usdaed

Warsh, for those keeping score, was the baby-faced wonder on the Fed board back in ’06. He’s also done time with Stanley Druckenmiller – which, let’s be honest, is like getting a financial pedigree from royalty. The market likes that. It likes things with a history of…not collapsing. It’s a low bar, really.

Which brings me to Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM 0.13%). I’ve been looking at it. Trying to be rational. It’s not exactly sexy, precious metals investing, but it’s…solid. And frankly, after the cryptocurrency debacle (Units of Cryptocurrency Lost: 12. Hours Spent Watching Charts: 9. Number of Panicked Texts to Friends: 24.), I need solid. Here’s why it’s currently winning the ‘least likely to cause a full-blown anxiety attack’ award in my portfolio.

So, what does the coming year hold for these digital soothsayers? Let us, with the detached amusement of a seasoned observer, venture a few predictions. Not of the future, mind you, but of the future of prediction.

Here’s a prediction for 2026. It’s not a sunny one.

During the recent, and now receding, pandemic, demand for UPS’s package delivery services experienced a rather enthusiastic surge. It was, for a brief, shining moment, as if everyone had collectively decided to take up online shopping as a full-time hobby. Then, quite logically, people began to venture back into actual shops, preferring the tactile experience of purchasing things rather than waiting for a cardboard box to arrive. E-commerce didn’t vanish, of course, but the abrupt return to normalcy (a concept that remains, to many, deeply unsettling) did rather alter UPS’s demand landscape. Management, in a display of commendable forward thinking (or perhaps just a desperate attempt to avoid being swept away by the tide), decided a business overhaul was in order.

Okay, so here’s the deal. This ETF, it doesn’t invent anything. It doesn’t overthrow governments. It simply follows an index – the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index. Think of it as a very obedient puppy. Now, that index… that’s where the magic (or, you know, moderately sensible financial engineering) happens. It starts by sniffing out companies that have been reliably handing out dividends for at least ten years. Ten years! That’s longer than some marriages! We’re looking for consistency, people! And they throw out the REITs. Apparently, real estate is too… complicated. Who knew?

The company speaks of a “multi-trillion-dollar opportunity.” This is, of course, the standard phrasing. It implies a limitless horizon while conveniently obscuring the very real constraints of market saturation and, more importantly, the capacity of individuals to responsibly manage debt. The current focus remains on three loan types: personal, student, and home. To suggest this constitutes a diversified portfolio is generous.

Three stocks caught the eye, not necessarily because of their inherent brilliance, but because Ms. Wood chose to acquire more of them whilst most other investors seemed to be engaged in a synchronized retreat. These were Amazon, Robinhood Markets, and Coinbase. All three experienced a slight downward wobble on Friday, which, from a purely geological perspective, is entirely unremarkable. (Everything goes down eventually, given enough time and gravity. It’s a fundamental principle of existence.) Let’s examine these choices with the sort of detached curiosity usually reserved for observing the mating rituals of deep-sea anglerfish.

The automotive world, a landscape littered with the rusting hulks of ambition and the polished chrome of fleeting trends, often forgets the quiet power of restraint. Everyone chases volume, a relentless pursuit of numbers that leaves little room for the soul of a machine. But there existed, and continues to exist, a singular entity – Ferrari – that understood a different equation, one where prestige wasn’t measured in units sold, but in the echo of a V12 reverberating through the hills.