bigjoey

Talked with a person in the grocery business. He said that the reason most groceries still have produce is that the market is just shifting what they use to sell to restaurants to the grocery stores. Since fruit and produce is perishable, it gets put out and can not really be stored for long. In the last few years, as people started eating out more, restaurants took business from grocery stores. Now the grocery stores are getting those customers back.

I wish I could give this multiple thumbs up. The best post ever. Thank you.

Kansas City is unusual in that except for Whole Foods, the big chains are not here and left years ago. No Kroger, Safeway, A&P, etc. Even Whole Foods stores are few. “Independent” grocery stores and local chains are dominant here. These independent stores (local chains really) belong to a local co-op or buying groups with huge local warehouses. So far, my local grocery (Hen House) has been well stocked and only a few things like toilet paper and cleaning products have empty shelves due to panic buying. Those items are restocked but people grab them up as soon as they appear. Otherwise, I can get pretty much of whatever I want. Plenty of fresh fish, chicken, pork and beef. Most produce is out. The bakery and deli and prepared food sections are full. Only occasionally is an item out but then back in stock within a day or two. I know many of the staff since I have shopped there for years and I thank them for working. The simple thank you brings a smile to their faces. They like knowing they are appreciated. I think the hoarders have pretty well stocked up as the store traffic seems to be returning to normal. I expect toilet paper to become a staple on shelves as well since there is plenty of back up stock and the paper factories are running as fast as they can to refill the warehouses. Expect a glut of toilet paper and sales in the months to come. Through the wonderful mechanics of capitalism, new suppliers are coming online. For example, a local whisky distillery has switched from whiskey to hand sanitizer.

Same here.

There may be a drug: https://nypost.com/2020/03/19/old-malaria-drug-hydroxychloroquine-may-help-cure-coronavirus-study/ If expanded tests work.....

Looting after Hurricane Katrina: Looting after Hurricane Florence;

My sister just did a road trip to get home: 1-definitely bring food as few restaurants open. 2-bring wipes to clean everything in the motel room; you do not know how well it was cleaned or if the cleaners were contagious 3-keep gas tank above half full because in rural areas, even gas stations can be closed or limited hours.

In Southern California, the Gelson’s chain of groceries is setting aside the first hour of the day for 65+ seniors.

There are many stocks whose business will not be affected by the virus. For example, H&R Block; sick or not, people will need to pay their taxes. Some dividend yields are being pushed to high levels as the stock prices drop. If the stock is in an IRA account, the dividend yield is higher as it is tax free. For example, Outfront Media is yielding 5.8%; they have billboards which are often on long term contract and they have the lease to sell the advertising on NYC subways (in an election year, there will be no shortage of demand). So while you wait for the market to come back, you can get a nice income. While no one can predict the bottom point of the market, this drop in price can be a buying opportunity for those investors with a long term view.

NPR had a piece yesterday about how much energy “the cloud” uses. The amount of digital bandwidth is about to increase several times as 5G becomes a reality. “The cloud” is powered by thousands of server farms which suck up huge amounts of electricity. Almost all of that electricity is generated by coal/gas plants and generates pollution. The real surprise was that the pollution was equal to the pollution generated by the transportation industry?. Bottom line, typing away on your electronic devices to post here is highly polluting?. So along with cruises, you need to give up your digital device uses that get on the internet and use “the cloud.”

Boomer here. Remember “duck and cover” drills in school in case of an atomic attack:) https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/03/are-duck-and-cover-school-drills-from-the-nuclear-era-a-useful-parallel-to-active-shooter-drills.html

Depending on the still unknown length of the virus incubation period and depending on if a person during the virus incubation period is contagious, this could lead to a real slow down in escort hiring. These unknowns need to be know before any health conscious buyer of escort services ventures into the hiring marketplace.

Today, many young people have become millionaires by working in high tech. The richest people in Kansas City where I live are not the old line families but the younger ones working for Cerner and Garmin. The reason home prices are rising fast in places like San Francisco and Seattle and Austin are all these newly created millionaires in high tech creating a fast growing demand for housing. Yes, you started out with a stable home; that is one if the keys to success in life. Family and education are two keys to ending poverty. No secret there. Those are two themes I have been posting about for years only to be attacked. Those are two areas where people need to take personal responsibility rather than blaming society for their failures. Yes, social factors come into play as well. But often government hinders people rising from poverty. Think bad large city school systems that fail to reform themselves generation after generation. Think licensing requirements aimed to keep people out of professions and not to compete with those already in the field. Success is a combination of luck, society’s factors and personal factors. Today, it seems fashionable for some presidential candidates to attack success due to hard work and intelligence. Love to see a debate between Oprah the billionaire and Sanders who thinks her wealth was not earned and deserved.

