Would you consider switching from the monospaced font back to a more readable one? Monospacing is generally nice for tables or computer code, but hardly the first choice for prose...
Why not put the choice of font to a subscriber vote? "Old font" or "New font"? I know of at least one Substack forum where the author routinely has subscribers vote on various options at the end of his message, with the percentage of voters favoring each option provided and voting ending after a specified period of time. Same could be done here.
By the way, I prefer the old font! As PG V says, the new font "sucks"
What I do now is click the like button in the email and read it in the substack app. Font much nicer here. Maybe it is a devious way for BPR to get more likes lol...
Curious that the substack app (iOS at least) is changing the font compared to both the email and the corresponding substack post at substack.com. I guess I will switch to reading in the app, too, unless the fonts improve/revert.
My phone is android. The font on my email is large and I can only make it bigger not smaller. While reading it I find myself stuttering through the short lines. Impossible to read. Only problem in the app is the random message about loading comments which I just ignore.
When money is created out of nothing and is no more than an idea. Every country and human owes this pretend debt to someone, could we not just write pretend cheques, pay off all the non existing loans and get on living our pretend lives.
"But we see no purpose in guessing about whether stocks will go up today or down tomorrow. The real money is not made by checking stock prices every day. It is made by getting on the right side of a major trend β and staying there for years.
For the 39 years β 1982 to 2021 β that meant buying good stocksβ¦and just holding on. As long as interest rates were falling, the Primary Trend was towards higher and higher asset prices."
These two paragraphs describe me. But now that the Primary Trend has changed, going into "maximum safety mode" is a major problem. Most of my assets are in taxable brokerage accounts. Selling them to buy lots of gold and accumulate cash would generate a tax bill well in excess of a million dollars, and would cut my retirement income (dividends and interest) by around 85%. Not good! So I am somewhat stuck, hoping that the upcoming economic crisis doesn't cut company dividends too much. I am in my 70s, so soon the tax problem will disappear for my son with the step-up in basis of my assets at my death. He is in his 40s, and I trying to get him to follow BPR, but like many kids he ignores his parent's advice! I have moved most of my IRA assets to gold!
I am not complaining. MUCH MORE FORTUNATE than most! I wonder, however, how many BPR folks have a similar problem with "maximum safety mode". Is there a solution?
Take physical hold in your hand gold. To hell with them !. When I was still living in Hongcouver, (sorry just the way I see it) I was frequently buying gold & silver from a reputalble exchange. One of the employees who was working there at the time commented, between myself and another employee at the time who was present, that an American had come in and dropped 100k US on the table and said, " you see that, that represents shit, give me 100 gold maples". At the the time there was a Vancouver resource conference taking place I was blessed to have the manager dialogue with me on some of the prevailing issues as a business they were dealing with and some time spent conversing on the world we were living in at the time I believe it was around 2015
For it whats worth I believe if you dont hold it, you dont own it. My two cents worth.
You make a great point and ask a really good question. As someone that just went through what your son will go through when the time comes, I can tell you that the Financial Advisor that I'm allowing to manage the inherited portion of my assets thought I was insane putting tight stop losses on a whole lot of positions. She lamented (loudly) when her "sacred cow" companies that she bought for my parents many years and sometimes decades ago were sold off, with "paper losses" thanks to stepped up values. I raised a lot of cash doing this and am now employing in "Maximum Safety Mode". I share this with you because it might help you with counseling your son.
Fortunately, my portfolio of assets, which is a lot larger than the inherited one, had a lot of capital gains last year (in part thanks to BPR) and I'm offsetting them with the paper losses. I stare out the window every day trying to figure out the answer to the question you asked. I'm thinking about sticking a lot of money into high quality, long-standing annuities with guaranteed income at about 5 percent a year and live happily ever after. I still might do that. (I am 64 so I can easily wait the 6 years for them to start yielding.) I don't know what I'd do if I was in my 70's. So this, and 4 bucks will get you a really bad cup of coffee.
Bill, Joel et al: I have read that there have been multiple studies conducted on how the human eye and brain recognize and process the printed word when reading type in serif and sans serif fonts. They found that characters in serif fonts are recognized and interpreted significantly faster than sans serif characters. I am hopeful that you would like to save your Dear Readers' time so we have more of the one and only true asset any of us have: time.
