Dana Mattioli reports in the Wall Street Journal that Amazon may have lied to both its third-party sellers and Congress regarding its data policies. Mattioli's article alleges that Amazon used information from its independent sellers to enhance its own product lineup. She writes: Amazon.com Inc. employees have used data about independent sellers on the company’s platform to develop competing products, a practice at odds with the company’s stated policies. The online retailing giant has long asserted, including to Congress, that when it makes and sells its own products, it doesn’t use … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2020
Your Poor Man’s Coronavirus Defense
Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part XXXII Do you have a vitamin routine? There’s a bottle of Dr. Joseph Mercola’s liposomal C sitting on my desk. A doctor client of mine swears by his C, not quite Linus Pauling levels, but a significant dosage nonetheless. Dr. Mercola writes about zinc as a “Poor Man’s Coronavirus Defense,” and refers to the yeoman’s work of investigative reporter Bill Sardi. (Mercola had me hooked at Poor Man’s). In closing, Sardi proposes imitating Zelenko’s COVID-19 protocol using natural remedies if you have symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection and cannot obtain a … [Read more...]
The Auto Industry’s Growing Used Car Problem
Al Root reports at Barron's on the steep drop in used-car prices is doing to the auto industry. He writes: As if things weren’t bad enough for the auto industry , now used-car prices are cratering. That creates more pressure in several areas of the automotive value chain . The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index—a key benchmark for industry pricing—has declined about 11% compared with March and is down roughly 10% year over year. The last time the Index dropped a similar magnitude was, unsurprisingly, during the 2008-09 financial crisis. The problems falling used-car prices create are … [Read more...]
After the Coronavirus: Successful Investing and Good Health
Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part XXXI Let’s get this out of the way: There is no magic bullet to successful investing or to good health. Both are a culmination of decisions leaving you with a body (of work) to show for it. Is there any doubt those most susceptible to COVID-19 have a weakened immune system? Is there any doubt those most susceptible to investing mistakes take risks? What’s scary is, both groups oftentimes don’t even realize their precarious state. They don’t see the risks staring back at them in the mirror. They believe, for example that passive index funds … [Read more...]
Free Market Economist Asks, Where is the Outrage?
John Cochrane, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute writes of the terms of the bailout, "where is the outrage?" We would concur. Bailing out leveraged speculators and publicly traded firms that took on too much debt to juice personal and/or shareholder returns is a huge mistake. The prudent investors who stabilize the system in times of crisis and the private equity firms with as much as $2 trillion in dry powder have been told to sit down. The Fed is on the job. Hooray, the government is here to fix the price of capital. Apparently, it was … [Read more...]
The Government’s Dangerous Economic Interventions are Crossing the Rubicon
At Barron's, Randall W. Forsyth explains how today's government bailouts and interventions are crossing a Rubicon. He writes: The government has used these moneys to intervene in the private sector beyond what has ever been done before, even in the great financial crisis, arguably distorting asset values in the process. What’s more, greater intrusions seem likely in the future, so long as the spending can be paid for by the expedient of the central bank’s monetary printing press. Current government policies have been likened to those once thought dangerously radical—such as “helicopter … [Read more...]
How to Deal with a Crisis You Can’t Predict
Do you consider yourself well-prepared? There’s no predicting some scenarios— the so-called Black Swans. Below is a troubling illustration I wrote some time ago of just how bad facing the unexpected can feel: Knock, Knock It’s 1:30 a.m.—pitch black on your suburban porch. A woman whom you do not recognize is at your front door, while an unfamiliar car idles in your driveway. Peeking out, you talk through a side window to the interloper, who explains that you had called her, and here she is. Your 1911 Handgun You, of course, had not called her, and, as a phone call goes into the police, … [Read more...]
Stimulus Checks for Guns
One client tells me his gun shop, once again, is seeing record sales. This time from the stimulus checks. The $1200 check is about the perfect amount for a new handgun or rifle and some ammo. At least some Americans are putting it to good use. Sales were already soaring as Americans, nervous about civil unrest caused by the coronavirus, purchased new firearms in droves. Many of these Americans were first-time buyers of guns. The Elko Daily Free Press reports: “Sales are definitely up,” said Bob Buckley, who owns Arms R Us in Spring Creek. “Delivery is probably the biggest problem at … [Read more...]
China and America Are About to Go through a Breakup
According to reporting by Trefor Moss in The Wall Street Journal, the COVID-19 pandemic is making a breakup of the American and Chinese economies more likely. Moss notes that 16% of companies intend to take business out of China. It wouldn't surprise us to see that number skew even higher. Moss writes: The coronavirus pandemic is making the “decoupling” of the U.S. and Chinese economies a more realistic prospect, American companies in China say, as it disrupts supply chains and further strains relations between the two countries. In March, 44% of 25 large U.S. companies surveyed said … [Read more...]
Commercial Real Estate: Will the Service Industry Ever Go Back to the Office?
Erik Schatzker reports the reactions of some of Wall Street's big firms to the experiment of working from home. The coronavirus has shown many white-collar employers just how easy it is to have their employees work remotely. With more people working from home, demand for commercial real estate may be depressed. Schatzker writes: James Gorman is hesitant to make predictions about the future with so much about the coronavirus pandemic still uncertain. One thing is clear, however: Morgan Stanley will have “much less real estate.” “We’ve proven we can operate with no footprint,” Gorman, the … [Read more...]