Anytime I hear somebody tell me there is going to be a recession I want to pull a Van-Gogh. Whenever I turn on the news, listen to a finance podcast, or my economics teacher (he makes me angry) I hear “recession.” They are all talking about a recession because they are panic-mongering.

From a commercial perspective, talking about a recession is a money-making strategy. We have had some chaotic years recently, and as part of that, a recession has been predicted for the past 36 months. Everything is doomsday, and the media, your crazy uncle, and financial “gurus” have not been correct yet; I am talking about real recessions, by the way, not paltry fake recessions like the one in 2020. Anyways, any talking head with a mic is yelling about a recession. While you cannot just do the opposite of whatever CNBC is saying, you should not listen to them when they are pushing a recession. You should find unbiased sources who do not directly profit from talks of a recession.

Inversing CNBC probably is a profitable strategy, but in this case, it is espescially so. If you go on their economy page, you see only hysteria: “contagion”, “panic”, and “fear.” These buzzwords and the people using them have slipped fear into the minds of investors, and the Fear and Greed Index has slipped back. However, investors are not just calling for a recession because possibly politically motivated/commercially motivated talking heads are telling them to, investors are uncertain about the world…again.

I wrote about this fear a month or two ago, and it has not changed much since then. Uncertainty about The Fed, about growing global conflicts, and quite a bit of talk from smart people about a new world of investing. People like Bill Ackman have been yapping about “a new world” and while Billy Boy is not influential enough to shift the markets, he does represent a shift in thinking that I have noticed. There is this odd feeling of FOMO. Like people on Wall Street feel things have changed, but do not know what has changed or how. It is odd, but I have noticed that this feeling is pervasive and I think it is being actualized negatively, as in investors are taking a pessimistic outlook based on their confusion.

However, this represents the PERFECT time to buy. People are retreating into the dark for some reason and legitimately good companies are being beaten down, companies like Intuit, Mastercard, and Google. Finding a discount on these companies can be wildly difficult. You may take a hit, but you have to remember, that you are not speculating, you are investing. You are buying into the future. There are few worlds in which Google (which is down 10% in the past five days) does not do extremely well. Again, you may take a beating. I am down 10% on my Berkshire position, and 20% on my TQQQ position, but you cannot be scared.

A small caveat is that you still have to be smart. In hindsight, buying Berkshire that high was stupid, and every single lesson I have ever been taught said that the price would come down. Buying TQQQ is just a position that requires some guts to be in. I think it is 1.5% of my portfolio, although I am getting the tingle to buy more.

Okay, here are my final thoughts since this has been a little bit of a ramble. You are being told there will be a recession by people who will profit politically or commercially from you listening to them. Investors are getting scared AGAIN, completely forgetting the lessons that every stock market cycle ever has taught them. You cannot be scared, but you have to be smart. On that note, I could use some help with my Disney, so if you are worth more than a billion it would be nice if you could buy my stock at $200, that would be nice. Thanks, and good luck.

P.S. Someone tell Nelson Peltz to take a chill pill, Bobby has this in the bag #IGER2024