Avoid Investing in Amazon

May 6, 2022

Refuse Investing in Amazon and adding into your stock portfolio cart

Rubin Wealth Advisors, in conjunction with Bill Flaig at American Conservative Values ETF (ACVF) has identified the ten worst companies for political conservatives (or patriots) to invest in. Investors can’t completely avoid placing their funds into all woke companies, but they can avoid investing in the worst offenders.

Announcing “Rubin’s Bottom 10”

Let’s get to #7.

Of all the large companies that benefitted from the Chinese coronavirus lockdowns and ensuing irrational fears of American citizens, Amazon.Com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) may well have ben the biggest winner. With many people afraid to do much more than stick their heads out of their front doors, Amazon brought them everything from hand sanitizer to face masks.

What Amazon delivers in addition to its own 12 million products (over 350 million if you include third-party sellers) is reliable stream of wokeness. You don’t even have to swipe right to purchase, or create a subscription delivery. They will send woke corporate policies to you whether you order them or not.

After the events that took place at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides servers to host various business platforms in the cloud, forced Parler, a conservative social media site, to go offline based upon the false claim they failed to monitor users who allegedly part of a conspiracy to stir an insurrection. The move was joined by other woke companies and nearly sent the free speech platform permanently out of business. While Parler is still around today, Amazon’s interference severely and lastingly crippled its market presence.

It’s easy to forget that Amazon started out as a bookstore before it became a source for nearly everything you could possibly need or want to order (Try that sometime. Think of almost any odd thing you can imagine and then search for it on amazon. Odds are you will find it). In an effort to lose track of its core competency, Amazon has made certain to bring its woke polices into the realm of publishing by restricting what can be sold on its platform. Call it a form of digital book burning.

One area in which Amazon has been particularly aggressive is that of the attention-seeking transgender movement. In 2021, Amazon removed its book listing of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement, by conservative scholar Ryan Anderson. The book had been listed for sale for three years prior and had been widely recognized as being well-researched.

Amazon’s vice president of public policy, Brian Huseman, wrote in a letter to GOP Senators in March of 2021 the following:

As to your specific question about When Harry Became Sally, we have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.

There are two problems with the statement that Huseman made. The first is that in his book Anderson does not refer to “gender dysphoria” as a form of mental illness. The second problem is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-STR) at the time did list gender dysphoria within its pages. The DSM-STR could be purchased on Amazon’s site at the same time it removed Anderson’s book.

The move was pure politics.

It isn’t just Amazon’s C-suite that is woke. The social disease is pervasive throughout its workforce. In April, The Guardian ran a story with the headline, “Woke Amazon staffer cries in meeting to discuss the ‘trauma’ caused by best seller children’s book ‘Johnny the Walrus’ that compares being transgender to pretending to be a walrus.” The book was written by conservative commentator Matt Walsh. The employee relayed a comment from a customer that the book encourages children to either hunt down and kill transgenders, or to commit suicide if they identify as transgender.

A quick search of Amazon’s site shows that Johnny, despite the threat it poses to create killing fields for transgenders, is still available. Better buy quickly!

Amazon has also decided to weigh-in on the question of “Are you truly Black or do you just have a different melanin level?” During Black History Month, Amazon pulled a documentary from its video platform, Amazon Prime Video, about conservative Black Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. It did not offer any explanation for its action to the filmmaker who produced the documentary nor to the media.

Finally, now that it appears that Justice Thomas’s Supreme Court is going to overturn Roe, Amazon, along with other woke companies, is planning to pay for employee travel expenses in order to kill their unborn child in a welcoming state. The plan is to reimburse up to $4,000 in such expenses. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is proposing legislation to eliminate Amazon’s ability to deduct that expense for tax purposes, but not only does the legislation have zero chance of becoming law, Amazon is so large they can easily just absorb the cost if it so chooses.

Perhaps the retailer that offers subscription delivery services for regularly replenished products plans to eventually offer customers regular D&C procedures?

As an investor, staying away from Amazon is difficult. The pandemic not only sent the stock price soaring to over $3,500 per share (but it has come down to a more reasonable $2,300 price), it so ingrained the habit of shopping from your recliner in your underwear that it is unreasonable to think Amazon will decline in popularity any time soon. That said, it is very difficult to rationalize investing your hard-earned money into a company that quite openly and defiantly censors your fundamental values.

Swipe left on Amazon stock and instead fill your shopping cart with investment opportunities that don’t lecture you on what free speech should or shouldn’t include, what constitutes behavioral health norms, or what it actually means to be “truly” Black. While you’re at it, get dressed and head on out to that old corner store. You’ll get some exercise and some entrepreneur will be very glad to see you.

To read the next article in this series, click here.

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

No BS… Just straight forward advice

Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

Call Bob @ (561) 288-1111

Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

Or schedule a call below!

Investing in Apple Is a Sin for Patriotic Americans

April 29, 2022

A bite from Apple’s tree is a sinful act for patriotic Americans

RWA, in conjunction with American Conservative Values ETF (ACVF), has identified the ten worst companies for political conservates ( or patriots) to invest in.

