The Sunday Drive - 06/11/2023 Edition
The Sunday Drive - 06/11/2023 Edition
Musings and Meanderings of a Financial Provocateur
👋🏼 Hello friends,
Greetings from Saratoga Springs, NY! Of the many things there are to love about living in Saratoga, perhaps my favorite is the annual Flag Day parade, which was held yesterday. This remarkable piece of Americana is a reminder to me that, despite all the challenges we face, we do live in a truly wonderful country. 🇺🇸
Now, let's take it easy and enjoy a leisurely Sunday Drive around the internet.
Vibin'
In the aftermath of 9/11, when our future as a nation appeared quite dark, one magnificently talented man performed one of his signature songs to start Game 2 of the 2001 World Series. He showed us that, when we choose to, we really can be united as a nation. I hope that we can find that unity again soon, and I pray it doesn’t require another event of death and devastation for us to do so.
To celebrate Flag Day and the great nation of which Old Glory is the symbol, this week I’m vibin’ to Ray Charles and his live rendition of America the Beautiful.
💭 Quote of the Week
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
– Mother Theresa
📈 Chart of the Week
As most of you know, the Chart of the Week is usually investment or economics related. This week’s Chart is a bit different - investment related but with a twist.
The importance of investing in our family relationships is crucial to our personal and societal wellbeing, and can pay immense dividends, now and in the future.
🚙 Interesting Drive-By's
🤔 How to Use ChatGPT as your Personal Intern - from RiskHedge.com
ChatGPT has been “live” for less than six months… and it’s already transforming careers.
It gives you the tools to build fully functioning websites and games… even if you’ve never written a line of code in your life.
You can “hire” it as a lawyer… doctor… or dietitian to get valuable second opinions (folks have saved thousands of dollars doing this).
ChatGPT even rescued a dog’s life. Its owner told the AI their sick dog’s blood test and symptoms, and it correctly diagnosed the problem a “human” vet missed. The owner concluded: “I can’t image what medical diagnostics will look like 20 years from now.”
It’s clear AI is one of the most powerful technologies in history. And it’s already becoming a must-know skill.
🎤 The Noble Swiftie Vigilantes (WSJ Article $$$ paywall alert) - I know I keep posting Taylor Swift related articles, which may not make sense to some readers. But, I truly believe that the cultural impact this artist is having on the younger generations will end up being more meaningful than most appreciate. Below is a summary of the article:
Two weeks ago, I attended a show at MetLife Stadium that, for me, was less a concert than a religious experience: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. But I was one of the fortunate few to snag a Taylor ticket this summer: Ticketmaster crashed during the presale, and scalpers have cranked up their prices to many multiples over the original cost. Enter @ErasTourResell, a Twitter account that has created a more bespoke and more fair-minded secondary market—“Robin Hood-like efforts [that] come amid attempts to curb what some lawmakers describe as a monopoly over ticket sales in the U.S.,” the Wall Street Journal’s Lane Florsheim writes. For @ErasTourResell, the three founders use little more than Twitter DMs and a Google Form to connect eager concert-goers with tickets at face value. (It’s similar in spirit to the slew of Twitter accounts that popped up in 2021 to help people get Covid vaccine appointments.) “We’re just trying to help people [keep] from getting scammed," co-founder Angel Richards, 27, told the Journal. “Our favorite part is when we’re all at the shows and people come up to us and they’ll be like, ‘I’m here because of you.’” They are, truly, on their vigilante shit. —Annie
📈 Longevity enthusiasts want to create their own independent state. They’re eyeing Rhode Island - from the MIT Technology Review
It’s a Friday morning in early May, and I’ve woken up to the sound of waves crashing against the rocks in a small bay on the coast of the Adriatic.
The sky is completely gray, and there are continual rumbles of thunder. The weather has been bad since I arrived in Montenegro. It was too stormy for the pilot to land the plane I was traveling on, and we ended up touching down in neighboring Croatia.
I’m here for a gathering of longevity enthusiasts, people interested in extending human life through various biotechnology approaches. One attendee, with whom I ended up sharing a cross-border taxi ride, told me half of his luggage was “supplements and powders.” Most attendees seem to be wearing “longevity” stickers. Everyone is super friendly, and the sense of optimism is palpable. Everyone I speak to is confident we’ll be able to find a way to slow or reverse aging. And they have a bold plan to speed up progress.
💰 Biden Administration Proposes Big Tax Increases on Wealthy - from Rethinking65
On March 9, 2023, the Biden Administration unveiled a fiscal year 2024 budget that includes revenue proposals aimed at reducing the federal deficit. Part of the plan includes raising taxes on high-income/high-net-worth individuals and large corporations. Simultaneously, the Treasury released the General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 Revenue Proposals, also known as the “Greenbook.”
👋🏼 Parting Thought
If you have any cool articles or ideas that might be interesting for future Sunday Drive-by's, please send them along or tweet 'em at me.
I hope you have a relaxing weekend and a great week ahead. See you next Sunday...
Your faithful financial provocateur,
-Mike
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