Your Survival Guy knows a thing or two about getting stuck in the fog. When I was a kid sailing with my family, we were heading home after a weeklong trip, and about halfway through Buzzards Bay, we were engulfed in fog. We held our course and, before long, entered a mooring field holding no boats that we recognized. Realizing land wasn’t far, and that we were in the wrong harbor, we decided not to press our luck. We tossed out the hook and spent a comfortable night right there. The next morning, after the fog cleared, we learned we were a few harbors west of our own. Not long after, a … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2023
German Grocery Chain Aldi Buys Winn-Dixie and Harveys
Southern grocery store chains Winn-Dixie and Harveys have been purchased by Aldi, the German-owned discount grocery store from Southeastern Grocers Inc. Fox Business's Aislinn Murphy reports: Aldi plans to expand its U.S. footprint with the purchase of two grocery chains belonging to Southeastern Grocers Inc. Under an agreement between Aldi and Southeastern Grocers, Aldi will become the new owner of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket, a pair of grocery chains with about 400 stores in several southeastern states. The two firms announced the acquisition Wednesday morning. Aldi will … [Read more...]
Miners Rebuild EV Supply Chain in Africa to Avoid China’s Dominance
China currently dominates the processing of minerals used in the production of electric vehicles, but many of the minerals themselves are mined in Africa. Now, mining companies are building alternative processing facilities in Africa to avoid shipping the materials to China. Alexandra Wexler reports in The Wall Street Journal: Pressure to create supply chains for electric-vehicle batteries that bypass China is prompting Western miners to do something they have long avoided: process their metals in Africa. China dominates both the production and processing of critical minerals such as … [Read more...]
There Is No Miracle More Powerful than This
If you want to get a bird’s eye view of how hard your money works, spend a few minutes reviewing my piece Rich Grandchild, Poor Grandchild. When you start saving early, good things can happen. It’s probably why you’re able to invest today for the retirement you deserve. Accumulating money is work. Literally. You get up every day and do it. You go to work and save ‘til it hurts. Investing money in retirement is a different kind of work. You get up every day and wonder what it’s done for you lately. The reason Your Survival Guy recommends living below your means is because it gives your … [Read more...]
RAGE Gauge August: This Market is Foggy
Your Survival Guy’s latest RAGE Gauge is in, and before I get into this month’s reading, I want to revisit my piece from yesterday on getting stuck in the fog last weekend. I could have stayed on the dock. But I’m confident in my ability to navigate in the fog because I’ve done it many times, and I know how I like to navigate—carefully from mark to mark. I have electronics. The radar and chartplotter. But I also know not to depend solely on them to safely find my destination. The technology is outstanding. But I’ve been in enough situations to know nothing beats my own two eyes and taking … [Read more...]
Javier Milei: A Light in Argentina’s Darkness?
Argentina has suffered rampant inflation, bad government, and declining freedom for years. Now, according to Daniel Raisbeck at the Cato Institute, Argentinians have the opportunity to elect someone with a real plan to give them back control. Raisbeck writes: “We are all Peronists,” remarked Argentina’s corporatist strongman Juan Domingo Perón in 1972, the year before he assumed the presidency for the second time. His quip turned out to be more accurate for the 21st century than for his own times; in 1976, Perón’s second wife, Isabel, was ousted from power by a military junta that ruled until … [Read more...]
Japan’s Economy Accelerating while China’s Slows
In the second quarter, Japan's economy accelerated its growth while China's slowed. Megumi Fujikawa reports for The Wall Street Journal: Japan’s economy expanded at a much faster pace than expected in the April-June quarter thanks to robust exports, outpacing growth in the U.S. and China. Japan’s real gross domestic product increased 1.5% in the three months to June from the previous quarter, compared with 0.9% growth in the January-March period. That marked a rare case in which the world’s third-largest economy grew faster than its bigger counterparts. In China, growth slowed to 0.8% in … [Read more...]
Note to Self: Don’t Wind Up on the Rocks
Your Survival Guy got caught up in some fog Saturday afternoon halfway through our trip from Newport to Mattapoisett. All was clear while preparing to leave the dock, but I heard the fog horn faintly in the distance. We were cruising right along, and then, on the horizon, we could see the dark fog cloud rolling in. I turned on the radar which overlays the chart plotter map, and had a few minutes to get my bearings just using the electronics. One of my biggest fears in fog is other boaters. Sometimes all the technology in the world isn’t enough. I relate it to SUVs with four-wheel drive … [Read more...]
“An Insurance Company with an Army”
Scary headlines aren’t necessarily wrong, but one mistake to avoid is not being prepared at all times. Spencer Jakab explains in The Wall Street Journal how the federal government has become a heavily indebted "insurance company with an army." He writes: Now, though, the government’s pile of debt has swelled following the War on Terror, the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. Low interest rates and Fed bond buying masked the strain: Interest costs recently were no higher than in the early 1990s as a share of federal spending. But the Treasury barely seized the opportunity to … [Read more...]
Is the Fed Ready to Rest?
Inflation, as measured by the less-than-reliable Consumer Price Index, has slowed since earlier in the year, though it remains above the Federal Reserve's "target" level of 2%. Despite the slowdown, the most recent annual inflation number released this week was 3.2%, a slight increase from June's 3% reading. Will these lower numbers be enough to convince the Fed to stop raising rates, or will it pursue further increases in the Fed Funds Rate it has signaled earlier this year? Amara Omeokwe, Nick Timiraos and Christian Robles report for The Wall Street Journal: Price pressures continued … [Read more...]