Good morning. A slight gain brought the S&P to yet another intraday high this morning as good news on both the job front and the economy are making investors … how do I put this … a bit more relaxed (or, at least, less nervous) as fears of an inflationary spike seem to be subsiding. Do you know the best way to put you in the running for a soon-to-be-open position? Learn how the boss sees the world … and do what you can to convince anyone that matters that you feel the exact same way. This might be playing out in the Fed as one governor rumored to be seen as a successor for Jay Powell is publicly calling for a rate cut to take place at the next meeting … and a sizable one, at that. It is interesting that the two loudest voices at the moment, Fred Waller and Michelle Bowman, are both said to be considered for the top job once Jay Powell moves on from the leadership position. The Economist had an interesting article out this morning … which I couldn’t share because of a “pay wall” … asking the question: “will AI make you stupid?” It does seem that more are counting on Artificial Intelligence for written correspondence … but does this remove the need for critical thinking? At the moment … with its limitations … perhaps it does. AI is rife with what are called “hallucinations” … and sometimes provides information which seems real but doesn’t exist. One example (of many) is where attorneys for Mike Lindell (“The Pillow Guy”) were admonished for using AI-generated citations … proven to be from cases which didn’t exist. Sure, I can see the benefits of AI when putting certain things together … such as business plans … but it really is important to check things before you attach your name to anything. If you don’t, you could end up in a heap of trouble. On a final note for today, we have certainly seen photos of flooding in different parts of the country and asked ourselves why people might ignore the warnings. Probably because they get so many of them. This year has seen the highest number of yearly flash flood alerts since records began in 1986 … and we are only in mid-July … resulting in people wondering if there is really something that has changed with the climate … if this is an outlier year … or if authorities are just being a bit too cautious, resulting in overconcern (and overuse of the alarms). I don’t know the answer … only that recent pictures of floods in certain areas have been terrifying. That will wrap it up for now as I don’t feel like writing anymore today. It seems that about 5 years ago, a doctor told me I had “lazy eye.” … suddenly it has spread to the rest of my body. Have a great day, Joseph G. Witthohn, CFA Have any questions? Please contact info@teamemerald.com
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