1. Landmark Event….4000 Global Bonds with Negative Yield to Zero….The End of Negative Yielding Debt in Our Lifetime?

Jim Reid Deutsche Bank-A landmark event, especially as 2 years ago we had $18.4tn globally and over 4000 bonds with a negative yield. Will we ever see the 2014-2022 era again? Before this point most people would have thought negative-yielding debt was an inconceivable concept. While there is no value in buying negative yielding debt, especially in a fiat world where inflation will always likely be positive, you can’t rule out central banks having to buy large amounts of debt again in the future. However, for now this looks set to be the welcome end of an era as some value returns to global fixed income

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2. Foreign Currencies Rally

Bullish Move …Euro-50 day thru 200day to Upside

Japanese Yen Closes Above 200 day Moving Average

www.stockcharts.com

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3. Crypto is Not a Currency -Grid Comparing Crypto to Global Currencies.

Nasdaq Dorsey Wright

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4. Final Sector Performance 2022-Consumer Discretionary Down Almost  -10% More Than Tech

From Jack Ablin-Cresset

https://cressetcapital.com/post/recap-2022-outlook-2023/

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5. Consumer Discretionary-Americans Excess Savings Continue to Dwindle

The Daily Shot Blog Excess savings continue to dwindle, pointing to softer consumption ahead.

Morgan Asset Management Read full article

https://dailyshotbrief.com/

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6. Homebuilder Stocks Resilient

XHB Homebuilder ETF Bullish Signal 50day thru 200day to Upside?

Longer-Term Weekly Chart-The ETF Never Broke 200 Week Moving Average

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7. New Home Google Search 2021 vs. 2022 ..Big Year Over Year Search Declines.

Salt Lake home builders take notice of the massive shift from buying to renting.
As of October, Salt Lake had seen the biggest decline in new home search, & the least decline in single-family home rental search.
Biggest/least YOY search declines:
* New Homes: Salt Lake/DC
* Existing Homes: San Diego/Vegas
* Apts: W. Palm/Minn.
* SF rental: San Fran/Salt Lake(+2%)/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnburns7/

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8. Byron Wien Famous 10 Surprises Predictions

The Ten Surprises of 2023-Byron Wien Blackstone

1. Multiple candidates on both sides of the aisle organize campaigns to secure their party’s presidential nomination. There are new headliner names on the respective tickets for 2024.
2. The Federal Reserve remains in a tug-of-war with inflation, so it puts the word “pivot” on the shelf alongside the word “transitory.” The fed funds rate moves above the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index and real interest rates turn positive, a rare phenomenon relative to the last decade.
3. While the Fed is successful in dampening inflation, it over-stays its time in restrictive territory. Margins are squeezed in a mild recession.
4. Despite Fed tightening, the market reaches a bottom by mid-year and begins a recovery comparable to 2009.
5. Every significant correction in the market has in the past been accompanied by a financial “accident.” Cryptocurrencies had a major correction and that proved not to be a systemic event. This time, Modern Monetary Theory is fully discredited because deficits have proven to be inflationary.
6. The Fed remains more hawkish than other central banks, and the US dollar stays strong against major currency pairs, including the yen and euro. This creates a generational opportunity for dollar-based investors to invest in Japanese and European assets.
7. China edges toward its growth objective of 5.5% and works aggressively to re-establish strong trade relationships with the West, with positive implications for real assets and commodities.
8. The US becomes not only the largest producer of oil, but also the friendliest supplier. The price of oil drops primarily as a result of a global recession, but also because of increased hydraulic fracking and greater production from the Middle East and Venezuela. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude touches $50 this year, but there’s a $100 tick out there sometime beyond 2023 as the world recovers.
9. The bombardment, destruction and casualties in Ukraine continue for the first half of 2023. In the second half, the combination of suffering and cost on both sides necessitates a ceasefire and negotiations on a territorial split begin.
10. In spite of the reluctance of advertisers to continue to support the site and the skepticism of creditors about the quality of the firm’s debt, Elon Musk gets Twitter back on the path to recovery by the end of the year.

