The Long Term Investor

OK Crypto owners......here comes the government.

U.S. SEC to set up new office for crypto filings

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-sec-set-office-crypto-212259916.html

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

"(Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator will set up two new offices to deal with filings related to crypto assets and the life sciences sector, the agency said on Friday.

The "Office of Crypto Assets" and the "Office of Industrial Applications and Services" will join seven existing offices under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) department which handles corporate disclosure filings.

"As a result of recent growth in the crypto asset and the life sciences industries, we saw a need to provide greater and more specialized support," Renee Jones, director of the Division of Corporation Finance, said in a statement.

Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets have soared in popularity over recent years and are getting increasingly intertwined with the regulated financial system, saddling policymakers with monitoring risks in a largely unregulated sector.

2022 has seen a sharp drop in crypto demand though, as global risk sentiment was walloped by the Ukraine crisis, aggressive monetary policy tightening and decades-high inflation.

Allegations of money laundering against some crypto firms as well as consumer data violations in the United States, the biggest market for digital assets, have also affected demand."

MY COMMENT

Here comes the regulation......ready or not. I am sure you are all very happy to see that the government is going to provide....."greater and more specialized support".......to you and your Crypto assets.

 

I really like this article. It is long so I will leave it to others to click on it.

Equities Start Month in Deeply Undervalued Territory After Latest Pullback
We expect sluggish economic growth and low inflation to provide the Fed with enough room to begin loosening monetary policy.

https://www.morningstar.com/article...y-undervalued-territory-after-latest-pullback

MY COMMENT

The most deeply undervalued companies include......NVIDIA, NIKE, MICROSOFT, GOOGLE, and AMAZON. These are wide moat businesses.

"Stocks With Wide Economic Moats Deeply Undervalued

Companies that have wide Morningstar Economic Moat Ratings are those that we forecast will be able to generate returns on invested capital well in excess of their weighted average cost of capital for at least the next 20 years. To keep rivals from eating into those returns, these companies must have durable, long-term competitive advantages that can withstand the stress of competition. According to our valuations, the market is undervaluing these advantages, and we see a significant amount of value for long-term investors in wide-moat stocks."

The article goes on:

"Wide-Moat Stocks With the Largest Price Drops in August
As we have seen in other pullbacks this year, wide-moat stocks have fallen more than the broader market. In August, the wide-moat stocks that sold off the most were mainly large-cap growth companies, which had fallen out of favor.

In August, Morningstar’s Wide Moat Composite Index dropped 5.00% versus the Morningstar US Market Index, which fell 3.83%. As a result, wide-moat stocks have become even more undervalued compared with the rest of the market. The wide-moat stocks with the greatest price drops are listed below."

This is the PERVERSE nature of the current markets. The greatest companies in the world......with the most earnings power to provide the greatest returns......have gone down the most. Simply the insanity of the short term markets. This is an EPIC OPPORTUNITY for those with long term vision and guts. These stocks should by all measures.....be the safe investments that investors are FLEEING into during the current downturn. BUT.....the modern media and human behavior.....has convinced people to punish them and sell them. There is a very good reason why the VAST MAJORITY of investors under-perform the averages year in and year out.

 

AND.....as a side note.....you will see from that list of wide moat businesses.......NONE of them had to shut down during the pandemic. In fact very few BIG companies had to shut down. It was all put on the backs of small business and regular people. That is how power and government operate. It never changes.

That is why I personally focus my investing on these BIG CAP companies. Human nature never changes and neither do the POWER dynamics of human society. Regardless of my LIBERTARIAN VIEWS.....when it comes to investing and the accumulation of money for my family.....I go with the PROBABILITIES.

 

Agree Rayak.......and......agree Spud.

 

A new week tomorrow. A FULL week after the four day week last week. Looking forward to the chance to move in a positive direction. It is simply a matter of time.....sometime between now and about two years from now.

