Empathy And Sportsmanship. RIP Olivia Newton-John. Top-of- Mind Thinking. Talent Training At WLS/Chicago.
- We can all use a moment of levity and good news. What could have turned into a serious medical issue, or a usual brawl between two baseball teams, turned into the moment of the week. This young man shows tremendous empathy and class to the pitcher who had just hit him with a pitch. I know the dynamics of pitchers beaning batters at the professional level are different, but maybe Major League Baseball should make this video a mandatory watch for their players? I know, I am dreaming…
- I had a crush on her, forever. She could sing, act, and was no doubt gorgeous. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included five number-one hits and other top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100. She made John Travolta much better with her performance in Grease, which became the highest-grossing musical film ever at the time and whose soundtrack remains one of the world’s best-selling albums of all time. Olivia Newton-John passed away last week after a lengthy battle with cancer. Her passing provided me with a flood of good memories.
We then learn about Olivia Newton-John’s lineage, and her famous grandfather and father. Her grandfather was the physicist and mathematician Max Born, who fled Nazi Germany to continue his work with quantum mechanics (anyone want to chime in on quantum mechanics?). In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics but was better recognized for his efforts to help people escape Nazi Germany. Her father, Brinley Newton-John, also has his own place in history. He was a British intelligence officer who was involved with the capture of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess. Olivia Newton-John was a magical performer with a storied family history.
Who could forget this music video which was produced in the early days of the aerobic craze? RIP Olivia Newton-John.
Short Takes For Mid-August
- Just asking: How long is the world going to stand by and watch Putin’s Russian troops demolish the country of Ukraine?
- Regarding the question above, the Ukraine power plant in Zaporizhzhya is on the brink of a nuclear disaster in Europe. Hello NATO?
- Does anyone what to chime in with answers on inflation, with low unemployment and better supply chain dynamics, as well as the markets up 10% in the last three weeks. Anyone?
- We are two weeks away from college football. Nothing else needs to be said. 🙂
- Headline of the week from the Tampa Bay Times: Why is The Villages known as ‘the STD capital of America?’ (FYI: The Villages is a massive, planned development in Central Florida saturated with over-55 communities.)
- A telling tale of what?: College enrollment is down four million in the last decade.
- A CEO crying while announcing layoffs and firings at HyperSocial, a Columbus, Ohio online marketing firm. He did this on LinkedIn. I have no words.
- With all due respect, size matters. The foldable phone is coming fast, first from Samsung and Motorola. The tag line: “A large screen that folds in half so you can put it in your pocket.” That is some well thought out product marketing.
- I spend a good bit of time ‘on set’ at television networks and their affiliates around the country. Television news, especially local affiliates, are very competitive with everything they do. Many affiliates differentiate themselves from their competition with the technology used on their sets – to present and show off their content and storytelling. As technology has evolved with lower price points, news affiliates are starting to use large LED walls, seamless monitor arrays, and touchscreens, similar to what we might see used on networks including France 24, The Weather Channel, BBC, CNN, and Fox News. WLS TV is an ABC affiliate in the large television market of Chicago. Is Greg, the weather person, messing with us or did his news director and chief engineer not advise him about their new touch-screen technology? Embarrassingly funny.
So on inflation…..some interesting dynamics going on. First of all the stock market trades on expected forward earnings, the bond market trades on expected forward inflation. That being said the Fed has told us they would move front end interest rates past neutral (4%) to restrictive in order to slow inflation. The great payroll numbers we got for the month of July give the Fed even more reason to tighten rates to the restrictive zone . Here is the catch. It takes time for rate increases to move through the economy. If you have an adjustable rate mortgage, that mortgage typically adjusts 1X per year. So chances are if your mortgage adjusted in the first quarter of this year, you won’t feel the pain of higher rates until next Spring! But in the mean time rates will increase even more….so the lag is very important. The Fed could continue to raise rates while employment numbers which are reported on a lag still look promising but while employers are seeing declines in demand and the need to trim their workforce. Just my take!
Thanks JP. A good perspective.