The “Also Rans” of 2023

11. Because of medical breakthroughs across the board, many people decide on a cryogenic burial, expecting to be defrosted when a cure for the disease that caused their demise is discovered. Funeral homes across the country advertise that “It’s Nice to Be On Ice.”
12. A technology breakthrough in reducing the carbon emissions of coal-fired plants takes the edge off the climate / global warming scare. This lowers the political pressure on emerging markets to make a rapid transition to renewable energy sources.
13. India begins to compete seriously to win/retain the manufacturing base that started looking for a new home after becoming increasingly uneasy with the uncertainty that has continuously surrounded US–China policies. The country initiates a campaign to attract global multinationals, focusing on its young population, relatively low income and growing consumer market, and prioritizing policies that incentivize investment in the auto, energy, pharma and tech sectors. Apple and Samsung are a proof of concept after successfully producing their respective flagship phones for global markets.

https://www.blackstone.com/insights/article/byron-wien-and-joe-zidle-the-ten-surprises-of-2023/

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9. The End of Cash in Society Means the End of Bank Robberies

From Morning Brew Newsletter https://www.morningbrew.com/daily

Denmark did not have a single bank robbery last year. This could explain why.

Natalie Neysa AlundUSA TODAY

In a near cashless country, the number of bank robberies in Denmark remarkably dipped to zero last year, a new financial report shows.

In 2021, the Nordic country saw one bank robbery – down from 222 two decades ago, according to data from Finance Denmark, an industry group for lenders. 

Last year, it reported none.

Bank heists in the Scandinavian country have declined steadily since 2000, Michael Busk-Jepsen, director of digitalization at Finance Denmark, told USA TODAY Tuesday.

Increased camera surveillance, improved alarm systems and stronger cooperation with the police have helped to bring the number down, he said. In addition, beefed-up security, a reduce used of cash and a dramatic decrease in the number of Danish cashiers also helped.

Of the some 800 bank branches in Denmark, he said, less than two dozen still have staff handling cash deposits and cash withdrawals. Most customers use one of the approximate 2,000 ATMs in the country.

“And the reduction in the number of cashiers in Denmark is largely due to the fact that most payments in Denmark are made by payment cards or other digital payment options,” Busk-Jepsen said.

According to the Danish Central Bank, in 2021 only 12% of payments in physical shops in Denmark were made by cash. In 2017 the same figure was 23%, he said.

How many bank robberies were reported in the US?

Last year’s bank robbery numbers in the United States were not available as of Tuesday, but according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 1,724 of them took place in 2021, up 224 from the year prior when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

What other countries are headed cashless?

Norway, Finland and New Zealand are countries closest to becoming cashless, followed by Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK, Singapore and the Netherlands, according to research published by Merchant Machine.

Here’s how the U.S. compares with some other nations in the push to go cashless, according to a late November survey byYouGov Plc for Bloomberg that showed how frequently respondents said they rarely or never used cash in transactions.

• United Kingdom: 57%
• Canada: 55%
• U.S. 47%
• France: 44%
• Italy: 28%

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on

Twitter @nataliealund. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/01/04/denmark-reports-no-bank-robberies-going-cashless/10983028002/?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew

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10. 4 New Year’s Resolutions You Should Make (and Keep) to Guarantee Your Success

By Gary Vaynerchuk | 

As the year comes to a close, people are naturally going to be talking about their New Year’s resolutions and setting goals for self-improvement. But want to know what I think you should really be focusing on in the new year? These four ways to further your career and be successful at whatever it is that you do:

1. Become a deep practitioner in something.

Whether you do it for your business or just for yourself as a hobby, practice something on a deep level. One of the reasons my agency VaynerMedia has grown to be such a leader in our industry is because I use social media every single day. I understand the trigger points that make things successful in a creative world. I also understand the context of the platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. There hasn’t been a single one of my more than 200,000 tweets that I haven’t sent myself.

So, whether it’s Instagram, Snapchat or something new, become a practitioner. Stop judging what people are doing or saying and just engage.

