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• Looks really futuristic - works even better.  One of the best products I've ever seen.  The best automatic cat litter box, this thing is incredible.  Cat litter maintenance times and disgusting-ness have declined from highly disgusting to minimally disgusting and time spent maintaining a clean litter box has fallen from 60 minutes per week to <5 minutes per week.  The cats also have a much higher quality of life as the cat litter box is automatically clean 99% of the time

• Constant, consistent, and programmable amounts of clean food and water.  Time spent maintaining food and water has plummeted from 60 minutes per week to 10 minutes per week (mainly just clean bowls and refilling water one or two times per week).  The cats also have a significantly improved quality of life with the novelty of a pet fountain combined with cleaner water and exactly specific and consistent feedings

• Worth more than $269.  Only electric shaver that, after the first use and ever after, makes the face AND NECK literally as smooth as a normal razor, if not even smoother.  This is light years beyond anything else I have ever used.  It is also self cleaning.  It's really something I would have never believed was possible.  This is something that must be bought if you are a man.  Don't let the price keep you away. 
  

• Even more important than the shaver, as it actually cleans much, much better than a standard toothbrush, even if you brush frequently and have the standard toothbrush technique down pat.  Dentists are now universally recommending these, particularly useful in the prevention of gum disease which is potentially harmful to both your heart and teeth, as most teeth fallout due to gum disease and not cavities.  Your teeth also feel noticeably cleaner - completely smooth, healthier gums, never any tartar left over.

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1. Some or most of your payment builds equity in your home, acting as a type of automatic savings plan and helping to build wealth as part of monthly housing payments accrue as net worth.
2. Mortgage interest, up to a certain level of income, is tax deductible, saving you more money the higher up you are in the tax bracket.
3. Neighborhoods that have people that own houses tend to be safer with more people vested in the community than areas with apartments or mostly rented houses.
4. A consistent sense of place and connection to one's community occurs.  You care more about the specific place you live and keeping up your property is in your best interest, with the positive side effect of the upkeep of your property improving yours and the other property values in the neighborhood.
5. Live around people with better credit ratings, indicating neighbors that are more responsible.
6. The people around you.  You buy a home 50% for the people that live around you.  You are not just buying a place to live but the type of people that live around you.  People who own property as opposed to rent are much less likely to be idiotic scum.
   

1. Historically, on an average annual return basis, housing has been a worse investment than stocks or bonds.  Only money market accounts earn slightly less historically than housing (this is going back 100 years, too lazy to link to the study comparing asset classes historically).  That means living in your house is usually worse for you financially in the long run IF the difference between the return on money saved by renting overtakes the rented saved per month minus the opportunity costs (both compared to investing the money and the inability to move quickly to other towns or areas of the country for job opportunities) maintenance, property taxes, higher utility bills, and broker commission, and illiquity costs of  owning a home
2. Inability to move quickly for job or business opportunities (can only sell fast in a spectacular housing market or if your price is lowered significantly, which due to the illiquidity of housing, is another cost.
3. Maintenance.  It either costs money to hire people or time and effort to do something yourself (which you will often fuck up if it is something that requires specialized skills and practice which you do not have.
4. Higher utility bills
5. Property taxes

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• We do have a space station (the ISS).  Not very impressive, though.
  
• Medical scanning has significantly increased in resolution.
  
• Telecommunications revolution (includes a huge amount of stuff)
  
• Computer and audio/video hardware improvements ((not software)
• Hybrid car technology
• Alternative energy technological improvements in wind, solar (only modest though)
  
• Technological innovation in the military and NASA (modest)
  
• Improvements in heart disease treatment (radically new treatments including drug-coated stents, statins, angioplasty, etc.)
• Improvements in diabetes treatment (modest)
  
• Increasing access to clean water, sewage systems, vaccines, food, shelter, and general wealth to a significant percentage of the developing world - only partially technological, mostly economic/political, but it just has to be mentioned for impact's sake) (extremely significant)
  
