Newsletters - Past Issues

Update Dec 23 2024 Fund rasisers asking us for more money?

 

Those fund raising programs!

Give us a break!

 

With the arrival of Hurricane Helene, the advertisements petitioning for public donations pepper the news outlets.

When similar disasters befall our nation and indeed the world, as far back as I can remember the public is sought after to donate money to help those affected by the catastrophe.

Not to sound callous but I find myself reacting negatively to such fund raising programs. Not because I’m a cold unfeeling person. Lord knows, as well as many living in Nevada County, my pet peeve toward lifting others up comes in the form of my matching food bank programs called Turkey Matters in which I run several times a year.

Not to stroll too far off topic but my latest fundraiser to address food insecurity is the annual Turkey Matters matching program at Interfaith Food Ministries in Grass Valley where we buy holiday dinners with fixings and I match your donation with my own money. The program runs through Thanksgiving and you can donate by contacting Interfaith Food Ministries at (530) 273-8132.

Most agree we are constantly bombarded to donate our hard earned money to the latest catastrophe or war rescue effort. Considering the billions the governments of the world toss into the bailouts of financial institutions and add to that the willy-nilly spending on every this, that and the other thing, you have to wonder why ask us little people for our money when many of us are starving ourselves. 

I continually receive those preprinted return address labels by the truck load looking for a few dollars for war veterans. The Wounded Warrior Project is another organization looking for money to help our war veterans. The flyers for address labels ask for just a few dollars if that, and the Wounded Warrior Project will send you one of their blankets for a mere $19 a month. Add in fundraisers for the homeless, distressed pets, crumbling schools and what have you, and the extended hands looking to be filled are never-ending.

Now you might ask why in the world would you and I be a bit perturbed at such seemingly worthwhile fund raising endeavors?

Well let’s see.

How about the multi-hundred billion dollar chips act that Washington just doled out to for-profit semi-conductor companies to incentivize these already cash rich companies to make computer chips here in the U.S.?

The stocks of many of these companies have gone ballistic in the last two years and the CEOs of some of these companies are some of the highest paid executives in the world, many of them having a net worth of many tens of billions.

And how about the 44 billion already spend of your tax dollars going to fight the war in Ukraine which some argue is an unwinnable war?

The infamous bailouts to the banking conglomerates over many decades totals well into the multi trillions. The Federal Reserve’s ongoing Quantitative Easing and FOMO programs are yet another direct money spigot into the financial system. Many more programs are shuttling unimaginable amounts to insurance companies, hedge funds, troubled brokerage houses, foreign entities, foreign countries, foreign banking systems and other financial entities that you will never know of. There seems to be no shortage of funds where our largest institutions are concerned.

Then I open my mail and a veteran organization asks me for a five dollar bill to help them provide for those that served our country, or perhaps a soldier needs a new prosthetic or a hospital or school that doesn’t have paint peeling off its walls. 

I could go on with more sickening examples as you probably could and in the midst of writing this article they’re hitting me up again to help those impacted by the recent hurricanes.

What a travesty.

Washington has for decades, and continues to throw billions of dollars out secret windows to God knows who and for God knows what, while many worthwhile programs supporting our own citizens go begging.

Meanwhile the “ultra-connected” throughout the country and indeed the world get billions at the drop of a hat while the programs that support our citizens on the Main Street go scrounging for nickels and dimes wherever they can find them.

And in the midst of all of it, the putrid odor of government audacity permeates my olfactory senses.

Am I the only one in the room who smells the stink of the whole thing?

  “Watching the markets so you dont have to    

(end)    

(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS   (Regulations)    

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services.  Email: news@moneymanagementradio.com

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A costly new knee UPDATE Total Knee Replacements

 

Total Knee Replacements

#2044

Not all things acquired are done so by monetary payment. Think of taking a walk and reaping the benefits of a healthier you. For the healthier you, you didn’t actually pay any money but you paid nonetheless through your time and sweat you expended in doing the walk.

Doing economic radio shows and newscasts for many decades now, I have come to realize there are many ways to pay for things we desire and reap said rewards and many of those transactions do not involve the transfer of money as the above walkabout example illustrate. When I realized that fact, a slew of new topics presented themselves for my Money Matters media.

Today’s musing leads us to the costs, benefits, and the how and why of total knee replacement (TKR). As mankind’s life expectancy is extended through the miracles of science, new expectations arise about how long we can stay active.

One is either a newbie to the world of TKR or a seasoned veteran. And with my second TKR done September 17th, I am now a seasoned TKR veteran.

I was told I needed a TKR on the right knee decades back. Since the knee still worked and was only moderately inconveniencing me as to frequency and pain level, I figured if I waited a few years, technology would improve and better and longer lasting knees would be available. Additionally, although I had pretty good health insurance back then, I would still have a considerable co-payment.