2. Audit your 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Back in the days of my first big keynotes and my first book, Crush It, I began to get obsessed with the time period between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. I do not think that there is a more practical self-improvement goal or way to bring happiness and joy to your life, whether it’s financial or creative, than to really audit how you spend your time between 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.

I am quite practical about things; it might not be what people expect from me, but I am. That time between when the traditional work day ends and when you fall asleep is the white space for people to do great things around their work. Whether that’s advancing your career by staying in the office late, or going home and building out your cooking blog or SoundCloud account, use that time more wisely.

3. Practice self-awareness.

I went on this kick publicly for the 18 months and, personally, my entire life. I believe self-awareness is the greatest gift a person can have. Having tried to tackle finding self-awareness, I promise—if, out of this entire article, you make just this self-improvement goal a priority—you will grow happier and more successful. 

4. Eliminate complaining.

Looking at the negative, seeing the glass as half-empty and complaining are the absolute biggest wastes of time a human being can engage in. I highly recommend, whether it is through therapy or just kicking the habit, that you cut your complaining in half until you are no longer used to just doing it without thinking.

Systematically. Post-it notes. Listening to positive podcasts. Doing mediation. Whatever helps you complain less. It truly is one of the biggest roadblocks to success, both professionally and personally. I would be remiss not to have it on this list.

This post originally appeared on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

This article was published in December 2015 and has been updated. Photo by Inside Creative House/Shutterstock

https://www.success.com/4-new-years-resolutions-you-should-make-and-keep-to-guarantee-your-success

1.Q4-Vanguard International Stock Index +13% vs. S&P +7.4%

www.yahoofinance.com

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2. Don’t Follow the Most Crowded Trades….Nov 2022 MOST CROWDED

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3.Most Crowded Long Dollar Trade…….Dollar ETF Straight Down Since November …Breaks 50day then 200day

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4. Second Most Crowded Short China….MSCI China ETF +40% Since November Low

www.stockcharts.com

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5. Classic Behavioral Finance…China Big Rally After Record Outflows

Dave Lutz at Jones Trading International investors pulled about $7.9 billion from China’s equity markets in October through the Stock Connect program, the second-largest monthly drawdown in the history of the trading link – Outflows picked up in recent days as global investors reacted negatively to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s cementing of power with a third term as the country’s paramount leader, WSJ reports.

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6. Last Count MicroStrategy Owned 130,0000 Bitcoins

MSTR was first stock to make big crypto bet with its cash…breaking thru Covid lows….$1300 to $141

MicroStrategy Price to Sales Ratio 2010-2022 | MSTR. 12x Sales to 3x Sales 2 years

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MSTR/microstrategy/price-sale

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7. Gold Rallied in December….Outperforming the Rest of Commodities.

Gold Vs. Commodity Index …50day thru 200day to upside.

www.stockcharts.com

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8. U.S. GDP Survives Recessions and Keeps on Moving Higher

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/23/why-everyone-thinks-a-recession-is-coming-in-2023.html

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9. EV Fleet Set to Reach 30% by 2035

Between 2030 and 2035, electric vehicles will make up 15% to 33% of the passenger vehicle fleet in Europe and the US, and EV charging will be truly mass market

Ryan Fisher

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-20/electric-vehicle-charging-investment-approaches-the-100-billion-mark?leadSource=uverify%20wall&sref=GGda9y2L

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10. 3 Types of Soft Skills Employers Look for Today

Soft skills, like any other skills, can be mastered with enough practice.

KEY POINTS

• When it comes to professionalism, employers look for someone who understands how their own actions affect the work as a whole.
• Critical thinking requires a balance of keeping an open mind and seeking new solutions while mastering established best practices first.
• Mastering the basics of teamwork is one of the best ways to set oneself apart as high-potential leadership material.

More and more employees these days are not used to conforming to the norms of the in-person workplace—nor do they necessarily think they should.

Following months, even years, of remote or hybrid work, many people do not realize how much “just doing their own thing” may make their attitude or behavior maladaptive in the office. Ironically, it is often those with the best technical skills who lack soft skills. Maybe they’ve gotten away with it for so long because they are so good at what they do. Maybe they think they are just not “good at” soft skills. Many more simply have no concept of the incredible power of the old-fashioned basics.