The ratio Dow / gold has been 18 for the last 14 months or so , nothing has broken yet that a why we are still at 18 . The day we break 14 the low of March 2020 ( Covid ) we will know that something is happening in the meantime , business as usual .
I live in Switzerland and here the official rate is 0,5 % and the Swiss franc has been raising 10 percent ag USD , now my pint is that the ratio will move down when something breaks and the Fed has to pivot , till then as I said business as usual
Why the recent sift in font? Most everything that comes across the computer arrives in the nearly ubiquitous font. Whether that font is the best one or not does not really matter, it is the one to which we are accustomed. Your font switch is visually jarring and problematic.
Well, everyone in D.C. except Joe himself. There's a scene in the second of the "Godfather" trilogy that comes to mind. It's at the end when they take the dumb brother out on a boat to whack him. It's not a perfect comparison, but Joe sure is as stupid as Fredo and I'd bet heavily the rest of the Crime Family feels that way too.
I meant he's stupid for not giving the documents back (or for taking them in the first place). Perhaps they're incriminating? He's all the things you said and worse. If he walked in front of me in a crosswalk I'd encounter a bad case of brake failure. If he escapes from all this unscathed then we truly are a banana republic.
Would you consider switching from the monospaced font back to a more readable one? Monospacing is generally nice for tables or computer code, but hardly the first choice for prose...
Why not put the choice of font to a subscriber vote? "Old font" or "New font"? I know of at least one Substack forum where the author routinely has subscribers vote on various options at the end of his message, with the percentage of voters favoring each option provided and voting ending after a specified period of time. Same could be done here.
By the way, I prefer the old font! As PG V says, the new font "sucks"
I Like IT!
What I do now is click the like button in the email and read it in the substack app. Font much nicer here. Maybe it is a devious way for BPR to get more likes lol...
Curious that the substack app (iOS at least) is changing the font compared to both the email and the corresponding substack post at substack.com. I guess I will switch to reading in the app, too, unless the fonts improve/revert.
My phone is android. The font on my email is large and I can only make it bigger not smaller. While reading it I find myself stuttering through the short lines. Impossible to read. Only problem in the app is the random message about loading comments which I just ignore.
I agree with Philip - the old font was better.
I'll third that.
"And this font sucks. Whose idea was it anyway?" -- PG
I'll fourth that. (Maybe Bill secretly likes eye torture-LOL. (The font, not the writing.)
When money is created out of nothing and is no more than an idea. Every country and human owes this pretend debt to someone, could we not just write pretend cheques, pay off all the non existing loans and get on living our pretend lives.
Thanks for you thoughts
"But we see no purpose in guessing about whether stocks will go up today or down tomorrow. The real money is not made by checking stock prices every day. It is made by getting on the right side of a major trend β and staying there for years.
For the 39 years β 1982 to 2021 β that meant buying good stocksβ¦and just holding on. As long as interest rates were falling, the Primary Trend was towards higher and higher asset prices."
These two paragraphs describe me. But now that the Primary Trend has changed, going into "maximum safety mode" is a major problem. Most of my assets are in taxable brokerage accounts. Selling them to buy lots of gold and accumulate cash would generate a tax bill well in excess of a million dollars, and would cut my retirement income (dividends and interest) by around 85%. Not good! So I am somewhat stuck, hoping that the upcoming economic crisis doesn't cut company dividends too much. I am in my 70s, so soon the tax problem will disappear for my son with the step-up in basis of my assets at my death. He is in his 40s, and I trying to get him to follow BPR, but like many kids he ignores his parent's advice! I have moved most of my IRA assets to gold!
I am not complaining. MUCH MORE FORTUNATE than most! I wonder, however, how many BPR folks have a similar problem with "maximum safety mode". Is there a solution?
Take physical hold in your hand gold. To hell with them !. When I was still living in Hongcouver, (sorry just the way I see it) I was frequently buying gold & silver from a reputalble exchange. One of the employees who was working there at the time commented, between myself and another employee at the time who was present, that an American had come in and dropped 100k US on the table and said, " you see that, that represents shit, give me 100 gold maples". At the the time there was a Vancouver resource conference taking place I was blessed to have the manager dialogue with me on some of the prevailing issues as a business they were dealing with and some time spent conversing on the world we were living in at the time I believe it was around 2015
For it whats worth I believe if you dont hold it, you dont own it. My two cents worth.