Two ways of thinking about this chart of stocks and recessions

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-...chart-of-stocks-and-recessions-132828658.html

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

"Jim Reid, macro strategist at the bank, wrote that “historically the S&P 500 normally always only bottoms in a recession and usually not until mid-way through.”

Reid and his colleagues expect the U.S. economy to enter a recession in 2023. As such, they also believe the S&P 500 is “likely” to see a low that year before resuming any rally.

There are two ways of thinking about this chart.

First, recessions are common in history and recession-related market downturns can be very tough. On average, the S&P has historically lost about a third of its value during these periods.


Second, the chart reminds us that the stock market has always recovered those losses and then some. Yes, there are extended periods of difficulty, which make the market unfriendly for investors with weak stomachs and very short time horizons. But for those with longer-term investment horizons, time pays.

According to FactSet, 240 of the S&P 500 companies made mention of “recession” on their recent Q2 earnings calls. This was well above the five-year average of 52. It’s clear that recessions are on a lot of people’s minds.

But it’s not all gloom.

“The thing about recessions is, they're always followed by a recovery,“ Jeff Campbell, CFO of American Express, said on the company’s earnings call."

MY COMMENT

I agree with the above. What I do NOT agree with is the concept that we are NOT currently in a recession and will not see one till 2023. We fit the definition of a recession and we ARE currently in a recession. In my view we have been in recession for about 6 months now.

SO......if this recession is mild to moderate and lasts about 12 months we would be in the middle right about NOW. If that is the case according to the above data......we may be at.....or very near.....the bottom. Unfortunately we will not know till we look back in hindsight from the next BULL MARKET.

With the market strength we have seen over the past 3 or so months.....I believe we have seen the bottom or at least within 10% of the bottom. SO......now the question is how much can the FED screw up the economy over the next year or two.....as the continue their FUTILE fight against supply chain inflation.

 

As to the above....for what it is worth. We have now moved UP in the SP500 for the past week.....+3.65%..... and the past 3 months.....+4.27%.

For the one month time span.....we are negative by (-3.33%). Looking back 6 months we are negative by (-3.26%).

So since about mid MARCH.......we have ONLY lost (-3.26%) in the SP500. This data is much more positive than the typical mind set that you see out there every day in investors and especially in the financial media.

As a long term investor I ALWAYS prefer to live with a POSITIVE mind set. It is much easier and over the long term is totally justified.

 

Here is the BIG ONE......the whole ball of wax....next week.

Stock futures rise as Wall Street looks ahead to key inflation data

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/11/sto...treet-looks-ahead-to-key-inflation-data-.html

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

"Stock futures were higher Sunday night as Wall Street looks ahead to key inflation data to be released this week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 77 points, or 0.24%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.30% and 0.38%, respectively.

The moves came after a winning week for U.S. stocks, as all three major averages snapped a three-week losing streak. The Dow added 2.66% on the week, while the S&P 500 gained 3.65%. The Nasdaq Composite was 4.14% higher.

Stocks have been volatile ahead of the September meeting of the Federal Reserve, where the central bank is expected to deliver its third consecutive 0.75 percentage point rate hike in an effort to combat high inflation.

Wall Street investors had been looking for signs that the size of future rate hikes might be smaller as inflation cools off, Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week reiterated that he is “strongly committed” to bringing down inflation.

This week, investors are looking ahead to the August consumer price index report, scheduled to be released Tuesday. The report is one of the last pieces of data on inflation the Fed will see ahead of its September meeting. Retail sales and industrial production reports will be released Thursday.

“With the expectation for another 0.3% increase in the core rate for August, if the number is higher this will be a negative for stocks and bonds. If the report is less, it will be a catalyst for a market rally,” David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth U.S. “Retail sales is also expected to be flat for the month of August, as it was for the prior month.”"

MY COMMENT

I dont have a clue what the CPI will be or why. In fact.....I simply dont give a damn.

What I really care about is the BIG RAISE....that I DESERVE.....in my Social Security payout. So either way I will see good news......it will either give me a good boost in my stocks if the figure is good.....or a better SS raise if the figure is bad.

