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Dear Climber,
The two-sided American economy.
The Intercontinental Exchange, commonly known as ICE, is giant in the trading world.They own 23 exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange, 6 clearing houses, and now plan to offer Bitcoin futures. ICE has launched a startup called Bakkt and teamed up with several other giants including Microsoft and Starbucks to help bring Bitcoin to the public. Bakkt plans to offer physically delivered bitcoin futures, and warehousing. This will allow investors and everyday consumers to trade and speculate the price of bitcoin and in a way that is faster, safer, and more convenient than ever before. As of this writing, ICE has a market cap of $43 billion dollars and Bitcoin of $115 billion. When these two titans come together, we may see these values vastly increase. Mind over matter. In your brain, messages from the thalamus travel to two important destinations simultaneously: your amygdala and your prefrontal cortex. The amygdala handles emotions like fear, anxiety, arousal and aggression. The prefrontal cortex deliberates decisions and moderates social behavior. But, it takes 40 milliseconds for the prefrontal cortex to get a message compared to the amygdala’s 12. You’re emotional before you’re practical. Learn how to not act out of fear or anxiety and give yourself some time to process what’s happening before you act hastily. Another Fed rate hike with 3 more in the pipeline. This is the 3rd rate hike this year boosting the federal funds rate to 2.25%. The hike has caused mortgage rates to reach levels not seen in more than 7 years. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is 4.72% and the average 15-year rate climbed to 4.16%. The Fed’s strategy is to, “Engineer a soft landing of the economy by raising rates just enough to prevent overheating, but not so much that they trigger a recession”. The pork is going bad. This week’s addition to the Trump-China Trade War Saga is causing industry leaders to freak out. Walmart, Ford, Proctor & Gamble, and Coco-Cola have all released public statements stressing that the new tariff will cause price inflation. One of the biggest losers is the US Pork Industry. Since May, prices for a lean hog have fallen by 19%, the predicted overall losses for the pork industry are estimated to reach $2 billion this year. Reports in July have suggested that pork and other meats are “piling up” in storage facilities. Without the Chinese market, there are simply not enough mouths to feed. In response, the USDA has pledged to hand out over $700 million in grievances to the pork industry. Consumers are confidently confident. Among the plethora of economic data to be released this week is the Consumer Confidence Index. For the month of September, Consumer Confidence beat expectations and hit an 18-year high. Essentially, this indicator represents how optimistic consumers are about the future of the economy and of their own personal, financial health. The more optimistic they are, the more they will spend/consume, which all lead to a greater stimulation within the economy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recognizes this metric as a leading indicator for the economy. With September's number coming in so high, this reiterates what Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said this week as well: the U.S. economy is in good shape…for now. Conspicuous consumption. Also known as, buying goods to show off. When people indulge, they want to feel like there’s some sort of rational excuse for their behavior. Some say this is being “fake”, but what they don’t know is acquiring something luxurious can temporarily increase one’s self-esteem. Increasing your self-esteem temporarily might seem good, but it is in the consequence of not making friends. A study shows that people would rather befriend someone who doesn’t display high-status, but rather more neutral makers. An explanation of these findings is that people, when looking for friends, don’t like feeling inadequate (when their friends outperform them) and they are less okay with a friend’s success than with a stranger’s. Average-American household data. The average US household has a net worth of $692,100. The average net worth for a college-educated person is $1,511,000 versus $249,600 for someone with just a high school diploma. The average net worth for a homeowner is $1,034,200 versus $91,100 for a renter. Kindness with the reward of nothing. There are two types of kindness: altruistic (no hope of gaining something in return) and strategic (when there’s something to be gained as a consequence). Scientists discovered that the reward areas of the brain are more active when people are altruistically kind than when they are strategically kind. This study shows that self-interest is sometimes not so rewarding, and that it might be better to give out of true altruism. The recent rally can put new retirees in a dangerous place. After such a long bull market, we are likely to see slowing growth or even a sharp decline. Here are two strategies to assure steady income for that “Palm Spring’s” lifestyle:
