Celebrities, the economy and what makes the world go round

I’m headed to LA this week and Boston next week, so we won’t be having a Live Q&A Conference Call. I’ll pop my head into the Trading With Cody Chat Room and will be available by email if you want to ask me something in the meantime. Now onto today’s report.

There’s an extremely wide range of viewpoints and politics and issues that I hear about and I am constantly trying to assimilate all of this into my analysis about the economy and the stock market and the trends that we should be paying attention to.

Let’s set some background first.

I live in rural New Mexico, near where I grew up, having moved back here a few years ago when I quit my Fox Business TV show. But I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road for the last few months, having been to LA a few times, NYC, Boston, Las Vegas and Dallas at least once each too.

I’ve been meeting with all kinds of contacts and/or building IAm Apps for celebrities like my old friends Neil Patrick Harris*, Jim Cramer* and Jay Leno*; new friends like Carl Reiner*, Bob Saget*, and Carly Simon*; professional athletes like Harrison Barnes*, Brandi Chastain* and Dirk Novitsky, media companies like CBS, CNBC, Lion’s Gate, Seeking Alpha*, Marketwatch and TheStreet; agencies like CAA, Gersh, William Morris; Hollywood sports management companies like Excel, along with venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, folks from The Olympics and others. (* denotes those celebrities and companies that my company has built Android and iPhone apps for. We have dozens more in the pipeline and are adding more all the time.)

I’m not just dropping names for their own sake, but I’m wanting to underscore the diversity and economic importance of the cross sector I’ve been meeting. I’ve been talking to, amongst other things, millionaires and/or billionaires and blue collar workers and those who collectively put on just about everything that’s on TV or Netflix or at the movies, invest in every sector of the economy and/or work in most of the sectors of the economy, including:

• The nurse who helps take care of Amaris and who just became a US Citizen and who told me stories about how she came to the US decades ago and how different the borders and immigration have become since she first came here.
• My friends and former co-anchor and other colleagues at Fox Business, many of whom have been in the news lately (nothing like seeing your picture randomly in the New York Times while holding your littlest daughter in the hospital in Albuquerque a couple weeks ago).
• An illegal immigrant from Mexico who has sold everything he owned in the US after having built up a collection of houses by investing his wages as a ranch manager from the 1970s til this year. He’s never gotten documented and is sick of looking over his shoulder.
• Uber drivers, including the Muslim immigrant from Egypt in Dallas who brought me back my iPhone from the backseat in his car after I called it from the hotel and tried to refuse my extra tip.
• Celebrities who are sick of the vitriol and politics on social media but spend more time than ever building relationships with their fanbases, including the rock star who gave us a selection of official colors and only those official colors to use on their app.

What a contrast of viewpoints and politics. Carl Reiner was in his bedroom watching CNN, which he put on pause when I came in as he said to me, “Can you believe the latest with our President?” I didn’t know what headlines he was referring to specifically, but I knew he was disgusted. I figured I probably wouldn’t be able to believe it myself, so I totally said, “No, I can’t, I mean, it’s unbelievable.”

A few days later I was back in New Mexico and the Fox News addict who runs the hardware store in my hometown and has a Trump bumper sticker on his car says to me “Can you believe the latest with our President?” I didn’t know what headlines he was referring to specifically, but I knew he was thrilled. I figured I probably wouldn’t be able to believe it myself, so I totally said, “No, I can’t, I mean, it’s unbelievable.”

There’s no disputing how partisan the whole country is right now.

Regardless, the main theme on my travels for the last few months and the last few weeks has been, as I’ve been saying for the last few years now, one of growth and confidence in more growth. Ad budgets, employment, business investments, consumer spending…these things have remained steady and growing over the last few years.

One of the most meaningful economic/market  difference between Obama and Trump is in their immigration policies, I suppose. Will an unintended consequence from immigration derail that theme of growth and confidence in more growth? Has it already?

What else do you see as the most important real or perceived changes since Trump took office?

I’m headed to LA again this week and Boston next week, so I’ll have much more to report and analyze in coming days. Stay tuned.