Or in their typical perverse fashion.....the markets will simply spin out of control in either direction based on some irrelevant bit of data that financial media latches onto and spins one way or the other.

In other words WTF....who knows and who cares.

 

Sometimes HUGE BLACK SWANS come from world events. We may be seeing one of those times starting to happen right now. Time will tell. It could be a positive event or it could turn into a negative event with grave consequences. Either way it can impact the short term markets.

Ukraine Sees Big Victories, Putin's Hold on Russia Now at Risk

https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/ukraine-putin-russia/2022/09/11/id/1086981/

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

"In a single week the tables have turned, and once mighty Russia is now on the run with speculation that even Vladimir Putin or the Russia Federation could fall as a result.

Ukraine’s armed forces are making significant gains on the eastern front amid a counteroffensive reportedly buoyed by an influx of intelligence and lethal aid from the United States and NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for even more U.S. and European Union assistance to help end the war this winter, while Putin is facing significant criticism within Russia as his forces retreat.

"I believe that this winter is a turning point, and it can lead to the rapid de-occupation of Ukraine," Zelenskyy said Saturday. "If we were a little stronger with weapons, we would de-occupy faster."

Ukraine’s Defense minister Oleksii Reznikov said the counteroffensive planned this summer is going "better than expected," like a "snowball rolling down a hill."

"It's a sign that Russia can be defeated," he said.

"Ahead are 90 days that will determine more than 30 years of Ukrainian independence," he added. "Ninety days that more than all other years will determine the existence of the EU."

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed the resurgence in an added call for more weapons to bring the end of the war closer.

"Weapons, weapons, weapons have been on our agenda since spring," Kuleba said. "I am grateful to partners who have answered our call: Ukraine’s battlefield successes are our shared ones.

"Prompt supplies bring victory and peace closer."


Here is a breakdown of Ukrainian gains:

• Ukrainian forces surprised Russia with a northern counteroffensive — pushing deep into the Kharkiv region and advancing to its south and east, Ukraine's army chief said Sunday. On Saturday Russia abandoned its main bastion in the area.
• The head of Russia's administration in Kharkiv told residents to evacuate the province and flee to Russia to "save lives," TASS reported. Witnesses described traffic jams of cars with people leaving Russian-held territory.
• Russian forces have retreated from the city of Izium, an important logistics hub for Russia in the assault on the Donbas region. It has been hailed as Russia’s worst defeat since they were repelled from the capital Kyiv in March, as thousands of Russian soldiers left behind ammunition and equipment as they fled.
• Amid the Russian retreat, Putin was opening Europe's largest ferris wheel in a Moscow park, while fireworks lit up the sky over Red Square to celebrate the city's founding in 1147.
• Russian forces are left regrouping elsewhere in Donetsk, according to Russian state-run TASS news agency.
• Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine has regained a village of 4,000 between Kharkiv and Izium: "The great Ukrainian flag has been returned to Chkalovske, and it will be like that everywhere. We will cast out the occupiers from every Ukrainian town and village."
• Russia's struggles have Russian nationalists calling for Putin to make immediate changes to ensure ultimate victory in the Ukraine war. The sharp criticism within Russia may signal broader discontent among Russia’s nomenclatura.
• The city of Kupiansk, the sole rail hub supplying Russia's front line across northeastern Ukraine, was retaken by Ukraine's forces.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency said a backup power line to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant had been restored, providing it with the external electricity it needs to cool its reactors and defend against the risk of a meltdown.

Newsmax's Dick Morris said this weekend the recent developments have put Russia on the verge of a seismic shift against Putin, and perhaps lead to his ouster.

"I think we're looking at an event of world-shaking magnitude," Morris told "Saturday Agenda." "I think it will be very much like the fall of the Berlin Wall in its impact."

On Sunday retired General Ben Hodges, former commander of the U.S. Army Europe, told London’s Times Radio that the debacle in Ukraine could have grave implications for Russia itself.


“We were not prepared for the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Hodges said. “We need to be prepared for the collapse of Russia.”