In the world of sports. Last night on Thursday night football, we had an offensive explosion from both sides of the turf. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Minnesota Vikings 38-31 at home in a game where Jared Goff and Kirk Cousins both aired it out for over 420 yards and no picks. Jared Goff became the fifth quarterback in NFL history to throw for more than 450 yards with five touchdown passes and no interceptions in a game. The Rams improved their record to a perfect 4-0 and will look to keep their undefeated streak going next Sunday in Seattle. For golf fans, Tiger finished 11-under for his first PGA Tour win since 2013 on Sunday. His last victory on Tour before Sunday was the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Aug. 4, 2013. Lakers will open up their preseason at the Staples Center this Sunday. Keep Climbing, The Alchanati Campbell and Associates Team Subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/do-SwL Dear Climber,
Success, economic measures, emerging market growth, the current economy and the science behind the rate hike. #dearmoon. On Monday, September 17th, those who watched the SpaceX special event left the real world for little and entered a world more akin to an Arthur C. Clark novel, as Elon Musk announced that Yusaku Maezawa would be the first private citizen to fly around the moon in what felt like the intro to a sci-fi movie. The Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire entered the stage to introduce himself, and explain his mission. Maezawa has purchased all of the available seats on the BFR spaceship to fly himself and several world renown artists around the moon. Maezawa has named this endeavor, “Dear Moon” and hopes that sending these artists around the moon will inspire them to create artwork with the goal of world peace. Maezawa has paid an undisclosed amount that will help fund the creation of the Big Falcon Rocket or BFR. While this mission is not set to take place until 2023, effects will be felt through the aerospace industry immediately. Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing are in a race to gain an advantage in the emerging market of space tourism and the completion of the BFR would set SpaceX far ahead of their completion. Success only by luck..? “You don’t know whether you’re going to be born rich or poor, male or female, infirm or able-bodied, in the US or Afghanistan. All you know is that you get to take one ball out of 5.8 billion balls. And that’s you,”(Warren Buffett). This is called the “Ovarian Lottery”. It might seem reasonable that the Ovarian Lottery determines most of your success in life, but hard work might produce the same result. When you work hard you typically get better results than you would with less effort. Luck matters more in an absolute sense (against a world of people) and hard work matters more in a relative sense (against a group of similar people). Absolute success is luck and relative success is choices and habits. Important economic measures to know.
The secret behind emerging market growth. 18 emerging economies stand out the most. China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand all have per capita GDP growth of at least 3.5% annually over 1965-2016. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Kazakhstan, Laos, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam all have per capita GDP growth of at least 5% for the last 20 years. The secret that enables certain economies to achieve more stable and robust growth is:
Record low unemployment + low wages = the current economy. The unemployment rate has dropped to a nearly two-decade low. Wages remain flat, with raises getting eaten up by inflation. This is caused by low business dynamism and diminished worker power. An indicator to help explain the persistence of low wages in an environment of low unemployment is sluggish productivity. Productivity growth is low relative to historical standards. How the FED increases interest rates. On September 26, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, is set to meet and another interest rate hike is widely expected. But what does a rate hike actually mean? In a rate hike, the Federal Reserve pulls extra capital out of the economy. The FED does this by selling US Treasury Bonds to banks. Banks lose capital in this transaction. This leaves the banks with less capital to produce loans. To make it harder for consumers to acquire loans, the banks increase interest rates on loans. This disincentives consumers from acquiring loans which additionally disincentives consumers from spending. With less spending in the economy, unemployment rates go up, production decreases, and with less capital for investment the stock market drops. Here’s a link to learn more about quantitative easing. RIPPLE. If you don’t know much about cryptocurrency, the two coins that you have probably heard of are bitcoin, and the coin that is always talked about on the news, Ripple (XRP). Well Ripple just pulled off something that no one expected would ever occur: