Stock Market is the bottom in?

Since Trump had low inflation and Biden had high inflation, it would make sense to vote Trump in again and see if he can lower the Biden inflation!
The Covid global pandemic (which began in 2019) roiled all markets and caused the spike in inflation. Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, supply chains were broken, (and are still being blamed - and used - by businesses to keep prices artificially high), and global trade was thrown into chaos. Global shipping, for the most part, is not a problem anymore, compared to pandemic times. If companies couldn't/can't get the materials they need to make finished goods - and the consumer demand is high - inflation is the result. Just last evening, farmers were on TV talking about how the changing climate is causing them to spend more on adapting to hotter temperatures, a mix of extreme drought/ torrential, and flooding rains. Either too hot & dry - or under water. They've adapted by planting more vegetable crops in long, tunnel-type enclosures to be able to control some things. But all the things they've done to keep from having fields flooded, or drip-irrigating their crops costs more money ..... and those costs get passed on to consumers. Not blaming those farmers - even they know it's a changing climate, and are trying the best ways they can to keep farming. This isn't just a U.S. problem - it's global. Many of the vineyards of southern Europe are moving north to cooler regions like the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, etc. to be able to grow the grapes that can't tolerate the hotter temps. of southern France, Italy, & Spain. Some of the California vineyards are moving north to Oregon and Washington for the same reasons, including ever-increasing wildfires in the west. None of these large vineyards are doing this on a whim - they've seen the evidence, they're tired of losing vines to heat & drought or fires - so they move. These farmers and vineyard owners will pass along any of the related costs of climate-induced adaptations to consumers. Beef and pork producers lose feed crops to drought - or in some cases flooding - and so meat prices go higher. Farmers aren't getting greedier - it's just the increasing costs they face themselves. What do those farmers blame??? Climate change. Their words.

As for Biden pumping financial aid to individuals & businesses (who got the lion's share BTW) to keep the economy afloat during the Covid pandemic ...... I don't recall seeing anyone - R's, D's, I's, businesses, or anyone else - mailing those checks back. All hands were open and grateful for the help when everything shut down globally due to the pandemic. So any lingering effects on the economy/debt - are the result of those emergency, pandemic-related efforts to keep our economy going. Such a pandemic hasn't hit the world in about 100 years or more, so we either take extreme measures to keep people in their homes and fed - or risk even greater catastrophe's to even more citizens. Not much choice, IMO. Maybe close some of the loopholes in the "tax code" that 99% of us do not have access to like the billionaires do, and they pay a fairer share of taxes. That would surely make a dent in the debt. Or maybe us "little people" (billionairess Leona Helmsley's words) should have our Social Security checks cut, Medicare & Medicaid cut, and any tax credits we get for having kids, installing energy-efficient doors / windows / lights / furnaces / AC / heat pumps be taken away to reduce that nasty debt. Leave the billionaires alone with their FAT, cushy tax loopholes. Better for them to save a couple hundred million each - every year - on their taxes, than for the "little people" to still keep their Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, child tax credits/earned income tax credits untouched. Take from the "little people" to reduce the debt - not the billionaires. Who favors that approach???

Right now, as most investment pros have been saying, global, geo-political instability is the biggest reason markets are volatile. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the increasing aggression by China in the Pacific Region, and the Middle East war/never-ending regional turmoil, have businesses and investors (individual and more-so institutional investment firms) leery of making long-term plans. Fears of a global war breaking out are on the minds of executives of many large companies - and they mention that - as it relates to diving into investing for future plans. Geo-political instability is the reason companies are "on-shoring" to the U.S. and other close-by, friendly, allied countries. Many global companies have the sh##s of China, and their hunger for world domination by aggression and state-sponsored theft of intellectual property. Corporate greed (U.S. and other countries') for very cheap Chinese labor has spawned consequences no one worried about in the mad-dash to China - but the world is paying the price now - because global companies fed the Communist machine in China. They stole our high-tech, cutting-edge technologies because it was sitting there on their soil !!!! How's that for moving our hen-houses to the foxes den??? Seems quick profits on cheap labor were blinding the 1% to the after-effects & long-term consequences. China's economy built up, their technology got better, and now they're using that stolen tech to rapidly build their military to throw their weight around in the world. How many of our kids'/grandkids' blood will be spilled in wars surely coming ........ because of Russia and China??? Just who sped up this process for China?? Who is now being hacked repeatedly by Communist, enemy-state China, to steal more technology, and interrupt our power grid, water systems, etc.??? You think any of that has an effect on inflation?? (ours and other countries')
 
