Meanwhile, Here on Earth
'Who wants a Skittle?'... Jeff Bezos' best day ever... Meanwhile, here on Earth... 'It felt a lot cooler than it looked'... Taking money completely out of the banks... Eric Wade's 'Crypto Cash Summit' is just hours away...
Yesterday, the world's richest man tossed Skittles candy in zero gravity...
Talk about how much the world has changed over the past five decades...
On July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong uttered his now-famous words upon landing on the moon. Drama dripped with each syllable...
That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
On July 20, 2021 – exactly 52 years later – Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos floated 62 miles above the Earth's surface in his own rocket-propelled capsule. And he spoke much less meaningful words...
Who wants a Skittle?
With that, we cringed a little... The full video is here.
"See if you can catch this in your mouth," Bezos said to one of his spaceflight companions, 18-year-old Oliver Daemen – the son of a wealthy private-equity executive along for the ride. Impressively, Daemen caught the tiny candy on the first try while floating upside down.
In the capsule – so high above West Texas that you could see the darkness of space but not too far that you still couldn't see the roads, desert, and ranches below – the world's richest man, his brother, 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk, and the 18-year-old Daemen... well, had fun.
For a few minutes, they floated around, ate candy, and threw orange ping-pong balls to each other without gravity playing a role... The Bezos brothers also paired up the palms of their hands to say "Hi Mom" to the camera capturing their brief trip... "Best day ever," Bezos said afterward. Will he go back? "Hell yeah."
The early days of "space tourism," they call it.
Meanwhile, here on Earth...
We're not going to be complete Scrooges here...
We won't discount the technological achievements of Bezos' Blue Origin company... Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic... or Elon Musk's SpaceX, which last year became the first private company to launch NASA astronauts into space.
To be able to build rockets that can fire capsules into space and return safely... and then be reused... is a feat that is truly impressive. And years from now, with more development, it could lead to an innovative era of citizens going into space.
And don't get us wrong... there are worthwhile space-related investments to consider today, particularly among great businesses tied to the growing use and reach of satellites. In fact, Stansberry Venture Technology editor Dave Lashmet's subscribers have enjoyed a 313% combined return on one such company he recommended back in February 2019... and the remaining part of the position is up more than 360%.
At this point, though, we see a silly video like we did yesterday and find ourselves among those asking, "What's the point?" And we can't help but question if it's anything other than a high-priced ($250,000 per ticket) novelty act for the rich...
Well, maybe there is more to it than that...
As Berna Barshay, an editor at our corporate affiliate Empire Financial Research, pointed out in the free Empire Financial Daily yesterday, the irony of Bezos heading into space on a rocket he basically paid for himself is not lost on many people...
Working conditions at Amazon distribution centers ("DCs") have long been a source of scrutiny, so it's also probably not a coincidence that news site Vice decided that today would be a good day to drop a story about a 23-year-old Amazon DC worker who miscarried after begging her manager and human resources for lighter duty.
And as usual, the Internet has (dark) jokes...
As someone who spends too much time on the Internet, to me (Corey McLaughlin), the video looked like a really expensive, self-indulgent presentation that someone might post on social media. And apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt that way...
'It felt a lot cooler than it looked'...
That's what Daemen, the 18-year-old, said during a post-flight press conference as the footage was shown...
Bezos, who was wearing a cowboy hat on stage as the teenager made the comments, awkwardly chuckled along with the other passengers... The moderator paused for a second to figure out how to move the discussion along.
Yet Bezos likened today's space times to the early days of air travel, when planes barnstormed around the country... And he said yesterday that sales of tickets for his Blue Origin rockets are already nearing $100 million.
Two more Blue Origin spaceflights are scheduled for later this year. And at roughly $250,000 per seat, some quick math puts the waiting list to head to space at around 400 passengers.
Good for them... If you're one of those folks, take some pictures or videos for us.
Meanwhile, down here on the Earth's crust, we're still trying to make sense of our health insurance system... We have around 150 million people worldwide on the brink of starvation... And broken trust is evident in just about everything.
Global supply-chain bottlenecks are helping to stoke inflation... Negative real interest rates are a thing on "safe" investments... And we don't imagine that most people can actually believe in their bones that stocks are really worth the prices they trade for today.
Where do we stop? How about with these numbers...
According to a Pew Research survey a few months ago, of 18,850 adults in 17 advanced economies – like the U.S., Canada, France, and Italy – more than two-thirds (68%) of U.S. respondents said they think today's children will be financially worse off as adults than their parents.
So far, it looks like they're right...
One report by the nonpartisan think tank New America finds millennials are generally earning 20% less than Baby Boomers did at the same age...
At the same time, the number of millionaires rose last year by 5.2 million to more than 56 million and the richest 1% – like Bezos – increased their share of global wealth to 45%, according to research published by investment bank Credit Suisse.
To be fair, after living out his dream, Bezos literally came back down to Earth for a few moments...
At the post-flight press conference yesterday afternoon, Bezos put on another good show...
He announced that he was giving away $100 million each to a pair of people who exemplified "courage and civility." The recipients are TV commentator and activist Van Jones and chef José Andrés of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which provides emergency food relief around the world.
It's like Bezos knew the self-made joyride might not come off looking great to some people...
To be clear, we've written in these pages about Amazon's success as a profit-making company before (and its huge reach)... And our culture does need dreamers. "Big things start small," Bezos said yesterday, referencing how he started Amazon nearly 30 years ago.
He also talked about how going to space is about making life better on Earth. We didn't hear too many specifics (other than a suggestion that we could move all polluting industry into outer space)... But let's hope he's right – because we've got plenty of problems.
Here's one suggestion...
