The Long Term Investor

As a......former.....small business owner I really feel sorry for small business owners in the current economic situation. They were FORCED to shut down while the big companies were all allowed to stay open. They are being HAMMERED by rising prices, the screwed up labor markets, and the supply chain. They are going out of business and being forced out of business in droves. NOT a good thing for the economy or the country.

One-Fourth of Small Business Say Supply Chain Issues Endanger Survival

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/small-businesses-supply-chain-revenue-drop/2021/12/20/id/1049306/

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"Almost one in four small businesses say supply chain issues are moderately or significantly impacting their ability to survive, according to a Skynova survey.

The average length of time small businesses estimate they could sustain themselves while suffering a drop in revenue is about 15 months, but 26% said they could only handle substantial revenue losses for six months or less and another 40% said seven to 12 months was their limit.

Other results from the survey found:

• Almost half (46%) of business owners expressed concerns over the financial viability of their business.
• Of the retailers polled, 63% reported an inability to properly stock their shelves or find replacement parts. Among in-person service providers such as plumbers and repair contractors, 52% said they were experiencing these issues.
• Due to supply chain issues, 43% of small businesses have raised their prices with an average price hike of 4.3%. A fourth of small businesses have increased their prices by 5%, and 11% have done so by 10% or more.
• Although 48% of small business owners said they have not been impacted by supply chain issues, 77% of those who have been impacted say they have been experiencing heightened stress levels.
• In addition, 64% of those with supply chain issues said they have an increased level of concern about future conditions, with 46% feeling regularly concerned about the financial viability of their business.
• The top way small business owners have adapted to supply chain issues is by finding alternative suppliers, with 45% reported doing so. The second most common way to adapt, at 40%, is to find alternative products or materials, followed by increasing product/service prices and ordering larger quantities (both at 31%).

The survey was conducted among 775 small business owners, with an average age of approximately 39. To help ensure accurate responses, all respondents were required to identify and correctly respond to an attention-check question. The survey relies on self-reported data."

MY COMMENT

If this "STUFF" continues for much longer we are going to see a COLLAPSE of the small business system. Business owners that are older and successful are just going to sell out or close. There is a point where they will say...."I am well enough off, I dont have to put up with this stuff anymore". That is what I did after the Clinton tax increases and based on the impact of ALL the CUMULATIVE taxes and fees from various sources on my business.

OTHERS....that are not as successful....will simply quit because.......why do all the stress and turmoil of trying to run a business when you are just making the same amount of money you can make on a regular job with much less stress or turmoil.

OTHERS......will quit by being driven out of business by financial failure.

All in all......the destruction of the small business system will NOT be a good thing.

 

Since I am IGNORING the markets today......simply a waste of time at the moment. I find this little article interesting.....such a complex issue.

Where Do I Fall in the American Economic Class System?
While you can break down class by income, economic class is more complex, experts say.

https://money.usnews.com/money/pers...-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"Understanding where you fall in the American economic class system isn't as simple as pulling out a calculator or looking at a pay stub.
Myriad forces shape individuals' economic class and their views on where they rank alongside other Americans.

When asked how they identify their social class, 72% of Americans said they belonged to the middle or working classes, according to a 2020 survey from Gallup. In determining their social class, people often don't just think about income, experts say, but about other factors, including education, location and family history.

Larger economic trends may also impact how people view their class rank.

In recent years, economic trends such as high rates of inflation, waves of employee resignations, struggling small businesses and other effects of the coronavirus pandemic have impacted the wealth and health of workers and businesses.

Unfortunately, recent class-related data, which is from 2019, don't take into consideration the economic damage caused by the pandemic, and we won't see the impact in the numbers until 2022 or later.

"Compared with incomes in 2019, the evidence suggests the median American household income is either flat or somewhat down," says Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. "Since 2020, in 2021 itself, the inflation rate has picked up. But we don’t know yet what has happened to incomes themselves. The inflation rate may be putting a dent in real incomes."

In general, much of today's political rhetoric focuses on the challenges facing the middle class. And although household incomes have risen over the past 50 years or so, it took more than 15 years for households to regain their 2000-level incomes and recover from the short-lived 2001 recession and the longer Great Recession, says Richard Fry, senior researcher for Pew Research. "The 15-year period of stagnation was an episode of unprecedented duration in the past five decades,” he says.

Meager income gains likely have contributed to feelings of frustration and downward mobility, Fry says. And while most American households are doing better than they were 50 years ago, "the gains have not been equal," he says. "Everybody’s better off, but it’s particularly the well-off who are better off."

