"Outsourcing is quickly becoming mostly outdated as a business model," said former GE CEO, Jeffrey Immelt.
Global Market Comments
July 10, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(TRADING THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION)
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," said John F. Kennedy, America's 35th president.
Global Market Comments
July 9, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(DIAMONDS ARE STILL AN INVESTOR'S BEST FRIEND),
(SO, YOU THINK THEY'RE NOT WATCHING YOUR PC?)
If you forgot to buy your loved one a birthday present and spent a week sleeping on the sofa eating canned food, and cleaning out the cat box, you now have a chance to redeem yourself.
A revolutionary new website exists called Mazal Diamond, which promises to turn the online jewelry business upside down. I went to the privately held company's website and found an entertaining assortment of free tools.
You can design your own jewelry, and even order a custom cut, which Mazal will supply out of its massive 100,000 stone inventory. You can also figure out if the jeweler down the street is trying to rip you off.
Just for fun, I appraised the diamond I bought for my late wife, which I bought from a Hasidic Jew in an alley off of Manhattan's West 47th street. He kept his inventory hidden in an envelope in his sock.
How times have changed!
The two carat, VVS1, round cut, yellow diamond that I paid $3,000 for in 1977, would fetch $39,800 today. Great trade!
Mazal Diamond's game-changing advantage is that they cut, design, and manufacture their own jewelry, enabling them to undercut prices offered by established industry leaders.
In fact, the $30-billion-a-year diamond industry is undergoing radical change by moving online, much the same way as the book, music, and travel industries have gone. Your local neighborhood jewelry store is about to get wiped out or become a quaint relic.
Blue Nile (NILE) pioneered the way, and instantly became the 800-pound gorilla. The company cut costs by keeping inventories low, relying instead on a secretive web of anonymous suppliers.
Now, second-generation entrants are snapping at its heels and eating its lunch with polished websites, better service, and lower prices, seducing potential customers with free diamond blogs. Mazal Diamond even offers a year of free insurance.
It is getting a boost from a 50% price gain, a woman's best friend has seen since the March 2009 stock market bottom, taking it back to pre-crash levels.
The U.S. accounts for about half the world market, so the new frugality will be a challenge. That will be offset by flight to safety purchases by inflation wary Americans, and new demand from the emerging market middle class.
Investment grade diamonds have been steady earners, gaining an average 5% a year over the past three decades. To avoid another week on the sofa, you might even think about buying next year's Valentine's surprise early. Now.
Hey! You there, staring at this monitor. This is your PC talking to you. No, not you over there standing in the background. I'm talking to the guy sitting in front of me poking at my keys. Ouch! That one hurt!
So, you thought no one was watching, did you? Let me set you straight. About a month ago you clicked on a certain website, and I installed myself as a cookie on your computer, which is an innocuous little text file that you can't see.
Since then, I have been tracking your every move, recording websites you clicked on, the pages you visited, and the stuff you ordered. I then used this handy little algorithm to build a profile of exactly who you are. I now know you better than your own mother. In fact, I know you better than you know yourself.
For example, I am aware that you make more than $250,000 a year, live in a posh zip code in San Francisco, belong to a fancy country club, and drive a Mercedes. You donate to Republican political causes, send your kids to a prestigious private school, and bill it all to an American Express Platinum Card. Did I leave anything out?
Because I know every detail of your life, down to your inside leg measurement, I am able to harness the power of this machine to more precisely service your every need. That includes directing advertising to you, on which you have a high probability of clicking.
The more you click on my ads, the higher prices I can realize for those ads. The ad campaigns you now see are unique to your own personal computer because they are tied to your IP address. My program, called "behavioral targeting" is the next "big thing" in online advertising. It's all part of the brave new world.
I see you have been shopping for a new car. Check out the new Hyundai, which offers the same quality as your existing ride, at half the price.
Your clicks this morning suggest you're taking your "significant other" out to dinner tonight. Might I suggest Gary Danko's on Bay Street? The rack of lamb is to die for there.
