Ask Doc The first signs of enemy bogeys were spotted over the Bering Sea, heading east toward Alaska.
Soon, five more unidentified planes appeared off the coast of Maine.
It was 1952, and years of Cold War tensions had led to this moment. Were these Soviet bombers? Was nuclear destruction imminent?
Rattled and unprepared, U.S. military leaders eventually ordered a full-scale alert. Fighter pilots were called to their jets. The Air Force prepared its bombers to return the favor to the Soviets.
Panic set in. The whole country had been on edge since the Soviet Union had tested its first nuclear weapon a few years earlier. This indicated the worst...
But, as you know, no nuclear war ensued.
The suspected vapor trails from "enemy bogeys" that were seen over the Bering Sea faded away. And the five planes near Maine turned out to be just a few off-course civilians.
Our country's leaders were able to breathe a sigh of relief that day. There would be no nuclear holocaust for the time being.
But this incident brought up one important point... Our defenses and our ability to spot and confirm enemy planes were nowhere close to where they needed to be. In the face of a coordinated aerial attack, we were sitting ducks.
In the 1952 scare, it took an hour and a half for the first report of the rogue planes to make its way up to military decisionmakers. And by that time, it would probably have been too late.
The U.S. spent hundreds of billions of dollars each year during the Cold War to prepare for an actual Soviet attack and increase our ability to initiate an attack of our own. The nuclear arms race lasted for more than four decades.
Today, my friend Joel Litman says we're seeing a different sort of arms race... in artificial intelligence ("AI").
According to Joel, companies from around the globe will try to surpass OpenAI's ChatGPT, sparking an "AI arms race." Picture the dot-com boom (and bust) all over again. Like then, choosing the right stock will mean the difference between huge gains and terrible loses.
On Thursday, July 18, Joel is hosting an AI Panic Summit to share his thoughts. He'll discuss:
- Why a single announcement in Silicon Valley could soon trigger outright panic across the stock market...
- Why elite insiders are scrambling to prepare for the next phase of AI technology...
- The hidden pattern that predicts what's coming next for AI stocks...
- And the truth about Nvidia (NVDA).
Sign up here today and you'll get free, instant access to the Altimetry AI Stock Screener. This is the same system Joel uses when he's advising his elite clients. It allows you to analyze hundreds of different technology stocks – quickly and easily.
Don't miss out on this urgent summit.
Now, let's dig into the Q&A... As always, keep sending your comments, questions, and topic suggestions to [email protected]. My team and I really do read every e-mail.
Q: I've read some things on eating too much spinach or almonds due to high oxalate. Granted, eating too much of any one thing is never a good idea but I had never heard of oxalates. A real concern or not? – J.M.
A: Oxalate (or oxalic acid) is a naturally occurring compound found in various fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts. Oxalate is an "antinutrient." This is a compound that binds to other minerals, interfering with your body's absorption of nutrients.
For example, calcium oxalate stones are the most common form of kidney stones. When your body doesn't have enough calcium to bind with all the oxalate in the intestine, the excess oxalate gets into your bloodstream and causes stones.
The trouble is that some of the best foods for you also contain oxalate, so it's not easy to just cut out of your diet. Some of the highest-oxalate foods include spinach, almonds, beets, navy beans, and raspberries.
Unless you're already at risk of kidney stones or kidney disease, you likely don't need to worry about your oxalate intake. The nutrient-rich foods you would need to cut out to avoid oxalate could potentially lead to other health problems related to nutrient deficiencies.
If you do need to worry about oxalate, consider increasing your calcium intake with foods like yogurt, fish (particularly sardines), and other calcium-fortified foods. There's also evidence that vitamin B6 – found in foods such as poultry, fish, bananas, and chickpeas – lowers oxalate levels.
Q: I'm trying to get started with my portfolio, but I don't have enough yet to follow your advice on limiting how much you put in one investment. – O.L.
A: This is one of the biggest hurdles that new investors face.
In the past, we've discussed the importance of diversification and asset allocation for successfully and safely building your portfolio. That's hard to do for someone who's just getting started and may have little money and experience.
Contributing to a 401(k) is a quick and simple way to grow your investment account. Many employers match contributions up to a certain limit... These contributions are free money and the biggest, 100% safe return you will ever receive in the market.
For example... If you contribute 6% of your salary, and your employer matches half of that up to 3% – a fairly typical employer contribution – you've just earned an instant 50% return.
Plus, it takes no effort on your part... Your employer chooses a plan manager and works out the investment options that will be included. Most plans have a decent range of funds to choose from, like mutual funds and index funds.
The benefit of investing through funds is that you get instant diversification, which is helpful for smaller investment accounts. But watch out for management fees. You should be able to get your fees to less than 1% if your plan has reasonable options.
Beyond a 401(k), you can also buy exchange-traded funds through a standard brokerage account, giving you that same diversification advantage.
Many brokers also let you buy fractional shares of individual stocks... In other words, instead of paying $450 for a single share of Microsoft (MSFT), you could pay $45 to own a tenth of a share... or $4.50 to own a hundredth of a share. Buying fractional shares means almost no amount of money would be too small to diversify a portfolio of individual stocks.
What We're Reading...
- Did you miss it? A 10% stock correction is "highly likely."
- Something different: A stock trading ban could be coming for members of Congress.
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
July 12, 2024