Thr time to close on the new property in a 1031 exchange is 180 days. Normally, that is plenty of time, especially if the new property is identified in advance. Most Real estate agents are familiar with the process and can help smooth the way.

True BUT Prop 13 also protects middle class people from being forced out of their homes when the prices go up over time or the area becomes gentrified. I have a friend who bought her home about 45 years ago for about $30,000 in Culver City. Today, about half the old houses on her block have been torn down and replaced by McMansions. Her lot would sell for about $1.5 million. She was a preschool teacher. Based on today’s market valuation, she could not afford her taxes and be forced to sell. Prop 13 protects people like her. Prop 13 has a good and bad side.

You do not have to die for the government never to collect the accumulated depreciation and any capital gain: 1-Donate the property to charity and you get a full deduction for the market value and never record the gain?. 2-Do a 1031 exchange when you want to sell the property.

Dennis Hastert’s transactions totaled $952,000 which is I assume more than our hypothetical escort’s amount of cash:) As I noted, if done in smaller amounts over several days, no red flags should be raised. IF banks are suspicious, they file a report as described in the link below. To be super safe, our hypothetical escort could keep the transactions under $5,000 and spaced several days apart (and even at different branches so he is dealing with different bank tellers). Could even use multiple banks. in the Hastert case, the amounts were just so huge they were hard to cover up: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-dennis-hastert-bank-laws-0530-biz-20150529-story.html?outputType=amp

One of my biggest surprises about Brazil was that it has over a million and a half citizens of Japanese descent. It has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. San Paulo has a large section with buildings with Japanese architecture. The Japanese started migrating there in the early 1900’s, not just after WWII. Yes, there has been much intermarriage of Japanese with other ethnic groups; that is unusual for Japanese as normally, they did not intermarry. For example, Taiwan was a Japanese colony before WWII and there was almost no intermarriage with the indigenous Taiwanese population.

Cash, escort money can be “laundered” with enough planning and thought. For example: buy a fixer-upper house legitimately; fix it up over a year by paying cash for materials and labor; then “flip” the house which is now more valuable due to the fix-up. Report the “profit” as a capital gain at a lower tax rate than regular income. (The house could even be rented for a few years). Reporting a gain on a real estate transaction does not raise red flags with the IRS. Lansky invented “money laundering” for the Mafia. They had casinos, movie theaters, laundries and other businesses where illegally earned money could be reported and become legitimate. This is why there have been proposals by economists and government officials to eliminate all cash from the economy and have all payments done electronically. (The real big part of the underground economy is illegal drugs which is in the billions per year). This is why large denominated bills were eliminated over $100: to make very large transactions physically difficult and bulky.

The rule is for banks to report deposits or withdraws of $10,000 or more. It does not apply to transactions between people or companies. Easy to get around by making multiple deposits or withdraws over several days.

Yes, being a good escort can be very lucrative. Back in the days of the Gaiety, a hard working dancer could earn $12-$15,000 for the week!! I know of a couple of escorts who earn over $200,000/year. It is hard work but can be very fiscally rewarding.

One of my favorite artists. His work still remains fresh and vibrant. The avatar I use is from an original picture of his I own. It is titled “Fighting AIDS”.

Some of the most beautiful men in the world can be seen in Brazil.

Yes, please join, share experiences and contribute to conversations AND contribute to Daddy so this site can continue. Site visitors, members and guests are important BUT Daddy needs funds to keep the site going. Please contribute what you can.?

The secret to having the students’ attention was making the subject matter relevant to their daily life. For example, in the class discussion in the criminal law section, in Missouri the age of consent is 17 and I had everyone’s attention in discussing statutory rape; the class I taught was seniors so there was a mix of 16 and 17 year olds whose partner was often under age. In the employment law section, I would get questions like the students wanting to know if the would get overtime when they worked more than 8 hours a day or on holidays and their was interest in if their employer had to give them work breaks during the day. The discussions applied directly to their lives. There were three females in my class who had babies. They were very interested in wanting to know if the fathers had to pay support and for how long; I could see the worried look on some of the male faces who had a great interest in the question, too. As a volunteer teacher without a teacher’s license, I always had the regular teacher in the classroom to monitor how I was doing. Due to the enthusiasm of the students, I always got high marks and was asked to come back. I did these classes for nine years until my day job became so demanding, I had to give it up. It was not rocket science for me to know that what I taught needed to be relevant to the students’ daily lives. That approach could be used in many other subjects as well. For me, it was great fun seeing the students so attentive and wanting to learn about practical things that affected their lives.