Present day Phoenix:
The South was a mess until they invented air conditioning. Then it boomed.
Then they invented climate change. The south is again a mess.
Insurance premiums on a raft of our properties rose 80% in the last year. This reduces the properties’ values by 15%. That’s a lot.
Several Florida insurance companies are “insolvent.” Others are leaving or have left the state. More than a dozen have fled.
Many homeowners can’t get insurance down there. The value of their houses has plummeted. Some our friends “retired” to Florida because it’s warmer down there and there’s no income tax. Good luck with that one.
Nasa says July will be the hottest month on record. August will be even hotter.
Meanwhile, the AC in my office is busted. My coolest sanctuary is my Subaru Outback, which contributes to the climate problem by pumping more crap into the air.
The Pensacola News Journal has a piece:
Farmers Insurance is the 4th major insurer to leave Florida, underlining insurance crisis
Now that Farmers Insurance has decided to join more than a dozen other Florida insurance companies that have stopped writing home insurance policies in the state, over 100,000 homeowners are scrambling to find new coverage in a dwindling yet critical industry.
How to enjoy the madness of madly overpriced stocks — i.e. the ones I own.
Today my portfolio started up. Then it rolled over and it’s now following yesterday’s pattern, as favorite stocks NVDA, TSLA, META and NFLX aim for their newest trough.
My son has dumped his dog on his favorite dogsitter — me. Now the two of them (my wife’s and my son’s) bark up regular storms.
My friends recommend drugging them with CBD — like this $20 Amazon “best seller.”
Click here.
Will it work on me? (Please God.)
My 5% short-term treasuries are maturing? Should I extend some? I can get 5.45% for six months, though potentially more with crazy picks, like BIRD or these which are all doing well for me — despite today’s and yesterday’s comeback.
I had fun this morning drawing up this nice blue chart.
In the old days of value investing, you bought stocks with low price earning ratios (P/Es) and decent growth prospects. Look at these super growers, showing today’s P/Es.
Take TSM, with its lowest P/E. Here’s a chart of it versus NVDA. TSM is at the bottom in blue. NVDA is in orange. Big difference.
I own oodles of NVDA, very little of TSM — even though TSM makes the AI chips for Nvidia that give it (i.e. Nvidia) the sex appeal it has in today’s stock market.
As I writ this blog at lunchtime Friday, all of these stocks are down — with the exception Amazon, which has the highest P/E, by far. Go figure.
I don’t like to think of this as “trading” or “playing a game.” I’m up substantially this year as a result of my portfolio (it’s on the web site), and treasuries and real estate, much of which is sadly now being hit by the “Work from home” and “Climate Change insurance ails.”
Heh, good news…Adams Heating and Cooling of Rotterdam, NY just got the AC working in my office. Thank you Justin, Kyle and Paul.
Now I can think clearly — or less foggily.
I’m tempted to sell my Nvidia and take my considerable profits. I did that last time, which gave new meaning to the word “stupidity.” Remember then I had to send out an abject apology blog.
For now, I’ll be intelligent and find pleasure in suffering.
Urgent
Someone hacked my friend Lucky’s bank account. They didn’t get anything because Lucky had two factor authentication. You should too.
Fun stuff
Formatting issues
If some of my charts get cut off in your email, go to my web site. Click here.
See you tomorrow or so– Harry Newton
