One of the world’s favorite and most overhyped stock pickers has turned to indexing. Recent filings show that Warren Buffett who is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A) has been buying simple S&P 500 index funds. Many people know Warren Buffett as the classic “do as I say not as I do” investor. Constantly doing TV interviews where he says the average investor should just buy the S&P 500 and endure the 10% annual returns over the long term, his company’s most recent 13F filing, revealed a couple of index fund purchases that have never been publicly revealed before. Buffet and Berkshire have tens of billions of dollars invested in individual stocks, and these buys of the S&P have been very small for him, but they are still there. Maybe he’s gotten lazy or maybe he’s just tired of earning 1.5% or less oh his massive cash position. Either way, next time Becky Quick interviews him she should ask him why it took him so long to take his own advice.
How Dare you, Greta
16-yaer old Greta Thunberg is the crying, shaking class-cutting teenage nominated for the Nobel Prize who has become the poster child for kids lecturing adults on climate change. In the battle for the undecided minds on climate change, the anti-climate change people have found their own Greta. Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old German who, like Greta, is blond, eloquent and European. But Naomi denounces “climate alarmism,” calls climate consciousness “a despicably anti-human ideology,” and has even borrowed Greta’s now famous “How dare you?” line to take on the mainstream German media. “She’s a fantastic voice for free markets and for climate realism,” said James Taylor, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, an influential libertarian think tank near Chicago and a favorite of President Trump. Naomi is an obvious counter to Greta, saying recently in a video posted on Heartland’s website, “I don’t want you to panic. I want you to think.” This is a swipe at Greta’s now famous “I want you to panic, I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act”, that she said in her speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last year. Naomi thinks these predictions of dire consequences are exaggerated. I guess we’ll see, because there is zero chance of zero emissions any time some and both of these children will live long enough to see who was right.
US 30-Year Bond at Record Low Yield
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond plummeted to a new all-time low of 1.8321%, Which means the panic has started to set in. Bond funds continued to take in cash, as the world falls into a serious flight to safety over the coronavirus. Cases are exploding outside of China, and Ground Zero for the virus which is Wuhan China has revoked its announcement easing the lockdown in the city. Fixed-income funds assets in January 2020 keep on the 2019 all-time record for in-coming money. Taxable-bond funds collected $63.6 billion for the month, beating the old record of $59.5 billion set in December 2019. This is what a panic looks like. Gold is going higher; money is flowing into US treasuries and stocks are falling and will continue to fall until the virus is under control.
Cell Phones are Like Drungs, Says Your Brain
A study published in the international journal Addictive Behaviors tested the extent of how addicted people are to their phones. Researchers confirmed the brains of cellphone-addicted individuals showed the same patterns as drug addicts. Results specifically showed phone addicts showed lower gray matter in their brains which is the area connected to muscle control, sight, hearing, speech and mental health. Family medicine doctor And social media celebrity Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, told Maria Bartiromo on Fox news however, that Comparing cell Phone addiction to that of drug addiction is a stretch.” He added, “[Cellphone use] is very similar to how drugs affect your brain,” Doctor Mike explained. “That is not to say using your cellphone is like being on drugs.” Coming from a doctor that seems like good advice but coming from someone who probably makes a decent amount of his income because of social media, it seems a little self-serving.
Baseball Player/Rodeo Cowboy
Madison Bumgarner is well-known as a three-time World Series champion and elite pitcher in Major League baseball For the San Francisco Giants and now the Arizona Diamondbacks. He’s also a regular rodeo contestant under a fake name. Under the very country fake-name of Mason Saunders. Bumgarner even won $26,560 in a team-roping competition last December. The name is a chopped up version of his first name and his wife’s maiden name, and he uses it because he does not want to attract outside attention while competing. The Diamondbacks who just gave “Madbum” a five-year, $85 million deal wouldn’t say if Bumgarner’s rodeo habit was a breach of his contract. Its not like it was a secret Since he talked about it in a 2016 interview when he was with the Giants. They will probably only bring it up if he gets hurt doing it. He has a history of these stupid injuries, like in 2017 when he missed over 6 weeks of the season because of a dirt bike accident. Some people can’t just take the money and relax.