Episode 44:Is Omicron worse then inflation? Salesforce and why we‘re not sure about Block!

If it's your birthday, then stop listening now...

 

... In a week where everyone's portfolios got double-teamed by the FED and the new COVID variant, Paul and the Steves sit down to discuss the Greek alphabet, buying phones, and the good old days of the S&P 500.

 

This week's game is a lesson from history as Steve W looks back at the largest holdings of the S&P from days gone by. Some winners still win, such as Microsoft and Apple. Others get too big to succeed, like General Electric and IBM. No comment is made in this about the merits of AT&T... Paul and Steve D try to guess which company had the largest market cap in some of the last 30 years and we think about what this means for buying companies that are thought to be vulnerable to the laws of large numbers inhibiting their prospects for growth.

 

After that, the present reality hits home as we talk about Omicron and inflation. In a week where a crypto called Omicron boomed for no reason other than the obvious, FED chair Jerome Powell suddenly and mysteriously became concerned about inflation shortly after being nominated for a job extension. Steve W thinks about consumer goods and the capacity for brands to pass on inflation, Steve D thinks about quantitative easing around the world and the implications for an interest rise as Paul wonders whether food in Costco will still be as cheap as it always is.

 

It's not all bad news, though -- the Steves have found something they like the look of. Salesforce shares fell after their earnings, which were strong but with some disappointing guidance for Q4. A dip in the stock caused Steve W to try and figure out what this company actually does and why everyone seems to think it's so great. Paul and the Steves talk about the company's moat, whether everyone needs a CRM, what a CRM is, and why Salesforce apparently needs two CEOs. 

 

One of the Salesforce CEOs was elected Chairman of the Board at Twitter this week. With that in mind, we finish with a look at what Jack Dorsey's been up to and what's going on at Twitter. With news that Dorsey has decided to leave Twitter to concentrate his energies on the company formerly known as Square, we think about Square, Twitter, and activist investors who get impatient about stagnant share prices.