•  Genetic research

• Lack of progress in cancer treatment  (other than fewer people smoking, but that's just societal choices changing not direct intervention with medical technology)
• Neurological diseases (though new treatments may bear fruition, so this is tentative)
• Mental health treatment
• Skyrocketing commodity prices which may rollback recent dramatic increases in wealth in the developing world
• No organ replacements
• Antiobiotic resistance and the speed of resistance increasing while falling behind in the development of new antibiotics to fight resistance
• Artificial intelligence progress.  Search algorithms and such are NOT the type of AI promised.  There has been virtually no progress on the "strong AI" concept as a radically different concept
• Space and aircraft thruster technology
• Building and other general materials (lack of nanotechnology, for example)
• Automotive propulsion technology
• Pharmaceutical drugs in general.  Progress has slowed to a creep now (reflected in part on both lack of significant drugs in pipelines and the dramatic decrease in drug comnpany stocks in the past several years going much lower than the overall stock market).  80% of prescription drug prescriptions are for sleeping pills, benzodiazepenes (anti-anxiety pills), and erection pills. (Need to find a specific source, this was told to me by a previous human anatomy & physiology professor).  A significant share of the rest are statin pills and antidepressants.
• Physics.  I'm fairly ignorant of physics but do know the main several most significant ideas, but aside from string theory (started in the 1980s, and this theory is still not accepted in general and with each passing year seems more and more implausible, or at the very least, untestable and therefore not worthy of consideration until or if it becomes testable) nothing truly revolutionary has occurred (on a grand scale, I'm sure physics researchers would say "no progress" is an overstatement, but I'm talking grand stuf like general relatively and quantum mechanics, etc.)
• Chemistry.  Where are the revolutionary materials promised? (related to materials above)
• Heating and cooling systems
• Nuclear fusion and other radically new power generation technologies (wind and solar have improved compared to the price of oil, but they are still not cheap enough to justify a complete switch rather than a mix
• The colonization of space (Moon, Mars).  Pathetic.

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• 8.4% ten year annual return.  They make asphalt and concrete and own over 2,000 small surface mines in addition to building the actual roads themselves. Most undervalued company right now with the greatest promise as nearly half their business is in residential and commercial construction (i.e. parking lots) with heavy concentrations in California and Florida, two of the real estates markets that are crashing hardest right now after massive gains the past several years.  The stock has plummeted in the past year due to this but is now being bought by all the top mutual funds and has shot up 10% so far this year by benefitting from increasing materials prices from their mines and the fact that investors are seeing how undervalued they are as the decline in real estate construction has already been discounted (not to mention the fact that over half their business comes from government contracting of road building and is not related to real estate)

• 8.1% ten year annual return.  Moderately undervalued right now, blue chip that continuously outperforms (first quarter earnings were well above expectations, 10-year annual returns at 8.1%)

• 4.4% ten year annual return.  Still hold their monopoly.  Possible jump if Yahoo! takeover bid goes through.  Gigantic company with huge overseas sales (huge overseas sales is another important thing to look for as the U.S. economy will barely grow compared to the rest of the world).

• 5.5% ten year annual return. Much better than Airbus, also has defense contractor segment of business and huge international exports.  Weak dollar helps them significantly.

• 11.6% ten year annual return.  Huge variety of cancer biotech treatments, large up and coming pipeline.  One of only two biotechnology companies with profits (Genentech is the other).

• 42.4% three year annual return (didn't go public until 2004).  Way undervalued after taking a massive beating in the past year (over $700 to $400). Rose 20% in one day last week after completely blowing profit expectations out of the water and raising 2008 earnings guidance.  Huge moat around this company, it's the leader of search and its expansion into other arenas leads to increasing growth prospects.  This is a company that should not be underestimated.  I also recommend Apple and Research in Motion (they make the Blackberry, where sales keep shooting up even during this recession) for long term holdings once they come down a bit in price.
  

•  8.8% ten year annual return.  Was way undervalued after taking a beating for really no good reason the past five years other than investors choosing Target and Costco instead.  Now it's up 19% just this year alone (compared to the stock market down over 5%) and its still way undervalued.  A gigantic company that will not only weather recessions well even perform better from them.  A classic long term holding, it's logistics and on-demand merchandising are still cutting edge and blow away their discount store competition.

• -9.8% one year return (just went public recently).  Immigrants around the world still use Western Union to send remittances to their home countries and to other regions of the country from urban areas to rural areas.  They have a gigantic moat and thousands of established locations throughout the world with a dominant monopolistic position in this industry. 
  