The good news is that soft skills, like any other skills, can be mastered with enough practice.

In a labor market where it is increasingly difficult to stand out based on technical expertise alone, what are the soft skills people would be wise to start building? After all, there are as many soft skills as there are definitions. These are the three top types of soft skills employers are looking for.

1. Professionalism

Professionalism is probably the most abstract of the types of soft skills, and certainly the most dependent on context. What professionalism means in one organization can be very different from what it means in another. In general, what most employers mean when they say they are looking for professionalism is someone who understands how they as an individual affect the work as a whole. That can mean anything from personal performance relative to broad standards, or how one’s behavior impacts the health of the team.

These are the most cited missing basics of professionalism:

·  Self-evaluation: Regularly assessing one’s own thoughts, words, and actions against clear meaningful standards; and one’s own performance against specific goals, timelines, guidelines, and parameters. 

·  Personal responsibility: Staying focused on what one can control directly—principally oneself—and controlling one’s responses in the face of factors outside one’s own control. 

·  Positive attitude: Maintaining and conveying a positive, generous, enthusiastic demeanor in one’s expressions, gestures, words, and tone. 

·  Good work habits: Wellness, self-presentation, timeliness, organization, productivity, quality, follow-through, and initiative. 

·  Interpersonal communication: Attentive listing, observing, and reading; perceiving and empathizing; effective use of words, tone, expressions, and gestures—verbal, written, and otherwise; one-on-one and in groups; in-person and remotely.

2. Critical thinking

Some people (and their managers) fall into the trap of believing their work doesn’t require critical thinking—to use the classic phrase, it’s not “knowledge work.” Whatever your job, knowledge work is not about what you do, but how you think about what you do. Some people understand this but end up reinventing the wheel. Critical thinking requires a balance of keeping an open mind and seeking new solutions while mastering established best practices first.

These are the core basics of critical thinking, no matter what type of work you do:

·  Proactive learning: Keeping an open mind, suspending judgment, questioning assumptions, and seeking out information, technique, and perspective; and studying, practicing, and contemplating to build one’s stored knowledge base, skill set, and wisdom. 

·  Problem-solving: Mastering established best practices—proven repeatable solutions for dealing with regular recurring decisions—to avoid reinventing the wheel. Using repeatable solutions to improvise when addressing decisions that are new but similar. 

·  Decision-making: Identifying and considering multiple options, assessing the pros and cons of each, and choosing the course of action closest to the desired outcome.

3. Teamwork

In today’s working environment of increasingly collaborative relationships, teamwork is a critical skill in every role in any organization. In fact, mastering these basics of teamwork is one of the best ways to set yourself apart as high-potential leadership material:

·  Appreciating context: Reading and adapting to the existing structure, rules, customs, and leadership in an unfamiliar situation. 

·  Citizenship: Accepting, embracing, and observing, not just the rights and rewards, but the duties of membership/belonging/participation in a defined group with its own structure, rules, customs, and leadership. 

·  Service: Approaching relationships in terms of what you have to offer—respect, commitment, hard work, creativity, sacrifice—rather than what you need or want.

·  Playing your position: Doing the part assigned (or relegated) to you to support the larger mission; coordinating, cooperating, and collaborating with others in pursuit of a shared goal; supporting and celebrating the success of others.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/navigating-the-new-workplace/202301/3-types-of-soft-skills-employers-look-for-today

1. Asset Performance Summary Q4 vs. Full 2022

Jim Reid Deutsche Bank

2. Third Worst Year Ever for 60/40

Ben Carlson Blog

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2023/01/2022-was-one-of-the-worst-years-ever-for-markets/

3. Bull vs. Bear Market History

Mikko @Mikkelppolito Pessimists sound smart, optimists retire on beaches.