BNB ... ya'll is stealing some of my thunder ... just a quick note on covid and inflation ... inflation had been low for 12 years (2009-2020) with only one year higher than the Trump year of 2.4 when it reached 3.2 (Obama .. his administration had the sub-prime mortgage shock to deal with). BNB accurately cited supply chain problems (remember the chip fiasco; hell, I had to order my wifes 2021 Lexus off the line with no guarantee it would make it -only 3 months late). Trump and Biden pumped 4.1 Trillion into the economy via Covid relief in the 15 months following 1- 1 - 2020. O'boy, with a $ dollar shot in the arm - so to speak - consumers normally might bid up the price for scarce goods (since supply chain problems disrupt supply). Normally more money chasing fewer goods is a great receipe for inflation. Lockdowns, people getting laid off, business shutting down, etc plus reduced demand for travel (by boat - cruise, car, train, airlines, donkey) kept energy costs low. The only uptick in inflation -by sectors in 2020 was housing and food ( inelastic demand, gotta eat and many restaurants are closed plus you gotta live somewhere). Now the skys are so full that planes are about to run over each oother getting up and down and every holiday results in record traffic. Let the good times roll!

here is an article discussing post 2020 inflation
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2023/beyond-bls/what-caused-inflation-to-spike-after-2020.htm
this article by a couple of Harvard Professors talks about the true cost of Covid ... a truely economically-shocking event
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7604733/
finally, lots of folks frequently remark about the Nat'l Debt; the following article traces increases in the "debt" by President ... it might surprise you that Reagan is #3 and George W is number #4 (his "shocks were 911 and a couple of wars - Afghanistan and Iraq.
https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225
finally, plus ... a great read on the history of the oil industry - worldwide
 
Real estate is the way to go. Always demand for housing and remember that ain't making no more land. Played that silly stock market game before. Never again
 
Looks like almost everything is on sale today. TELL is at a pretty good price to buy in my opinion. TSLA is going back up. Keeping an eye on AGBA because they just merged with TRILLER who I've never heard of before but it looks to have decent potential and is around $2 share right now.
 
This one slipped by me this month. Always like to take a moment and make sure this keeps going the right way.

2a0da59f74fde7bc0fcdd553d41b4fba.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I came across this article on a news site. It's written by the WSJ and claims the President would revanp the the Federal Reserve interest system. Hmmmmm. Interesting. Something needs to be done......but congress is what needs revamping.....IMO. It's clear that some of the systems in place now are unsustainable.


EDIT: after writing my post.....I see that OakSeeds already had posted this. lol.
 
A president with support in turning things around would be a bonus. At least try to improve things for our citizens and our country. Money in vs money out--not that hard to understand. Agree that our government needs a good overhaul. Education is and has been lacking in the school system for a long time. Need to start raising the bar again and encourage a good work ethic. jmho
 
Ron Paul had a quote about reforming the fed and it went something like this:

“When you remove cancer from a patient, there is no discussion about what should replace it.”

129166f19bf46c6b87fd9b547c13bbf9.jpg


f16ef1728a283c9a1ce89ad500e77bbc.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Here is an interesting article about Ron Paul and the Fed ...
https://www.cato.org/blog/ron-paul-our-big-fat-fed

this one will tell you which are the high tax states ... FL remains a winner for low total taxes
https://www.cato.org/blog/top-tax-rates-are-already-wrong-side-laffer-curve-least-10-states

CATO is a "libertarian" organization promoting individual freedom, limited government, free markets and peace
 
Rough day on Wall Street !
 
Rough day on Wall Street !
I don't know what the hell happened, but it was not the day to be holding energy. What a boot to the pills.

I did pick up a tiny bit more of CEF today. I've also got a rollover in the mail yesterday. That's on it's way to my roth and traditional, the traditional will be converted to roth right away. I dont' have any huge ideas with it right now, so it'll probably sit in USFR until I can figure out where to put it.
 
NVO reports tomorrow before the open. I'm hoping for a big boom on this one. Towards the end of Q1, medicare approved their drugs for severe diabetics. They've still got work to do to launder dark money to shell advocacy groups to push for their drugs to be a human right and be covered for anyone on medicare or medicaid that wants them. We'll see what happens. The market might be waiting for something to invest in for all the stocks and plunged this season. Or NVO could plunge right along with them.
 
Well NVO showed a good quarter. Even got Canada on board with using their synthetic gila monster venoms.

It goes below $118, I’m gonna start selling puts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm just a simple trader myself. No margins,calls or puts for me. Could be missing out on a lot of gains. Could be missing out on losing my ass too.
 
Guys around here are already fined $500 for trespass. Doesnt seem to slow them down. A couple weeks ago, a guy down here caught two guys redhanded turkey hunting on his place. They ran when he approached - but one of them left his phone - no screen lock either. Pretty open and shut case. $500 each
 
Top