So what does this mean in terms of where you fall in the American economic class system? Here's what to know.

Breaking Down Economic Class by Income

One objective way some researchers divide individuals into economic classes is by looking at their income. From that data, they split earners into different classes such as poor, lower-middle class, middle class, upper-middle class and wealthy. The income cutoffs that divide those income ranges can change from year to year and between methodologies, but here's a sense of where they stand, according to recent data.

The month-to-month change in average hourly earnings of all employees has been positive so far in 2021 for every month except March, suggesting wages are growing, though this job-related earnings data does not account for other sources of income like retirement income.

What Is a Middle-Class Income?

Pew Research defines middle-income Americans as those whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median (adjusted for local cost of living and household size). For a family of three, that ranges from $52,200 to $156,600 when the 2018 incomes used in a Pew study are adjusted for inflation from 2018 to 2021, according to Kochhar's calculations.

The lowest-income group earned less than $48,500 for a family of three while the highest-income households had incomes topping $145,000 in 2018 dollars.

If those numbers have your head spinning, here's a breakdown of income and class for a family of three, based on Pew Research's data and adjusted for inflation:

Income group Income

Low income Less than $52,200

Middle income $52,200 - $156,600

Upper income More than $156,600

Pew has developed a calculator to determine income class, into which you can plug relevant financial, geographic and household information for a take on where you rank.

According to 2019 numbers run by Stephen Rose, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute and research professor at George Washington University , the range for a middle-class family of three was an income of $53,413 to $106,827, he says. That same three-person family with an income between $0 and $32,048 per year was considered poor or near-poor. A family earning between $32,048 and $53,413 was considered lower-middle class.

For high earners, a three-person family needed an income between $106,827 and $373,894 to be considered upper-middle class, Rose says. Those who earn more than $373,894 are rich. "In my mind, there's a big divide today between the upper-middle class and the middle class," he says.

Some of that divide is cultural, Rose says. "The middle class feels like they're missing out and they feel talked-down to" by the upper class, he says.

Here's a breakdown on income class for 2019 incomes for a family a three, according to Rose's analysis:

Income group Income

Poor or near-poor $32,048 or less

Lower-middle class $32,048 - $53,413

Middle class $53,413 - $106,827

Upper-middle class $106,827 - $373,894

Rich $373,894 and up

Am I Middle Class?

Whether you're considered middle class depends on more than just your income or the balance of your bank account. Where you fall in the American economic class system may not stay consistent throughout your life, or even from year to year, experts say.

For example, a law student may earn a modest graduate student stipend of $20,000 per year, currently placing her in the low-income class, but her educational attainment and future earnings will most likely catapult her income and class placement to a higher level down the road. "People really need to understand that whatever's happening (with their class rank) today is part of a trajectory, part of their life," Rose says.

Other Factors Helping Define the Middle Class

Class identity extends beyond what your W-2 income form claims you earn, experts say.

A factor that individuals may use to determine class is educational attainment, with people who have postsecondary degrees linking their class placement to those degrees.

Your location also has a major impact on how you feel you stack up class-wise. "Making $120,000 per year is a lot different in small-town Indiana than it is in New York City," says Frank Newport, senior scientist at Gallup.

So where do you place in the American economic class system? You can look at income, education, marital status, location, family history, gut instinct and a host of other factors to find out where you fall. But the bottom line is this: Finding the answer is more complex than just looking at a number."

MY COMMENT

The most important thing is how YOU think......how you visualize yourself......how you visualize your future. One BIG factor is.....are you creating a secure financial future for yourself? NO ONE is locked in to their income class forever. We all have the ability to create financial change for our family. One of the best ways to do that is by LONG TERM INVESTING. Take control of your own future.

 

For those that want some investing content.....here you go.....EXACTLY what you would expect today.

Stock market news live updates: Stocks sink amid virus concerns, Manchin's blow to Build Back Better

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-december-20-2021-124653489.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"Stocks fell on Monday at the start of a holiday-shortened week of trading, with investors considering renewed virus-related restrictions overseas and prospects that a significant social policy bill may be scuttled.

The S&P 500, Dow Nasdaq each dropped more than 1%. Treasury yields fell as investors piled into safe haven assets, and the benchmark 10-year yield held below 1.4%. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, spiked more than 20% to hover above 25.

