Whimsy and Fascism April 4, 2016April 3, 2016 Licorice. Seriously. When was the last time you even heard about licorice? It’s like — wait! “What ever happened to licorice?” Not that it was ever my favorite — but I just realized it’s gone. And has been, seemingly, for decades. So I’m guessing it will soon be back. Discuss. I just received my copies of The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need — ever — even though this is the eighth or ninth edition. They invent IRAs and I have to write a new edition. They invent Index funds and I have to write a new edition. They invent the Internet, and I have to write a new edition. A conspiracy of Innovation. I don’t like it. If you order the paperback here, as a graduation gift — or the eBook here, for yourself — I will have the wherewithal to move to higher ground if the oceans rise as projected Friday. Or maybe I’ll just adopt a puppy. If all this seems a little whimsical (licorice? puppies?), I’d say we need all the whimsy we can get these days. Read, for example, Chris Hedges here: “The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism.” Ouch. Or anything by Norm Ornstein, co-author, in 2012, of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, a 2016 sequel to which Barney Frank has suggested should be titled: It’s Even Worse Than It Was When We Said It’s Even Worse Than It Looks. But I inherited the happy gene, and all we have to do to make things turn out okay — even as one party strives to make it harder for young people and people of color to vote — is vote. It would also help to treat our political adversaries with respect. “With malice toward none,” as a great president once put it. Because at the end of the day, we’re all — in both parties and independent — mostly pretty nice people, wanting the best for the country and the world. We just need to depolarize our politics (and no, it’s not symmetrical, as I’ve argued before) and to take satisfaction in finding common ground solutions to our common challenges. Easier said than done. Buy my book.
How Well Can You Swim? April 1, 2016April 1, 2016 One thing your newborn may need, if he lives in any of the world’s coastal cities, is a pair of flippers. The sea level rise may come much faster than people think. Click here. For those of us who are long-suffering shareholders in Borealis . . . up 10% to $5.80 yesterday on volume of 107 shares, which is to say $600 worth, less than you might spend on an office chair . . . here is an analysis of the value of the “time savings” its WheelTug subsidiary could unlock. (Not included in the AirInsight analysis: any credit for savings on jet fuel or engine maintenance, nor any allowance for “the twist” that could double or triple those time savings by allowing passengers to board and deplane from the front and rear doors.) It works out to about $1 billion a year for giant carriers like American or Southwest, so maybe $20 billion industrywide. And double or triple that, eventually, with “the twist” and other savings added in. WheelTug’s business model is to lease the systems for half the savings. Obviously, they will never, ever — ever — see the kind of revenues that would imply. But they don’t have to net billions of dollars a year for parent Borealis, with 5 million shares outstanding, to be worth more than $5.80 a share ($30 million). Will short-haul aircraft one day all have WheelTug capability? None does now. I like to think it’s analogous to TV remote controls. For years, not a single TV was sold with a remote. But once they were invented? Who today would buy a TV without a remote control? AirInsight links to a more detailed analysis of pushback savings from the company itself. Caution, as always: BOREF shares are only for money you can truly afford to lose (as those of us who paid as much as $16 a share surely recognize); and trade so thinly, they must only be purchased with “limit” orders, so you don’t accidentally pay a lot more than you expected to. Have a great weekend.