Room to grow.

Today's Tids Issue 4,234

For Breathing into Paper Bags:

Everybody is jumping on board selling stocks, and that is very good for “Tums” but not my tummy. The pros last night didn’t seem overly concerned during post-angst comments about the big drop, and I have to observe that there is no highly recognizable precarious financial situations equal to that of the housing disaster of 2008. So. Maybe we should all just sit and hold and not panic.

One of the simplistic identifiable problems with US Market indices, at least from this amateurs’ viewpoint, is that today’s biggest “Blue Chips” are tech stocks. And tech always seems to produce “Irrational Exuberance”.  Just in case to you forgot.

Years ago families sort of stayed together to take care of each other, especially as the older grew older. There seems to be a new mini trend emerging where parents are joining with children to build homes that are good for both, while still preserving privacy for both.

Well, my retirement plan is still intact. Neither the Mega Millions or Power Ball found a winner this week.

The Question:

Lewis and Clark are revered USA adventurers and explorers. How did Lewis die? Bonus: Speaking of death, yesterdays’ Stock dip was the fourth highest in US history. Can you name the top 3?

The Headlines:

--US Astronaut Nick Hague And Russia Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin Abort Launch Within Seconds After Lift-Off Due To Engine Malfunction; Both Returned To Earth Safely.

--Asia And Europe Follow US Stocks Down The Not So Golden Brick Road; US Markets Seem To Rebuff Global Sell-Off At Opening, But Take Dive At Noon – Down Over 700; Rising Equity Yields Still Could Inflict More Pain On Stock Owners Today.

--Florida Panhandle Towns See Mass Destruction From Michael; Splintered Wood, Twisted Metal And Intense Flooding Broad; 2 Dead So Far As Search Effort Begins.

--Rep Steve Scalise: “Democrat Calls For Violence Threaten All Of Us…And Democracy.”; Holder Rejects Michelle Obama Call For Civility; Dem Senator Heitkamp Blasts Hillary all To Abandon Civility. .

--CVS/Aetna Merger Approved: Could Begin Trend For Limited Lower Cost Medical Services At Store Locations.

--San Fran Schoolboard Prez Drops Pledge Of Allegiance Before Meeting In Favor Of Angelou Quote.

Are super billionaires Soros and Bloomberg and pals manipulating the stock market to blunt Trumps economic progress just before elections? Who me…a conspiracy theorist?

Juicy Scandal Department:

Is there a deeper reason for the rejection of Jeb Bush at the Barbara Bush Jr’s wedding at the family homestead in Maine over this weekend? Did Mom Laura discover something about Bush boys from high school yearbooks? Nah, says Laura. We just wanted it small without publicity and todo’s; just a nice 20-person wedding among the two families. Neil and other non-immediate Bushes were also left on the sidelines.

This weeks NFL picks on the surface look really tight in almost all games. Part of the problem is that we know more about more teams. And there have been so many surprises that we can only assume more this weekend. Last week we started well, but had a bad late Sun afternoon and Monday. 9-6 last week brings us to a still mediocre 44-32-2 (56% a long way from 75%). Tonight, is tough even though the Jints and Iggles are not up to par. Which team is underachieving most? Giants at home.  To me every game looks like a poser to some degree. Oakland as been lackluster and Seattle only a little better. Seattle to entertain Londoners with a win abroad. I like the Chicago QB and the way the team is playing, so it’s da Bears over Dolphins. I like Barons D at home to narrowly beat a decent LA Charger team. I have to pick Carolina over my Skins who have let me down, even though both look vulnerable.

Continuing on the NFL, the Texans should beat Buffalo even though a team that surprises at times. I like improving Falcons over TB, and Vikings (Maybe beginning to live up to hype) over Cardinals. Now Pitt and Cinn are two old rivals and this is a tossup, Gotta hope for Pitt mistakes and pick the 4-1 home team. The Jets are at home and looked decent last week, but Colts who know how to pile up yardage, don’t know how to win. The LA Rams should make Orange garbed Denver Fans sad. The Cowboys haven’t proven they can do anything right probably won’t start against a pretty good Jag team. Jags should win, but an upset is in the air here. Another tussle between rivals is Tenn and Baltimore. Got to pick Tenn at home. Now we’re down to what many say is a game of the week – Pats versus undefeated Chiefs. Personally, I think the wunderkind Mahomes is vulnerable at times, and that should grow as more D’s figure him out. But, he is talented. KC has lots of offensive tools and Pats D is  full of holes at any given moment. Pats will win a high scoring game at home. I have to figure the Pack will bounce back Monday night against the Niners.

This will be a good week for football to take away the pain of Wall Street.

So, GE must still be viable despite all the negative news. A Chinese spy was arrested for attempting to steal the Grand Old Company’s trade secrets.

I vote for any Republican running in RI just to show that there are still GOP’ers in the state. At times, it is hard to believe.

Based on a real-life observation from a teenager, I wrote yesterday that rallies and marches would continue in DC for as long as pliable students enrolled in DC colleges and universities. But a reader informed me that I got it wrong -- the rallies will continue for as long as George Soros continues to dump millions into the protest pot.

Hey, we’ve got a live one, Department:

Single Payer health care is more likely than not to be wasteful and expensive. It’s the old where there’s a pot of honey, the flies will congregate. Remember that one? I recall the time when my mother was in an assisted living facility and a small sore was discovered on her back. It required salve and a band-Aid. Now, by state law, the nurses in this tyoe of situation are allowed to observe resident frailties and call in The VNA to apply the medical solution, in this case a little squeeze from a tube and a Band-Aid. Now after that major surgery this nurse immediately called in a Social worker to help me through this ordeal and a walker training expert for Mom. The bill from Medicare showed a payment of $1400. Yikes, for a band-aid? I called the head of the place and said this is outrageous. In reply she said, “Don’t worry, you’re not paying for it.” 

Who knew? Free money.

The Answer:

After their exploration, Meriwether Lewis was named Governor of the Louisiana Territory. General William Clark was made a Brigadier and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. At the age of 69, Clark died naturally at his son’s home. Lewis death at a young 35 is a mystery with most thinking he committed suicide. He was found dead of gunshot wounds in an inn along the perilous Natchez trace. Others say he was murdered, and there is circumstantial evidence that supports this. But, Thomas Jefferson said Lewis “suffered from sensible depressions of the Mind” and pal Clark said he had melancholy states, and “I fear the weight of his mind has overcome him.” Apparently, Lewis didn’t not like sitting behind a desk, and in particular dealing with Washington DC (who doesn’t). Also, it is highly probable he and may have had financial problems was known as a serious alcoholic and possibly had syphilis or dementia causing malaria. Bonus: On 2/5/2018 we lost 1175 points. Next highest was 2/8/18 at 1,033 points. In third place just before yesterday’s was 9/29/2008 at 838.55. The next three largest were 10/15/08. 9/17/01 and 12/1/08. I’m not liking a pattern that on the surface looks like 2008.

My hope is that the investment community is trying to lower stock prices now so they’ll have some better buys going into the end of the year. A lot of so-called safe blue ship stocks that pay dividends have been reaching all-time highs on a weekly basis for most of this 2018. Now, I always get nervous at successive all-time highs. So maybe we have to go low, so we can get high again.

With copper unavailable, continued operation of the mint would make no cents.