Thriving with Interest!

I love meat. I am married to a Japanese woman and obviously we eat fish in all of its forms. After spending 1.5 hours watching the Seaspiracy documentary which recently dropped on Netflix I am pretty sure that I will not be eating much fish, if at all. Whilst I am sure that many of the points made might be slightly overstated, probably a bit sensationalized for the sake of keeping the viewer's attention, it is still quite a shock to realize all that goes on behind the scenes when ordering your favorite seafood dish. Here are some of the key points: sustainable fishing may not be sustainable at all overfishing is a huge threat to the marine ecosystem the fishing industrial complex contributes to global warming, pollution, income inequality, and human rights bycatch (all of the other marine animals that are killed while fishing) is a huge problem big corporations are in cahoots with governmental agencies which limits their ability to effectively regulate the industry the positive nut...

A few weeks ago I wrote a post to recent graduates looking to get a new job. I tried to summarize what would make them the most effective in the "real world" and distilled it down to these five tips: go above and beyond what is asked for pay attention to details try to learn as much as you can take a break once in a while network and leave on good terms. The full post can be found here:  https://thrivingwithinterest.blogspot.com/2021/05/memo-to-new-hires-bit-of-advice-to.html

In early May I wrote a post entitled "Gamestop, Dogecoin and the democratization of investing (and manipulation of TSLA earnings). Good or Bad?" Here is the link: https://thrivingwithinterest.blogspot.com/2021/05/gamestop-dogecoin-and-democratization.html Given the movement in AMC today, it appears that this is as true as ever. Although there could be "some" fundamental reasons for an AMC stock price rise (the economy is reopening and we just had the biggest box office weekend in over a year with $100 mil. + of receipts) the fact that the stock is up for the 6th time in 7 sessions and up 6 times in just over a week is a wee bit overheated.  This appears to cement the fact that retail investors are now as strong as ever. One could have thought that after the January roller coaster ride and lack of significant price moves over the past few months the retail investor had retreated into his/her shell. Well that is no longer the case and it appears that they will continu...

Tennis is my favorite sport. I honestly believe that these are some of the best athletes to grace the planet. It's a truly global sport with top players hailing from all parts of the world. Although not quite equal, compensation for female tennis players is much closer to their male counterparts than in any other sport. Both the highest paid male athlete and the highest paid female athlete in the world are tennis players. Bottom line, it's a great sport that often doesn't get its due. Yet, tennis doesn't often make the headlines here in the US. Until yesterday that is... some happier times (just a few days ago) Naomi Osaka decided to withdraw from Roland Garros, a.k.a. The French Open, citing that it would be " the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being." This went on to be headlining news not only within the tennis community and media, but across all of the major sports talk shows and beyond. This rarely happens, and when it does i...

It's a pretty crazy time out there. I just got back from a little weekend trip to Park City, Utah and the airport was jammed (both in LA and in Salt Lake). My conversations were similar with friends over there, and the newsflow continues to back up the notion that inflation is here, despite what the official statistics say. Check this out: Lots of cash out there (thanks Uncle Sam) and this: Help wanted ads at virtually every store and this: Airports are packed this weekend and this: Stock market at all time highs (although we're bobbling here)  coupled with this: and this: fastest housing price rises in over a decade (we all know what happened next) coupled with this: and no houses for sale Bottom line is this. The real rate of inflation is high, and higher than is officially reported, and will continue to remain high for a while longer. So what should one do: buy equities (notably European ones): https://thrivingwithinterest.blogspot.com/2021/05/where-to-invest-now-europe-of-c...

 From here... pre Champion's League Final flight... GO CHELSEA to here... a little jaunt in Park City... OLYMPIC VILLAGE Living in California, a state which has undoubtedly taken as many precautions as any other state in the union when it comes to dealing with Covid, we are used to certain things. Wearing a mask indoors is one of them. Reading/hearing/seeing images of how Florida and other states have taken many more liberties in dealing with the pandemic in a much more flippant way is another. After a year+ of this, one of the truths that I believed in was that it would take a long while to return back to a pre March 2020 world. All that has changed this weekend... After a short trip to Utah I have seen how the other world lives. Masks are optional. People from other states poopoo the idea that wearing a mask is a necessary "evil" in order to help the world (or at least our little world) contain this pandemic. And I have come to the conclusion that in the US (at least), ...

As we prepared to bid adieu to the 2020-21 school year, the last few days got quite heated on campus. The main culprit? Discussions relating to school uniforms. It has not been surprising to see that 99% of students  (not necessarily scientifically calculated, but a solid guesstimate)  were against it. What did surprise me however, was how many of the teachers didn't see it as an appropriate policy to implement. I chalk this up primarily to the fact that it is hard to make a drastic change like this, much like it might be difficult to begin a new exercise regime after a long layoff. I would assume that if teachers were working at a school that already had a uniform policy, this would not be much of an issue. A little sidebar here.... Having lived, and raised school aged children, in Europe and Asia, where school uniforms are much more prevalent than in the US, I have seen first hand the impact of such a policy on students and their parents. Overall it seems to me that it works...

  All because of emails like these. Very little in the world of finance can come close: For those who missed it, here is the link/transcript of a blog post from earlier this month, describing the journey of our finance program at Milken Community School:

Both of my lovely young ones will be starting jobs this summer (well one already has - see lovely hard hat photo below) so now is a good time to pass along a bit of advice to them and any other recent graduate doing the same...

After 12 months + of remote learning I think that most of us, meaning teachers, students, parents, administrators got pretty good at it making it work. Of course it's not ideal, of course it didn't the best situation for everyone, and of course we would rather be in person. But overall it was working quite well... Then in the Spring, as Covid cases began to drop, and as a certain degree of fatigue set in/pressure mounted, schools reopened. That should have been a joyous moment. And for a brief period in time it was. We basically had our "back to school" joy and renewal of friendships that normally occurs in late Summer happening in 6 months later instead. But soon enough the reality of the situation set in. We were not getting the full benefit of in person instruction as many students opted to stay home (most for valid personal reasons) and we had dismantled the procedures and protocols that had been set in place over the course of the school year. As the school year ...