MY COMMENT

At this point much of the impact from what Is going on right now is simply....SPECULATION and POSTURING. BUT......there is certainly potential for a SEISMIC SHIFT.....one way or the other. As a positive or negative world event this can potentially eclipse all other market conditions in the near future. It is impossible to know how this will all work out and how big the impact will be.

As an investor......I will simply do nothing....but watch and see where we end up over the next month or two in terms of the impact on the world.......and the markets....for better or worse.

 

OK.......lets go out there this coming week and KICK ASS.

 

YEP.....it is amazing that much more often than not.....ALL the so called experts are wrong. They DEFY all odds and probability with their WRONG opinions. Just by chance they would be right about 50% of the time......but no......they are nearly uniformly WRONG. Yet.....they remain experts and are touted as experts.

In reality most of them are empty suit FOOLS. They somehow through money or family contacts or other means got themselves into a position of power and respect.......yet they remain IDIOTS. Some of them are probably pretty smart in a theoretical way......but.....what they UNIFORMLY LACK is......COMMON SENSE and awareness of REALITY outside the little government or industry bubble that they live and work in.

What I love and think is really FUNNY.....if it was not so sad.....is how they all give each other medals and awards. This is how they BOOST their fake and worthless resumes and continue on and on as......"experts".

For example......look back at EVERY earnings period we have had since about July of 2020. EVERY single one they have been calling for bad earnings......and.....they have been uniformly WRONG.......every time.

 

A strong open today. Perhaps someone has some advance knowledge of the CPI data to come out tomorrow?

But it is very early in the day and lots of time left for speculation and fear mongering.

As has been the case for at least six months now......there is NOTHING new to impact the markets. In fact earnings over the past many months have been a positive surprise. Every other issue........in fact there are ONLY two.....the FED and inflation.....remain the same.

SO......there is no reason......other than BS......for the markets to be down this week. BUT....of course.....thinking that the markets might be RATIONAL over the short term is a fools errand.

 

I happen to agree with this little article.

Despite What Economists Believe, Putting People Out of Work Does Not Reduce ‘Inflation’

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnta...rk-does-not-reduce-inflation/?sh=3fd78a621677

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

"Recently the New York Times NYT +0.4% reported on the ShotMaster Pro, a remarkable piece of machinery that can make eight different espressos at a time, or 700 per hour. The cost of this modern “robot” is $50,000, which apparently is the annual cost of employing a human barista in New York City.

Readers of reasonable intelligence can hopefully see where this is going. While economists believe consumption powers economic growth, the obvious reality is that investment does. And the impetus for investment is to produce exponentially more goods and services at costs that continue to plummet. Applied to the ShotMaster, what presently fetches $50,000 will soon enough retail for a fraction of the previous number.

This is worth keeping in mind with economists top of mind. In a recent opinion piece, Harvard professor Jason Furman wrote with evident worry that “To bring price increases down to 2%, we may need to tolerate unemployment of 6.5% for two years.” The discredited Phillips Curve lives in faculty lounges!

Back to reality, inflation has nothing to do with unemployment. Think about it. Consider Lebanon at present, Argentina for decades, and perhaps Mexico in decades past. Inflation is a decline in the unit of account. Put more plainly, inflation is a currency devaluation. More on actual inflation in a bit, but for now it’s useful to remind readers that a focus on unemployment when contemplating inflation is a sign of the mind wandering, or a thought non sequitur.

To see why, let’s imagine for a moment that chiropractic treatments are revealed to cure more than bad backs. Let’s imagine they’re discovered to cure heart disease. If so, readers can likely imagine a huge surge of chiropractic visits that would occur in concert with higher wages for the practitioners alongside higher costs for patients. Inflation? Not in the least. If we’re spending more for treatments, we logically have fewer dollars for other goods and services.

Repeat it over and over again: demand cannot cause inflation. A rising price of one market good logically implies falling prices for other goods. Inflation is yet again a currency devaluation.

