On Friday night, Becky and I visited with college friends for dinner at Scales and Shells here in Newport. It was so much fun. It had been a few years since the last time we were together, bringing back some great memories of our time at Babson. With our oldest child now a sophomore in college and our youngest applying, it’s a funny time to be a parent. We’re in sort of a slack tide, knowing day-to-day life will be a lot different this time next year when we’re empty nesters. It’s hard not to think, “Wow, this has gone by fast.” On Saturday, Becky and I felt like college kids taking a … [Read more...]
Joe Biden is Weaponizing Your 401(k) Against You
Tired of mandates and government overreach? Want to get away? Well, here’s some news to ruin your 401(k). The Biden administration is pushing its radical agenda through retirement account regulation. In this case, it’s a proposed Labor Department rule that was not heavily reported—shocker. The change is to the Erisa Act, which governs your 401(k), and forces plan sponsors (your company or retirement plan provider) to offer funds focused on ESG—environmental, social, and governance. The Wall Street Journal editors explain the rule here: Asset managers like BlackRock are pushing to create ESG … [Read more...]
BREAKING: November RAGE Gauge, Walmart, and YOUR MONEY
OK, let’s get this out of the way. My proprietary RAGE Gauge is not a prediction tool. It’s a way for me to look at the current landscape and draw my own conclusions. I share it with you because you’re my valued reader and because the best things in life are FREE. As I write to you this morning, I’m thinking about the piece I wrote to you yesterday on one of my favorite rags-to-riches stories. Yes, I love Dave Portnoy’s success with Barstool Sports, but it’s hard not to think about Sam Walton (RIP) and what he did with Walmart, which has been paying dividends for 48 years with 45 … [Read more...]
FORBES 400: One Bite Everybody Knows the Rules
You’re familiar with the phrase “One bite everybody knows the rules,” if you watch Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy’s pizza reviews. Fast forward from his days distributing flyers on the streets of Boston to today, where his media empire is worth hundreds of millions, if not billions. Portnoy connects with his followers. Portnoy’s frozen pizza, One Bite, is now carried by Walmart. If you want to get a feel for just how big Walmart is, check out the list of stores where you can pick up one of his frozen pies at the end of this piece. As an aside, we’re hearing a lot about the Forbes … [Read more...]
RISKY BUSINESS: Pension Managers Risking Clients’ Money to Plug Deficits
It never ceases to amaze me how fiduciaries take risks with other people’s money. A case in point is Farouki Majeed, an Ohio pension manager overseeing the investments responsible for the benefits to over 80,000 retired librarians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and other former employees. How is he doing it? By adding risk. Not good. “The solution for Mr. Majeed—as well as other pension managers across the country—is to take on more investment risk," reports Heather Gillers at The Wall Street Journal. "His fund and many other retirement systems are loading up on illiquid assets such as … [Read more...]
TIMES OF TROUBLE: No Assets Are Uncorrelated When They All Go to ZERO
When a major financial publication discusses how to leverage your portfolio to boost returns, you realize how dire the financial market situation has become. The strategy works when non-correlated assets remain non-correlated assets. Sounds good on paper. But, Your Survival Guy remembers how investors rushed to the exits in times of trouble three times already this century. The correlating asset? Investors trying to save theirs. So, when strategies depend on non-correlated assets to remain non-correlated, remember, everyone feels the same when you-know-what hits the fan. You and I … [Read more...]
Investment Advice: Sticking with the Four-Year-Olds
You know Peter Thiel as one of the few people in Silicon Valley who backed presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016. Thiel was also a co-founder of PayPal with some guy named Elon Musk. And he was an original backer of Facebook. The guy knows a thing or two about startups. Which is why I recently reread his book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. You and I know that technologists tend to think about the future in terms of technology, much like a farmer thinks about the future in terms of farming. It’s what they do. Which is why, as an investor, I found this … [Read more...]
Ghost Ships Abandoned by Great Reset, Global Owners?
“Why is this happening?” You ask yourself. “Why is our supply chain broken? Why are there ghost ships rotting away in global ports and off the shores of California?” When one of these ships loaded with volatile ammonia sat for years in Lebanon, and then they finally unloaded it onshore, it blew up, killing hundreds of people in the resulting explosion. Was it an accident? When you read about the crews stuck on these ships, being treated like slaves, barely surviving on months of rice and water, a simple question comes to mind. Why are the owners abandoning ship? What businessman would leave … [Read more...]
Survival SUPER States: A Place to Call Home
When you can’t even send your kids or grandkids to public schools, you ask yourself, “What am I paying for?” When your local police force is gutted, you ask yourself, “What am I paying for?” When your politicians treat you like a piggy bank you ask yourself “What am I paying for?” This simple question is being asked at kitchen tables all over this country every single day. But it’s different this time, as big blue cities and states, usually the recipients of workers, are suffering from a once in a lifetime exodus to RED STATES. As retirees tell loved ones “Don’t worry we’ll be back to … [Read more...]
FOLLOW THE DRUG MONEY: America’s Broken Healthcare System
You really can’t make this stuff up. Do we need yet another example of how our healthcare system is broken? Just follow the money. Not that I’m buying into this cure-all pill. Alex Berenson writes on his Substack: Yes, molnupiravir - a pill to treat Covid - seems to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, assuming Merck’s press release from last week holds up. But it is yet another story of the US health care system and drug development gone awry. A Miami hedge-fund manager and his wife - Wayne and Wendy Holman - are likely to make hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions, on it - … [Read more...]
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