1/7/24

When I was born, the embassy staff made all of the arrangements with the hospital. The embassy is technically U.S. soil, and in theory so too then is the hospital room. Or something like that.

It’s all some elaborate thing to make sure the child is born on U.S. soil and is therefore without question eligible to be president. The ultimate long, out-of-the-money option.

It is a heck of an expectation to have placed on a child at birth. And as we stand here today, I can say without question that I have fallen woefully short of meeting that potential.

Fortunately, whatever shortfalls we’ve seen from the individual have been more than made up for by the advancements of the world around him. The last half century has seen a marvel of ingenuity and progress. It is all around us, in every aspect of our lives.

When I was a child, my mother would wrap a dozen small toys for long airplane trips and allow me to open one per hour to keep me from getting restless as we crossed the oceans. Today’s kids stream Netflix from 35,000 feet. My father often traveled internationally, and we had a set day and set time where we would talk for five minutes and five minutes only because of how much it would cost to talk. Today, I can text my daughter in Paris at no additional cost while tracking her as she strolls down The Champs-Elysees.

It’s amazing. But it is all incremental, and we so quickly forget how it once was. Even the steps between then and now are amazing. I can remember decades ago, being awestruck using my cellular to call my father on his birthday from a beach in Oregon. That was impossible just a few years prior yet seems quaint now.

Progress is everywhere. The World Bank says the global poverty rate has been cut in half over the last fifty years.

We’ve eradicated smallpox. We have other horrible, deadly viruses on the run. And even more impressively, to my eyes, we have found simple and relatively cost-effective ways to manage and maintain conditions that were fatal just decades ago. I am one of the 40 million Americans on a statin drug. Marvel at the added life hours these drugs provide to the world.

It’s miraculous.

Years ago, living in Washington, I was a Watford FC supporter who’s only connection to the club was an international news stand near Farragut Square in D.C. Once a week or so I’d pop in to check the results, pretending to buy a London paper. Today, I stream all of their games on my phone.

My car gets 50 miles to a gallon of gasoline and screams at me to pay attention before taking over to keep me from hitting the vehicle in front of me. Not too long ago the idea of automotive innovation was a joke. A mechanic once said of the first car I ever owned that the 5-year, 50,000-mile pitch made by the automaker was more of an aspiration than a warranty.

Financial freedom is so much more accessible now than it was just a few years ago. I paid a $45 commission the first time I bought a stock.

Not long ago, I spent a year on a high school campus, and I learned that teens today have empathy and understanding my teen self would never have recognized. The world is molding better humans by the day.

Everywhere, all around us, things are improving. But it is slow, and it tends to get lost in the day-to-day troubles. It is a terrible world. It is a wonderful world. Life is a steady stream of small, short miseries that hopefully somehow add up to long-term euphoria.

Paradoxes abound. We live in a world blighted with hate, violence, war, and poverty. And there has never been a better time to be alive.

There is so much left to do. We are so flawed. It all often seems hopeless. And yet I can’t wait to see what marvels the next half century brings.

Yes, it is a terrible world. But what a wonderful world it is.

(Back to markets next time. Probably.)

Disclaimer: Fits and Starts DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. Stocks mentioned are as reference only, and a mention should not be interpreted as a buy or sell recommendation. The author is not a registered advisor or a broker/dealer. DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK. The information contained within is not and should not be construed as investment advice, and does not purport to be. The red zone has always been for loading and unloading of passengers. There’s never stopping in a white zone.

No statement or expression of opinion, or any other matter herein, directly or indirectly, is an offer or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities or financial instruments mentioned.