Winner Of The 2018 Geico Rock Award Announced -- January 4, 2019

These were the nominees for the Geico Rock Award for 2018:

Algore, nominee for life-time award. 

Rick Newman, senior columnist, Yahoo!Finance: gives the Trump economy a B -- after the Trump economy breaks almost every US economy record on jobs, wages, satisfaction, GDP, etc. 

Francisco Toro of The Washington Post: the collapse of Venezuela proves "nothing" about socialism.

Analyst / investment advisor Bernstein raises AAPL target from $100 to $190 on day that Apple surges 5%, up $10, hitting all-time high, trading at over $200/share. 

WSJ reported Rebecca Elliott: on July 30, 2018, noted that drillers in west Texas were pumping so much oil and gas that pipelines/takeaway considered more than adequate just a few years ago now are overwhelmed. Anyone paying attention were aware of this a year ago?

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde. Link here. MF revises up global growth forecast helped by Trump tax cuts. Did hell just freeze over? With regard to taxes and growth, one wonders if IMF managing director Christine Lagarde needs to be nominated for the 2018 Geico Rock Award. By the way, it appears the IMF is doing what it can to keep revised growth forecast below 4%. The estimates depend on input/data and analysts can put whatever they want into the formula; clearly it's in the IMF's interests to keep estimates below 4%. January 22, 2018. [Later: US GDP surged 4.1% in first estimate of 2Q18 GDP growth.]

AEMO: coal will keep the price of electricity down.

Nick Cunningham: Venezuela.

Robert Rapier: Venezuela.

US Navy: global warming.

The votes are in and it's Robert Rapier based on his astute analysis of Venezuela.

The "Rules Committee" voted unanimously to hold off on any life-time awards. The "Awards Committee" reminds us that the prize for the annual award is a lifetime subscription to the "MillionDollarWay" blog. It should be noted that, in keeping in the spirit of the Geico Rock Award, rules and awards can be changed retroactively.