 

https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

4. Central Banks Bought 400 Tonnes of Gold by September 2022….More than Double the 10 Year Average

Wall Street Silver Twitter @WallStreetSilv

https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv

5. Consumer Discretionary Stock ETF -41% from Highs….Broke to New Lows Post Xmas

www.stockcharts.com

6. Covid Infects 37m in One Day China

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-23/china-estimates-covid-surge-is-infecting-37-million-people-a-day?leadSource=uverify%20wall&sref=GGda9y2L

7. Eli Lilly Weight Loss Drug Could Become the Best-Selling Drug of All Time

NBC News A new weight loss drug could become the best-selling drug of all time. Who can afford it?In 2023, the FDA will likely approve Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug tirzepatide for weight loss — but there’s little indication insurers will widely cover the medication.

By Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time, but concerns are mounting about who will actually be able to afford it.

Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime next year. If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.

Annual sales of tirzepatide could hit a record $48 billion, according to an estimate from Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham. Another Wall Street analyst, Colin Bristow at UBS, estimated the drug would reach $25 billion in annual sales — a figure that would still surpass the record $20.7 billion set by AbbVie’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira in 2021.

Kelly Smith, a spokesperson for Eli Lilly, declined to comment on what tirzepatide will cost. Outside experts said it is possible the drugmaker could price it similarly to Wegovy, which carries a list price of around $1,500 for a month’s supply, and Saxenda, which costs about $1,350 for a month’s supply.

If the FDA confirms the drug’s effectiveness, a “fair” price for tirzepatide could be around $13,000 annually, or around $1,100 a month, said Dr. David Rind, the chief medical officer for the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a research group that helps determine fair prices for drugs.

The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/weight-loss-drug-affordability-rcna60422

LLY Chart Never Even Broke 50day 2021-2022

www.stockcharts.com

8. Honda Profits Fall a Record -33%

Japan’s Honda sees declining profits on semiconductor crunch by YURI KAGEYAMA

Honda Motor Co. cleans a Honda car displayed at its headquarters in Tokyo on July 31, 2018. Honda’s fiscal first quarter profit fell 33% from 2021 as a global computer chip shortage, a pandemic-related lockdown in China and the rising costs of raw materials hurt the Japanese automaker. Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. reported Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, that its profit totaled 149.2 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in the April-June quarter, down from 222.5 billion yen ($1.7 billion) a year earlier. Quarterly sales slipped 7% to 3.8 trillion yen ($28 billion). Credit: AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File

Honda’s fiscal first quarter profit fell 33% from last year as a global computer chip shortage, a pandemic-related lockdown in China and the rising costs of raw materials hurt the Japanese automaker.

Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. reported Wednesday that its profittotaled 149.2 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in the April-June quarter, down from 222.5 billion yen ($1.7 billion) a year earlier. Quarterly sales slipped 7% to 3.8 trillion yen ($28 billion).

Honda kept its profit forecast for the full fiscal year through March 2023 unchanged at 710 billion yen ($5.3 billion).

The semiconductor shortage has hurt all the world’s automakers, including Honda, despite strong demand, and the manufacturers have been scrambling to secure alternative suppliers.

Honda, which makes the Accord sedan, Odyssey minivan and Civic compact, sold about 815,000 vehicles last quarter, down from 998,000 vehicles the same period a year earlier. Auto sales dropped in almost all regions around the world, including Japan, the U.S. and Europe.

“I ask for the understanding from all those who are still waiting for their vehicles and vow that our whole company is doing its utmost to make the deliveries even a day sooner,” Chief Financial Officer Kohei Takeuchi said.

Takeuchi said the semiconductor shortage curtailed motorcycle production as well as car production, adding to uncertainty about future prospects.

Honda said the recent lockdown in Shanghai was among the causes of the shortage in computer chips supply but declined to give specifics.

Although U.S. sales are potentially facing a dent from recession worries and other economic hardships, Takeuchi acknowledged he was more worried about the shortage problem and producing the cars customers were waiting for.

Takeuchi noted that motorcycle sales for the quarter, which grew to 4.25 million motorcycles from 3.88 million a year earlier, were going strong, especially in India. The cheaper yen and cost cuts helped maintain profitability overall, he added.

