Good afternoon,
We start this week with some sad tech news, Bill and Melinda Gates have announced that they’re divorcing, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/bill-gates-and-melinda-gates-are-splitting-up.html
That’s too bad. Word on the street is that they do not have a prenup, which I find a little hard to believe as Bill was already a gozillionaire before they married, but either way, I’m sure they’ll be fine. And the Gates Foundation will continue as a philanthropic force in the world. It does remind us, or more specifically reminds me, that every marriage, and every business partnership, ends eventually, either with a death or a divorce. So it’s much better to plan for either, or both, of those outcomes before they become reality. A prenup is a good idea, especially if either of the parties have any assets at the outset of the marriage. And a pre-negotiated buy/sell agreement is a good idea when entering into any sort of business partnership. Better to get the unpleasantness of those activities out of the way early while communication is good, before anything bad has a chance to happen.
Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting was this past Saturday. Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger chimed in with their wisdom and sage advice, like they’ve been doing for decades and decades. Normally held in front of a live crowd in Berkshire’s home city of Omaha, this year was done livestream online from Los Angeles. The annual event, commonly called “Woodstock for capitalists,” treated the audience to their usual down home selves as they held forth on various topics, investment and otherwise. And at 90 and 97 years old respectively with more than 100 years of successful investment experience between them, way more, they have earned the right to say pretty much whatever they want. Which they do, usually, but not always in a mostly diplomatic fashion. No spoiler alerts here, so if you want to read what happened at the meeting, here are a few links, enjoy…
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/01/berkshire-hathaway-meeting-live-updates.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-charlie-munger-talk-194458200.html
I’ve mentioned Peter Schiff in the WMR before. He owns an investment company and a gold and silver company. He is based in Puerto Rico for tax reasons because he doesn’t like taxes. He’s a commentator, he’s written books, he has a podcast, https://www.schiffradio.com/category/podcast/ and he’s never afraid to voice his opinions. Which is why I enjoy paying attention to what he says. He points out the other side of the standard government/media narrative. In recent months he’s been rallying against bitcoin, government spending and inflation. And while he may not be completely right, he’s also not completely wrong. In a blurb last week he says something along the lines of, and I’m paraphrasing, “why should we pay taxes at all? If the government can just print money and it’s not backed by anything real, why don’t they just print the money they need to pay for whatever and not bother collecting taxes?” Which, if you think about it, kind of makes sense in a distorted way. As we’ve quoted Brian Wesbury before, “if printing money was good for the economy then counterfeiting should be legal.”
TSA numbers say that travel is coming back. Not quite to pre-pandemic levels, but on its way.
That’s encouraging news.
Here is some more high frequency data, which is data that is reported either daily or weekly, https://www.ftportfolios.com/common/contentfileloader.aspx?contentguid=29a8d578-379d-43a2-bd43-54b0407395db
It compares data from 2019, 2020 and YTD 2021 for things such as jobless claims, hotel occupancy, box office receipts and the like. As you might expect, so far in 2021 most are much better than 2020, but still not back to pre-lockdown levels. This is all good news as the economy reopens and people begin going about their business once again.
And since I mentioned airline travel, I’m just wondering, but if you happen to have a baby during a flight, unintentionally of course, will the airline send you a bill for another ticket?
Mom and baby are fine.
In other hopeful news, after more than a year, Disneyland in California is open again. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/theme-parks/2021/04/30/disneyland-reopening-2021-disney-california-parks-open-after-covid-closure/4881772001/ For now, only open to CA residents with various safety protocols in place and you can’t hug Mickey, but at least they’re open again.
I texted a friend about getting together this week who happened to be in Disney World in FL with his family. His response was “can’t make it this week, I’m in the maskiest place on Earth.” Ok then, maybe next time.
Elon Musk will be hosting Saturday Night Live this week and the news has the market for Dogecoin jumping, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/04/dogecoins-price-is-rising-ahead-of-elon-musks-snl-appearance-.html
For those of us more mature who have to ask “what’s dogecoin?” then never mind, you don’t get it. For those of us younger who have to ask “what’s Saturday Night Live?” exactly, you totally get it.
I learned about Kevin Kelly a couple of years ago on a Tim Ferriss podcast. He’s a former editor/publisher of Wired magazine. He’s also a writer and photographer and conservationist. Generally an interesting guy. At the time he had just turned 68 years old and in honor of that published 68 bits of unsolicited advice. Here is that blurb, https://kk.org/thetechnium/68-bits-of-unsolicited-advice/
Because probably no one asked, he’s out now with 99 more bits of unsolicited advice. Those are here, https://kk.org/thetechnium/99-additional-bits-of-unsolicited-advice/
Some of obvious and some are not. Some are helpful and some are not. So take them for what they’re worth and pick and choose the ones that might apply for you.
This week’s chuckle is not really a chuckle, but an early Blues Brothers appearance on SNL, not their first appearance, but a classic one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWH1Fdkjow
Safe for work.
LF27 – “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools don’t take it.” – Benjamin Franklin.
Have a great week and stay healthy.
The opinions expressed are those of Michael Acho and not necessarily those of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. CRN-3579217-050521
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Michael J. Acho, MBA, CFP®
Private Wealth Advisor
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