Having been right on both instances, about 30 years ticked off on my old right knee and I found myself, starting around about the age of 55, really feeling the effects of the knee. It was now bone on bone.

Continuing to play a variety of sports, I ground the thing down to the point where running and jumping was almost impossible and the pain was exhausting. Luckily for me, the age of 65 sprung upon me and with it, the financial savior called Medi-Care became available.

I then began to investigate where the new knee technology had progressed to and like I had thought, TKR had become common place. The methodology, medicines and equipment utilized during TKR had vastly progressed.

Turns out that right about that time my left knee began to give up the ghost. This only made my resolve to get the right knee done that more urgent.

Having a large social media presence I ran a survey two counties wide as to who might be the best doctor to go to and three came to the forefront.

The top doctor was a four hour drive away which, at that time, was a bit of a deal breaker for me.

I then set up appointments with the next two in line which were closer and decided on one of those shortly thereafter.

Medi-Care paid for all of it and since I just had the second one done, Medi-Care paid for that one too. Good thing. I saw the bill and it was something like $150,000.00 each knee.

Ouch.

Although Medi-Care covered the cost, the transaction of my two new knees was not all monetary.

Certainly real money was paid to the doctors and ancillary care facilities and I also did pay a cost.

I had paid into Medi-Care for decades through my paychecks.

Additionally, I also paid by having to take time off from my ongoing business enterprises costing me an untold amount. But the good part is the payoff.

Not that a TKR will solve everyone’s problem 100% of the time. There are degrees of success.  And on rare occasion, like with any surgery, they do have their risks and possible complications. All surgeries do.

And although my first TKR is not perfect, I can now run and jump without much if any pain.

And that fact was good enough for me to decide to do the other one.

This current knee replacement is a stark reminder of just how uncomfortable these can be during the lengthy recovery. I can say it is definitely NOT FUN.

However when I start running, jumping and playing sports again, I will be reminded only then why I went through two of these.

I can’t wait.

  “Watching the markets so you dont have to    

(end)    

(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS   (Regulations)    

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services.  Email: news@moneymanagementradio.com

 

 

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(530) 559-1214

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Update Oct 12 2024 Is the AI trade ending ?

 

"Sell all my artificial intelligence stocks now"

 

 

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) trade may have hit the rocks. As detailed here in Money Matters a few weeks back, AI was all the rage the last few months when it came to trading stocks. I mentioned in my previous article the AI trade looked, felt and smelled like a mania. Like so many manias before it and throughout time, manias are times when everybody and their grandmother pile into the hottest stock sector like there’s no tomorrow.

But there always is a tomorrow, and that tomorrow began last month.

Stocks like NVDIA, AMD, and a handful of stocks that had anything to do with or even mentioned AI shot to the moon and appeared headed for Mars. Up and away many of these high flyers went, led by the stratospheric rise of NVDIA.

There is no doubt investors in stocks like these made money. And some, a lot of money. Such is always the case with stock manias. The age old game of “pile on” was played by many, and soon, common sense and historical precedent was tossed out the proverbial window. Investors and analysts alike knew it would end at some point, but like the CEO of Citibank Chuck Prince said in 2007 as it related to the real estate mania and the investments that fueled it, , “As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. (But) when the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated”.

Complicated Mr. Prince?

How about catastrophic.

We all know what happened then. With the financial systems of the world in free fall, the central banks of the world embarked on one of the biggest bailouts in history. Well, that was until CoVid hit.

The mania in AI is obviously nothing like the 2008/09 fiasco, but only in degrees. This recent AI mania didn’t threaten to bring the world to an end, but AI stocks have suffered some setback in recent months. We can only guess if the fall out is over.

What is hitting the AI enthusiasm is stocks like NVDIA saw some stellar increases in revenue, and those increases were reflected in their stock prices. But the other side of the equation is will these companies be able to continue to reap the rewards of AI revenue. Some analysts argue the return on investment is yet to be seen.

In other words, its true many companies are spending billions on AI infrastructure which has boosted sales to the AI stocks which make the microchips that are required for the advanced language comprehension.  These advanced chips make up much of this AI infrastructure spending as they are quite pricey.

But what remains to be seen is are the companies that are spending billions buying these chips able to turn around and reap the massive profits needed to make the AI investment worth the money.

The answer to that question remains to be seen. We never know how the consumer will react to AI and whether the demand will be there and able to generate revenue for the companies that will use AI.

Maybe they will and maybe they won’t. But if AI turns out to be a pie in the sky pipedream that will fail to turn out the increased profit to justify the investment, it’s possible we could be looking at a very large balloon busting in a very large way.