• 11.8% ten year annual return.  Quadrupled Home Depot's ten year returns and is now gaining huge chunks of market share from them in the past several years especially due to a better retail shopping experience and customer service ratings.  Still way undervalued even after recovering quite a bit this year, continuing to outperform Home Depot even during this recession.  A great long term hold as an upstart company (though not as big I'd compare this to Wal Mart destroying K-Mart in the 1990s to become the dominant player).

• 8.5% ten year annual return.  A large regional bank, it's the only bank that Warren Buffet has actually purchased in the past year (he holds a hell of a lot of shares).  Why did he buy it, and why the hell would any sane person actually buy a BANK right now during this financial crisis with mortgages and bad loans all over the place and massive government bailouts already happened with more writedowns, losses, and bailouts looming on the horizon?  It's because this is probably the most conservative bank in the entire country, with only 3% exposure to subprime mortgages and 10% exposure to mortgages in general (and their prime mortgage exposure is considered much more solid than other banks as they have very strict lending standards, basically old school type strict verification of income, credit history, etc.).  They are the only bank in the U.S. to post positive returns in the past year.  With its awesome 5% dividend yield, you can buy a great company that will at worst remain flat while getting a greater return with its dividend yield that you would with a U.S. savings bond, savings account, CD, etc.

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• Energy, industrial, and mining companies have the greatest long term prospects.  Despite the fact that a global downturn is probably occurring there is still virtually unlimited infrastructure building and energy needs of large and small emerging markets throughout the globe over the long term as they grow wealthier, more integrated into the global economy, and citizens place greater demands on the government to provide clean water, food, sewer systems, highways, etc. to improve their standard of living.

• The dollar will continue to fall.  It may hiccup up for short periods of time but it's pretty clear at this point that countries are now diversifying their dollar holdings both for current reasons but also long term reasons as they have seen how badly they are now being hit due to large declines in the dollar as their American assets and treasury bonds now give them poor to negative rates of return.  This is also very important because it leads to making profits more robust for the same sectors listed above because those sectors are almost entirely based on exporting to around the rest of the world, and when U.S. goods are sold cheaply due to the falling value of the dollar it's less expensive for emerging markets to hire these companies for infrastructure projects.

• Do not invest in the United States other than the industrial, energy, infrastructure, and mining sectors.  There are some exceptions of course and you don't have to have 0% in the U.S. but in general if you are below the age of 35 it is really stupid to put more than 25% of your stock holdings in U.S. companies.  It is literally inevitable that U.S. growth will lag emerging market growth over the indefinite future.  Even European stocks will probably outperform the U.S. markets, though this isn't as solid as the fact that emerging markets will overtake the U.S.  The point is for younger generations there is no longer any reason to invest in the U.S other than with some selective companies that profit overseas.

• This is a stock that has beaten down the past several years for virtually no good reason.  The only thing I can think of is basically Wal Mart backlash combined with the company's misses on a few things like their failed attempt to introduce more moderately priced clothing rather than their standard ultra cheap fare.  But beyond that they never really deserved the pummeling they got.  Now they are up 15% year to date (compared with -10% for the markets as a whole) and still undervalued by my estimates of 10%.  This is generally a very good long term holding as well, particularly with the prospects of a long term recession and slow growth due to consumers being squeezed.  The only real danger to Wal Mart is increases in their import costs from China due to inflation there and appreciation of the Chinese currency.  However all stores for the most part in the U.S. will face the same rising import costs and Wal Mart is best positioned to continue to beat them on price due to their incredibly efficient inventory system, cheap labor, and reputation as holding the lowest prices in the industry (this isn't always true in fact but its their reputation among consumers for lowest low price goods compared to other stores).  Cash strapped middle income consumers that used to shun Wal Mart will start buying things from their store more often as they no longer can afford to spend as much money at middle and high end retail stores.