You make a great point and ask a really good question. As someone that just went through what your son will go through when the time comes, I can tell you that the Financial Advisor that I'm allowing to manage the inherited portion of my assets thought I was insane putting tight stop losses on a whole lot of positions. She lamented (loudly) when her "sacred cow" companies that she bought for my parents many years and sometimes decades ago were sold off, with "paper losses" thanks to stepped up values. I raised a lot of cash doing this and am now employing in "Maximum Safety Mode". I share this with you because it might help you with counseling your son.
Fortunately, my portfolio of assets, which is a lot larger than the inherited one, had a lot of capital gains last year (in part thanks to BPR) and I'm offsetting them with the paper losses. I stare out the window every day trying to figure out the answer to the question you asked. I'm thinking about sticking a lot of money into high quality, long-standing annuities with guaranteed income at about 5 percent a year and live happily ever after. I still might do that. (I am 64 so I can easily wait the 6 years for them to start yielding.) I don't know what I'd do if I was in my 70's. So this, and 4 bucks will get you a really bad cup of coffee.
Bill, Joel et al: I have read that there have been multiple studies conducted on how the human eye and brain recognize and process the printed word when reading type in serif and sans serif fonts. They found that characters in serif fonts are recognized and interpreted significantly faster than sans serif characters. I am hopeful that you would like to save your Dear Readers' time so we have more of the one and only true asset any of us have: time.
I vote with these other gentlemen on the font. Tough to get used to. What the letters spell out is still a work of art.
The ratio Dow / gold has been 18 for the last 14 months or so , nothing has broken yet that a why we are still at 18 . The day we break 14 the low of March 2020 ( Covid ) we will know that something is happening in the meantime , business as usual .
I live in Switzerland and here the official rate is 0,5 % and the Swiss franc has been raising 10 percent ag USD , now my pint is that the ratio will move down when something breaks and the Fed has to pivot , till then as I said business as usual
What I find most interesting about the font change??? No one would have noticed nor cared had you not asked! :-) PS: I like it
Hi Mat -
"No one would have noticed nor cared had you not asked!"
Wut??! Really? C'mon man...
I love whatever font is being used today !!! So much easier on the eyes and its classy.
Well, youβve got your share of Chris Mayerβs stock portfolio.
Please go back to the earlier font. This one is very difficult to read. This new font does suck!!
Gold is very close of breaking news highs or highs last saw in 2020 ag australien dol , nzd , cad , etc ...
Ag usd still lagging 160 usd or 8 percent .
Either it s gold moving up ag usd or a weakling of Australian solar , nzd dollar and cad doll . We will see soon but something happening
Here is an interesting illustration showing winners and losers in the world of commodities..see whose leading the pack!
https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/the-top-10-best-and-worst-performing-commodities-of-2022/?utm_source=VC+Elements&utm_campaign=53ae48293d-VCE_Email_December_29_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f3fdb4328c-53ae48293d-46165001&mc_cid=53ae48293d&mc_eid=188822b331
Good summary, thanks. This will be an interesting year as well, given the recession I foresee.
Why the recent sift in font? Most everything that comes across the computer arrives in the nearly ubiquitous font. Whether that font is the best one or not does not really matter, it is the one to which we are accustomed. Your font switch is visually jarring and problematic.
Otherwise, keep up the good work.
Mark B. - paid up subscriber
Poor Joe can't even sing "Happy Birthday" without messing up. And he wants to run again in 2024?
Yes PG, but two more years with the Harlot in his seat...can True American's really tolerate that?
Well, everyone in D.C. except Joe himself. There's a scene in the second of the "Godfather" trilogy that comes to mind. It's at the end when they take the dumb brother out on a boat to whack him. It's not a perfect comparison, but Joe sure is as stupid as Fredo and I'd bet heavily the rest of the Crime Family feels that way too.
I meant he's stupid for not giving the documents back (or for taking them in the first place). Perhaps they're incriminating? He's all the things you said and worse. If he walked in front of me in a crosswalk I'd encounter a bad case of brake failure. If he escapes from all this unscathed then we truly are a banana republic.