Only time will tell of course and ain’t that what the stock market is all about?

For now however, AI stocks seem to be regaining a little ground from the recent hammering but the term caveat emptor is still in play.

In English, that’s buyer beware.

Tread lightly when it comes to stock manias. They always end in some way or another making fools of somebody.

  “Watching the markets so you dont have to    

(end)    

(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS   (Regulations)    

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services.  Email: news@moneymanagementradio.com

Need help with Medicare? 

Call me (530) 559 1214

Approved Medicare Supplement Agent 


 

Reader trashes your radio host Can we count on your support?

 

Hello!    Being a columnist, I get many emails. So do my publications. Last week in the Union a reader penned a letter to the editor of the UNION about how I have little to no respect for the Federal Reserve (THE FED).

 

Thats absolutely true!  And for good reason. The FED has brought us the dot com crash...   the housing crash...    the 2016 crash and 2008/2009 implosion that almost brought down the world. They then printed up (as they always do) tons of cash and threw it into the banking `system` let alone everywhere else.

 

As a institution of their own admission of stability and employment, which is their edict. they now wreck upon us horrible inflation.

 

They first said it wouldnt last and did nothing. Then, as they always seem to do, backtracked and spoonfed more money into the banking system. So here we have inflation. And lots of it.

 

So just to make sure the new folks at the UNION dont take that too seriously, can you take a minute and use this link to post a letter to the editor if your support what I am saying for decades and saying it in a way that is easy to understand.

 

If you dont have the time, no worries. But if you can take a minute and write a positive review of my media coverage, that would insure the message continues to go out. We may not always agree.  Who does. But I try to stay clear of endorsements and politics as best I can. 

 

Here is the letter to the editor link which is easy to use and follow:

https://www.theunion.com/site/forms/online_services/letter_editor/

 

Thank you and keep up the good work and support towards truth in broadcasting.

Marc Cuniberti

Money Matters 


 

Money Matters Update October 5 2024

Her plan: Serious economics or other?
Keep reading. 

 

Vice President Kamala Harris last week revealed a rough draft of her economic plan should she be elected to President. She promised to prioritize the proposal in her first 100 days in office.

This is the first economic focused address since she moved into the candidacy and it aims at reducing costs to the American consumer. The outline includes a ban on corporate price gouging to lower the cost of groceries and prescription drugs. These proposals sound good on at the outset but if it was that easy to convince corporations to lower prices, how come Harris and Biden don’t do it now. I mean, why wait, right? My opinion is that this might be an exercise in futility but it sounds good.

Affordable housing is on the ticket. That again is a large free market and large free markets can’t be bent easily.  Lowering interest rates will help lower payments so she could jawbone the Federal Reserve to lower them but the Fed is supposed to be independent. Both she and I know of course it is far from that so as President, she could definitely put the screws to Fed Chief Jerome Powell. Her plan is looking at a first time buyer home credit. This strategy has been tried a few times in the past and may have contributed to the real estate bust, but if you want to get people into their first home, these credits would definitely help. I would add to make sure those getting those credits have good credit themselves and Harris had mentioned that in her proposal.

On food prices, contrary to popular belief, food companies and the stores that sell food operate on very thin margins. They basically make their profits on volume. Not sure there is much to be done there. Drug prices are definitely expensive and the Biden administration just came out with a new edict lowering prices on some popular and much needed medications. Harris could continue down those lines.

Tax code changes are on the menu. Tax code changes require house cooperation so that could be a sticky wicket. Expanding child credits and the like do go through a little easier so Harris could push for even more help in that arena.

Of course, much of this requires more spending. That means more borrowing by Uncle Sam and higher taxes for some. Without seeing specific proposals and their details it’s difficult to comment on the ability of the government to fund some of these programs. Like all on the campaign trail however, it’s easy to say what you are going to do, but it’s not as easy doing it.

One thing we can be sure of, whoever gets the nod for President, both sides plan on, or will end up spending a ton more money we Americans just don’t have. With the U.S. 33 trillion in the debt hole and climbing (no one really knows for sure), more social programs will run up deficits and thereby run up the interest payments the U.S. has to pay on that debt.

And of course, more money flowing out of Washington means more inflation, and don’t we have enough of that now?

The jury is still out on the Harris plan at this point in time. We just don’t know the details on how she would accomplish her economic goals. Many of the talking points from both candidates are vague and unspecific and designed to garner votes. It’s the way elections work nowadays.

What I do know however, is that both candidates will probably use the public checkbook way more than what this analyst thinks is prudent, and that will cost us all more money in the long run.

  “Watching the markets so you don’t have to”    

(end)    

(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS   (Regulations)    

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services.  Email: news@moneymanagementradio.com

 

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