VINDICA

One thing I like about America is that lot of people who influence foreign and domestic policies are public figures.  The debates that happen are not in closed rooms in some government building, but out in the public arena in the traditional and social media.  I refer here of course to serious policy debates, not the gaslighting that dominates social media.  Maybe this is why America still retains a certain degree of credibility in spite of a long series of mis steps since the end of the Cold War.  I wanted to write about some such public opinions from people I have come to consider as very smart.  Here it goes... I have always wondered why one would call Political Science a Science?  The scientific method involves developing a theory, making predictions that could prove or disprove the theory and then conducting experiments to validate. Well, you cannot conduct experiments on politics since only one outcome happens and the outcomes that don't happen, while they are fodder for endl

  Background: Dividend Portfolio - Dividend Growth Stocks. Speculative Portfolio - Good companies that are richly valued high growth companies. Both portfolios were started with 10% of my liquid assets each on Jan 1st 2021. October Update: Well, the stock market seems to be able to stay irrational much longer than we can stay solvent.  In normal times, i would have sold out and waited this out.  However, in my portfolios, I have a commitment to stay fully invested all the time.  It did help.  The Speculative portfolio, which had gone underwater over the last couple of months, came back to something like even, while the dividend portfolio stayed stable.  Both underperformed S&P 500. The relentless march of the indexing continues.  The experiment was supposed to pick the winner between the dividend portfolio and the speculative portfolio.  I wonder if Indexing will end up being the real winner!  Saves a lot of time for sure, but will it also make you a lot of money? Stock of the mont

  Doctor who publicly defied Texas law by performing abortion has been sued | Texas | The Guardian Predictably, Dr Alan Braid has been sued.  Taking this to federal court will be a clarifying moment for this law and for the future of Roe v Wade. In related news, Mississipi has asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. Supreme Court To Hear Mississippi Abortion Law Challenging Roe V. Wade : NPR

  Texas doctor protests abortion law by admitting he carried out procedure | Abortion | The Guardian The new abortion law in Texas takes advantage of the fact that nobody seems to have thought to ban state sponsored vigilantism.  This physician in Texas deliberately violated the law.  In the climate we are in, this occurs to me as an extremely courageous act.  I hope this is a catalyst for change and challenges to the law.

  Notwithstanding popular opinion from both Millennial themselves and from older generations as well, it does look likely that Millennial will be the wealthiest generation ever.

  Background: Dividend Portfolio - Dividend Growth Stocks. Speculative Portfolio - Good companies that are richly valued high growth companies. Both portfolios were started with 10% of my liquid assets each on Jan 1st 2021. August Update: I love to think about what it means to be rational (more in the Long Read section).  The biggest breakthrough in terms of how I think about my life came when I realized how deeply irrational I actually am.  In the face of this, rationality seems more like an ideal than a practice.  With Markets, I am reminded often that irrationality rules the day, while rationality wins in the end.  However, they also say that the markets can be irrational longer than you can be solvent.  I have accepted this as a fact.  I don't speculate too much on things like "the market is too high", or "it is due for a correction".  Both of my portfolios are meant to ride the waves (larger waves in the case of speculative portfolio).  And yet...  And yet,