Crazy, unbridled enthusiasm is best.
They call them The Magnificent Seven — Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla, Nvidia, Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft.
So, how have they done this year?
Nvidia is is the top performer (in blue) — by far. With Meta and Tesla coming in a distant second and third.
Nvidia went nuts because generative AI went nuts. And Nvidia is AI.
I search for The Next Great Enthusiasm. I’m guessing it might be Novo Nordisk (NVO), which makes the two most popular obesity drugs — Ozempic and Wegovy.
Want more? Read “What Obesity Drugs and Antidepressants Have in Common.” Click here.
Want more cash dividends, check out JEPI and JEPQ. I have big positions in both. Read more on them here.
Watch what the press is writing and speaking about. You’ll quickly pick up what’s exciting everyone.
Covid is back. The booster is out.
Covid is back. Friends are getting it. Long covid is seriously hurting older folks, aka seniors. If you get Covid, get on Paxlovid fast. Read here.
Meantime, today’s news is great. From The New York Times:
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new round of Covid boosters on Monday (that’s today), that will arrive alongside the seasonal flu vaccine and shots to protect infants and older adults from R.S.V., a potentially lethal respiratory virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to follow up on Tuesday with an advisory meeting to discuss who should get the new shots, by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. After a final decision by the C.D.C.’s director, millions of doses will be shipped to pharmacies, clinics and health systems nationwide within days.
As Covid cases creep up, the trifecta of prevention measures could portend the first winter of the decade without a crush of patients overwhelming some hospitals. But a healthy winter is far from a lock: In the last year, the updated Covid vaccine made it into the arms of only 20 percent of adults in the United States.
Get your booster ASAP. I’m getting this week, I hope.
How the world turns. Vietnam in; China out.
In May of 1969 I stood on the steps of the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.
I gave an impassioned anti-Vietnam War to the assembled students and faculty. Most everyone was strongly in favor of the war. And I was not popular. But my speech got reported in the next day’s Wall Street Journal. I was news. Someone had the audacity to go against the strong pro-War feelings at the Harvard Business School in 1969.
China supported North Vietnam.
But a few years later, in 1972, Nixon visited China, opening the country to trade and investment, quickly bringing hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty. It was an amazing accomplishent.
Now 54 short years after my speech, our president is in Vietnam (our former enemy) encouraging trade and investment. He is pushing Vietnam as an alternative to the hostility to business that President Xi of China has created.
How the world has changed.
Newspapers and periodicals today are brimming with pieces like “How do we manage China’s Decline” and “Vigilance or Paranoia? China Enlists Citizens to Help Report Spies.”
I did my share of anti-Chinese articles last week with my piece “This man (President Xi) s singlehandedly destroying China.” Click here.
Xi is clearly nuts, insatiable for power and ignorant as a bag of hammers. Brett Stephens, columnist of the New York Times, wrote last week,:
As a young man, according to a peer from his youth, Xi was “considered of only average intelligence,” earned a three-year degree in “applied Marxism” and rode out the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath by becoming “redder than red.” His tenure as supreme leader has been marked by a shift to greater state control of the economy, the intensified harassment of foreign businesses and a campaign of terror against independent-minded business leaders. One result has been ever–increasing capital flight, despite heavy-handed capital controls. China’s richest people have also left the country in increasing numbers during Xi’s tenure — a good indication of where they think their opportunities do and do not lie.
Have you ever read Karl Marx? He was pretty nuts, too. He believed that the capitalist class was screwing the working class, and the working class should rise up. He helped create: “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
Capitalism and free markets caused China’s 40-year spectacular growth. Xi is head of the Chinese Communist Party. He’s creating his own twisted version of Communism. Which consists of figuring how to stay in power. As China declines, he flays around more desperately. Not a happy picture for the Chinese people, or for us. Keep away from all Chinese stocks. (I’ve been on that bandwagon for several years now.)
A picture is worth a thousand words. Surveillance cameras at a park in Shanghai.
They can track you anywhere at any time. Their facial recognition is superb.
Don’t check your bags
If you must:
+ Put an Apple AirTag in each bag.
+ Arrive early. Your checked bag has time to make it to your plane.
+ Fly nonstop.
+ Take off old tags and stickers.
+ Make your bags are unique. No black bags. Bright red with yellow ribbons are good.
+ Check check-in. Did they put the right label with the right airport on your bag?
+ Don’t check anything important — medicines — or valuable, like jewelry.
This video is truly wonderful (and short)
Show it to your kids and grandkids.
See you soon. Please watch the video. — Harry Newton