they just overtook Ethereum for the 2nd highest market cap coin in crypto. A bit of background on Ripple before we go further into why this is such a big deal. (I am going to give an outside view of this coin as I have strong opinions against it) Ripple is a cryptocurrency that is used as a transfer of value, boasting the capability of “instant and direct transfer of money between two parties”. Not to go that far into the tech, this sounds like a great idea… the capability to instantly transfer a ‘currency’ to anyone, anywhere in the world, for minimal fees. Ripple also has the ability to handle over 50,000 transactions a second. Now to the large issue that I have with this coin: there is no capability to mine this coin, but the corporation behind Ripple chose a random number, 100B, and literally just created that many coins. The only thing stopping them from ‘printing’ more coins, is their promise that they won’t. Now here is the kicker, the team currently holds around 60% of the coin, which is around 60 billion ripple. At the current price, now up ~50% in the last 24 hours to $0.57, that makes the team worth a whopping $34 billion. In a new-and-upcoming industry which is constantly toting decentralization, why is the #2 market cap coin, a completely centralized project? Now, what did ripple pull off? Well, they just revealed that their pilot program was a success and led to bringing 12 large banks on board creating a new XRP-based payment solution, xRapid. Which banks in question, well only one has been announced, and its PNC bank and they will be using this payment solution to speed up, and reduce the costs of overseas transactions, solely for their US clientele. My personal opinion on Ripple? - I dislike Ripple and feel that serious manipulation could occur with the team holding such a large amount. I find it to be too large of a risk, even in the world of crypto, to fit into my already extremely risky crypto portfolio.
The Alchanati Campbell and Associates Team Dear Reader,
How bout em apples, Brexit, cryptocurrency, technology and fertility rates. Hi Apple. “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the trouble makers, the round pegs in the square holes” to the ones who use a trillion dollar company to bring the power of innovation to hundreds of millions of people across the planet. Apple’s September special event hosted at the Steve Jobs Theater was a hit. Apple continues to double down on Jobs’ philosophy and focus on the hardware. This year’s main product announcements included the Apple Watch Series 4, iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. The new watch is now capable of monitoring your heart rate for irregularities, can preform an ECG and can alert authorities if the user falls and is injured. These new features will help Apple gain a larger share in older demographics and potentially save lives. Tim Cook announced that Apple recently sold their 2 billionth device and the impressive numbers don’t stop there. The new A12 Bionic chip puts in emphasis on matching learning and can perform 5 trillion operations every second! The product launch also shows off Apple’s new strategy. The three new iPhones will allow Apple to expand into several markets, the XS Max is expected to preform well in China, while the XR can boast many of the same specs as the XS and even surpass it in some like battery life. It also comes at a much lower price making this new tech accessible to more people. Two weeks ago, we speculated that Apple would not include a 5G ready receiver in the new iPhones, well the iPhone XS and XS Max have gigabit LTE antennas which is a stepping stone to 5G. The Situation with BREXIT. By now, I'm sure all of you have heard about BREXIT. For those that haven't, let's give you the run down. Essentially, the United Kingdom is planning to leave the European Union. To be incredibly broad, the European Union is a pact between 28 countries establishing a system of a free flow of goods and people between the participating countries. The actual exit isn't happening until 2019, but there's a lot to be done before then. This week, there has been more extensive talks of a deal for the exit plan, which officials hope to reach prior to December of this year. If a deal is not reached and BREXIT occurs, it could be disastrous for all parties. Primarily, the flow of people from country to country would be more limited and costly. This would of course have ripple effects on each country as they are losing tourists who go to those countries and spend money there. Furthermore, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, informed the world that the housing market in Britain would crash in this event. Remember what happened when the United States Housing Market collapsed? Where is the bottom? You will get a different answer every person you ask. Some people are saying we could see mid $3000’s, while others are saying we have already hit the bottom, and there is only room for growth. A lot of people are claiming that $6000 will be the bottom as that sets it equal to the cost of mining a single BTC. Personally I think