Long-time friend Bob Morrison wrote the Grammy-winning Kenny Rogers song “You Decorated My Life.” He was ASCAP’s Country Songwriter of the Year in 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1982, and inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016. Here’s an email exchange on the passing of Kenny Rogers. EJ It was great to hear from you. I hope you and yours are doing ok under the circumstances. Kenny was a genius at changing with the times musically. He had a very long career. Longer than most. And living 81 years with the wear and tear of the music business and the road is pretty damn good. I’m … [Read more...]
Airlines Put Unused Passenger Planes to Work
Passenger airlines are finding a new use for all their currently unused jets, freight shipping. Jennifer Smith reports at WSJ: The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping global airfreight operations as passenger airlines ground planes and companies scramble for capacity to keep medical supplies, industrial parts and high-demand consumer goods moving. Some airlines are putting passenger planes to work as freight-only aircraft, with main cabins empty and cargo holds filled with shipments. The tactic provides some revenue for carriers hit hard by plunging travel demand and may help ease freight … [Read more...]
Here is Your Family’s Guide to the Coronavirus
I visit Dr. Ward at least once a week when Debbie and I are in Newport for the Summer. -- Dick Young. Dear Patient, As promised, I am sending this email to share some useful information that I have found over the last week. As one of your healthcare providers, it is my intention to provide you with knowledge to keep you calm and healthy. I am lucky enough to have access to information coming out of Wuhan, China where this disease began. The treatments used on the front lines were a combination of western pharmaceuticals along with Chinese Herbal Medicine and shown to be quite effective. … [Read more...]
Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part XVI
When it feels like things are changing by the hour, a week feels like a year, and three weeks a lifetime. That’s how I feel this morning as I write to you from Newport, having scrambled home Monday, cutting short our ski vacation in Telluride, CO. Last Friday, at this time, we were waking up to a few inches of wet snow and windy conditions. We skied in what felt like a snow globe being shaken madly by a five-year-old. Visibility was nil. It snowed most of the night, and on Saturday (the mountain having been resurfaced with seven inches of light powder) we cut fresh tracks all morning … [Read more...]
Free Market Flunkies Beg Fed for Help
Here we go. First, it was former Fed Chair’s Bernanke & Yellen wanting to expand the Federal Reserve’s authority to buy corporate bonds to bail out bad actors and hot money that apparently can’t tolerate a little bit of volatility. Maybe it’s the guilt or remorse of pushing investors to take more risk than was prudent by holding rates at zero for a decade, but justifying the expansion of the Fed’s powers to include corporates is a real bad idea. Why? The reasons are many and varied, but this one top’s the list. If the Fed opens the floodgates to buying assets besides Treasuries, it … [Read more...]
Gold: Insurance Against Hyperinflation
The world’s most extraordinary episode of hyperinflation happened between 1919 and 1922 in post-World War I Germany. To get the full picture of the events that led to rapid inflation by Germany’s post-World War I ruling regime, the so-called Weimar Republic, you have to go back to the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870. Prussia, a sort of proto-Germany, won the war quickly, taking only about six months to defeat France. Prussia paid for the war by taking on debt, and the short duration of hostilities and decisive victory made it relatively easy for the new Germany (created out of the … [Read more...]
Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part XV
You’ll recall it wasn’t too long ago that investing legends Warren Buffett, Jack Bogle, and my father in law Dick Young were calling for a prolonged period of reduced returns. Not only for the stock market but for bonds, as Dick Young’s North Star was scraping the bottom of the charts as if it had fallen out of the sky. At the time, Dick Young wasn’t predicting a pandemic like the coronavirus, he was simply studying what was in front of him just like he does today, and concluding that it looked pretty darn ugly. You see, when the risk-free rate of return costs you money (after … [Read more...]
South Korea Coronavirus Update
China is reporting no new cases of coronavirus, but it’s a little hard to believe any data that comes out of China. In a country with over 1 billion people are we really to believe that there isn’t a single new case? South Korea is another matter. South Korea has tested broadly—over 300,000 tests and their data is more trustworthy. The chart below shows the total confirmed cases of Covid-19 in South Korea, and the total active cases. South Korea has a population of about 50 million people with total known active cases of 6,618 or .013% of the population. … [Read more...]
Coronavirus: The Safety of America’s Food Supply Chain
Coronavirus has sparked what may be a new phenomenon in history, global panic-buying at grocery stores. Panic buying is nothing new, of course, but seeing it happen in so many countries at once is certainly rare, if not new. The world's supply chains are more intertwined than they have ever been. With a shock to the global system, many Americans might be wondering if their food supplies will be reliable. Representatives of America's food industries are confident in the supply chain today. On the East Coast, The New York Times reports: “There is food being produced. There is food in … [Read more...]
Right on Cue Stock Buybacks Dry Up
Stock buybacks are being slashed. Evercore ISI estimates that 99% of U.S. firms will have to reduce or suspend buybacks by year-end. Savvy timing. The stock market is down 30% with the share prices of some of the buyback cutters down even more. The big banks are cutting buybacks, but that was likely a directive from regulators. Guess who else is slashing buybacks? Airlines. Over the last decade, the Airline industry spent almost all of its free cash flow on share buybacks. Today, buybacks are finished. Airlines are instead requesting a $58 billion bailout. You sort of feel bad for the … [Read more...]