Investors can’t completely avoid placing their funds into all woke companies, but they can avoid investing in the worst offenders.

Announcing “Rubin’s Bottom 10.”

Let’s get to #8.

What does the all-time classic rock band The Who have in common with the chicest tech company in the world, Apple Inc.? The answer is that legend has it they both started in garages. They also have something else in common which is that while The Who wrote the song Trick of the Light, Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) has played the trick masterfully by convincing virtually every millennial and below in age in the U.S. that their tech is the cool tech and that anybody who’s anybody simply must have “i” everything.

With over one-billion users, Apple just might be the most brilliant marketing company in modern history, maybe of all time? What they also are is a company that is openly hostile to traditional American values and to the very free-market capitalist system that permitted Messrs. Jobs and Wozniak to launch their first computer back in 1976. They are a company that conservative Americans want to avoid when investing their hard-earned dollars.

When upstart social media platform Parler was implicated (unjustly) as being partly responsible for the fake-news January 6th insurrection story, Apple, along with Google (investment “blacklisted” in prior column), removed the app from its store within moments without any sort of objective investigation. That led to Amazon (to be investment “blacklisted” in a future column) removing Parler from its cloud servers, effectively chloroforming the free speech alternative to Twitter.

Back in 2017, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would donate $1,000,000 to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC is well known to be a thinly veiled socialist hate group that makes its contribution to the public discourse by labeling any sort of pro-traditional American organization as a hate group. Given the SPLC’s clear aversion to free speech and open exchange, and given their perception in the mainstream media as champions of civil liberties, maybe some of the marketing folks at Apple moonlight for SPLC? Somebody well-practiced in deception is certainly helping with their messaging.

Apple has been one of the more aggressive companies when it comes to requiring employees to not only get vaxxed, but then also boosted, in order to come to work. Their strict and invasive policy announced back in January came despite the Biden administration’s vaccination requirements for large employers being dealt setbacks in the court. Apple’s vaccine stance feels like something you’d expect in totalitarian China, but not in a country that prides itself on individual freedom.

Speaking of China, (because I needed a segue), there is no question that the biggest sin you are committing by taking a bite from Apple, Inc.’s tree is that of supporting the most hostile nation on earth and the number one enemy of the United States and all of Western civilization.

In December of 2021, an expose’ piece was run at theInformation.com that told the story of how Apple’s success in the country that routinely imprisons, tortures, and organ-harvests from their Muslim Uighur minority group was paved through a quiet, but large, financial agreement made between the tech giant and the Chinese dictatorship. The article leads with:

“Apple’s iPhone recently became the top-selling smartphone in China, its second-biggest market after the U.S., for the first time in six years. But the company owes much of that success to CEO Tim Cook, who laid the foundation years ago by secretly signing an agreement, estimated to be worth more than $275 billion, with Chinese officials promising Apple would do its part to develop China’s economy and technological prowess through investments, business deals, and worker training.”

A line attributed, but unverified, to Lenin reads “When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.”

In Apple’s case, regarding their relationship with the evil empire that is China, the formulation goes something like this:

We will give you billions, share designs, and let you build up your economy and pirate our products so that you can use your power to destroy everything around us, but leave us standing because we’re your besties.

This partnership with a country that considers slaughter a form of population management reveals the utter hypocrisy of Apple’s “diversity and inclusion” policies, something about which they report annually to shareholders and employees with a written report on their workforce. Visit Apple’s diversity webpage and you are greeted with this banner headline in rainbow colors:

“How we come together is how we change the world.”

Apple is obviously trying to change the world.

Their partnership with China indicates their clear interest in helping that nation build up its military and economic power for the purpose of achieving global dominance. Perhaps Apple simply sees China’s ultimate victory as inevitable, and they are just trying to “side with the winner?”

(In that case, they should have studied Lenin’s successor, Joseph Stalin, whose great “purges” ultimately targeted even those who had supported him.)

For a patriotic investor, it is difficult to rationalize or justify including Apple, Inc. stock in your portfolio.

While the company’s financial performance has been almost unparalleled (at one time the company reportedly had more cash on hand than did our own federal government) and has shown an attendant geometric increase in stock value, the actions it takes are deliberately harmful to American citizens both in the short and long term.

Investing in Apple is like buying a long section of Lenin’s rope. If you don’t know how to tie a noose knot, don’t worry; Apple does.

Don’t let your investment dollars become complicit in either silencing voices in America, or committing genocide in China.

Just remember: You’re next!

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

No BS… Just straight forward advice

Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

Call Bob @ (561) 288-1111

Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

Or schedule a call below!

Investing in Starbucks: Ten Companies That Politically Conservative Investors Should Avoid – Number 9

April 21, 2022

Investing in Starbucks is part of a countdown of the ten worst companies that conservative investors should avoid. While many or most of the Fortune 500 companies engage in “woke” corporate practices, some are more aggressive than others. Rubin Wealth Advisors, in conjunction with William Flaig, portfolio manager at American Conservative Values ETF (ACVF) has identified the ten of the worst companies.

