For years Democrats have been trying to push through a bailout of insolvent union pension funds. They finally found a way to push it through. Part of the COVID-19 relief bill is a bailout of more than one hundred union pension funds. Many of these union funds have been managed more like pyramid schemes than like proper pensions. Rather than putting enough money aside for each employee to fund his or her pension, the fund relied on a steady stream of new employees putting money in the fund to pay retirees. That didn't work out when fewer truck drivers, ironworkers, and warehouse workers … [Read more...]
Lockdowns a Major Failure
Philippe Lemoine lays out the hard truth about lockdowns in The Wall Street Journal. That truth is, of course, that they were, and are a failure. He writes: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that his state is ending its mask mandate and business capacity limits. While Democrats and many public-health officials denounced the move, ample data now exist to demonstrate that the benefits of stringent measures aren’t worth the costs. This wasn’t always the case. A year ago I publicly advocated lockdowns because they seemed prudent given how little was known at the time about the virus … [Read more...]
Are You Investing To Stop Climate Change, or To Generate Income?
You may have made many investment decisions in your life, but did you ever invest in a company to prevent climate change or to achieve social justice? That's what ESG (environmental, social, and governance-oriented) funds want you to do. In fact, there are activist shareholders who attempt to force corporate boards to include ESG goals in their missions. The SEC under the Trump administration gave some level of cover to corporate boards focused on performing their fiduciary duties to shareholders. The Biden administration may do the exact opposite, emboldening activist shareholders who want … [Read more...]
Volkswagen CEO: “You Won’t See Any Hydrogen Usage in Cars”
Alongside the epic electric vehicles bubble, investor interest has also steadily grown in hydrogen-powered vehicles. Volkswagen's CEO, Herbert Diess, put a pin in that idea in a recent interview with the Financial Times. FT's Joe Miller writes: Europe’s two biggest industrial and economic powers are laying billions on the table in an attempt to take on China in developing a “green” hydrogen sector to replace fossil fuels — but the continent’s top motor groups are wary of going along for the ride. “You won’t see any hydrogen usage in cars,” said Volkswagen chief executive Herbert … [Read more...]
Secession: Northern Californians Dream of Charting Their Own Destiny
You learned last week about American Secession, a new book by F.H. Buckley, a Foundation Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University. Buckley believes America is "ripe for secession," and that "the bitterness, the gridlock, the growing tolerance of violence invite us to think that we’d be happier were we two different countries." One area of America desperate to chart its own course is Northern California. In The Washington Examiner, Mica Soellner reports: Mark Baird is a third-generation Californian who hopes to one day be a first-generation … [Read more...]
Are EV Investors Just Delusional?
Are electric vehicle investors delusional? That's what Research Affiliates chairman Rob Arnott thinks. Justina Lee reports at Bloomberg: The electric-vehicle craze is a classic sign of a “big market delusion” that has entrapped investors throughout history, according to quant pioneer Rob Arnott. The 600% rally in a year that sent the combined value of eight manufacturers to $1 trillion is pricing every firm as a major winner in the clean-energy boom. Yet just as the once-highly valued PalmPilot lost in the smartphone revolution, not all of them will succeed in the EV age, the Research … [Read more...]
Food Security: The Amazing Story of How Frozen Food Got Its Start
A client/friend shared this story with me about how frozen food got its start by Elizabeth Nix. From packages of waffles to bags of peas, the myriad items found in the frozen-food section of grocery stores today owe their existence, in part, to Clarence Birdseye, who in the 1920s developed a quick-freezing process that launched the modern frozen-food industry. Between 1912 and 1917, Birdseye, a Brooklyn native, lived in chilly Labrador, Canada, where he worked briefly on a hospital ship before started a fox-breeding venture. It was during this period that he learned about the customs of … [Read more...]
Big Data: T-Mobile Will Sell Your Data in April
After April 26, T-Mobile customers will be automatically enrolled in the company's advertising program. Drew FitzGerald reports at the WSJ: T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS +0.67% will automatically enroll its phone subscribers in an advertising program informed by their online activity, testing businesses’ appetite for information that other companies have restricted. The No. 2 U.S. carrier by subscribers said in a recent privacy-policy update that unless they opt out it will share customers’ web and mobile-app data with advertisers starting April 26. For example, the program could help advertisers … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: Meet A Modern Day Ski Warrior
OK, so he’s not retired yet but he’s certainly living the F.I.R.E lifestyle. You’ll love this Saturday Boston Globe feature about a modern-day ski bum. Meet Brooks Curran who earns his turns the old-fashioned way—hiking up the mountain. In talking with you, my skiing clientele, you’re telling me the skiing’s been excellent all over the country, whether you’re taking the chair or hiking the backcountry. Enjoy! STOWE, Vt. — We’d left the boundaries of the Stowe Mountain Resort shortly after we got off the gondola, and were trudging up a mountain road buried under 4 feet of snowpack toward … [Read more...]
How Bull Bashes End
Andy Kessler reminders readers that stocks do go down even stocks where the business may have years of growth ahead of it. He writes in The Wall Street Journal: How do these bull bashes end? When the last skeptical buyer finally sees the light and buys into the dream that every car will be electric, that crypto replaces gold and banks, that we overindulge on vertically farmed “plant-based steaks” while streaming “Bridgerton” Season 5 before we hop on an air taxi for our flight to Mars. Those last skeptics (maybe already) convince themselves there’s no longer any downside. And then boom, it’s … [Read more...]
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