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Hi Patrick and the rest of the forum,

How are you all these days? Life as a homesteader in Hogsback has been bliss, but one does need to travel to the big cities every now and again to keep up with clients etc.

With the poor performance of the stock market in 2022 has your view on investing changed at all? Do you think the stock market will always go up regardless? I personally feel that we're in much trickier waters these days and that stock market returns are going to be down to around 5-8% pa for a while still. Inflation is here to stay, especially when basic income grants really start kicking in. The socialists would love for inflation to kill the wealth of the 1%.

Hope that all is well your side, wherever you folks may be hiding out these days.

Yeah, we used to have a weekend yacht at the Vaal Dam. One season after really heavy rains it slipped its moorings, drifted around and sank. I was heartbroken my father wouldn't cough up for salvaging it, but then I wasn't the one having to maintain it. Secretly I think he was relieved. As the old adage goes, "if it flies, floats or f**ks, rent, don't buy."

As for the markets, I'm afraid I don't share your bullishness, but then I always tend to be a contrarian. I see 2023 being another negative return year for the S&P500 index. There are huge tectonic shifts underway with China and the USD hegemony as we speak. CBDC's are also coming to the sheeple, whether they like it or not. I'm staying as far off the radar and off the grid as possible, hiding out in my little homestead with my own water etc.

As for AI, you might be interested to check to check out a recent LinkedIn post of mine....
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/day-after-agi-bevan-robert-jones/

Even if it doesn't end up wiping us out, I do think that those trying to monetise it are going to get an awful wake up call. Unlike social media, I suspect the majority of humanity are going to reject AI and instead start paying for actual human services. You will get adverts such as, "we promise this was not generated by AI" and "we guarantee you a human on the other end of the line".

And then a little AI joke....
Matilda: Oh look Harold, that little deer wants a carrot, feed it one. Oh, how cute!
Proc 23e79: Oh look Proc 37e18, that human wants a "love poem in the style of Kafka". Feed it one. Oh, I love how their little brains light up.