I never cease to be impressed with the readers of this newsletter.
I was reminded of this once again in Salt Lake City, Utah a few weeks ago.
Readers seem to fall into three categories.
1) Entrepreneurs whose businesses become so successful that they are throwing off plenty of excess cash to invest. This led them to an online search (they are also technically very savvy) that brought them to my Mad Hedge Fund Trader.
One of my guests runs a manufacturing business that builds drones. In five years, his one-time hobby grew from gross revenues from $400,000 a year to $40 million, and with big military contracts coming he says the best has yet to come.
Ten years ago, the Federal Aviation Administration predicted that there would be 1,500 drones in the air by 2020. Today, there are millions.
Interestingly, he says he is now besieged by constant foreign takeover offers. These are from European and Asian firms that have gone ex-growth and are desperately searching for new profit streams at any cost. So far, he has rebuffed all comers. More than a few friends have sold their companies to Germans lately.
2) Financial advisors who have been following my long-term macro and trading advice and who have also become very successful. Rampant cutting in their world means dumping expensive research analysts. Winning financial advisors always have new clients and cash coming which they need to know how to invest. All of my clients seem to have this problem.
3) Young men and women in their twenties and thirties who dropped out of the mainstream economy and taught themselves to become professional full-time traders. They keep begging me to go back into Bitcoin research, which I abandoned three years ago as too theft-prone.
Perhaps several hundred earn a full-time living just off of my own Trade Alerts alone. This business took a quantum leap with my introduction of the Mad Hedge Technology Letter.
My first-hand observation of the current inflation rate is that it is taking off again, and it is not just eggs at $10 a dozen….if you can find them.
Airplanes going anywhere are all full and ticket prices are soaring, while service is shrinking. The airports are packed. The cost of overnight parking in San Francisco has risen by 100% to $50 a day. The free electric charging stations, of which there are now over 50, are always full.
Mt favorite Pendleton store in Monterey, CA no longer has sales. It’s full price for everything all the time now. People have plenty of money to spend.
Stores are stocking more expensive, higher margin profits, and offering imaginative displays.
Placing your goods on top of worn-out industrial heavy machines is a popular new marketing approach. I spend more time analyzing the machines than the goods for sale.
The irony is rich.
Restaurants are more expensive too, always are full, and are also making the grab for higher margins. They now offer food that is gluten-free, locally grown, and “artisanal.” There are only five items on the menu at twice the prices and many restaurants no longer open for lunch.
When I ordered a steak, I was informed that it was hormone and preservative-free. I asked if I could have one WITH hormones and preservatives, as they put hair on my chest and preserve me as well.
No wonder everyone thinks I’m Mad.
Yet there is evidence too of the failed America, the people who got left behind. At one stoplight, I encountered a family of four holding a big sign in the freezing weather “We need money.”
They had recently been evicted from their home. All had serious health problems and were morbidly obese. They looked legit. Maybe it was a healthcare-induced bankruptcy?
I asked no questions, made no judgments, and gave them $20. They reacted like they had won the lottery.
The country clearly is not perfect.
