{"id":40609,"date":"2017-10-24T11:30:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T15:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=40609"},"modified":"2017-10-24T11:30:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T15:30:17","slug":"hard-to-invest-easy-to-get-money-its-a-different-world-which-the-saudis-are-just-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=40609","title":{"rendered":"Hard to invest; easy to get money. It’s a different world, which the Saudis are just learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
I bought a little PayPal this morning. I owned it before and stupidly sold it when it got weak.<\/div>\n
Harry, please have faith. If your investment thesis is sound, it may take the world a moment or two to catch up with your brilliance. (Ha.)<\/div>\n
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PayPal has Venmo, the new way of banking.<\/div>\n
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Square (SQ) has the white point of sale gadgetry in retail stores. It also lends you money, does your payroll. and probably a million other smart things I don’t know about, yet.<\/div>\n
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Here’s Square’s ubiquitous point of sale gadgetry:<\/div>\n
\"Squarepointofsale\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Square’s market cap is $12.6 billion. Someone will buy it soon.<\/div>\n
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Success!!! Frozen!! Yes!<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
Look what I just received:<\/div>\n
\"Success<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0If you haven’t frozen your accounts at the five credit reporting agencies you should do so immediately — if not sooner. That includes freezing your spouse and any children who have their own social security numbers. Here’s the list of credit reporting agencies again:<\/div>\n
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\u00a0+ Chex Systems. Click here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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+ Experian. Click\u00a0here.<\/b><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ TransUnion. Click\u00a0here.<\/b><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ Equifax. Click\u00a0here.<\/b><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ Innovis. Click\u00a0here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Why I read Kindle books<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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1. I can read books very comfortably with the free Kindle software on my laptop. My latest laptops have big 14 inch screens. I can make the Kindle type bigger when I’m tired.<\/div>\n
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2. Kindle books are easier to read than paper books. In bed, my laptop sits on a pillow, screen open. I don’t have to hold it. I only touch it to turn the page. Please email Jeff Bezos to voice enable Kindle.<\/strong> I want to say “Turn page<\/em>” without pulling my arm out from under the warm covers. Email Jeff@Amazon.com<\/em>.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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3. Kindle software is much easier for traveling. You can read on your laptop, your iPhone, or your Kindle device — standing up, sitting down, in bed, on the subway. You can go from one device to another, in seconds.\u00a0 Amazon’s software is brilliant.<\/div>\n
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4. Best of all, when you highlight a passage, Amazon dutifully copies your passage into its servers, which you can access (for free). To get your notes you go to\u00a0https:\/\/kindle.amazon.com\/your_highlights<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Your page will look like this. This is mine:<\/div>\n
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\"KindleHighlights\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0Your clips are organized by book and page. It’s brilliant.<\/div>\n
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Hard to find: BIG investments.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>From today’s Journal:<\/div>\n
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ILL-TIMED UBER INVESTMENT ROILS A GIANT SAUDI FUND<\/div>\n
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Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Public Investment Fund, created to help the kingdom diversify its oil dependent economy, has made several disappointing investments.<\/p>\n

PIF is poised to become one of the world’s biggest investors after it absorbs the proceeds from the initial public offering of a portion of the state-oil firm Saudi Aramco.<\/p>\n

But the fund is troubled by disappointing investments, including in Uber Technologies Inc., and has struggled to calculate its own value.<\/p>\n

After the Saudi fund invested $3.5 billion in Uber last year, the car-hailing company’s fortunes dimmed when its chief resigned under misconduct allegations. At the same time, the investment gave Uber help in trying to undercut a local company that was a successful investment for the fund.\u00a0<\/strong>(My highlighting.)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, poor accounting has made it difficult for Saudi officials and foreign consultants to calculate the fund’s value. The fund is estimated to be worth “more than $200 billion and less than $300 billion,” according to a senior official. (That gives vagueness a whole new meaning.)<\/p>\n

This week, investors including chief executives of BlackRock Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are descending on a Riyadh palace for a conference where the fund is expected to discuss its strategy, among other topics.<\/p>\n

Attendees are calling it “Davos in the desert.<\/em>”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0The lesson for all of us remains:<\/div>\n
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In the old days it was hard to find money, easy to find investments.<\/div>\n
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Today it’s hard to find investments, but real easy to find money.<\/div>\n
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Hence watch out for wealth managers bearing gifts of free lunch and priceless predictive wisdom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The palace in Riyadh makes you wonder what God could do if only He had the money, and no taste.<\/div>\n
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MR-16 lights<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0+Don’t buy MR-16 light fixtures. This is an MR-16.<\/div>\n
\"MR-16LightBulb\"<\/a><\/div>\n
It blows regularly. It’s hard to replace. The fixtures holding MR-16 are badly designed. They often fit on a proprietary track, which means you’re locked into one maker’s lousy system. When you get creative and buy LED bulbs, you’ll find they don’t give out much light. Don’t get me started.<\/div>\n
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+ Avoid ethanol gas<\/b>. Buy gas that doesn’t have ethanol. You car will get more mileage to the gallon and your engine will last longer. The absolute worst is putting ethanol into small appliances like lawnmowers and generators.<\/div>\n
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Ethanol is a government handout to ethanol producers. It’s the worst subsidy you can ever imagine.\u00a0 It’s part of the swamp. And it’s not going away, but should.<\/div>\n
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Finding gas without ethanol is not easy. Your local car buffs will know.<\/div>\n
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This is probably apocryphal, but still funny<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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Dear Kean Elementary:<\/div>\n
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God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior citizen’s luncheon. I am 84 years old and live at the Sprenger Home for the Aged. All of my family has passed away. I am all alone now and it’s nice to know that someone is thinking of me. God bless you for your kindness to an old forgotten lady. My roommate is 95 and has always had her own radio, but before I received one, she would never let me listen to hers, even when she was napping.<\/p>\n

The other day her radio fell off the nightstand and broke into a lot of pieces. It was awful and she was in tears.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Her distress over the broken radio touched me and I knew this was God’s way of answering my prayers. She asked if she could listen to mine. I told her to kiss my a*s.<\/p>\n

Thank you for that opportunity.
\nSincerely,
\nAgnes<\/p>\n

\"HarryNewton\"<\/a>
\nHarry Newton, who loves to watch CNBC, without the sound. There are oodles of pretty faces and occasionally wonderful cartoons, like this, from this morning, October 24, 2017 — nine months into Trump’s presidency.<\/p>\n

\"RyanonCNBC\"<\/a><\/p>\n