Investors can’t completely avoid placing their funds into all woke companies, but they can avoid investing in the worst of the offenders.

Ten Woke Companies that Politically Conservative Investors Should Avoid:

10. Alphabet – GOOG

9. Starbucks – SBUX

8. Apple – AAPL

7. Amazon – AMZN

6. Comcast – CMCSA

5. AT&T – T

4. Nike – NKE

3. Meta (Facebook) – FB

2. Bank of America – BAC

1. Disney – $DIS

We are going to go more in-depth on all of these choices on a week-by-week basis. Subscribe to stay tuned!

Investing In Starbucks Is A Bad Idea

If any company should have the notion of being “woke” come to it naturally it certainly seems that Starbucks (NASDAQ; SBUX) the international coffee giant, would be the likely choice. The brainchild of Howard Schultz, who launched the green aprons back in 1987 after a trip to Milan in 1883 sampling caffeinated blends, has been helping Americans wake up for almost four decades.

Recently, however, the brand known for its strong taste has doubled down on bitterness when it comes to politics by offering some interesting blends of anti-American selections for investors. Consider these menu items chosen from Starbucks “Today’s Woke Specials”:

The company committed $1 million back in 2020 to support “equity” projects in conjunction with the group Black Lives Matter which walks a fine line between being a Marxist think-tank and a domestic terrorist group. They also allow their employees to wear t-shirts bearing the BLM logo, even going so far as to purchase the shirts for employees.
The company has been walking right up to the line of taking the “Christ” out of Christmas for nearly a decade. While rumors swirl as to their motives regarding everything from seasonal coffee cups to employee directives about not saying “Merry Christmas,” it is clear that Starbucks’ corporate preference is for a secular feel to one of the two most sacred of Christian seasons.
In 2013, Schultz (who did his undergraduate studies in the well-armed Upper Peninsula of Michigan) announced that Starbucks would no longer allow customers to carry guns in their stores. This was gratuitous and unrequited as there was no precipitating event that led to the announcement. It was simply a preemptive assault on the 2nd Amendment rights of customers.

Perhaps what’s worse than what Starbucks is serving up these days to customers and employees is what they have decided to take off the menu, that being protection for their employees who do not buy into their woke agenda.

In 2020, the National Center for Public Policy Research, acting within its program titled “Free Enterprise Project,” petitioned the company that prides itself on a “diverse and inclusive environment” that seeks “diversity in the broadest sense,” to extend its workplace protections to employees who hold differing political views. Starbucks declined. After presenting the FEP request at the annual Starbucks shareholder meeting, FEP Director Justin Danhof said:

We… made a very simple request – we asked that you extend [your Equal Opportunity Employment Policy] to include protections against viewpoint discrimination. That’s because, all across corporate America, the political left is engaged in a fierce cancel culture that seeks to root out conservatives.

Starbucks EVP Rachel Gonzalez said the following in explaining Starbucks’ denial of the request:

Given our ongoing effort to support a welcoming environment at Starbucks, our board of directors believes a public report detailing potential risks associated with omitting viewpoint diversity from our written employment opportunity policy is unnecessary and not beneficial to our shareholders.

I know friends who have shared numerous stories of their sons or daughters who worked at Starbucks and who were shunned or silenced for expressing conservative political views. What Starbucks says is “unnecessary” could be better termed “unwelcome.”

Is your financial advisor too “woke” ? Fix that by talking to Bob Rubin.

Since being inspired by Schult’s trip to Milan and his existential encounter with European coffee, Starbucks has expanded its offering of beverages to the point where it almost requires an advanced degree in chemistry to become a barista. What started as, “do you want room for cream,” has become “a grande vanilla latte, no foam, extra pump, with a caramel drizzle.” Starbucks is arguably the most diverse drink company ever created.

They are not, however, diverse in their politics. Like so many other woke corporations there is one choice, and one choice only. Starbucks serves only political correctness to their customers and employees, and it comes only in Trenta-their largest cup size.

Don’t let Starbucks have access to your conservative investment dollars. Their politics are more bitter than a venti black-eye. Ask your portfolio manager to “hold the Starbucks,” then let your taste buds find the likes of Black Rifle, Freedom Hill, Thrasher Coffee, Mount Rushmore, or any one of a handful of brewers whose ownership and management support our values.

That’s your investor morning wake-up call.

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

No BS… Just straight forward advice

Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

Call Bob @ (561) 288-1111

Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

Or schedule a call below!

One of the Best Investments in 2022?

April 7, 2022

One of the Best Investments in 2022?

This article was updated with recently obtained information. With the right set of facts you can increase the amount of money you can invest in the Series I Savings Bonds from $10,000 to $15,000. See new information in RED.

Read the old article here.

It is going to take a bit longer for the Biden administration to realize that inflation may not be transitory and that it may not have peaked. Denial will not make inflation go away!