U.S. crude oil prices sank 3% to trade below $69 per barrel as restrictions mounted in Europe, stoking jitters around energy demand. Countries from Germany to Ireland imposed curfews or travel restrictions in recent days given the rapidly spreading new variant. And the Netherlands over the weekend announced a nationwide lockdown of non-essential stores, bars and restaurants until Jan. 14. As of this weekend, the Omicron variant had been reported in about 89 countries, with cases doubling every 1.5 to 3 days.

Renewed fears over the economic impact of the Omicron variant compounded with last week's concerns for investors around the prospects of tighter monetary policy, with the Federal Reserve accelerating its rate of asset-purchase tapering and signaling three interest rate hikes could be coming next year. Last week, each of the three major indexes posted steep weekly losses. The Nasdaq Composite fell 3% and the S&P 500 and Dow each dropped by nearly 2% for the week.

Still, other updates around the effect of current COVID-19 vaccines on the variant were more upbeat. Moderna (MRNA) said Monday that a booster, or a third dose, of its shot increased Omicron neutralizing antibody levels. This echoed results from Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) from earlier this month about the effectiveness of their vaccine's third dose on neutralizing Omicron. Shares of Moderna gained more than 7% ahead of the opening bell.

Investors also digested the unexpected news that Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) would not support President Joe Biden's $1.75 billion Build Back Better social policy bill. Manchin, speaking on Fox News Sunday, said he had discussed with Democratic House and Senate leaders and Biden, but was unable to come to an agreement on the bill given concerns about inflation, the national debt and ongoing pandemic.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released a statement calling Manchin's comments "a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position," and said the administration would work to move forward with the legislation next year.

Still, Goldman Sachs this weekend slashed its quarter GDP forecasts for 2022 following Manchin's withdrawal of support for the bill. The economists, led by Jan Hatzius, said they expected the "fiscal impulse will be somewhat more negative" than previously expected next year, in absence of the spending on social and climate-related policies included in the bill. The firm lowered its U.S. GDP forecast to 2% from 3% for the first quarter of 2022, to 3% from 3.5% for the second quarter, and to 2.75% from 3% for the third quarter.

10:28 a.m. ET: Oracle plans to buy Cerner Corp. for $28.3 billion in largest-ever acquisition for software giant
Oracle (ORCL) announced on Monday it planned to buy Cerner Corp., an electronic medical records company, for $28.3 billion. This would be the largest-ever deal for Oracle.

The deal is expected to close next year, and would give Oracle access to Cerner's trove of software used to record healthcare data electronically. Cerner shareholders will receive $95 in cash for each share held, which marks a premium of nearly 6% compared to Friday's closing prices for the stock.

Oracle shares were down by 2.6% following the announcement, underperforming the broader market during the session. Oracle shares were up 49% for the year-to-date through Friday's close."

MY COMMENT

I am willing to take the short term pain for the long term gain. I am FULLY INVESTED as usual and have ZERO plans to change anything or sell anything. The "things" that are impacting the markets right now are NOT financial or fundamental.....they are social, cultural, governmental, etc, etc. I TRUST the companies that I own and I TRUST their business fundamentals.

I dont see much panic or fear out there in terms of the little investors. In fact I dont see or hear many people obsessing over the current markets at all. Most people that I know of various ages and income levels are through their actions just telling the markets......WHATEVER.

 

I REMIND everyone and anyone that........JUST.....four days ago......the SP500 was at close to a record high. On December 16, 2021 the SP500 was at 4721.

NOW.....we are at 4548.......a DROP of 3.66%. Seems a lot worse doesn't it. That is because of the HIGHS and LOWS we saw over the month of November. We are NOW seeing the same thing in December.

NOT....surprisingly when I look at a ONE YEAR or longer chart of the SP500....all that extreme daily market action is hardly visible and no longer shocking. It is all about your view of the markets........is that view a few days or weeks.....or is that view measured in YEARS.

 

WELL DONE and CONGRATULATIONS.......TireSmoke. I am talking about your plan to buy a house in 2022.

 

Surprise......surprise. the Ten Year Treasury yield is at 1.382% at the moment. Who would have imagined.

 

Interesting duckleberry. I am sure you are learning a lot about BUSINESS and REAL ESTATE development at the same time. What a great education you are probably getting on top of your law schooling.

 

The current times are......in my view.....showing the importance of DIVERSIFICATION. NO....not in your stock account....but between asset classes. I am NOT a fan of broad diversification in a stock account. I do think that MOST people are better off with a broad single Index like the SP500. But in a stock portfolio....my view is that too much diversification is a return killer.

What I am talking about is the importance for regular people to have a mix of assets including:

Your retirement accounts.....401K and IRA.