• Boeing in particular was beaten down unfairly for its delays of the 787 Dreamliner (its main competitor Airbus also had delays with their latest jumbo jet).  The company's fundamentals are still intact and this company is way undervalued in the -30% range.  Even if recession comes and their earnings fall they will still be undervalued.  This is another great long term holding.  In addition to Boeing, in general industrial companies (like Caterpillar, etc.) that build infrastructure abroad (along with energy and mining companies) are the best long term stock sectors you could own for the long term at this point simply despite the fact that a global downturn is probably occurring there is still virtually unlimited infrastructure building and energy needs of large and small emerging markets throughout the globe as they grow wealthier and more integrated into the global economy.  It is also important to look at large agricultural conglomerates like Monsanto, Mozaik, ADM, etc. as they stand to profit from food inflation and high demand for fertilizer and other agricultural engineering products
  

• The Brazilian Real is now (and will probably be for the indefinite future) one of the most stable currencies in the world.  Warren Buffet generally knows what he is doing and while he rarely bothers investing in currencies directly the Brazilian Real is his only foreign currency investment holding.  Many other currency experts actually believe that the future stability of the Brazilian Real is better than for the U.S. dollar (it's very hard to believe).  BNP is great because it's the state run oil company of Brazil and a massive find of oil has recently been discovered off the Brazilian coast - the largest in thirty years in the world! This is a great play on a depreciating dollar, rising oil prices, a huge oil reserve, and an appreciating Real.

• The best stock for long term wireless communication.  China is another example of a country that skipped building (for the most part) landline telephone connections other than in the largest cities.  Wireless has huge growth prospects long term in China.  Another interesting international wireless communication idea is to buy wireless companies in sub-Saharan Africa.  This is of course only recommended to be a small part of your overall investment strategy as the risks are huge, but on a risk/reward basis the potential windfall from this market is enormous (30+ year timeline).

• The most profitable biotech company, it actually sees positive earnings (a rarity in the biotech sector where there are many promises but most companies are still losing massive amounts of money and bankruptcies in this sector happen constantly).  This is also a very large company and has a large number of exports.  Besides biotech, it's generally best to away from most pharmaceutical companies because they are literally running out of useful drugs due to terrible research pipelines - its almost as if they are all simultaneously hitting a brick wall with standard pharmaceuticals. (Despite what "modern medicine" fan boys say, innovation in pharmaceuticals was significantly greater from 1980 to 2000 than from 2001 to 2008).  The last several years pharma companies have basically hit a wall with the development of new drugs rather than just piggybacking on blockbuster drugs like statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) and penis pills, all of which have been around for 10 to 25 years.  This is reflected in the fact that there have been massive declines in pharma stock prices since 2001 and they have barely increased in price at all since then.  They used to be seen as a nice hedge against recession but they have actually been hit worse than the market as a whole in the past year.  This again show that these pharma companies are no longer innovators but producers of copycat drugs with nothing new to show for their research.
  

• The dollar will continue to fall, and emerging market currencies will continue to indicate unprecedented stability in emerging markets like Russia, Brazil, China, India, among others.  It is a very good idea that if you want any bond holdings you purchase world bond mutual funds where managers selectively purchase long to short term govt. bonds in both developed non-US countries and developing emerging markets.  The potential yields in emerging markets bonds are huge as there is a pretty large consensus that many (of the stable) emerging markets bonds are rated way too poorly as a credit risk compared to how stable they actually are.  Credit ratings continue to rise year after year for countries like Brazil.  This trend may show hiccups and be subject to political changes, but in general I think for long term holdings its an exceptional opportunity that offers a good stable yield with little risk (you won't get 10%+ appreciation here but you'll get 5-7% and the risk will be very small, compared with U.S. treasuries yielding between 1.5 to 3.5%.

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The number of school-age children will plummet 14 percent (257,000 fewer students). The labor force will drop 4 percent (262,000 fewer workers). Seniors 65 and older will jump 31 percent (413,000 more of them)."

An increase in seniors is not always a bad thing - especially if those seniors have large amounts of assets that they can spend in the economy and pass on to their offspring after death.  But when seniors are increasing while younger people are decreasing dramatically, this is when problems arise.  For example, the increase in Florida's population over the past twenty years has been actually mostly due to an influx of younger workers and not retirees.  The numbers of both in the state has increased but the percentage of people in Florida that are over 65 has actually DECREASED since 1990, even while the state's population has doubled. 

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