#23

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

**NOTHING HERE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED INVESTMENT ADVICE!!**

Good morning to all my wingmen and wing-women out there. Here are a few noteworthy and tasty bites worth digesting. Enjoy!

It’s March 2022 and the US government finally seems to be working together and getting important sh*t done!! Ok…..a little bit overstated, BUT the Senate did pass a bill yesterday to make Daylight Savings Time (DST) permanent. No longer will we have to spring forward and lose an hour or sleep. No longer must we worry about it getting darker earlier in the evenings when we fall back. That’s great news, right? At first glance absolutely! But, oddly enough, it’s a little more nuanced than that.

There are currently some states that never change their clocks, so we’ll be a united states on this front, right? Wrong. Here’s why:

• Currently both Arizona and Hawaii don’t bother with changing their clocks throughout the year. However, they both stay put in “Standard Time” (not DST).
• Thanks to The Uniform Time Act of 1966, states had the ability to observe Standard Time all year round, but not DST.
• This new law now gives States the option to move towards DST all year round….which I assume most states would want to do this.
• However, it seems there’s a scenario where certain states could choose to go DST and others Standard Time.
• Depending on which States decide what and which time zones they currently fall in…..things could get a little more complicated.
• But the argument against that complication is everyone uses their devices these days to tell time and not actual clocks (this makes sense and is a sad fact! #I’mOld)

But there seems to be some potential health, societal, and economic benefits that come with a year-round DST, including:

• Apparent studies showing more car accidents when people lose an extra hour of sleep.
• Apparent studies showing robberies decline when there’s an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day.
• Apparent studies showing more heart attacks are suffered at the start of DST.
• Apparently, people are happier when there’s an extra hour of daylight.
• And all the extra money that will flow into the economy by having an additional hour of daylight at the end of each day (i.e. one more beer or wine to order at that patio dinner, more holes of golf to sneak in before the sun goes down, etc...)

As of now, the new law goes into effect November 2023. In the end, does it really matter? Maybe not. But I definitely like the idea of longer days……and apparently that’s a good thing!

Cooler Screens isn’t receiving such a warm welcome from customers with the new products they are pushing. Cooler Screens is piloting new refrigeration doors at Walgreens across the country. The product replaces the traditional see-through doors you find in the refrigerated section of stores with doors that now have digital screens. Except, it’s not just a digital screen showing you what’s inside……it’s a digital screen to pump more ads out at you. 🙅‍♂️

These new doors are labeled as a technology to boost the customer experience and interaction, just like with online purchases made….think of the related suggestions made when you buy something online (e.g. matching phone case, matching ear buds, matching pop socket, etc…). The main problem is, as s customer who wants to purchase X, you have no idea where X is. And then I’ll have to wait 5/10/20/30 seconds for some add to complete before I just pick what I’m looking for?

What will consumers say? Likely…“thanks but no thanks.” Call it what you want. But I don’t see this benefiting the customer experience, at least not how it’s currently being presented. In fact, I see it deteriorating the experience. This is just another way to drive revenues (specifically ad revenues) for Cooler Screens and the retailers (specifically Walgreens in this case) as they get a cut of the ad revenue Cooler Screens generates.

I believe customers want to open a specific glass door and grab the orange-bomb-cyclone-tequila flavored-sans tequila- extra electrolytes-energy drink because that’s what they want and what they can see is available. And I believe there could be Vancouver-losing-the-Stanley-Cup-like-riots if too many customers open the cooler doors only to find empty shelves….or worse, the wrong products!

Similar to the use of my hyphens above…..THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! And this will be just another reason why I’ll go to CVS.

As mentioned in Boneless Wings #5 (….story one), Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has worked against them in a few ways. Particularly in strengthening the sovereignty, resolve and commitment of Ukraine, rallying NATO and uniting several non-NATO countries. Putin’s invasion continues to serve as a reminder to European nations of the importance of readiness. Germany certainly seems to understand that now by buying 35 U.S. F-35 fighter jets to replace an aging fleet. In fact, it’s part of a $100B Euro upgrade to its military fleet. They also plan to purchase 15 Eurofighter jets.

This seems to be a logical decision given all that’s going on in the world, especially next door to some of our NATO allies. However, this is still a big deal for Germany to make this decision. My last trip to Germany was 9 years ago. It was an amazing trip. Totally caught me by surprise. The food was good, the people seemed great, and history was all around. Seeing parts of the Berlin Wall, amazing. Learning about Checkpoint Charlie as the crossing point between West and East Berlin, unforgettable.

But I’ll always remember one conversation I had with a German colleague of mine (who grew up in East Berlin until the Wall came down.) I had asked what the local discussions and conversations were like around the dark history of Germany. Did they talk about it? Or was it one of those things better left unspoken? He explained to me that Germans were generally ashamed of the country’s dark history. It wasn’t something he was proud of as a German.

And I can’t but wonder if that general sentiment is likely what’s led to Germany’s defense spending (or lack thereof)…..including not fulfilling their commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense.

Putin’s recent decision has changed all of that. Here’s how:

• Germany currently spends around 1.5% of GDP on its military. Now they plan to bump that to more than 2%.
• Sweden, though not a NATO member, stated they’d boost their military spending to 2% of GDP asap.
• Denmark said it’s aiming for around 2% of GDP…..with the Prime Minister stating “historic times call for historic decisions.”

How about in the US? I believe this will lead to more bi-partisan support on military and defense spending. The world has shifted and so has the game. This is, an unfortunate, wake up call to everyone on the importance of a strong military and defense system.

Deuces. ✌️