Good Afternoon John,

I just wanted to tell you what a great find the Mad Options Trader was for you. I stumbled into two of his trades this week and made enough profit to pay for two years of his service. I know he may eventually cool off, but he is hot now.

Frank
Dallas, Texas

Thank you for the call I received from your staff the other day, but I?m afraid I?m not going to be able to renew my subscription to the Mad Hedge Fund Trader.

There?s nothing I?d like to do more than renew. I truly enjoy your insights on the markets and a description of your many travels. I have been following you for years and it is really a great deal.

However, I am active duty Air Force and recently got a command job. That means I have to go off to the Air War College. I know you didn?t get that far in your service, but consider yourself lucky. I have to read 100 pages a day, and it is a major commitment of time. So I can?t give you the time you deserve.

I hope to re up at a later date.

Charlie
Lieutenant Colonel
US Air Force
Dell Rio, Texas

Note from John Thomas: Thank you for your service Charlie.

John Thomas Flying a 1943 Boeing B-17 Bomber Flying Fortress

Your background is very impressive and intriguing. You definitely have a lot of valuable and unique experience.

I read your most recent post on activist investing and couldn't agree more. I have always been a fan of activist strategies because even under an assumption of efficient markets, activism can still generate alpha in theory.

I have also heard about how process-oriented investments such as activism or distressed investing, where you have a greater influence over the final outcome, are valuable from a standpoint of downside protection.

Many thanks,
Andrew

Congratulations on your success. Your path has been your own and your outside the box thinking is refreshing and powerful. No doubt, you have enjoyed it and yet surprised yourself and others with it over the years.

The reason for my contact is your insight into the inevitability of solar energy costs going to nearly zero. I agree. You clearly understand that this transition is massive to every aspect of our lives - and yet very few "get it".

The next 15-40 years will see a transition that will be founded on virtually free and abundant energy. This abundant, almost zero cost energy will accelerate the effects of medical advances. It will transform our resource sectors from agriculture to mining to chemicals.

It will see manufacturing shift from factories and mass production to local 3D printed products - perhaps even food. It will mean AI and automation... And yes, it will mean that human labor will not be as needed or as valuable. Our relationship to work, income, wealth, etc... will have to change.?

Labor and the nature of work will be a huge challenge. Globalization has decoupled the industrial and wealth agendas from national needs that were characteristic of colonial times.

No longer do US companies like Ford pay higher wages to their employees so that they can afford their products. So, real wages have been effectively flat since the mid '70's. Despite productivity gains, wages go nowhere.

If the market alone were to determine the future of labor, we would simply have more "surplus population" as was defined in the periods?before the 20th?century.

In our world, governments will not survive such a trend. This fact is already responsible for Brexit, Trump, Sanders, Greece...?

I believe that acceleration of the adoption of renewable energy, particularly solar, and the gains achieved from lower cost energy as well as the egalitarian nature of energy wealth afforded by solar is economically and sociologically key to a more peaceful and productive transition to the future.

Massive wealth and power concentrations are threatened by the economic realities of renewables and the distribution of wealth and power therefrom. While they will not go down without a fight, certainly slowing adoption where possible and seeking to replicate their monopolies in a renewable world, they cannot win.

Short of wars and physical devastation in attempts to maintain the "scarcity" that capitalism thrives upon, they cannot prevent the more egalitarian future that abundant, low-cost energy is bringing.

So, thanks for hanging in on my email. I see that you are a free thinking, "somewhat" non-conformist. You get this.

Best wishes and thanks for your insight and your work.

Best regards,

Tom
Marion, Massachusetts

Thanks for your input, Tom.
John Thomas