Your brokerage account.

Home ownership.

Hard assets.

I have mentioned many times that I have ALL of the above with.....Social Security, my income annuities, my stock account, my house, and my ownership of fine art, antiques, a hoard of silver and gold, etc, etc, etc. Of yes.....I nearly forgot.....I also own abut 1/45 of ONE Bitcoin.

 

Duckleberry....suckered me into looking at my Schwab Brokerage account with the above post. It was OK. My LOSS today is now about 1/3 less than when I looked earlier. Makes the day seem like a positive.

PLUS......I now actually have ONE stock in the green.......Home Depot.

 

A small victory today in a DOWN market. Yes.....I was in the RED. BUT......I beat the SP500 by 0.09%.......and......I had TWO, yes two stocks in the green, Costco and Home Depot.......and....my loss was about 1/3 less than this morning.

 

I just got the NIKE earnings that came out today.

Nike shares rise as earnings, sales top estimates, fueled by strong North American demand

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/nike-nke-q2-2022-earnings.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"Key Points

• Nike’s fiscal second-quarter earnings and sales topped Wall Street’s expectations as consumer demand in North America, the retailer’s biggest market, was robust.
• CEO John Donahoe said the retailer is in a “much stronger competitive position” than it was pre-pandemic.

Nike shares climbed more than 4% in extended trading Monday after the sneaker maker reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and sales that topped analysts’ expectations, despite ongoing supply chain pressures.

Chief Executive Officer and President John Donahoe said the retailer is in a “much stronger competitive position” than it was pre-pandemic.

While Covid-related factory closures overseas dented some of its progress earlier in the year, Nike said shipments of inventories picked up in this latest quarter, particularly in North America.

Here’s how Nike did in the three-month period ended Nov. 30 compared with what analysts were anticipating, using Refinitiv estimates:

• Earnings per share: 83 cents vs. 63 cents expected
• Revenue: $11.36 billion vs. $11.25 billion expected

Nike said net income rose to $1.34 billion, or 83 cents a share, from $1.25 billion, or 78 cents per share, a year earlier. That topped analysts’ expectations for earnings of 63 cents a share.

Revenue rose 1% to $11.36 billion from $11.24 billion, outpacing estimates of $11.25 billion.

Sales in North America, Nike’s biggest market, climbed 12%, representing the highest growth of all geographies.

Sales in Greater China fell 20%, while revenue in its Europe, Middle East and Africa region grew 6%. Nike’s recovery in China has become a bigger focus for investors of late as the market remains key to the company’s future growth. Western brands have faced some backlash in China amid global tensions.

“Gauging this trajectory of that very important region is going to be a question that we’re going to have to get into focus on,” said BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel about China.

Nike said its digital sales rose 12% year over year, while sales through Nike Direct were up 9%. The company has increasingly pulled its goods out of wholesale channels, such as discount stores, and instead is selling more workout gear through its own website and stores.

And just earlier this month, Nike announced it bought virtual sneaker company RTFKT for an undisclosed amount, making a bet on the metaverse.” It had been filing trademarks indicating its intent to make and sell virtual Nike-branded shoes and apparel.

The company didn’t offer an update for its full-year outlook in its earnings release. Earlier this year, Nike slashed its revenue forecast for fiscal 2022 to account for longer transit times, labor shortages and prolonged production shutdowns in Vietnam, where Nike makes about half of its shoes.

Analysts have been looking for Nike to report annual earnings of $3.59 per share on sales of $47.1 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Nike shares are up about 11% year to date, bringing its market cap to $248.5 billion.

Find the full earnings press release from Nike here."

MY COMMENT

A very nice earnings BEAT for Nike. It is impressive that the company put up these numbers while sales fell 20% in China. these earnings are probably a surprise to any based on their prior outlook. They had a strong quarter......and....this might be an early indicator for the forth quarter earnings that will come out in a month or so.

Perhaps this will be one piece of the puzzle for an UP market tomorrow. I do feel good that the markets today gained back some from the morning lows.

I have owned this stock for a long time and will continue to do so.

 

I FULLY agree with this little article......at least the part about onsite work being important.

What Is Company Culture If You Don’t Have an Office?
The latest panic about remote work isn’t about lack of productivity but the loss of the ever-elusive workplace culture.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...paign=bw&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"Ask executives why they’re desperate to get workers back in offices, and productivity—the corporate north star and initial obsession of pandemic anxiety—suddenly has nothing to do with it. Many sound like Judith Carr-Rodriguez, the chief executive officer of FIG, a New York City-based advertising firm. She was shocked at how well things went when her staff of 80 pivoted to remote work; the firm actually grew. Yet, she’s resisting a fully remote future because of the je ne sais quoi of the office. “I know people are being productive,” she says. “But are they learning, growing, being challenged? I worry we’re creating a culture where people are not exposing themselves in ways they would be in the office.”

