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Who Would Have Thunk it?

COVID 19 in Texas

Texas becomes the first state to reimpose restrictions after lifting stay-at-home order April 30

I can’t say I’m surprised that states that had itchy trigger fingers to reopen (e.g. Texas, Arizona, Florida) are seeing a surge in new COVID-19 cases and a higher positivity rate among those tested. The following graph from the Wall Street Journal shows how the number of new cases is hitting a new peak after having come down.

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Interest Rates: Lower for How Much Longer?

variable interest rates

“We’re not thinking about raising rates — 

we’re not even thinking about thinking about raising rates,” 

Jerome Powell during 6/10/20 press conference

With interest rates at record lows, this is a time when many people are strongly considering locking in long-term,

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So Much for That? Is The Floating Rate Still a Winning Bet?

So much for that-Bond Market Carnage

This is what I wrote in my blog of May 7, 2018:

So up until this point having bet on floating rate has been a winning bet. The question now is whether it will be going forward. Before answering that,

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The Positives of Being Negative

LIBOR Variable Interest Rates F

Ok, let’s get this out of the way first since this blog has a subliminal purpose of being a diary for major economic and financial milestones so this is one I can’t ignore.

April Unemployment Rate Rose to a Record 14.7 2020

Now to the subject at hand.

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I Have Nothing To Add

Warren Buffett Charlie Munger I have nothing to add

Charlie Munger can be extremely loquacious as he is one who loves to pontificate and definitely has something to say. He also knows when to stay quiet. When he and Warren Buffett hold court at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting and a question is asked of Buffett and after answering it he turns to Charlie and asks him if he has anything to add.

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Follow the Herd: Why COVID19 End Game Needs Herd Immunity

Herd COVID_19

I’m not one to typically advocate following the herd but in the case of the coronavirus, I am having a hard time seeing an end game that doesn’t have herd immunity as the ultimate goal. And this could take a long time and lead to a lengthier economic contraction (to put it mildly) and even more massive federal intervention through government spending and Federal Reserve support of financial markets.

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Dividends - Do They Really Matter?

Dividends

Most real estate investors deploy their capital in this asset class because of the income it can generate. This is very much the case for those investing with CWS. Since 1991 CWS has sold 79 properties**. Approximately half the return has come from dividends and the other half from appreciation*.

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This Ain't No Party. This Ain't No Disco. This Ain't No Fooling Around

Quarantine

The title of this blog is from the Talking Heads song Life During Wartime. Maybe I should have called it Life During Quarantine instead but we are definitely on a wartime footing. If you don’t think so then maybe these charts might help convince you as financial markets are the most real-time indicator of investor sentiment and discounting the future to ascertain how investors react to key events.

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Seeing Victoria Falls while the World Is Going Over the Financial Falls

Gary Carmell Rainbow Victoria Falls

My international travels were scheduled to come to an end yesterday. I’m writing this prior to my arrival and assuming that there will be no delays in my return. It was a packed adventure that ended in Israel after visiting Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Zambia via Lusaka,

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Renter Nation Depicted

Cedar Springs

We’ve talked a lot about the advent of the Renter Nation at CWS for a number of years. When the housing bubble was in full force we used to say that people were renters but they didn’t know it because they had no equity in their homes due to the very aggressive financing that was available at the time.

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