But while Uncle Joe may take a bit longer to realize that inflation is pulling the rug out from under our investments, I’m urging my clients to take action today!

While I’m recommending several asset classes that can help your portfolio during inflationary periods, there is one investment I’m recommending you purchase while it’s available in 2022:

The Series I Savings Bond

You might’ve just laughed, so why the Series I Savings Bonds?

The Series I Savings Bond is issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. They are inflation-protected and nearly risk-free investments that, through April 2022, are paying a 7.12% annual rate of interest.

7.12% interest risk-free? What’s the catch?

The catch is that there are two parts to a Series I Savings Bond’s returns: a fixed rate and a variable rate. Currently, the fixed rate is at zero percent and the variable rate, which changes every six months based on the Consumer Price Index, is at 7.12 percent.

This means that the bondholders may have rate changes twice a year.

The value of a Series I Savings Bond doesn’t decline, and rates won’t drop below zero. If inflation continues that rate may go up even further, so they make a great investment if you believe inflation is with us for the long-term.

I mention long-term because Series I Savings Bond investors can’t access the funds for 12 months, and if they redeem the bond within the first five years, they lose the last three months of interest.

How many of these bonds can I purchase?

One of the limitations of the Series I Savings Bond is that individual investors can’t buy more than $10,000 electronically per year. An additional $5,000 can be “purchased” as paper bonds from a refund on your tax return.

But there is a workaround – couples can electronically purchase $10,000 each and a family of four can purchase up to $40,000 a year as long as they are in each individual’s name.

The additional $5,000 that can be “purchased” using your tax return will be a paper bond that will be mailed to you. That limit is per tax return so if you are a family of four and IF you will be getting a refund, you can purchase an additional $5,000 in total with your tax refund – not $5,000 per person. Once you receive the paper bonds in the mail, you can convert to electronic bonds through Treasury Direct.

I eat my own cooking!

My family and I maxed out our Series I Savings bond purchases for December and we already maxed out our 2022 purchase….

…and there are several additional strategies I’m using to reallocate my family and clients’ portfolios in anticipation of continued inflation.

To find out, give me a call – (561) 288-1160

I’ll be happy to discuss how you can protect your portfolio from inflation, the Biden administration, and your current investment advisor who may not share your politically conservative beliefs.

If you would like to reserve some time to have a conversation about current market conditions, follow the button below and pick out a time that works best for you.

I look forward to speaking with you!

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

No BS… Just straight forward advice

Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

Call Bob @ (561) 288-1111

Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

Or schedule a call below!

ESG Investing corrosion of corporate America

April 4, 2022

This article was written by Bill Flaig.

• Bill Flaig is the co-founder of American Conservative Values ETF, an investment fund for ideological conservatives. His founding partner is Tom Carter.

Investment decisions should be based on maximizing the individual investors’ returns, both purposeful and financial. Unfortunately, more and more investors have unwittingly or unwillingly fallen prey to doing what’s in the best interest of others rather than making the best decisions for themselves.

These investment options have become one of the asset management industry’s fastest-growing investment products as well as sources of revenue, referred to as Environmental, Social and Governance. Known colloquially as “ESG,” these types of investments involve, according to Forbes, “investing in companies that score highly on environmental and societal responsibility scales.” Examples include considerations of a particular company’s carbon footprint or the diversity of its board of directors.

In just a few years, ESG has taken the investment world by storm. It’s been lauded by the likes of BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who in his recent annual letter declared that planning for a “net-zero” future is an important part of creating “durable returns for shareholders.”

We don’t necessarily disagree with many of the goals of ESG, but the problem Mr. Fink and other proponents of ESG fail to see (or just ignore) is that companies and asset managers are implicitly expected to support ESG and invest accordingly. Otherwise, they’re likely to face the tedious task of dealing with the ruling class of social justice warriors who dominate the discourse.

Our larger concern is ESG’s impact on corporate America. Senior managers should be focused on maximizing their shareholders’ returns, not necessarily doing what’s popular in the news. Let individual investors allocate capital; for example, if an investor believes investment in a zero-carbon future maximizes their return, they likely won’t invest in Exxon. It makes sense.

In contrast, an investor with a less clear view of the future might invest in Exxon based on their track record of profits, the result of a successful business strategy that focuses unapologetically on efficiently extracting and distributing fossil fuels. The management team is fully aware of carbon emissions and renewable energy and has concluded that focusing on fossil fuels is the best strategy to maximize their shareholders’ returns.

It’s a textbook example of how investing should be done and has been done for years. Yet ESG’s coercive mindset has allowed a handful of activists in the asset management industry to misuse their delegated proxy power to elect “Anti-Fossil Fuel” directors to Exxon’s board. Exxon’s actual shareholders didn’t do this, and, as a result, environmentalists cheer while Exxon’s actual shareholders and employees suffer.

We have yet to hear a rebuttal to this conclusion, which doesn’t involve clairvoyance and an extremely long investment horizon.

