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Harry’s Best Health Advice. Harry’s Best Investment Advice — for today anyway. How sanctions become challenges.

Yesterday’s Fed’s 25% rate is a step down. Rate increases are ebbing. Inflation is coming under control.  Stock prices will rise this year.

For now, that’s all you need to know.

Here is the Fed’s tightening. There’ll be a another 25 basis point hike in March at the next Fed meeting. It’s baked in. Everyone knows it’s coming.

Here it is charted.

Yesterday, the stockmarket loved the easing and reacted positively. It’s continuing this morning. This is Nasdaq and the S&5 500. Virtually all the stocks we own are doing well. Energy is lagging. I’m not worried since oil and gas prices will rise once China fully opens.

 

Best Health Advice

My dear friend, Peter W.,  got hit by a motorized messenger bicycle in NYC. He’s starting to walk. He says recovery requires work and I am not disciplined enough.”

Meantime, his friend had a nasty fall down steps. He was wearing socks!

Two friends slipped on black ice in their cars. One hit a tree. The other hit a telephone pole. The tree survived. The pole didn’t. Their cars are a mess. The towing and storage charges give usury a whole new meaning.

I drive more slowly now. I look both ways twice. I hold the railing going up and down stairs. I especially watch the last step going down.

At 80, I don’t have the luxury of years to recover from an injury. Hence I’m slow and careful. You should be too.

This health stuff is boring. But each day I hear stupid stories.

Best tool ever

I rebooted my fiber optic modem. That lifted the Internet speed at my desk by a remarkable ten times. I don’t make this up.

From now on, I reboot all my networking modems, routers , WiFi gadgets and mesh devices on the first of every month.

Networking devices get progressively clogged and their speed drops. That’s stupid, but it’s the way it is.

My network rebooting will now coincide with changing the grips on my tennis racquets.

They need monthly re-wrapping. I play better with new Wilson overgrips.

How goes real estate?

Higher interest rates have hurt valuations. How much is unclear, because there aren’t many sales.

Sellers are freaked. Sellers are holding off. “Why should I sell now? Things are in flux.”

Sellers with variable interest rates on their mortgages are in trouble since many can’t pay more to their mortgage holders. Rents are low.

Buyers are uncertain. Cash is king. Bargains will emerge later this year.

Real estate is not like the stock market. Bargains can pop up at any time.

If you have cash, stay alert. In real estate, cash is king.

Don’t buy in flood zones. Been there. Done that. They’re not the liquidity events I enjoy. (A funny!)

Sanctions should be called challenges

Sanctions don’t work. Period. But since no one in Washington has ever run a real business, how would they know?

If I were a Russian businessman and my customers wanted something — anything — I could get it for them – via Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.

Despite the sanctions, Russia’s economy is growing. The IMF forecasts growth this year. Dumb.

the only way to keep Russia out of Europe is to ship Ukraine weaponry.

The New York Times just did a piece, “Neighbors help Moscow sidestep West’s sanxtions.” To read it click this.

Putin is dishonest and dangerous. What to watch and read.

There  is a fabulous one hour Frontline documentary which Susan and I watched this week. We stayed awake for the whole thing, even though ,at 10:00 PM, it was way past our bedtime.

Don’t hit the arrow. Click here.

Read this also:

Kennan’s Warning on Ukraine
Ambition, Insecurity, and the Perils of Independence

It is in Foreign Affairs. Click here.

We are in peak earnings season

Today 416 companies, including Apple and Google, are scheduled. For the  full list, click here.

I think Apple and Google will be upbeat. I own both. I’ll buy a bit more once i post this blog.

Read more about ChatGPT from Sunday’s New York Times:

Click here.

Latest headline:

OpenAI to Offer New Version of ChatGPT for a $20 Monthly Fee
The San Francisco artificial intelligence lab has seen overwhelming interest in its chatbot since it was released in November.

Click here.

There is talk that Nvidia (not Microsoft) will be the first to benefit by all this AI excitement. NVDA has popped in recent days. We own it. I’m going to buy a little more, despite it being way overpriced. Its P/E is a whopping 89.

A good motto. Check. Check. Check.

IBM had Think. We had Check. Check. Check.

More useful than Think.

Today’s final shot was a cross-court backhand. It was magnificent.

I’ll have Harry’s Best Travel Technology tomorrow. — Harry Newton