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-08-japan-honda-declining-profits-semiconductor.html

9. Keeping it Simple for Millennials with Peter Mallouk

10. Small Choices in 2023

Farnam Street Blog Small Habits Make a Big Difference-When we watch people make small choices, like ordering a salad at lunch instead of a burger, the difference of a few hundred calories doesn’t seem to matter much. At the moment, that’s true. These small decisions don’t matter all that much. However, as days turn to weeks and weeks to months and months to years, those tiny repeatable choices compound. Consider another example, saving a little money right now won’t make you a millionaire tomorrow. But starting to save today makes it more likely you will become a millionaire in the future.

https://fs.blog

1.Sector Leadership 2010-2022

Dorsey Wright

https://www.nasdaq.com/solutions/nasdaq-dorsey-wright

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2. Natural Gas Futures in Europe Plunge 77% from Crazy Spike

by Wolf Richter  Record supply of LNG from the US and other sources. Record supply from Norway via pipeline. Conservation, power production shift… It adds up.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

The price of natural gas futures in Europe continues to plunge off its crazy spike last summer. Dutch front-month TTF Natural Gas Futures – a benchmark for northwest Europe – traded today at €82 per megawatt-hour (MWh), down by 77% from the high on August 26, and back to where it had first been in September 2021 (data via Investing.com).

Demographic Trends: Here’s a look at fertility rates in advanced economies.

https://wolfstreet.com/2022/12/28/natural-gas-futures-in-europe-plunge-77-from-crazy-spike-storage-in-the-eu-above-5-year-average-in-germany-87-full/

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3. Yields Tend to Fall After Steep Increases

LPL Research

https://lplresearch.com/2022/12/27/history-says-10-year-treasury-yield-more-likely-to-fall/

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4. Investing Prior to Final Rate Hike

Capital Group

https://www.capitalgroup.com/advisor/pdf/shareholder/MFCPBR-090-1031015.pdf?sfid=1988901890&cid=80904210&et_cid=80904210&cgsrc=SFMC&alias=A-btn-LP-2-CISynCTA

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5. The Famous Telsa Chart Finally Faced Reality…

Tesla Enterprise Value Greater than All Global Automakers Combined with 1/10^th EBITA –

Irrelevant Investor Blog

https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2022/12/28/animal-spirits-the-tesla-crash/

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6. Fertility Slump in U.S.

Source: The Aspen Institute Economic Strategy Group Read full article

The US fertility rate remains below the replacement level.

Source: @jeffsparshott, @greg_ip

https://dailyshotbrief.com/

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7. Annual Installations of Collaborative Robots Doubles Since 2019…Less People=More Robots

Barrons “Postpandemic, there are a lot of jobs that people have decided they don’t want to do,” says Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, an industry trade group.  

Robots appear to be getting a pandemic lift. Global sales hit a record $15.5 billion in 2021 and are on track to grow 10% this year, to around $17 billion, according to the International Federation of Robotics, a trade group. More than 517,000 robotic units were installed globally in 2021, 31% above 2020’s total. Worldwide sales of robotic units will top 600,000 this year, the trade group estimates. 

https://www.barrons.com/articles/robot-jobs-51671667349?mod=past_editions

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8. Retail Theft More than Doubles Post Pandemic

WSJ Although shrink is a perennial problem in retail, it really took off when the pandemic hit. In the five years leading up to 2019, retail shrink grew at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 7%, according to data from the NRF. In 2020, it jumped 47%, and rose another 4% on top of that huge jump in 2021. Some retailers, including Ulta Beauty and Target, have said that shrink has gotten worse again this year. “When times get tough, shrink goes up,” Ulta Beauty Chief Financial Officer Scott Settersten said on the company’s earnings call on Dec. 1. We’ve seen that in retail over a long period of time.” 

By Jinjoo Lee  https://www.wsj.com/articles/shoplifting-stores-problem-11671737792

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9. All Cancelled Flights are Southwest

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/business/southwest-airlines-service-meltdown/index.html

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10. Stop complaining, says billionaire investor Charlie Munger: ‘Everybody’s five times better off than they used to be’

Tom Huddleston Jr.