The ESG mindset results from intimidation by vocal political activists (not shareholder activists), direct government intervention, political influence on large public pension funds and the beliefs of a few asset management executives in New York. In what is supposed to be a free-market economy — wherein theory financial decisions are driven by, well, finances — this kind of practice is downright unacceptable. It is a paradox in the very heart of American capitalism.

Consequently, we are now seeing some negative knock-on effects, such as increased regulatory/compliance costs and political speech by senior executives not connected to business strategy. Damage to a company’s brand is caused by the hypocrisy of greenwashing, pandering to political issues and ignoring inconvenient human rights and censorship issues.

The latter example is particularly damaging to company brands when said speech is exposed as blatantly hypocritical. Look no further than the leaders at Coca-Cola and Nike, two companies that have both made shows of posturing against discrimination in the United States while remaining silent on the lengthy record of human rights abuses by the Chinese government. It’s an obvious discrepancy and everyone knows it, and it’s done nothing to endear either company to anyone outside of the activist class.

All of this, along with corporate social initiatives, alienates customers, employees and profits.

In short, political speech rarely helps a bottom line for a corporation and its shareholders. It does, however, alienate customers, employees and profits. A bottom line helps free corporate managers to focus solely on business strategies that maximize shareholder returns (which, by the way, is what they are exorbitantly paid to do).

Rather than letting political activists dictate the direction of a company’s financial decisions, they should instead directly educate and influence individual investors rather than use agency over corporate management. Likewise, unnecessary government intervention and regulation need to be kept out. Let individual investors allocate capital to maximize their returns.

Collectively, let capitalism’s invisible hand and meritocracy do their jobs. Which in addition to maximizing investor returns will also organically address many of ESG’s underlying concerns.

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

No BS… Just straight forward advice

Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

Call Bob @ (561) 288-1111

Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

Or schedule a call below!

Gas Price Crisis: Joe Biden’s Dirty Little War on Energy

March 28, 2022

Joe Biden’s Dirty Little War on Energy

With the average price of gasoline now at $4.24 per gallon nationwide, and with prices crossing $6.00 per gallon in some California locations, at least Americans can be reassured that this is an ephemeral problem created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and it has nothing to do with Joe Biden’s long-term energy policies. How do we know that? We know it because Sleepy Joe said it was so, and Sleepy Joe would never lie to us. Or would he?

Biden made a strong statement recently that the soaring energy prices in the U.S. are not the result of his policy decisions in that area. He blames high prices at the pump (Gasoline gets all the attention because it’s easy to track on a per-gallon basis. Prices for all forms of fossil fuel energy are up across the board) exclusively on Vladimir Putin. In doing so, he is counting on the American people to be consuming steady amounts of Russian vodka, thereby impairing their brain’s ability to create and retain short-term memories. He’s hoping that they won’t remember any of the past twelve months.

Unfortunately for Sleepy Joe, the folks at the New York Post come to work sober and they have put together a timeline of gasoline prices since Biden took office. They have also matched the timeline with significant announcements on energy policy being made by the administration.

Since Biden took office, and just prior to the Russia invasion, gasoline prices across the country increased on average by 48.3%. The U.S., which had been a net exporter of oil as recently as 2019 is now importing more than it exports. We have quickly moved from being able to be “energy independent” to again being a nation that relies on those outside our shores to make our vehicles roll, keep our homes warm, and let our factories hum (no worries on the last one. We just let China take that part over).

Some of what Biden has done to drive up energy prices since taking office include:

• Halted oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

• Directed the Interior Department to stop oil and natural-gas leases on federal lands and in public waters.

• Signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to calculate the highly speculative risk of global warming

He also stopped work on the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada as soon as he took office. How does stopping the construction of something that won’t produce oil flow until a later date impact prices today, you ask? The simple answer is that like with other commodities, the price of oil today is determined by both its current availability and price, combined with its anticipated future availability and price. Biden stopping the future flow of lower cost fuel from Canada changed the calculus for current energy pricing.

Not only is Joe Biden responsible for the increase in energy prices, but he also actually told us he was going to increase energy prices before we elected him! Joe Biden is doing exactly what he said he was going to do.

As cited in the same NY Post article (other platforms have covered this. I’m just being kind as a writer and giving you a one-stop-shop for reference), Biden told New Hampshire voters on September 19, 2019, “I guarantee you, we’re going to end fossil fuels.” When asked by the moderator during the October 22, 2020 presidential debate, “Would you close down the oil industry?” Biden replied, “I would transition from the oil industry.”

This is a difficult thing sometimes for people to grasp but there are multiple forces at work which have led to this literal explosion in energy prices, and to price of all goods and services increasing across the board, in a manner we haven’t seen since the early 1980’s. Let me try to briefly explain and hopefully it will send you off to do some more digging on your own.

First-

We have deliberately damaged the supply of energy from domestic sources: This is what I highlighted above. Biden’s policies have impacted both current production capabilities and future anticipated capabilities. This has the effect of decreasing supply and when supply decreases, prices increase. That is simple supply and demand.

