In a classic case of too much government, last week marked the 100th anniversary of Prohibition. Now 100 years later, under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, New York State is by far the leader in providing government money to fund new craft breweries across the state, growing from 100 breweries in 2012 to more than 400 today. Yet on Thursday it was reported that American’s wine consumption dropped in 2019 for the first time in 25 years and that beer consumption fell 2.3% and cider dropped 3.8%. Everyone lines up to the trough when the money is easy, but we might suggest letting viable businesses run the economy, not the brilliant lawmakers who can’t see through the suds.

According to BofA research, almost $24 billion of inflows went into bond funds for the seven day period ending 2-12-20. This represents the most net inflows since 2001 and has traders scratching their heads. Taken a step further, 30 year US government paper booked its lowest yield ever of 2.061%. There is now quiet talk of a huge bubble in the bond market as record assets flow into the lowest yields of our time. As for stocks, the bull keeps charging, even with a relatively small by comparison inflow into stock funds of just $8 billion in all of 2019. Imagine if that bond flow became stock flow? Grab your chair when the music stops.

Greetings Fellow Dollar Investment Club Members: I wanted to take some time and give you some thoughts and hopefully some perspective on the recent historic events impacting our daily lives. Five weeks ago, before the words Corona (other than beer), social distancing, and the CDC were part of every conversation, the markets were at all-time highs. In the most rapid descent ever, stocks at their worst were down about 38% from those same highs as the highly infectious and deadly Covid-19 virus has run through more than 150 countries. It is a scary and unprecedented time for everyone. And how did Dollar Investment Club Members respond? Last week, amid the shocking market disruption, we opened a RECORD number of new member accounts in one day alone. I was not only very pleasantly surprised, but also totally reinvigorated with the investment process. We understand that investing in great companies today, even in turbulent times, means that we have invested in great companies for the future, but at much lower prices. We understand that time in the market is much more powerful than trying to “time” the market. Finally, taking a systematic approach to investing, disciplined buying on a monthly basis, helps us “flatten” the risk curve and to invest when everyone else is selling. Going forward, our absolute primary concern is the health and safety of everyone around the world. We urge you to support all efforts to control this pandemic, we all need to do our part. As for investing, it is going to continue to be a volatile period as the world economy has never been suspended for this length of time and timing is the key. The longer the shutdown persists, the more long-term damage is done to our economy. With all this uncertainty, I am certain of […]

This week could be the nastiest days of the world war with the coronavirus. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone impacted or on the front lines. America is coming together to do our parts in so many different ways and that should give everyone confidence that we will come out even better on the other side of this. Hang in there. It might not be tonight, tomorrow, or the next day, but everything’s gonna be okay.