Tokyo 202One Olympics -- July 24, 2021

Televised now on NBC: table tennis. Mongolian vs American. I love almost any sport but even I couldn't tolerate watching this. Five minutes and I was gone. No one in the stands except mask-wearing media -- still photography and video. Now watching Perry Mason re-runs. LOL. Are you kidding me? Stars a very, very young Robert Redford. Never, never expected this. The Case of the Treacherous Toupee.

Biggest concern: if Apple, Inc., misses estimates, all one has to do is look at what happened to SAM this past week. Wow, a drop from $1300 to $700 / share or something like that. Bloodbath. How does SAM even claw back from $700 to $1,000? 

Lawsuits: I would assume that's the next thing we will see -- with regard to SAM. And folks think Bitcoin is volatile / risky. 

Breakout! I am absolutely convinced that the pandemic compressed 2020 - 2035 into 2020 - 2025. Wherever you thought "we" would be in 2035, we will be there by 2025.

Now, another data point: according to GasBuddy data, Friday, yesterday, US gasoline demand jumped almost 4% from the prior Friday and was 3% above the average for the last four Fridays. In addition, gasoline demand was just 2% below the Friday before July 4, 2021, which broke records for consumption. And many folks say we are not truly open yet. Which is true. The US economy is yet to break out. I expect the earliest we will see signs of a breakout will be this autumn when schools open. 

Some say this is somewhat due to less mass transit and more private car use. I assume to some extent -- maybe great extent -- this is accurate. Which brings me to another subject. I once blogged that the successful companies coming out of the pandemic will be the "smart" companies -- the companies that:

• used the twelve-month global lockdown to accomplish a lot of strategic planning; and,
• used the time to prepare wisely for the opening of the economy which would occur sooner or later.

Exhibit A: SAM really, really missed the ball, as they say. And paid a huge price. The CEO admitted as much in the interview with CNBC. The CEO said they were not prepared for restaurants when they opened up. Wow, what a miss! What an admission!

The pandemic changed everything. The successful companies realized this twelve months ago and spent the last twelve months doing strategic planning.  

Shortest recession in history: really, really bad analysis; really, really bad headline. And this is why ZeroHedge struggles with credibility.