I am typing this week’s Dividend Cafe from 30,000 feet very late at night on Thursday night/Friday morning, after spending four and a half hours on the plane, on the runway, alongside 100+ other planes that were unable to take off as airspace was closed for Kamala Harris' visit to the LA area (campaigning with Gavin Newsom against the recall). My wife and I will land in Nashville in the middle of the night, and we will forget this experience soon (I hope). Anyone who travels a lot has had bad experiences. I travel 50x a year and have been through everything, but as a percentage of the times I fly, I have had it easy over the last 25 years. It’s never fun, but it happens.
But twenty years ago Joleen and I were also flying together, this time departing LAX for a Tahitian honeymoon. As I mentioned the other day Joleen and I celebrated twenty years of marriage this week. On September 10, 2001, we left LAX on a redeye with a planned landing in Tahiti in the early morning. One hour before we landed the most horrific act in American history took place. It is that event that is the subject of today’s Dividend Cafe.
Sure, there are some personal reflections and musings. But there really is a market lesson in all of this, and I hope you will find this to be meaty enough for your normal Dividend Cafe longings. Truth be told, the rather basic message I have to share for investors on this 20th anniversary of 9/11 is more significant in practical terms than any commentary I have ever written about monetary policy or capital allocation.
I will forget the wait of today, but I will never forget 9/11. Let’s jump in.