Hedgie difficulties reflect difficulties in today’s investing world — why so many of my friends have so much money in cash and are actively searching for new investment opportunities. And why you haven’t heard from me in recent days. A combination of jet lag (horrible going east, OK going west) and my searching for new oppportunities.<\/p>\n
I attended a fund’s annual meeting last week. Most fascinating: They report eyeing 2,000 opportunities a year, to focus on 100 each quarter, to actually invest in maybe two a month. That’s a one percent hit. It’s the same statistic I’ve heard from real estate syndicators\/developers, etc. The fund talked also about a slowing economy, among their investments.<\/p>\n
I’d like to be able to predict President Trump’s longer-term effect on the economy and on the stockmarket. I can’t. No one can. He says whatever pops into his head — 99.9% of which will never happen. Breaking up banks. Building walls. Reforming tax. Repealing Obamacare. Along the way he is annoying our staunchest ally, Australia. Click here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>And threatening nuclear Armageddon with North Korea, which has now threatened to nuke Australia!<\/p>\n I continue to eye real estate syndications. The trends are super: more families, more babies, harder to buy a house….and some technology improvements that make fixing up apartments easier and cheaper.<\/p>\n Our world is killing our ears<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n When damaged, your hearing doesn’t recover like your skin does. When your hearing is damaged or gone, it’s over.\u00a0Most of us have hearing loss.\u00a0That seriously hurts our ability to participate. Key tips:<\/p>\n + Wear ear protection.<\/p>\n + Don’t crank up the volume on your devices.<\/p>\n + Don’t push your ear buds too aggressively into your ears. That compresses the ear wax and blocks your hearing.<\/p>\n + Get your ears regularly cleaned of ear wax by an ear doctor. Get a doctor who uses a curette — a long thin metal tool with a tiny scoop on the end. Don’t do this yourself. Don’t use wax and lighted candles.<\/p>\n After years of messing around, I am now in the market for a real hearing aid. I am even prepared for the month of “getting used to my new hearing aid.”<\/p>\n But which one? I fear the whole marketing\/sales irritation of dealing with my corner hearing aid “specialist.” I’ve dealt with them. They’re the worst. They make the Nigerians look honest.<\/p>\n But this time, I will persevere. I promise.<\/p>\n Meantime, if you’re missing out on conversations with your family, please read the New Yorker’s<\/em> big research article called “Pardon?”<\/em>\u00a0in the magazine or “High Tech hope for the hard of hearing”<\/em> on their web site:<\/p>\n Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Travel<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n +\u00a0Always keep your seat belt fastened. There’s an amazing amount of mid-air turbulence, putting passengers into hospital with serious injuries. Don’t believe me? Read Conde Nast Traveler<\/em>, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n + Pray for bumping. United\u00a0<\/span>now offers up to $10,000 to bump you.<\/p>\n + Don’t rely on the cloud. You won’t find fast Internet. Your cloud will be hiccuping. Carry all working files on your laptop, and a tiny flashdrive as backup.<\/p>\n + <\/strong><\/span>Swapping SIM cards on your iPhone really works.\u00a0From my reader, and excellent financial advisor, Rakesh Bharti:<\/p>\n Harry,<\/p>\n I was in India for 3 weeks recently.\u00a0 Just supporting your point, I used local SIM card in my Iphone, and it worked great for data and voice.\u00a0 The personal hotspot was good enough to run my computer, including office e mail and brokerage platform.<\/p>\n Also, iPhone7 camera was good enough.\u00a0 Did not need another camera.<\/p>\n Google maps works well in India.<\/p>\n More stuff.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n + Time to close all your credit cards — especially the ones you don’t use. A zero balance still means they will you an annual fee.<\/p>\n Engineers — Story 1<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, “What’s with those guys? We have been waiting fifteen minutes!”<\/p>\n The doctor chimed in, “I don’t know, but I’ve never seen such inept golf!”<\/p>\n The priest said, “Here comes the greenskeeper. Let’s have a word with him.”What’s wrong with that group ahead of us? They’re rather slow, aren’t they?”<\/p>\n The greenkeeper replied, “Oh, yes. That’s a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime!”<\/p>\n The group fell silent for a moment.<\/p>\n The priest said, “That’s so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight.”<\/p>\n The doctor said, “Good idea. I’m going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there’s anything she can do for them.”<\/p>\n The engineer said, “Why can’t they play at night?”<\/p>\n Engineers — Story 2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Two Polish engineers\u00a0were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking at its top. A woman walked by and asked what they were doing.<\/p>\n “We’re supposed to find the height of this flagpole,” said one, “but we don’t have a ladder.”<\/p>\n The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground.<\/p>\n Then she took a tape measure from her pocketbook, took a measurement, announced, “Twenty one feet, six inches,” and walked away.<\/p>\n One engineer shook his head and laughed, “A lot of good that does us. We ask for the height and she gives us the length!”<\/p>\n![\"hearing\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/hearing.jpg\")
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\nHarry Newton, who eyes a great reason to be back in New York. A new photo exhibit at the Met. I love Irving Penn:
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