We don't give individual advice here, but perhaps the next $100 million check Bezos writes could be to the Federal Reserve to help trim its $8 trillion-plus balance sheet... It could make all of our dollars a little bit more valuable, so the economy can function on its own.
For more 'real life on Earth'...
Be sure to check out our featured video today from our editor-at-large Daniela Cambone...
Daniela's latest guest is Gerald Celente, publisher of the popular Trends Journal... He's fired up about all the wrong he sees from the "bigs" – meaning the big banks, the Federal Reserve, and quite frankly, anything connected to the banking system "gang."
Celente says the big banks are "getting money for free" while "the Fed is lying about inflation." Add it up and "the big banks are getting bigger, and everyone else is getting poorer"... And that's why he has taken his money completely out of the banks.
We think you'll enjoy the full interview... We sure did when we watched it this morning. Click here or on the image below to watch...
And for more free video content, subscribe to our Stansberry Research YouTube channel. Plus, don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Celente's points dovetail perfectly with several themes we often talk about here in the Digest...
The constant devaluation of the U.S. dollar... a current "there is no alternative to stocks" environment to make any decent returns, so people keep turning to equities... and the inevitable fallout of it all.
As Celente and many of our editors also say, gold and silver are great choices to help keep the purchasing power of your money powerful enough to beat inflation. But we want to end today with a reminder that there are other alternatives emerging, too...
This is something we talked about in last Thursday's Digest, when we detailed how to be a "rich man"... and on balance, ensure that your money makes more of a return than your expenses are eating away at your nest egg. From that essay...
It's hard...
As we write, stocks are more expensive than they've been in most of modern market history... The chances of them returning the same ol' 10% a year over the next decade aren't that great.
Bonds are paying 1% or 2% interest if you're lucky. For most people, banks are simply becoming a place to have a liquid checking account rather than making any significant amount of interest.
And at the current moment (and we don't know exactly how much longer)... inflation is running higher than it has in years... That could be troubling for those folks living on a fixed income.
Plus, there's only so many times it makes sense to refinance a mortgage... and real estate prices just keep on climbing (good for homeowners, harder for homebuyers).
Enter another option... "opting out" of the system.
We're talking about owning and using cryptocurrencies... And more specifically, we're referring to a particular part about them that 99% of Americans don't even know exists yet – but one that could actually help you beat inflation and survive a crisis.
If you're fed up with the 'system' of your dollars wilting away, consider something new...
As we've said recently, this is the newest message from Crypto Capital editor Eric Wade...
Even with the crypto market's pullback over the past few months, many of his subscribers have made 1,000% or more returns in some cases... You can see examples every day in the Stansberry Research Hall of Fame section at the bottom of each Digest.
And as he shared yesterday, Eric is still a believer in the long-term potential for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies... in part because of the potential it has for everyday folks to make the type of interest on their investments that, you know, a bank used to give you.
That was back when a savings account was actually worth something.
In just a couple of hours, at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Eric will explain all the details of what he means in our first-ever "Crypto Cash Summit"...
We can tell you that Eric plans to tell folks how to go "outside the system" to generate annual income of 10% to 35% in cryptos... plus the potential to earn 1,000%-plus capital gains.
And we can also tell you that he's not talking about buying bitcoin or Ethereum... or dealing with the bouts of volatility that can come with them.
In short, we're talking about one big part of the crypto world that has staying power... It's a practical example of the type of promise for bitcoin and other cryptos that so many people have gotten excited about in recent years – even if they didn't exactly know why.
Eric does... And he'll explain all the details tonight. Even better, just for tuning in, you'll get access to a free crypto recommendation. And just for signing up, you'll get free, instant access to a brand-new three-part "Master Class" that Eric has put together.
Be sure to sign up for his free event right now to make sure you don't miss any of it. (Stansberry Alliance members... keep watching your inbox for more details on what we're talking about. As always, this exciting new research will be available to you at no additional charge.)
We're Going Back to Las Vegas
You're invited to join us this October for our 19th annual Stansberry Research Conference... And even better, we're back in person in Las Vegas this year!
Regular Digest readers know our conference is a gathering of some of the best folks in financial research. You'll hear from financial heavy-hitters and inspirational speakers, mingle with like-minded folks, and get investment ideas you can act on in real time...
For example, last year's exclusive conference recommendations are soaring. They're almost all seeing double-digit returns – with gains as high as 195% and 310%.
And as always, we've put together an all-star lineup of guest speakers...
You'll hear from Paul DePodesta, the chief strategy officer for the NFL's Cleveland Browns... Mohamed A. El-Erian, one of the world's most influential economic thinkers... Tony Seba, an angel investor and Silicon Valley entrepreneur... and countless others throughout the event.
This year's conference will be held Monday, October 25, and Tuesday, October 26, at the luxurious Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. Click here for more details and information about how to grab your ticket right now.
New 52-week highs (as of 7/20/21): American Homes 4 Rent (AMH), American Tower (AMT), Crown Castle (CCI), Costco Wholesale (COST), Dollar General (DG), DocuSign (DOCU), Hershey (HSY), Intuit (INTU), Invitation Homes (INVH), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), ResMed (RMD), ProShares Ultra Health Care Fund (RXL), Stamps.com (STMP), and Trane Technologies (TT).
A quiet mailbag today... As always, you can send your notes to feedback@stansberryresearch.com. And we'll end with one final reminder...
Eric Wade's Crypto Cash Summit will go live promptly at 8 p.m. Eastern time tonight. If you own bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other cryptos – or frankly, even if you don't – be sure to tune in to learn more about an exciting new frontier of finance. You can sign up for free right here.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin
Baltimore, Maryland
July 21, 2021