Obviously Furman doesn’t see it that way. To him, rising demand is inflation for it allegedly implying a mismatch between demand and supply. Except that demand is what happens after we’ve supplied goods and services. Furman’s analysis presumes that Haitians are poor because there’s not enough “demand” in Port-Au-Prince. Actually, there’s not enough production there and a lack of demand is the logical consequence of the lack of production. Demand mirrors supply, but supply comes first.

Still, Haiti isn’t just useful as a way of showing how so-called “demand” is unrelated to inflation. Haiti is a reminder that the U.S. economy is part of a global whole. Economies are just people, and everything we Americans produce and consume is a result of global production and cooperation among producers. This simple truth is seemingly lost on Furman.

Evidence supporting the above claim is his worry about a lack of “slack” in the U.S. economy. To Furman, inflation springs from demand not just for goods and services, but also from demand for labor and production capacity. As Furman sees it, low unemployment and high capacity utilization in the U.S. are inflationary for them signaling a limited supply of workers and places for those workers to produce. Furman forgets that the economy is global.

He forgets that U.S. producers employ workers around the world, and production capacity around the world. Again, everything American companies produce is the end result of painstaking production in countries near and far from the U.S. These countries include Haiti.

At which point it’s worth revisiting the ShotMaster. It’s not unreasonable to speculate yet again that investment in this modern robot will rapidly push its price down such that ShotMasters will more and more spell human workers inside the Starbucks stores that are ubiquitous in the U.S., and around the world. It’s another truth missed by well-credentialed individuals like Furman: the very investment that powers the economic growth they naively view as inflationary also reduces alleged labor pressures. Put another way, growing economies automate away so-called labor shortages all day, and every day. So while the Fed’s power is vastly overstated, it’s useful to expose as wanting the musings of economists who think inflation’s cure is government intervention meant to put people out of work. Really, how does Furman sleep at night believing as he does?

Which brings us back to inflation. It’s yet again a devaluation of the currency. Over the last 18 months the dollar has soared against every major foreign currency and also lightly crushed gold. Yes, the “inflation” that has Furman biting his nails would be the first one in the history of mankind that took place amid a rising currency. It should have serious readers seriously wondering if they’ve mistaken rising prices for inflation. There’s an ocean of difference between the two."

MY COMMENT

OR......the way to think about the current inflation is as a SUPPLY/DEMAND disruption and distortion. It has nothing to do with interest rates or employment data.

In any event....this is the type of STUFF that economists and experts argue about......for the most part it has nothing to do with how the real world works. For example.....does the FED really have any control over inflation? I dont think so.....they just control whether or not the economy is CRUSHED and how much it is CRUSHED by their policies. The more the economy is crushed and thrown into recession.....the less inflation.

So we have the typical process........step one, government actions and failures usually cause inflation......step two, the FED tries to crush the economy. You will notice that the real cause of the inflation.....usually government policy IDIOCY.....is never addressed.

 

HERE is what we are seeing today.

Stock market news live updates: Stocks extend gains as investors await CPI report

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-september-12-2022-111152448.html

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

"U.S. stocks rose Monday as Wall Street inched closer to highly-anticipated inflation data this week.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 140 points, or 0.4%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7%. The moves come after all three major averages logged weekly gains for the first time in three weeks: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each rose more than 4% during the holiday-shortened week, while the Dow rose 3.2%.

In commodities, oil prices edged higher, extending a streak of recent back-and-forth action. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil futures each rose nearly 2% to $88.44 per barrel and $94.58 per barrel, respectively.

All eyes are on the August Consumer Price Index (CPI) due out before markets open on Tuesday.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected headline CPI rose 8.1% over the prior year in August, a moderation from an 8.5% increase seen in July. On a month-over-month basis, CPI is expected to show prices fell 0.1% from July to August, primarily due to continued easing in energy prices. If realized, this would mark the first monthly decline since May 2020.

Core CPI, which strips out the volatile food and energy components of the report and is closely tracked by the Fed, is likely to have inched higher in August, rising 6.1% over the same month last year, more than the 5.9% year-on-year increase seen in July.