Your visits to Travelocity and Expedia tell me you're planning a vacation. I bet you didn't know you can find incredible deals in Las Vegas. Thinking about buying a condo there? They'll even pay for the trip if you promise to check one out while you're there.
Since we're chatting here mano a mano, I noticed that that last pair of jeans you ordered from Levi's had a 42-inch waist, up from the 40 in your last order. Better lay off those cheeseburgers. Pretty soon, they'll be calling you "tubby" or "fatso." Better visit Weight Watchers soon, or the legs on that chair might buckle out from under you.
Worried about privacy? Privacy, shmivacy. There hasn't been privacy in this country since the first Social Security number was handed out in 1936. And don't expect any relief from Congress. I doubt half those dummies even know how to turn on their own PCs.
Don't even think about trying to delete me. I'm a "flash cookie," an insidious little piece of code that reinstalls every time you try that. Think of me as a toenail fungus. Once you catch me, I'm almost impossible to get rid of.
I hope you don't mind, but I've been passing your personal details around to some of my buddies at other websites. That's why when you clicked on NFL you got deluged with product offers from your local team, the San Francisco 49ers.
I've got friends at Google and Facebook, and pretty much everywhere. Can I help it if I'm a popular guy? I bet the view from those 50-yard seats is great, isn't it?
I noticed that your spending habits don't exactly match with the income you reported on your last tax return. Do you think the IRS would like to know about that? I bet you didn't know the agency offers a 10% reward for turning in tax cheats.
How about those triple XXX DVD's you bought last week? Whoa! Hot, hot, hot! I hope your employer never finds out about those. It might not go down too well at your next performance review.
I thought it was lovely that you bought your spouse a two-carat, yellow, VVS1, round-cut diamond ring for $26,000 from Blue Nile for your 30th wedding anniversary.
But who is Lolita, the Argentine firecracker, in Miami Beach? Does the old wifey know you sent her a $2,000 pair of diamond stud earrings? What's it worth to you for me to keep mum on this? Maybe you should take a quick peak at 3StepDivorce.com and see what you're in for?
Nah, I'm just pulling your leg. This is all just between friends, right? Think of it as a doctor/patient relationship. I'll tell you what. See that leaderboard ad at the top of the page? Just click on that and we'll call it even. Ooh, that felt good! Click it again. Oh, baby! Not too many times. You'll trigger my anti-click fraud program.
Now you see that wide skyscraper add over on the right? Click on that, too. Oh baby! Click it again! And there's a little button ad at the bottom of the page. No, not that one. A little lower. What was that little cutie's name in Miami again? Ah.
"We are still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. I would have to put the likelihood of a double-dip recession now up to 50%," said my old UC Berkeley economics professor, Robert Reich.
Global Market Comments
July 6, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(BE CAREFUL WHO YOU SNITCH ON),
(COULD YOU QUALIFY TO BECOME A U.S. CITIZEN?)
Buried in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill are massive financial rewards for turning in your boss. The SEC is hoping that multimillion-dollar rewards amounting to 10% to 30% of sanction amounts will drive a stampede of whistle-blowers to their doors with evidence of malfeasance and fraud by their employers.
If such rules were in place at the time of the settlement with Goldman Sachs (GS), the bonus, in theory, could have been worth up to $500 million. Wall Street firms are bracing themselves for an onslaught of claims, legitimate and otherwise, by droves of hungry gold diggers looking for an early retirement.
Don't count on this as a get-rich-quick scheme. Government hurdles to meet the requirement of a true stoolie can be daunting. The standard of evidence demanded is high and must be matched with the violation of specific federal laws. Idle chitchat at the water cooler won't do. Litigation can stretch out over five years, involve substantial legal costs, and often lead to a non-financial settlement with no reward.
Having "rat" on your resume doesn't exactly look good either. Just ask Sherron Watkins, the in-house CPA who turned in energy giant Enron's Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, and Jeffrey Skilling just before the company crashed in flames. Nearly a decade later, Watkins earns a modest living on the lecture circuit warning of the risks of false accounting, and whistle-blowing.
Global Market Comments
July 5, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(TRADING FOR THE NON-TRADER),
(ROM), (UXI), (UCC), (UYG)