we have the chance to go down further than $6000, as cost to produce isn’t always the price floor of an item. Mining operations won’t just turn the power off once BTC falls below $6000, as they have a lot of fixed costs they will still need to cover. We could easily see BTC drop below $6000 in the next few weeks, or we could even see it rise and try to break its resistance zone at $7400. It is constantly brought up concerning the crash from $19,950 to $5700, that it will never recover to its previous highs, the common common argument against that is to look at its previous crashes. In 2012, it fell from $7.38 to $3.8, which was a 49% drop. In 2013, we saw a drop from $260 to $45, a 83% drop. In 2015, $1163 to $152.4, a 87% drop. This last drop, from $19,665 to 6000 was 70% drop. Will history repeat itself and will we recover back to previous highs? Only time will tell. Are they improving our intelligence or making us stupid and violent? Research shows that by constantly distracting us, the internet affects cognitive performance, but does not radically alter our brains. There is simply no experimental evidence to show that living with new technologies fundamentally changes brain organization in a way that affects one’s ability to focus. When individuals try to do two or more things at once that require their attention, their performance suffers. Multitasking on the internet paradoxically makes users less effective at switching from one task to another. Now with violence: the American Psychological Association concluded that playing violent video games accentuates aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior while diminishing empathy for victims. An asset allocation that has never lost money over rolling 6-month periods. If you want a portfolio to not have any losses over short rolling periods (less than 10 months), then simply invest all your capital in 30-day US Treasury bills. If you want a portfolio to not have any losses over a three-year rolling period, then allocate your capital to small-cap equities, precious metals, intermediate-term US Treasuries and long-term US Treasuries. (These asset allocations are based on historical data, a 45-year exam period, when small-cap stocks did exceptionally well and Treasuries and precious metals were excellent diversifiers. These strategies were great ways to not lose money, but to gain market or above-market returns, not so great.) Lehman, Happy 10 year Anniversary! Banks had too much debt and too little equity. Now, theres a safer banking system (strengthened capital buffers, more responsible approaches to balance sheets and better liquidity management) and a more robust payments and settlement system. But, the misconception of the collapse of Lehman Brothers causing the crisis is not true. There are more factors in play than Lehman filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A drop in fertility rates may cause future trouble. Global fertility rates have dropped to about 2.4 from 5 in the 1960s. 2.1 is the rate required to keep the world’s population stable in the long run. Why is this happening? With advances in agriculture and medicine, people are living longer and fewer children are dying young. Increasing urbanization means families don’t need as many kids to work in the fields. More women are delaying marriage and children for work and education. There is a high correlation between low fertility and higher incomes. If a country’s population stops growing, the pace of its economy’s expansion would be limited to the speed at which productivity (output per hour worked) is rising. If fewer people work, there’s less income to go around. In the world of sports. Yesterday on Thursday night football, Andy Dalton and the Bengals beat the 2013 Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco and his Ravens at home to stay undefeated with a 2-0 record. On Monday, 20-year-old Naomi Osaka beats tennis star Serena Williams in the women’s US Open after accusing umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism. During the game, Ramos gave Williams a code violation following a gesture made to her by her coach which is isn’t allowed during a game, that’s called “coaching”. Ramos penalized Williams again a point later after she smashed her racket in frustration and docked her an entire game again after she called the umpire a “liar” and a “thief” for stealing her point away. Keep Climbing, The Alchanati Campbell and Associates Team Subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/do-SwL Dear Reader,