The reading will likely affirm to investors whether the Federal Reserve raises interest rates by 0.50% or 0.75% at its policy meeting later this month.

In recent weeks, Fed policymakers have doubled down on the U.S. central bank's commitment to proceeding with restrictive monetary policy for as long as necessary to restore price stability.

Federal Reserve Governor Chris Waller said at a conference in Vienna, Austria on Friday that he supports a “significant” increase in the benchmark interest rate at the Fed's Sept. 20-21 meeting.

“I expect it will take some time before inflation moves back to our 2 percent goal, and that the FOMC will be tightening policy into 2023,” Waller said. “The policy rate will have to move meaningfully above this neutral level to further restrain aggregate demand and put more downward pressure on prices.”

CME Group's Fedwatch tool places the probability for a bump of three quarters of a percentage at 90%, up from 69% two weeks ago.

A list of Wall Street institutions have also raised their bets on a 75 basis point hike this month including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Nomura.

Elsewhere in markets, Twitter (TWTR) was in focus after the social media platform responded to a Sept. 9 letter from Elon Musk indicating the company intends to enforce Musk's takeover bid and demanded he and his team comply with the terms of the agreement. Shares slipped about 1% at the start of trading.

Disney (DIS) was also closely watched Monday after activist investor Dan Loeb apparently walked back on his recent push for the company to sell or spin off ESPN. Loeb's hedge fund Third Point Management said in August that it purchased a $1 billion stake in Disney. Shares gained about 2% early Monday.

"We have a better understanding of ESPN's potential as a standalone business and another vertical for Disney to reach a global audience to generate ad and subscriber revenues," Loeb said in a tweet Sunday after Disney CEO Bob Chapek vowed to "restore ESPN to its growth trajectory."

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) shares rose slightly after a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday night showed Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway boosted its stake in the oil conglomerate to 26.8%. Berkshire recently won regulatory approval to purchase a stake of up to 50% in OXY."

MY COMMENT

As I said NOTHING new going on this week or for months now. We continue to see......even in this little article with the FED increase only about a week away......the usual moronic speculation about whether the FED will raise by 0.50% or 0.75%.

In REAL LIFE.......I dont see or hear anyone talking about whether the FED will raise by 0.50% or 0.75%.

 

The DAY RALLY continues after a single hour of the markets being open......oh the drama of it all.

There might be a few MACRO tidbits in this little article. I will post part of it.

12 things Yahoo Finance is hearing as Wall Street conference season heats up: Morning Brief

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yahoo-finance-wall-street-conference-093042822.html

"It's September conference season on Wall Street!".......

SO (my word)

"Here are 12 things that have surfaced in the last week I think are worth noting:

1. Not one executive I talked is seeing seeing trends in their business that hint the U.S. economy will be in a recession in the first quarter of 2023. That said, no one is speaking with a tone of an economy poised to crank into a much stronger gear.
   
   
2. Customer demand hasn't bounced back materially from the slowdowns seen at the end of the second quarter. The caution on the part of CFOs on the health of the economy is sticking around, and they continue to look for ways to cut costs.
   
   
3. There is palpable fear by multinationals on Europe entering a prolonged economic downturn at the hands of surging energy costs.
   
   
4. Fresh China lockdowns are weighing on demand in the country, particularly for multinational retailers.
   
   
5. Executives agree we haven't begun to see the impact of the Federal Reserve's rate hikes. There is a general distrust that the Fed can engineer a soft economic landing.
   
   
6. The PC correction has further to go — Intel, for example, issued a light profit warning for the current quarter at a Citi conference.
   
   
7. Intel's warning at Citi also suggested continued consumer spending sluggishness.
   
   
8. Yes, supply chains are improving.
   
   
9. No, inflationary pressures aren't easing a lot.
   
   
10. Price increases continue to be pushed through to customers.
    
    
11. The next six months could see the resumption of headline-making deals as companies look to get out in front of higher financing costs. This applies mostly to the tech sector, as valuations have plunged across the sector for attractive businesses.
    