Second-

We have greatly increased our money supply beyond our increase in goods and services: This is the actual definition of inflation. Increasing prices across the board (the Consumer Price Index jumped 7.9% in February, the largest single month increase in 40 years) are a symptom of inflation and a convenient way to try to measure its impact. But actual inflation is caused when the supply of money is increasing so fast that there ends up being too much of it chasing too few goods. This has been going on for a while. Biden did not start it, but he has added fuel to our monetary fire.

Third-

We were recovering from being locked down for a year-plus and people had started spending money again: Not only was the money supply increasing too fast in terms of available dollars, but prior to Russia invading Ukraine, the American consumer was coming out of their masked shell and beginning to spend money again. Some of that money got put into their pockets by the government printing it and handing it to them in the form of Covid relief payments. So, there was a combined effect of too much money chasing too few goods and chasing them faster.

Fourth-

The cost of energy is a component cost of virtually everything so the upward pressure on prices gets amplified: As Biden drove up energy prices through his polices to curtail domestic production, he was driving up the cost to every goods and service provider in the country (how do you get the merchandise to your store shelves? How do you pay for gas driving to work at the beauty shop? And so on). Biden’s energy policies did not cause inflation, but they have allowed inflation to flourish.

Joe Biden, with his combined ideals of “green energy” and “printing greenbacks”, has put America in a position where not just high gas prices, not just high energy prices, but high prices in general, are now with us for the near and intermediate-term future. Large domestic energy companies have been hamstrung in their ability to explore for and extract domestic oil and gas reserves. This means that even if the Russia-Ukraine war ends tomorrow, (and it won’t), the problem of US dependance on foreign oil and suffering the attendant higher prices associated therewith will not end.

A friend of mine told me that his father used to have a saying: When something that is supposed to be good news turns out to be bad news, you know that you really have a problem. Recently the Wall Street Journal ran a piece titled “Oil Markets’ Big Winners: Little Guys Who Are Willing to drill.” The article chooses as its focal point 84-year-old Autry Stevens, who owns Endeavor Energy Sources. His company, like other independents, has not been as hampered by the Biden administration’s new anti-energy policies. Stevens is now reportedly worth over $10 billion after having been in financial trouble just a few short years ago.

The article points out that independent energy firms are now operating 62% of our oil and gas rigs compared to 49% just a few years ago. That’s good news, right? The triumph of private business and the resourcefulness of free market capitalism are coming to the rescue. Here’s why the good news is bad news. The independent companies are not the ones with the greater resources and capabilities to extract oil from various US locations. The big companies can best do that. The gathering strength of the smaller independents, good news in an unregulated economy, here is a canary in a coal mine for American consumers.

Joe Biden did this and he did it on purpose. What’s worse than that is that he told us he was going to do before he was elected. But the greatest tragedy is that Americans either didn’t believe it, understand it, or care about it. They care now. Unfortunately, we have to wait until November to find out just how much they really care.

Contact a conservative financial advisor today.

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

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Russia Ukraine: Vlad The Instigator Enjoying Himself At West’s Expense

February 23, 2022

Vlad the Instigator Enjoying Himself at West’s Expense

It is risky these days to write an opinion piece that attempts to analyze Vladimir Putin and the goings-on in Russia and Ukraine. In the time it takes to write and publish a 750-word column (roughly four to twenty-four hours) you could have that could be the equivalent of two-four news cycles in this rapidly changing situation. Just late yesterday the beginning of the Russian invasion was announced.

Over the past several weeks, it has not been uncommon for MSM platforms, to which you can subscribe for real-time updates, to come out with “breaking news” twice in the same day where the latter update seems to contradict the former. “Putin Set to Invade, White House Says.” “Russia Ready to Talk with White House.” These are the kinds of headlines that historically span the course of months. In this case, they can be separated by hours.

The typical opinion piece focuses on, “What does Putin Want in Ukraine.” It’s a valid question. If you place that question into the standard search bar, you get 2.3 million results. All forms of speculation are valid, and they are all correct to some degree.

Putin is driving up the price of oil.
Restore the old Soviet Union to its former glory
Putin wants to keep Ukraine out of NATO membership.
Putin wants NATO to recede for neighboring Ukraine States.
Putin seeks leverage to use in negotiating an endless list of other demands

There is one bit of speculation that isn’t mentioned and that encapsulates any one, or all, of the above: Vladimir Putin is simply having fun.

Vlad the Instigator, the man who almost since the moment he has taken office has enjoyed playing Western leaders as if they were an ensemble Stratovarius violins performing a Prokofiev concerto, has got to be having more fun in this moment than he had since taking office in 1999 (he had a four-year gap 2008-12 where he was Russian Prime minister, not President). He reads the same Western news reports and op-eds that we read. He knows that he has his adversaries consulting experts, visiting fortune tellers, and reading entrails in an attempt to figure out his next move.

