’s free iTunes software works on your Windows laptop.
+ When messed up; i.e. your ihone calendar is busted, reboot your iPhone several times.
Moving from an old iPhone to a new one is not seamless, nor fast.
Dumb stuck money
Everyone has their money in lousy savings/checkings accounts at the five big banks, which pay essentially nothing.
The Wall Street Journal today has a piece:
The $42 Billion Question: Why Aren’t Americans Ditching Big Banks?
Big banks still pay next to nothing on savings, but their customers aren’t yet moving much money to higher-yielding alternatives
Some smaller banks will pay you 3%. But you and your spouse are only insured to $250,000. So spread it out among banks or buy one year treasuries which today are paying 4.72%.
For the Journal’s piece, click here.
Everyone is sick right now
That’s the headline of a Wired Science article:
For the past two years, social distancing kept seasonal viruses at bay. Now they’re roaring back.
Be wary of tight unventilated places.
Treasuries and tax
From reader Cono:
“You are correct. There is no state tax on US debt unless you sell it at a gain. This gets complicated due to accrued interest etc. “
Funny thing is some of my treasuries are actually up. So I could make a capital gain if I sold them today. Which I won’t since I’ll get more when they mature.
Harping on desperation
I’ve already received four proposals this week to give strangers my precious, hard-earned money. Favorite new area: Rare earth minerals — the ones they need for electric cars (and toothbrushes?)
P.S. I love my new Sonicare. Super great for traveling.
$39.95 at Amazon. Click here.
Talking about travel. Matein makes the best (and cheapest) backpacks.
This one takes clothes for a weekend, a couple of cans of tennis balls, a laptop and as many charging accessories as your heart desires. I’m taking it to Australia next Friday:
$37 or so. Click here.
The BIG desperation
Desperation is investing in crypto. Desperation is investing in Blackstone Group’s BREIT. They took in money from rich dudes and invested in everything real estate — so far all over the world they couldn’t control or manage all their varied holdings. No one could. At one stage they were snapping up hundreds of properties a week. Watch out for big companies and the “opportunities” they pitch en masse to the great unwashed (i.e. you and me). Watch out for managers aged under 35.
Hats off to Taylor Swift who “has better due diligence than half of Silicon Valley.” Sam’s FTX crypto exchange came calling with $100 million for her. She shook them off.
Check out this lyric from “Anti-Hero,” the first hit of her latest album, “Midnights.”
Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruismLike some kind of congressman? (Tale as old as time)
Taylor’s net worth is north of $500 million. She deserves every penny. I’m her biggest fan!
When I miss a down-the line backhand, I sing Shake it off. This video has been viewed 3.2 billion times. Yes, billion.
How China controls its people
From a piece by Scott Powell at the Discovery Institute.
His excellent summary:
“China is a one-party state ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which now has the distinction, along with North Korea, of having the most complete totalitarian control over its people of any state in all human history. The CCP has now accomplished:
- the near total control of peoples’ thinking and knowledge of history through state control of schools, the internet, and all media
- the control of people’s behavior through a digital currency controlled by the state with accounts for every Chinese citizen — accounts that the government can turn off when account holder’s social credit score drops or when the account holder travels outside a zone prescribed by government
- the control of people by requiring universal health passports
- the control of people by way of wall-to-wall facial-recognition camera surveillance”
So, inflation is ebbing?
My friend Christopher Knable runs my favorite breakfast place in Chatham, NY:
Here’s what he’s dealing with:
+ A year ago a 50lb bag of flour cost him $18. Now it costs him $29. That’s up 61%.
+ A year ago a dozen eggs cost $1.65. Now they’re $3.60. That’s up 2.2 times.
Try running a business with those sort of price increases. Hats off to Christopher.
Five years of Dogecoin
Amazing that it’s not $0. Someone is still buying this nonsense. Someone who believes in The Greater Fool Theory.
See you soon. — Harry Newton