    
12. If you are inclined to trade retail into the holidays, stick with ultra-high end plays. I was astonished to hear the strength of the spending trends at luxury players Neiman Marcus and Canada Goose at the Goldman conference."

MY COMMENT

My view as usual for long term investors is to stick with the BIG CAP ICONIC companies....the cream of the crop.

 

just looked at my account today for the first time. ALL stocks up right now....about half are UP very strongly....about half are UP but not as strongly. All in all a nice day and a nice gain.....so far.

I have now made back much of the losses that came during the little 3.5 week market drop. I still have a ways to go to get it all back.....but I now have much of my cushion from the market lows back in place.

The SP500......my go-to market indicator.....is now down for the year by ONLY (-13.75%) We are within about 1.5% of the SP500 being POSITIVE for the last SIX MONTHS. For the past three months the SP500 is UP by....+9.69%.

The general tone of the market reporters and financial media is distinctly more NEGATIVE than this data indicates. This SP500 data represents.....REALITY........versus the distorted human brain view of financial events that we see and hear daily.

YES......I continue to be fully invested for the long term as usual.

 

THIS is a disaster.........OMG.

Goldman Sachs is cutting free coffee as corporate America reels in pandemic perks with workers returning to the office

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/goldman-sachs-cutting-free-coffee-121307121.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall

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

"As Labor Day weekend came to a close and bankers at Goldman Sachs shuffled back to the office on Tuesday morning for the mandatory return to a five-day in-office workweek, they found the free coffee cart, which usually sat in the lobby of the 200 West Street office, missing.

The days of the complimentary “grab and go” coffee station, brought in last year as an incentive to get people back into the office, are now over, the New York Post reports, as the banking giant strips away pandemic-era perks.

Sources at Goldman Sachs told the Post that management has a far stronger tool than coffee to get people back into the office anyhow: the threat of being fired.

“RIP to another pandemic perk for junior bankers,” one junior Goldman banker told the Post. “I’m sure the partners still don’t have to pay for their coffee—or anything in their fancy dining hall.”

Another blow to junior workers

Goldman Sachs is notorious for its aggressive push to get workers back into the office.

On Sept. 6, Goldman Sachs announced it would do away with all COVID-19 restrictions and said anyone was allowed to enter the office without a mask, regardless of vaccination or testing status.

Goldman CEO David Solomon previously called work from home an “aberration” and told Fortune, “I just don’t think the way we work in our business is that different than it was five years ago, and I don’t think it will be different five years from now.”

“The secret sauce to our organization is, we attract thousands of really extraordinary young people who come to Goldman Sachs to learn to work, to create a network of other extraordinary people, and work very hard to serve our clients,” Solomon said.

Goldman is hoping to go back to the way things were before the pandemic. Over the past two years, Goldman had also paused its annual year-end performance reviews, where the company would famously cut 5% of its bottom performing employees—but Goldman executives warned this practice would come back by the end of the year.

However, the aggressive push back to the way things were has been met with discontent, especially among junior bankers. According to the New York Post, six overworked first-year bankers quit together and walked out en masse in late August, with sources telling the paper that the atmosphere at the financial giant is at “an all-time toxic high right now.”

Doing away with perks

Beyond COVID measures and free coffee, Goldman is also ending free daily car rides to and from the office, which were introduced at the start of the COVID outbreak to help those who still wished to go into the office.

And it also isn’t the only company doing away with perks. Morgan Stanley has taken away free tickets to the U.S. Open tennis championship, which were once available to top performers at the bank.

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told employees in March it was getting rid of free services like laundry and dry cleaning in the office and planned on pushing back the free dinner offering from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

But as companies aggressively push to get employees back into the office, the best perk a company could offer may just be an option for hybrid work."

MY COMMENT

People working at and running these companies are going to quickly find out that they are......NOT SPECIAL. Their jobs can be done by many, many people.