You Think It’s Rough NOW . . . January 14, 2024January 14, 2024 Former Republican Steve Schmidt worked to elect George W. Bush and, later, to defeat Barack Obama. Wikipedia credits him with having helped get R0berts and Alito onto the Supreme Court. Should Trump Win, he writes, the story is just beginning. NETFLIX What a perfect weekend to watch Rustin — the man who made MLK’s March on Washington happen. He had a dream, too. CORRECTION David P.: “Last week you wrote << During the Biden presidency, incomes have outpaced inflation. >> That’s really misleading. → David’s right. I shouldn’t have taken that link at face value. Drilling down, I now see it meant GROSS incomes — of the entire working population, which has expanded robustly and consistently for the past three years. A very good thing — but quite different from the implication that AVERAGE incomes have outpaced inflation throughout his presidency. I’ve amended that post, to say “lately” incomes have outpaced inflation . . . and linked instead to — Wages Are Finally Outpacing Inflation — which is worth reading. UPDATE After I suggested “my latest folly” Thursday, several of you asked whether, having run up from the 15 cents I paid to nearly 40 cents now, I thought RNGE was still worth buying. I gave basically two answers. The first was that — recognizing that stocks often fall back after a sharp run-up — one way to do this is to bet just 25% as much as you would have if it hadn’t run up. If it never falls back, enjoy your gains on this small bet. Otherwise, enjoy buying the rest of your position at a lower price. The second answer was that maybe that’s “too smart by half” (or, in this case, 75%). A friend who knows the company well says he has no clue where the stock will be in three years. And, of course, that’s true: he doesn’t, and neither do I. But, he told, me, when, recently, he had an opportunity to swap some options that give him the right to buy shares at $1.60 for something of more concrete value . . . he decided not to. He thinks there’s a reasonable chance the stock will be higher than $1.60 three years from now. Should that be the case, it won’t have much mattered whether you paid 25 cents or 50 cents for yours. I just want to stress: ONLY with money you can truly afford to lose.