CULTURE, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS

Ford. Fabulous Still? If It Runs On Gas, It’s Time Is Running Out.

AUGUST 2, 2019. Summer’s end always seems near when the calendar opens on August. Who doesn’t feel it? The pool splashes on, but not the same. Seasons’ change fills the air, and it fills the air for Ford.
It’s been 116 years since the T and 57 more since the Mustang. Every Ford from then to now has been pushed by gas. Gas is now sad. As the planet chokes the auto industry shambles for form–compact, sedan, gas, big, small, diesel, shared, hailed, hybrid, or EV. It’s the menu at McDonald’s.
Some say the Germans are in the lead, again, soon to be offering real choice. The Chevy Volt’s a joke, and the Toyota Prius isn’t. The Tesla galaxy’s in trouble. Musk’s on a leash, as is our Great Electric Hope.
America’s need is grand and we hate limits. Besides, where you gonna plug-in?
Ford’s trucked between the battery technology rock, and the environmental hard case. Meanwhile the company lives on big produces that rely on cheap gas. Now they’re livin’ on a big dividend promise as well. The vice is closing, socially, despite the price of gas and the shale revolution. If it runs on gas its’ time is running out. Ford. Fabulous Still? (Lead photo; Sunset over Detroit.)

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CREDIT CARDS, GREEDY CREEP, INVESTING, MEDIA, MONEY, THE AMERICAN DREAM, THINKING NOW

Oops…Somebody’s Thinking.

JULY 21, 2019. Savvy people have no “betters.” They realize complaining accomplishes Fa King nothing. Savvy people only do so after the work is done, and just for fun. Shaking the robbers off of your money is like soaking the sump pump stink out of old shoes.
Wall Street’s job is to lie and steal, concoct and on occasion create, a moment you can actually use. No sump pump on the planet’s strong enough to suck that stink out of Wall Street. No juke you can throw will fully dodge their busy hands.
However, you can keep things relatively fair when it comes to your retirement and investments.
No one-time fix exists. It’s more about containment, while creating your own good. “Oops…Somebody’s Thinking.” Nice.

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BUSINESS, EDITOR'S DESK, EDITORIAL, INVESTING, MONEY, Reader's Choice

Blind Investing by Fidelity. It’s More Fun Without Those Pesky Facts.

JULY 18, 2019. Someone wants your help with their Fidelity retirement account you say? Nice. Fidelity’s literally got that covered. Their “Limited trading authority’s” darkly ingenious. Just close your eyes and select.
Who doesn’t enjoy a blindfold for a car rite, or while investing? Handcuffs and half-facts too. Relax, it’s only your nest egg. All mutual finds smell different over the phone. Besides, investing research grows dull when you can actually see the facts.
Admit it. Everybody loves game show-style retirement navigating. Details muck everything up. Fidelity’s unique Zero-View format is for anyone attempting to help a participant in any of the retirement plans they manage. How? Fidelity snaps off the lights and instructs you to ask questions, over the phone. Two ways past this bat-mad lunacy. “Blind Investing by Fidelity.”

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CULTURE, EDITOR'S DESK, FUNDAMENTALS, GREEDY CREEP, INVESTING, TECHNICALS, THINKING NOW

Turd Spotting. Roku. The New Cable.

JULY 5, 2019. Facebook didn’t charge you up-front. FB played your back side, the data usage shell game. Roku does both and more. Roku deceives you up-front, charges you for their device, then leverages an account and a c card to activate what you already paid for, tracks your every move, pimps you with the ads you sought to dodge, shares your personal and viewing data, and then assists others in their attempts to target and track you. Roku is the new cable, on steroids.
Free was never free and Facebook illustrated such. The old East Germany was never free and the Stasi showed that. Today many simply flip their privacy away like a cigarette butt. Years ago Zuckerberg declared blithely that “privacy is dead.” FB then created the standard of contempt for “privacy” in the digital age. None. Like Daniel Ortega he’s now on the other side of that. Whatever it takes.
Along came TiVo, and their DVR surveillance platform. TiVo brought advertisers right on to your sofa. Only one step remained. Direct surveillance. Apple’s now got that covered–auditory and visual surveillance. No? Sharp consumers found the Apple camera in their digital assistant. There’s also Mitsubishi TV. They also tell you, after you buy and install.
Is it only Us? Little things create character. Roku is dishonest, by omission. “So what?” Dishonesty displays contempt. Dishonesty in business displays contempt for both you, and the business you bring. Honesty means saying “Credit card required to activate.”
But they don’t. If Roku games you like that from the very start, what else do you think they’re willing to do? Sj shows you.
Contempt, “the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless.” -Google. That’s why Sj is “Turd Spotting. Roku. The New Cable.”

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CREDIT CARDS, CULTURE, Editor's Choice, EDITOR'S DESK, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MONEY, STOCKS

JPM Beaten Like a Brexit Goat. “But Still All Good–For Now.”

JUNE 27, 2019. Alexander Bell wasn’t thinking banking when he unwound some wire to create a connection. Quaint it seems now, the notion of telephones for talking.  Who talks?  Phones are for textual grunts, photos, useless apps, and moving money.  Nothing stays the same, and caring just gets in the way.  That’s why there are museums. That’s also like our big, old, banks.  Soon they will need parks, just like dinosaurs, for those who wish to remember.
Moving money used to be hard, and physical.  Slow and expensive marred the experience while Western Union provided the piratical pricing.  Western Union increasingly looks like Xerox, a company looking for a future.  It’s about to get much worse for them.
JPM is far more than either of those dinos, and more then a money mover.  But who cares?
Many would say JPM is the best at what it does  However some of what it does is caught in a costly change, and under pressure.  Should you want any? Commissioner Gordon could be about to hard-beam the Bat Signal over big banking.

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FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS, TECHNICALS

Looking Larger. Arcing Farther. Find Harris There.

JUNE 19, 2019.  It’s been seven months since James Mattis occupied the role of Secretary of Defense.  Now we have nominee and long-acting Secretary Patrick Shanahan sinking in a boiling scandal of domestic chaos and violence, a cover-up, and suspect harboring regarding his son and an assault with a baseball bat.  Shanahan has playing a high-level decider role in Pentagon procurement actions.
Many contractors troll the beltway and the Crystal Palace clocking very big D.C. business.  But who’s shares skated up 2.24% yesterday?  And who’s technology now feeds the date-ravenous brain of the F-35 joint strike fighter?  And who’s share price has cranked 45.8% year-to-date, but yet remains affordable on a growth adjusted basis?  That would be the high-flying yet quiet Harris Corporation.
We’d never heard of Harris.  Now we know and we’re sharing what we learned with you.
We only paid up moderately for the chance to participate in a sprawling multiyear global defense modernization program. The program rolls fast on a systematically growing budget, already authorized, yet still in the early stages.  Harris is there, on multiple fronts.  You can be too. 
  

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