I hope you had a fine Thanksgiving holiday, well spent with family and friends.
I made the 9-hour nighttime drive from the southernmost point of coastal Georgia to Richmond, Virginia, to be with my stepmother, brother, and his family and friends. Better to do it at night to avoid the intense and scary interstate 95 traffic.
Ever since my kids were born in 2000 and 2002, Thanksgiving at the house my dad and stepmom built in Richmond has been an unbreakable tradition. You know how it is when parents divorce, Turkey day with one, then Christmas with the other. However, it hasn’t been turkey in a long time. This year our group of 12 finished off a 10-pound rib roast.
This was our last family gathering at that house. Dad passed a few years back, and my stepmom is finally downsizing.
I once read that when your kids leave for college, that’s it – you basically don’t see them anymore except on big occasions.
My daughter might still be in Berlin. She’s halfway through her Tulane graduation present, a two-month romp around Europe with her best friend. My son is with his mom. It was bittersweet, for sure…
I’ve got 20 years of memories of Thanksgiving past. And I definitely flipped my mental scrapbook.
I’m sure I’m not the only parent trying to find the holiday spirit despite their kids’ absence. The particulars certainly vary, but the process is pretty much the same for all of us.
After all, history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme…
But what brings me solace — and I expect it’s the same for the millions of other parents who have reached this same moment in time — is knowing that I’ve helped send a couple of very capable young adults out into the world.
I know that it’s trendy to make fun of the millennial generation. It’s probably the same for whatever generation my kids fall into… they're snowflakes, they get triggered, and so on…
But these kids are the leaders of the next age of American prosperity, like the greatest generation who returned from World War II to an industrialized America that had been kicked into overdrive. Like their kids, the Boomers, who started the technology revolution.
Now, the mantle has passed on. The Millennials are now the biggest part of the American workforce. My kids’ generation is on its way.
They will be the ones who will drive and benefit from the retreat from globalization and the rebuilding of the “Made in America” brand.
This bear market will eventually end, and a new bull market will emerge. One thing that history tells us is that new economic expansions that are born out of bear markets come complete with new leadership.
That’s not to say the FAANG stocks go away (is it MAANG now that Facebook changed its name?). But cracks in the FAANG foundation have already started to form.
For starters, this next economic expansion and bull market will be the one that sees electric vehicles (EV) hit critical mass. Will Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stay out in front?
Maybe. But I feel better about the potential of new battery technology and the emergence of silicon carbide chips — both of which are likely to be exclusively American industries.
Agriculture technology (ag-tech) is another emerging industry with leadership potential.
Domestic energy — both renewable and fossil fuels — will be critical for this next new economy.
This new American expansion, these new stock market leaders, this new generation of business leaders — man, what a great Thanksgiving.
That’s it for me today, take care, and I’ll talk to you on Monday.
Until then,
Brit Ryle
The Profit Sector
