Remember that poise and power are inseparably associated. The calm and balanced mind is the strong and great mind; the hurried and agitated mind is the weak one.
Wallace D. Wattles
When you have kids, or have taught kids, or are around kids, you know they often will do and say things which will try your patience. As one obtains more experience with trying to lead children or people, your ability to maintain your self control while absolute insanity reigns around ou generally grows by leaps and bounds. People who have been in very difficult situations and managed to work themselves out of it also seem to develop this kind of steady state. Generals are notorious for being iron willed and stoic, as are championship coaches. With the nonstop drumbeat of poor earnings reports this week and sudden questions about the age of a near decade bull market, investors are suddenly questioning it’s future prospects for the first time in a good long while, call it maybe eighteen months or so? Who could forget the last tough period, way back when at the start of 2016 when the market dropped a thousand points in the first two weeks of the year? Not me, anyway, and it is why the issue of poise is important to raise. You see, there is that old poem about keeping your head when all around you others aren't, right?
In the financial markets this week, the headlines revolved around the problems in retail, yet again, with Wal-Mart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Macy’s, and Foot Locker issuing earnings reports which impressed nobody, and, clearly left some a little, call it, rattled. Target, on the other hand, showed promise with it’s release, so there is some sunshine for you, OK? In the bond market, Apple issued 2.5 billion of Canadian debt at 2.5% to provide a little more gunpowder for its content adventures. Amazon also joined the debt party to help fund its Whole Foods purchase. You didn’t think Jeff would pay for it with all his own cash, now did you, not when they can issue debt for essentially nothing? Oh yes, what else might have spooked the market, hmm, let’s see, oops, almost forgot, that little issue with the CEO’s.
It seems the heads of some of the largest companies in our corporate land decided that, well, they have had enough of advising President Trump. Merck. Campbell’s Soup. 3M. Under Armor. You get the drift, they said bye bye, and all the manufacturing councils and advisory councils got disbanded. If you know Mr. Trump’s history, you know he has always been a guy who did it his way, everything his way, anything his way, and his friends and business associates came and went. He used to be enemies with Steve Wynn, now Steve baby is the head of fundraising for the Republican National Committee, or some such title. Doing a good job raising money, too, just as the Democrats. Imagine that. Anyway, the important point is with the defection of some members of the business world, one has to wonder about the viability of once promising Trump agenda which centered around Obamacare repeal (nope), tax cuts (now very questionable), infrastructure (council disbanded), and repatriation of overseas cash (who knows). The impetus for all of this was Mr. Trump’s response, if that is what you want to call it, to the Charlottesville, Virginia confrontation and subsequent murder of a female protester at a white supremacist rally. A Monday press conference where Mr. Trump displayed little cool or calm was not his best moment. He has now fired his once all important chief strategist Steve Bannon. Every day brings new controversy, new headaches, and none of these help President Trump with his luke warm Republican members of Congress. Democrats have been smelling blood for a long while, and you can bet they aren’t going to help Mr. Trump on anything, in any way, ever. Still, Donald was once a thread from a billion dollar bankruptcy, and rebuilt his empire into an even stronger economic entity. If he regains his poise, things can still turn out better than anyone might expect, including his friends on the other side like Maxine, Al, Bernie, Elizabeth, and the suddenly loquacious Mrs. Plosive. Anyway, I am sure you are retaining your sense of calm after a nice hot summer.
Thanks for reading the blog this week and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at information@y-hc.com
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