Money problems, the bears are coming, investing tips (not advice), conquering pain and falling asleep quick & easy. Trouble with paying for the necessities. The economy is doing great, unemployment at a two-decade low, corporate profits at record highs, but 40% of people ages 18 to 64 are facing hardships. Much of the income earned is devoted to fixed expenses like rent or healthcare. If a large, unexpected expense arises, most people simply wouldn’t be able to cover it. Almost 25% of Americans experienced food insecurity last year: didn’t know if they’d be able to eat if they were hungry. The typical worker is making less while the cost of stuff has grown with real average hourly earnings down .2% last month compared with a year before. The bears are coming out of hibernation internationally. Emerging markets have officially entered a bear market, with Argentina, Turkey, and Brazil driving the downturn. The MSCI Emerging Markets index has dropped by 12.5% since May as investors fear increased interest rates and political turmoil. Many of the 23 economies in the index have a high amount of dollar-denominated debt owed in USD. This dollar-denominated debt grows when the Feds increase interest rates because rate hikes increase the value of the USD. As a consequence, what was once a cheap debt has now become a more expensive debt, and investors are in a panic because of it. Another driver of the emerging markets panic is the political inability of the 23 small governments to manage their own currencies. Many of the governments on the list do not have a central bank that has been increasing interest rates alongside the Fed. These governments are unable to keep up with the rising value of the USD, as seen in Argentina, whose currency is now valued at 37 pesos per dollar. Despite the turmoil, we see the panic as a buying opportunity. Investing in the late-cycle. High volatility, expansion in its tenth year, US inflation at its target level… here are 3 investment opportunities for investing in the late-cycle:
Why the school day ends 2 hours before the workday. Both parents work in 50% of married-couple families and 70% of them work from 8am until 5pm. The 8-hour workday started in the early 1900s from labor unions pressuring corporations to be more lenient on the backbreaking schedules. But, the American school day never adapted. 19th-century school reformers wanted a nationwide, standard 6 and a half hour, 5 days a week school year schedule. Why some feel less pain. Mindfulness is related to being aware of the present moment without too much emotional reaction or judgment. Mindful people feel less pain. People with higher mindfulness ratings had less activation in the posterior cingulate cortex (a central neural node of the default mode network) and experienced less pain. On fire. The U.S. Department of Labor released their report today, in which they supported what Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Fed, said a few weeks ago. Basically, this economy is good. Really good. Some might even say it's on fire. The unemployment rate is still at 3.9%, which is one of the lowest we've ever seen. Non-farm payroll employment increased to 201,000 this past month, which is a fancy way of saying that the U.S. economy added 201,000 jobs. This number is higher than the estimated number of 196,000. Of equal or greater importance, the wage growth is at 2.9% over the past year. However, over the same time period, inflation also grew 2.9%. This leads to a pretty stagnant level of real growth. Moreover, some think that this period of intense wage growth and inflation at the same time is a precursor to the economy burning out, which would be bad, very bad. Interestingly, Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's lead economist, reported that wage growth is even higher than what the Labor Department is reporting, as the department's report does not include certain benefits and bonuses among other factors. The military secret to falling asleep in two minutes. Relax the muscles in your face, including the tongue, jaw and the muscles around your eyes. Drop your shoulders as far down as they’ll go, followed by your upper and lower arm, one side at a time. Breathe out, relaxing your chest followed by your legs, starting from the thighs and working down. Then spend 10 seconds trying to clear your mind before thinking about one of these images:
When (if mass adoption will come), how will it make way? In my opinion, there are two possible ways that blockchain can fast-track to mass adoption, and these ways are either by being a hold of value (while other currencies fail around the world) or by providing utility to the market. The main industry that people think blockchain will influence, is the financial sector. Financial Times released an article in late 2017 where they asked a dozen seasoned bankers, consultants, and analysts, how they thought blockchain could benefit the banking industry. They responded with clearings and settlements (which deals with the actual cash transaction for the security and updating the user's account), global payments, trade finance (domestic and international trade transactions), verifying identity, and loans. With this being said, Goldman Sachs is currently looking into adding a crypto-focused unit which could help with further implementation. With Goldman Sachs and other banks potentially looking into incorporating blockchain into their already working systems, it provides legitimacy to the future of uses for blockchain technology. To bring up another point, how much do you think it is costing Goldman Sachs and these other corps. to look further into blockchain? Probably isn’t