Another week of fussing about macro issues that we can neither control nor predict, what fun! The Federal Reserve did exactly what the market demanded in cutting rates, but the market was still mad because they failed to promise that they would give us each a pony. President Trump seemed angered by the lack of ponies, and took out his frustration on the world by promising another 10% tax on Chinese imports… which, who knows, might just be enough to push us over the edge into a recession and make the Fed give us all ponies.

Sorry, I stuck with that pony theme too long, eh? In the world of accelerating currency devaluation, the weak dollar is apparently still too strong… even a 1.7% 10-year note attracts money from overseas when compared with the fact that those funds get a negative yield in much of Europe and Japan. And that strengthens the dollar, making it harder to cut into the trade deficits that President Trump and the trade hawks are so obsessed with.

So yes, the obsession with the present winning over the future continues, sadly, in a trend that has been in place for more than 30 years now — borrow what you must, give up whatever future stability you must, but GIVE US WHAT WE WANT RIGHT NOW AND DON’T YOU DARE CHARGE US FOR IT. We humans have lost our ability to plan for our children’s future, and now, it seems, we don’t even worry about it, let alone plan. I hope those kids turn out to be smarter than their parents.

But we live in the now, of course, and we follow our portfolios and try to make sure they grow… after all, all indications are that those dollars are going to be worth a heck of a lot less in a decade than they are now, so we better put them to work multiplying as best we can.

It’s been an unusually active week in the Real Money Portfolio, so I’ve a lot to share with you. Actually, in terms of transactions it’s pretty much just been an extremely active day, with several stop losses hit and some buying to soak up that excess capital.

First, the sales — I had a few stocks hit stop losses in the past day or two, particularly in the wake of the new ...