We know by now that people were wildly productive during Covid lockdowns. A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. survey from July found that worker output per hour rose 3.1% in 2020, more than double the growth rate of the previous business cycle. Yet bosses have been pushing hard for in-person work ever since, well, it didn’t seem in poor taste to. Multiple heads of the biggest U.S. banks, have, in so many words, called working-from-home the dumbest idea they’ve ever heard. Sure new Covid-19 variants have upended their short-term plans, but eventually they want butts in seats, at least some of the time. In a June survey of 1,000 human resource professionals, fewer than 10% said their employers plan to operate fully remote long term.

While talking to nearly a dozen CEOs about this attachment to a physical space, they all had the same reason for bringing people back. “We’ve spent all the effort to create this great culture,” says Willy Walker, the CEO and chairman of Walker & Dunlop, a commercial real estate financing firm. Walker’s had a “get vaccinated; get back in the office” attitude for his 1,200 employees since last summer. When I ask him to elaborate on what he means by “great culture,” he says—from Denver, in one of his company’s 41 offices—“that’s a long conversation.”

What is workplace culture, anyway? Talk to a half-dozen management theorists and you’ll get as many different answers. Some say it’s a common set of beliefs, behavior, and assumptions shared by a group of people working together. Others believe it’s what employees say their goals and values are and how they act—which aren’t always the same things. What they all agree on is that some sort of culture inevitably develops when people spend time together. “Cultures emerge, whether you want it or not,” says Amir Goldberg, a researcher studying organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “It’s not as if there are companies without a culture.”

There is little doubt among the experts that shifting to fully remote settings has changed company culture. People are interacting in new and different ways. But what’s most worrisome to bosses is that they now have less insight into what those changes look like because they can’t physically witness them. And even if they do know what’s going on, they have less power over everyday interactions. “Culture is a way for organizations to control their members, police their behavior,” says Goldberg. “That’s difficult to do when you can’t—after a meeting—say: ‘You know, John, maybe you shouldn’t have said x or y.”

It’s not entirely unreasonable or self-serving for leaders to fret about these things. Strong cultures do enhance performance and can manipulate people to work more, but they also reduce harassment, burnout, and fraud. What the office enthusiasts misunderstand is that facilitating healthy workplace interactions doesn’t require the trappings of a conference room or a midtown high-rise. “Culture is happening in every interaction that the people in your company have with each other, regardless of whether you’re in person or not,” says Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of the web software maker Automattic.

Mullenweg has some credibility when it comes to this point: His company has operated without a home base for its entire 16-year existence. The founder has become a sort of sage for the post-office era. Mullenweg hosts a podcast called Distributed, on which he has heady, meandering conversations about remote work with such guests as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Basecamp’s Jason Fried. They talk about tips for improving Zoom meetings—have people submit their ideas via Google Docs beforehand—and creating “water cooler moments” on Slack.

Mullenweg is the prototypical millennial startup success story; he dropped out of college to work on his side project, WordPress, the open source platform that now serves as the backbone of many online publishers. A year later, he started Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, and hired whomever he thought was best for the job, wherever they happened to live. His first employees worked from Ireland and Texas. The company staff has since grown to more than 1,800 people working from every continent except Antarctica—and it still has no headquarters. Mullenweg circulates among Houston, San Francisco, and Jackson Hole, Wyo. He has no love for offices, calling even the nicest ones a “very subpar experience,” but in some ways he doesn’t sound that dissimilar from his peers who favor offices. “I love thinking about culture,” he says.

To Mullenweg, there is nothing inherently beneficial about working alongside people in a physical space. Indeed, the work-from-home revolution has revealed that aspects of the analog experience are toxic for many. Black workers, for example, say that while working from home in the past year, they’ve been treated more equitably, have come to better value their co-workers, and feel more supported by management, an October survey from Slack’s Future Forum found. Many variables could be contributing to that, but Black people say physical distance from racism and everyday slights has brought relief.