cheap. In the world of sports. “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." In 2013, Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers notched an 11-4-1 record earning a spot to play the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII. Starting under center in the biggest football game of his life, Colin Kaepernick began his decline. Losing to Joe Flacco by a score of 34–31 handed the 49ers their first Super Bowl loss in franchise history. Next season Kaepernick went 12-4 losing to the Seahawks in the conference championship game. 2014/2015 was the end of his playing days, his team went 8-8 with Kaepernick losing his starting job before being sidelined for the final couple months with a shoulder injury. Colin Kaepernick has become bigger than football since he refused to stand up for the national anthem before a preseason game in late August 2016. Fighting for what he believes in, Kaepernick has become an icon in the fight against racial injustice and police brutality. He hasn't suited up since 2016 but now stars in Nike's new ad campaign. Staying with the NFL, week 1 of the regular season kicked off last night with the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles squaring off at home against the visiting Atlanta Falcons. Keep Climbing, The Alchanati Campbell and Associates Team Subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/do-SwL Dear Reader,
Alcohol, energy, metal straws, the yield curve, STDs, Apple… enjoy the longer read for the longer weekend. “I get drunk because it tastes good…” The harm from alcohol worldwide increases with each additional drink per day. For each set of 100,000 people who have one drink a day per year, 918 can expect to experience one of the 23 alcohol-related problems in any year. At two drinks per day, the number increases to 977. The current population level of average daily drinks is 1.9 for women and 3.2 for men. Out with the old, in with the new… For those unaware, the Trump Administration has held a less-than-favorable stance on NAFTA, the North American (that’s us, Canada, and Mexico) Free Trade Agreement. Everything that NAFTA does (removing tariffs/barriers, promoting economic growth/increasing competitiveness in global market) is crucial for our country and its consumers. Still, Donald Trump ordered that NAFTA be renegotiated back in January. This week, the United States and Mexico came to terms on a bilateral agreement. What Changed? The two countries came to terms on changes for auto-manufacturing - now, 75% of parts used in cars sold in North America must be made in the two countries. Wages for the workers in the auto-manufacturing industry are also going up. This new deal is going to last for 16 years, and every 6 years will allow opportunity for revision. While President Trump is a fan of separate, bilateral trade deals with each country (i.e. a separate deal for both Canada and Mexico), Canadian and Mexican officials have expressed interest for a trilateral deal between all three countries. The United States gave Canada until today to come to terms in the negotiations with the two countries. Alas, that didn’t quite happen today, and President Trump is moving forward with United States-Mexico deal. However, negotiations will resume next Wednesday with Canada so that they may enter the deal. Let's hope that a fair deal may be reached in the coming weeks. Energy at its cleanest… California lawmakers approved a measure mandating that all electricity come from wind, solar and other clean sources by 2045. 29% of California’s current consumption of energy is coming from renewable energy. Solar and wind are the cheapest sources of electricity in some regions and some say California can get to 100% in 15 years. An Apple worth a trillion… Apple has now become the first modern day American company to have a market value of $1 trillion, thats $1,000,000,000,000. What’s next for Apple? According to company insiders, more iPhones! The trillion dollar giant will be announcing three new iPhone in the coming month in order to help sustain future growth in a market that has cooled off in recent years. Apple is said to be releasing a model similar to the iPhone X, but will substitute the OLED screen for a LCD making it cheaper for consumers, as well as a large iPhone measuring 6.5 inches diagonally, and finally a model similar to the X, but with upgraded components. With 2019 just around the corner, it’s promising to be the inaugural year of the long anticipated 5G network. Apple has not made mention of any 5G capabilities even though other companies already have phones with 5G ready receivers. When 4G launched, Apple waited until the technology was reliable and practical before launching a phone with 4G capability and we are likely to see that next year after the launch of 5G. The future looks bright for the world’s most valuable company as they prepare to launch new iPhones, iWatches, iPads, into a 5G ready world where we are even more reliant on technology. Warren Buffet also agrees, considering Berkshire Hathaway just acquired a $46.6 billion stake in Apple. Metal