Jim predicts a crash within the next year (due to the bubble on many stocks popping).
There are many things that could be the catalyst for the fall, but he predicts it will be not only the worst in your lifetime, but also in his lifetime (and he's pretty old!).
Blodget: Can anybody rescue us?
Rogers: They will try. What’s going to happen is they’re going to raise interest rates some more. Then when things start going really bad, people are going to call and say, "You must save me. It’s Western civilization. It’s going to collapse." And the Fed, who is made up of bureaucrats and politicians, will say, "Well, we better do something." And they’ll try, but it won’t work. It’ll cause some rallies, but it won’t work this time.
Blodget: And we are in a situation where Western civilization already seems to be possibly collapsing, even with the market going up all the time. Often when you do have a financial calamity, you get huge turmoil in the political system. What happens politically if that happens?
Rogers: Well, that’s why I moved to Asia. My children speak Mandarin because of what’s coming.
You’re going to see governments fail. You’re going to see countries fail, this time around. Iceland failed last time. Other countries fail. You’re going to see more of that.
You’re going to see parties disappear. You’re going to see institutions that have been around for a long time — Lehman Brothers had been around over 150 years. Gone. Not even a memory for most people. You’re going to see a lot more of that next around, whether it’s museums or hospitals or universities or financial firms.
Scary stuff.
What do you think is going to happen?
If our current actions are leading us towards a crash, what will stop it?
How will Algo trading help or hurt the outcome for the masses (and the few)?
My favorite quote of the night was: ""The statue of justice has a blindfold on because you're not supposed to be peeking out to see if your patron is pleased with what you're doing."
Watching the selective belief in Comey's statements is interesting. Sometimes it seems that Liberals only hear how Trump mishandled Flynn … while Conservatives only hear the lack of investigation into Trump's Russia ties.
At the end of the day, Trump felt finally vindicated from the left's accusations.
So, is the situation nuanced … or just plain confusing?
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Do you remember seeing a video of one of those old "exercise machines" that vibrated a belt around somebody's middle? While that might have been a fad, we now know that was not exercising.
Strangely, there is now something similar that is gaining in popularity and actually seems to work quite well. It's called the Power Plate.
This machine uses something called whole body vibration, a technology developed by Russia to use in its space program to combat the affects of zero gravity. Later, they used this technology to help train athletes; and you've seen variations of this in training methods like plyometrics.
Here is a picture of the Power Plate my5.
They claim that 15 minutes on this machine is the equivalent of about an hour at the gym. So how does it work? Well, as long as you understand that you have to exert some effort, the Power Plate works much better than I would've guessed.
At its simplest level, the machine vibrates 40 times per second. The movements happen in three different planes: front-to-back, side-to-side, and up-and-down. The movements are small enough, and happen so quickly, that they are rarely visible to the naked eye. Nonetheless, your body certainly feels them.
The Power Plate is a little bit larger than your typical doctor's scale. You stand on its platform while performing various movements or stretches. For example, imagine doing a deep knee bend and holding that position when your thighs are parallel to the ground (basically a half squat). As you hold this position, normally, your thigh muscles would get a decent isometric exercise – and you can probably imagine them burning a little. Now imagine what would happen if, as you are performing that exercise, the platform vibrated 40 times per second. Think how many more muscles you would engage. Think how much better this would be as a core stability exercise.
The Power Plate is designed to support a wide range of exercises for all of your main muscle groups – and comes with various accessories, like straps and mats. I found that many of the exercises I enjoy most are movements that my wife says are similar to yoga positions. I try not to let that discourage me from doing them.
The machine gets used every day. My wife and son like it too. It is exercise, and it does take work. With that said, it has had a noticeable effect on my strength, flexibility and my ability to do traditional workouts at the gym.
I love being in the presence of greatness. Genius leaves a mark.
Watching John Legend in concert is one example … seeing a team come together to create a breakthrough, and a sustainable competitive advantage is another.
Cool things are happening here. Contact me if you want to hear more about them.
Here is a peek at what I've been reading lately.
Hope you find some interesting and enjoyable tidbits.
Let me know if you read something I'd like … Or if there are other sources I should add to my weekly reading.
It's interesting that some of man's greatest inventions are so innate that natural selection (or intelligent design) created it before we did.
Want another example?
Hospital-acquired Infections are diseases caught due to bacteria or fungi at a hospital(or other healthcare related areas). They account for over 99,000 deaths a year.
Research companies (and dragonflies) have been using nano-textured surfaces to create a "bed of nails" that destroys bacteria by puncturing the cell wall.
Have you ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse? On top of an endless supply of meat, they also have a unique "churrasco" cooking and presentation style.
Blake saw that style of cooking – and innovated it – creating the Carson Rodizio kit (which started as a Kickstarter project). It is a multi-rotisserie rack that converts your favorite backyard grill into an open and spinning Brazilian style Steakhouse. It's clever, functional, and cool … and it's been used to win multiple barbecue championships.
I love to experience an entrepreneur's mind at work.
It's not always about what you add. Sometimes, it is about what you take away. Less is often more.
As Visual Capitalist notes, at the high end of the spectrum is the mighty NYSE, representing $18.5 trillion in market capitalization, or about 27% of the total market for global equities.
At the lower end? Stock exchanges on the tiny islands of Malta, Cyprus, and Bermuda all range from just $1 billion to $4 billion in value. Even added together, these three exchanges make up just 0.01% of total market capitalization.
Back at the upper end, the top 16 exchanges each have a market capitalization above $1 trillion. Together, those top-16 exchanges account for 87% of the world's total value of equities.
That is a lot of money and information … I'd expect big changes, here, as the FinTech arms race escalates.