To this point, those “next moves” have seemed to be inexplicable and random. Perhaps they are unless you consider that the moves he’s been making have been intended to appear inexplicable and random. The term we used when I was a kid for what Putin is doing to the West was “yanking your chain.” This doesn’t mean he has no end game in mind, it simply means he is going to enjoy the journey on the way there. Putin is the playground bully to the West who has us in fear wondering if he is going to steal our Nike’s, our lunch money, or both.

Last month, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens did a succinct job in laying out Shirtless Vlad Putin’s run over the past 14 years:

August 2008, Russia invades Georgia and takes control of two of its provinces. The Bush administration does nothing.
Barack Obama pursues a “reset” with Russia after his 2008 election leading to his cutting U.S. force presence in Europe to its lowest levels in postwar history
September 2013, Obama famously retreats from his “red line” in Syria, accepting instead a Russian offer of mediation. Putin notes U.S. palpable reluctance to get involved.
February 2014, Russia seizes and annexes Crimea. The Obama administration protests but does almost nothing.

During Donald Trump’s term in office, nothing happened to weaken Putin’s position in the region either militarily or monetarily. The natural gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 & 2 both were completed and have come online making Germany and by extension the West dependent on Russian energy (this just in as I type- Germany shuts down Nord Stream 2. Writing these pieces is risky).

*Note – NS2 was never certified or operational.*

Putin did manage to get Trump impeached by doing nothing more than perhaps tinkering with a fake sex games dossier and keeping pressure on Ukraine. He must have loved watching the chaos he created in our nation unfold.

While Vlad sits in his Kremlin office flexing his muscles in mirrors, there are some very serious things going on here that Americans need to understand.

The people in Ukraine have a history of suffering under Russia that cannot and should not be ignored. It was 90 years ago during the Holodomor (a Ukrainian term combing “starvation” and “inflict death”) that Stalin systematically murdered through manufactured famine anywhere from 4-7 million Ukrainians. The exploitation and subjugation of the people of that nation continued for decades. As a Ukrainian national in the U.S. once said to me, “The difference between the Holocaust and the Holodomor is that the Holocaust ended. The Holodomor just changed forms.”

While some might argue that the plight of Ukrainians is not our concern, the other matter at hand is definitely our concern. Whatever Putin’s endgame is in Ukraine, there is no question that it serves as a distraction to the real threat which is a potential alliance between Russia and China.

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

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Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

Call Bob @ (561) 288-1111

Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

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5 Common Money Mistakes Business Owners Make

January 10, 2022

5 Common Money Mistakes Business Owners Make

Starting and building a new business can be one of the most exciting times of an entrepreneur’s life. Building a thriving business begins with a solid financial foundation. At Rubin Wealth Advisors, we work with entrepreneurs at all stages of their business life cycle. More than half of businesses fail within the first three years. Launching on the right footing requires solid financial planning. Below are five of the most common money mistakes new business owners make and tips on how to combat them.

1. Underestimating

Underestimating the investment (and other resources) needed to launch and grow your startup is one of the most common challenges new entrepreneurs face. Undercapitalization of a small business or not having the right equity, financing, and/or investors can stall or halt a startup in its tracks. In today’s competitive environment, it will be difficult to survive and grow a new business without the proper funding and support. Prior to launch, new entrepreneurs should have a thorough understanding of the capital they will need, their options for financing, and which choice is right for them and their goals.

2. Undervaluing

All too frequently, small business owners under-price their products or services. Whether it stems from a lack of confidence or market knowledge, perceived oversaturation, fear of failure or another reason, it is a slippery slope that can have long-term ramifications if not corrected. Understanding your business’ unique selling proposition, how it separates your offerings from the competition and how to best articulate it to your target audience will help you price and market your products or services from a position of strength.

3. Lack of Budgeting

One of the most important responsibilities of a new business owner is to continuously steer the company towards profitability. Your roadmap to profitability begins with a carefully planned budget that covers your overhead, operations, marketing, taxes, insurance, and other expenses. Creating a clear budget and having the financial discipline to follow it is essential to maintaining a healthy bottom line.

4. Not Planning for Tax Obligations

As an entrepreneur receiving payments from clients or customers, you’re solely responsible for your tax liability. As the business grows, it is easy to focus on day-to-day operations and neglect tax responsibilities. However, to stay on top of your tax liability, plan to pay quarterly tax payments to the IRS so you’re not surprised with a large tax bill at the end of the year. Stay familiar with the specific taxes that will impact your business.

5. Not Separating Business and Personal Accounts

Startup business owners can often find themselves with plenty to do and not enough hours in the day to get it all done. If you’re looking to cut corners, this is not one of them. Set up separate accounts early – and commit to maintaining separate savings, checking and credit card accounts for your business before you receive your first payment from a client or customer. Doing this from the start will make your accounting, quarterly tax estimates, and budget cleaner and easier. Separate bank and credit accounts will help provide a more accurate picture of your company’s financial health and avoid tax penalties. Separating your personal accounts from your business accounts will also pave the way for you to reinvest a portion of the money your business earns back into the business to build a stronger future.