Even Walker & Dunlop, the real estate financing firm, saw a 10 percentage point increase in employees saying they felt like they could bring their whole selves to work during the pandemic, says CEO Walker. That question is known to be a key predictor of employee engagement, which keeps people happy and productive so they are less likely to get antsy for new opportunities. Walker recognizes that eliminating certain in-person dynamics has relieved burdens for some, but he can’t let go of the idea that the costs of staying home are too high.

He could be right in his particular case; just as the office doesn’t automatically confer some cultural special sauce, neither does working from home. The pandemic has revealed plenty of ways toxic cultures can fester in our digital work lives. Workplace harassment happens online, for one. It can be isolating; parents fear they’re being unfairly judged, and young workers or new hires may have a harder time learning the ropes. Managers can also easily exploit the lack of boundaries between home and work lives.

But as much as bosses want to will remote work away, all signs point to at least some days spent at home. Even the finance industry, which has aggressively pushed for a mass return, is seeing just 27% of workers commute to its skyscrapers daily, found a survey in October of major employers by Partnership for New York City. In the meantime, homebound workers are forming new cultures. Stanford’s Goldberg says it’s too soon to tell whether those are worse or better than what existed before the pandemic. He suspects bonds—both among workers and with their organizations—have weakened. A more interesting question to him is: Who’s benefiting from the new world order?

Mullenweg encourages his fellow CEOs to lean into remote work. He has some practical tips: When he hires two people in the same city, he likes to have them work on different teams to encourage some interteam mingling. Automattic uses a networking tool called Donuts that randomly pairs two people for informal chats over Slack—his company’s way to simulate some of the informal networking that happens in offices. He suggests that leaders, particularly those who once relied heavily on charisma, brush up on writing skills: Clarity is key when communicating mostly via email and chat.

It takes work. “I wish I could say there was some secret to distributed organizations—that if you do this one thing, it would unlock everything,” Mullenweg says. “It’s really about understanding your colleagues, communication, empathy.” Whether that happens in the company kitchen or over Zoom, that’s incidental."

MY COMMENT

I am NOT a fan of remote work. I believe it will KILL any possibility of a bond between the work force and a company. It will also kill mentoring, training of new hires, and ESPECIALLY the concept of training and developing your next set of business leaders in house. It will LIMIT the ability of people working for a company to see and learn the whole picture of the business from the ground up.

In the end.......workers will just end up as REPLACEABLE COGS.....if remote work becomes the long term norm. Carried to the extreme....EVERY WORKER.....will end up as a contract worker. Technology will make them irrelevant as companies are able to get by with smaller and smaller work forces.

I do not buy......in the slightest......that the fact that this work model works for some tech companies makes this a system of work that should be the norm. As a business person and business owner.......I want to KNOW my employees....I want to know their personalities.......I want to see their strengths and weaknesses as PEOPLE. I want to know how they interact with others on a personal level, etc, etc, etc.

 

Jwalker......sounds like you and duckleberry.......are in about the same area of practice.......real estate investment and development.

It is nice to see younger people on here that are the future of the country. In fact, I see many great younger people in the business and professional world all the time. I say younger people.....but......I quickly realized at about age 24 that in the business world age was irrelevant. Now experience....that counted for something. When I started in the business world I was 27.....the people I worked around were from age 21 to 86. I got along with all of them an had things in common with all of them.

Same in the world of music. The last time I was touring, the people that I was playing with ranged from 21 to 74 and all ages in-between. Same as in the business world.....all that mattered was competence and experience.

 

The way the markets reacted today as the day went on.......recovering some from the morning lows and holding to the close.....makes me think that the worst is over for the moment. I have a feeling that we ......"may".....have a good shot at some UP days this week.

I dont see the failure of the Build Back Better bill or Omicron as having legs for very long as a source of market worry. Both issues have been known for a while now and there is really nothing new going on with either of them. Same with the upcoming actions of the FED....totally baked in and known to everyone.

It has been OBVIOUS for a while now that the bill was probably going to FAIL. In fact when it comes to tax issues and other business issues and the current state of the economy.....it is a good think that it failed.

As to the virus......I dont care how quickly it spreads. ALL I care about is the severity of the disease it produces. I have yet to hear of a SINGLE DEATH in this country from Omicron. EVERYTHING I am seeing continues to say it is extremely mild. That is EXACTLY how things happen at the END of a pandemic. The virus mutates to a more transmissible version but with way less severity. At some point it may become a permanent fixture in the world...but if the symptoms are mild like a cold or at worst a mild flu......who cares. At this point the amount of SENSATIONALISM associated with Omicron is......DISGUSTING.

 

LETS GO MARKET. Nice open today. The DOOM&GLOOM only works for so long.