straws… First it was plastic bags, then eating utensils, and now, plastic straws. More than a dozen coastal cities prohibited plastic straws this year, but the number 1 man-made contaminant in the world’s oceans is the cigarette butt. The next thing that may be banned is the cigarette filter… The market is going to crash, we are all going to die… So, what is this whole “flattening yield curve” panic all about? On December 31, 2007, the yield rate difference between 3-Month and 10-Year treasury notes was (68) basis points. As of yesterday, the spread between each stands hazardously close at (75) basis points. Why does this matter? Yield rates for short-term treasury notes tend to increase as investors expect interest rate tightening by the Fed and market deleveraging. Long-Term rates react inversely to this, decreasing in lue of the same expectations. When the Fed signals that it will be increasing interest rates, the two phenomena coincide, leading to what is known as a “flattening yield curve”. When the yield curve is flattening, like what is happening now, the market is in a sense signaling that it is anticipating a correction. What’s most concerning about this flattening is its forecasted inversion; something analysts at Morgan Stanley say will happen mid 2019. Since 1975, when ever short-term yields have exceed long-term yields (when ever the yield curve has inverted) recession has always followed. *No one will outright say that there will be a recession soon, but based on the flattening yield curve, we predict that there will be one in the near future.* 2.3 million cases in 2017 alone… 2017 marked the 4th straight year of sharp increases in gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia. The trend is exacerbated by the fact that gonorrhea could soon become resistant to antibiotic treatment. Since 2013, syphilis cases have risen 76%, gonorrhea 67% and chlamydia is the most commonly reported with 1.7 million cases in 2017. Lack of screening, stagnant federal funding for prevention efforts, decrease in condom use and more accessibility through dating apps are the reasons for the rise. Go get checked. Questions answered… There isn’t a definitive answer to most of these questions, as we have a basic understanding of why blockchain is needed in our current environment and how it will impact the average person in the future. With that being said, we really don’t know how/if it will change our financial institutions into the future, to be honest the only thing that is really definitive is that the early days of blockchain is now, and its here to stay. Imagine a currency that doesn’t require third party centralized institutions to issue/validate the currency, and has no opportunity for counterfeits. Now take that currency, and put it in the hands of a decentralized community to validate all transactions through the blockchain, and give the possibility for another body of people to earn an income by mining the coin (which we will talk about at a later date). In its most simplest form, “bitcoin is a form of electronic cash utilizing the decentralized ledger from blockchain, that doesn’t need a central bank/institution to run”. With bitcoin, you could make a transfer between a US citizen and a CN citizen within 30 minutes, with a minimal fee, at any time/date. In the world of sports. “If I panic, everyone else panics.” Spoken like a true leader, this quote by Lakers legend Kobe Bryant sums up what it takes to stand up and not be afraid. Staying with the NBA for now, Cavs forward, Kevin Love, says he wants to help kids with mental health problems overcome them. He’s not the first to discuss this topic. DeMar DeRozan of the Spurs also talked to the Players’ Tribune last season about how mental health in the NBA is real and even though they are taller and more athletic than the average Joe, super star athletes also go through normal people problems. With football less than a week away, we open up our season with the Falcons heading into the defending champion Eagles on Thursday night football. The NFL released a new rule this summer in the name of player safety, which strictly defines what players are allowed to do with their helmets. The rule is there to completely eliminate crown of helmet contact from player to player. From a leagues perspective, there should definitely be less concussions; but from the players perspective, this completely changes football as they know it. Last night, the New York Jets traded Teddy Bridgewater to the New Orleans Saints. Bridgewater, who’s 25, is on his second move in six months. Stay tuned to hear how the season kicks off. Keep Climbing, The Alchanati Campbell and Associates Team Subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/do-SwL |
AuthorWHAT'S UP FRIDAY? is a weekly newsletter that will give you a summary of "What's up?" on Wall Street, in the US and around the World written by The Alchanati Campbell and Associates Team. What makes us unique is we focus on long-term knowledge; knowledge that will still be useful to you 10 years from now. Archives
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