Owning and managing a business of any size is no small undertaking. Entrepreneurship can be one of the most rewarding career tracks – and can also be isolating for those business owners who don’t have trusted advisors in their corner with whom they can brainstorm, consult with, and get connected to professionals who can make a difference or solve a challenge.

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

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Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

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Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

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Big Tech: A Patriotic Investor’s Dilemma

December 8, 2021

Big Tech: A Patriotic Investor’s Dilemma

Big Tech’s recent strong stock performance and large size creates a conundrum for politically- conservative investors who want to align their core beliefs with their investments. Many conservative investors begrudgingly own these left-leaning companies due to not wanting to sacrifice performance.

The reference to Big Tech companies includes the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple, due to their recent collective efforts to censor free speech in America. Strictly speaking, they are all not tech companies. Yet in the eyes of the public, they are part of the Big Tech monopoly and will be considered as such for this article.

Is now the time to boycott ownership of Big Tech?

The First Amendment, which protects our freedom of speech and religion, is the bedrock issue that strongly unites all conservatives. These Big Tech companies are actively undermining our freedom of speech and are emboldened by the recently elected Democratic majorities. It is not only the liberal media, liberal CEOs, and campaign contributions that we have grown weary of, but Big Tech companies now have the power to suppress conservative voices, destroy companies, and deny conservatives access to the technological infrastructure that they monopolize. This includes access to e-commerce, cloud technology, credit card processing payments, and more. Big Tech has clearly demonstrated an unabashed and unrestrained willingness to use their power to economically influence those they disagree with. If these companies continue to run roughshod over the conservative beliefs of their shareholders, the silent majority will become the silenced majority in short order.

Results from a recent Gallup poll conducted earlier this year show positive views of Big Tech have fallen 12 percent since late 2019, and the majority of poll respondents want more government regulation of technology companies. Given the customer centric business models and rapid growth necessary to justify recent valuations, how can this level of dissatisfaction not affect the bottom line? Big Tech executives fail to realize that the implementation of liberal-leaning policies may result in lost revenue, a growing opportunity for potential new competitors, and vulnerability to government anti-trust actions.

Certainly, the general market environment should be considered and there are warning signs that Big Tech’s run cannot last forever. First, the massive economic stimulus is nearing an end. An article recently published by Bank of America, titled Big tech-led equity inflows fueling ‘mother-of-all asset bubbles’, states that, “The U.S. Federal Reserve for instance has been purchasing bonds at a record pace, doubling its balance sheet to nearly $8 trillion in less than a year. During the same period, the five biggest tech stocks have seen their market value double.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve for instance has been purchasing bonds at a record pace, doubling its balance sheet to nearly $8 trillion in less than a year. During the same period, the five biggest tech stocks have seen their market value double.

Second, certain technical evidence, such as drastic increases in P/E ratios over the last year and growth’s dominance over value dating back several years, has created a paradox for value investors who are having their long-term underlying assumptions challenged by these factors. The last time Big Tech was this high as a percentage of the S&P 500, was 1999. Everyone should recall the dotcom bubble burst of 2000, which was signaled by prevailing astronomical valuations and P/E ratios of tech companies. Today’s market environment is eerily familiar in that regard, and history tends to repeat itself.

If you have been begrudgingly or unknowingly holding onto Big Tech stocks, this confluence of recent events highlights the need for a shift towards greater conservative investing advocacy. The American Conservative Values ETF (NYSE: ACVF) aims to put that advocacy into action by aligning your investments with conservative values. Tom Carter, ACVF’s portfolio manager asks, “Why invest in companies with your hard-earned savings that are not working to maximize your financial return? Companies whose conduct is so egregious that conscience out weights risking some potential performance.”

When speaking with politically-conservative investors, most would like to align their investments with their political beliefs yet are concerned about performance and the lack of products designed for them. The American Conservative Values ETF was created to address this exact concern.

The investment philosophy of ACVF is based on the belief that politically-active companies may negatively impact their shareholders’ returns. The fund’s portfolio seeks to balance advocacy of conservative investing without sacrificing performance by focusing its boycotts on the worst liberal offenders. By investing in a portfolio that strips away the worst offending companies that support the liberal agenda and maintaining a diversified portfolio, politically-conservative investors can preserve performance while simultaneously aligning their investments with their political beliefs.

Are you concerned about inflation, ESG compliances, and the 2022 crypto crash?

Your investment portfolio can be affected by any or all of these factors.

Schedule an appointment with Bob Rubin, your dedicated, conservative financial advisor, for a free portfolio analysis today.

Get started by clicking the button below.

No BS… Just straight forward advice

Contact Bob, the Nation’s Predominant
Politically Conservative Financial Advisor Today!

Call Bob @ (561) 288-1111

Email Bob @ Bob@RubinWA.com

Or schedule a call below!

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