Charles Munger at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, April 29, 2022.

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Billionaire Charlie Munger thinks we should all be a lot happier.

Munger, the longtime investment partner and friend of fellow billionaire Warren Buffett, says he doesn’t understand why people today aren’t more content with what they have, especially compared to harder times throughout history.

“People are less happy about the state of affairs than they were when things were way tougher,” Munger said earlier this year at the annual meeting of the Daily Journal, the newspaper company where he’s a director.

The 98-year-old noted that he came of age in the 1930s, when Americans everywhere were struggling: “It’s weird for somebody my age, because I was in the middle of the Great Depression when the hardship was unbelievable.”

During that annual meeting, Munger complained that envy is a driving factor for too many people today. Before the early 1800s, there were thousands of years where “life was pretty brutal, short, limited and what have you. [There was] no printing press, no air conditioning, no modern medicine,” he said.

If nothing else, Munger’s sense of widespread envy in today’s world might be right on the money: Recent studies show that roughly 75% of people are envious of someone else in any given year. over 60% upside, analysts say

Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are especially effective at sparking feelings of envy or jealousy, often connecting us with people who only offer highly curated peeks into the positive developments in their lives.

At the meeting, Munger pointed to the work of Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, who has argued that the quality of life around the world has improved dramatically over the past century or two, citing evidence such as longer life expectancies and reduced global poverty.

Critics of Pinker’s work say his views are overly simplified and ignorant of negative aspects of modern life, from growing wealth inequality to the ongoing existence of violence and political instability — factors that can still cause real suffering.

In 2019, Munger downplayed the effects of wealth and income inequality, and claimed that the politicians who were “screaming about it are idiots.”

Some politicians, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have called for tax increases on the ultra-wealthy in recent years. Munger and his estimated net worth of $2.2 billion would likely be subject to those increases.

The billionaire has expressed skepticism about higher taxes on the wealthy in the past, even arguing last year that some inequality is a necessary aspect of a free market economy. At the Daily Journal’s annual meeting this year, he added that most people’s concerns over wealth inequality and criticisms of the extremely wealthy were “motivated” by envy.

“I can’t change the fact that a lot of people are very unhappy and feel very abused after everything’s improved by about 600%, because there’s still somebody else who has more,” Munger said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/27/charlie-munger-stop-complaining-about-wealth-inequality-life-quality.html

 

1. Tesla Buyers 5x More Common in Democratic Counties

From Barry Ritholtz Blog The table above contains the top 10 and bottom 10 Trump-voting NY counties in the 2020 election, showing the percentage of Trump voters, the population, the number of TSLA registrations, and critically, TSLA registrations per 10k population. The result:.  Adjusted for population, Teslas are ~5x more common in heavily Democratic counties than they are in heavily Republican counties. https://ritholtz.com/2022/12/owning-the-libs/

Tesla Breaks 2020 Lows

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2. Top Holdings for Retail Investors …Average Investors Buying Tech on Way Down

https://www.linkedin.com/in/val%C3%A9rie-no%C3%ABl-2530228a/

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3. Big Tech Market Cap Bigger than Central Bank Balance Sheets

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbaird88/

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4. New Bankruptcy Filings…Nothing Yet

Tavi Costa Crescat Capital

@TaviCosta

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5. ROKU…$500 to $39

www.stockcharts.com

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6. Consumer Discretionary Sector Has Given Up All Its Gains Since May 2020

Liz Ann Sonders Schwab

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizannsounders/

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7. Largest Pharma Companies in World

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8. Housing Permits Fall 30%….1.9M to 1.35m

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PERMIT

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9. Percentage of Home Sellers Changing Listing to Rental.

John Burns Real Estate

@RickPalaciosJr

https://twitter.com/RickPalaciosJr

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10. Year-end moves for your financial strategy

Amy Theisen

Share:Investors have seen ups (inflation and interest rates), downs (stock and bond prices), twists and turns this year. One lesson from 2022 is that it’s important to focus on what you can control. This year-end checklist highlights actions you can take to help keep your financial strategy on track.