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1. WEEKLY NEWSLETTER! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Issue 34 / Volume 15
August 25 - September 1
The Sanctity of Marriage
We have spoken to so many people with broken
marriages. It is really so often the case that it
almost becomes like a broken record. That being
the situation, we decided to do a little research
into some of the statistics concerning the so-
called ‘sacred institution’. Frankly, we were
shocked by what we discovered.
First of all, to be married in Europe is becoming
increasingly risky. Eight out of the worst ten
countries, in terms of the divorce rate, are located
in Europe. We weren’t necessarily surprised to
hear this especially when we consider the
freedoms that we enjoy on this continent. This
hard earned freedom apparently applies to other
areas as well. Nevertheless it did give us pause for
thought.
For those interested, Belgium occupies the top
spot with a whopping rate of 71%! Can you
believe it? With those kind of numbers, what is
the point? Why even bother? In Central Europe,
the Czech Republic happens to be at merely 66%.
Surprisingly enough, the U.S.A has grabbed the
tenth spot with a comparatively mild 53%.
However you want to look at it, the bottom line is
that marriage is not what it used to be. At the
same time, we can also assume that many who
stay married are unhappy. True love is certainly
hard to come by and it almost seems as though
people enter the married state with the
assumption that divorce is more than possible. In
fact it is likely. We hate to be cynical but those are
the facts.
There are naturally many theories that abound
and probably all are worth listening to. However,
as far as we are concerned it all comes down to
some basic truths. In the Western world, the role
of women has changed and evolved over the
years. In the 1960’s and 1970’s women became
more and more liberated and began to have
careers and become more educated and
cemented their role in the working world. It
pushed men and threatened their previously
unchallenged supremacy. And it had a price.
Women, who had previously economically
depended on men, no longer had this stigma
attached and were more able to forge their own
life, an independent life with more options. And
as women became more independent and
liberated, this too applied to their choice of
partners and opened what could be referred to as
a Pandora’s Box.
We are positive that you could make other
arguments as well because, after all, there are two
sides to any coin. It is an interesting subject and
well worth discussing. We welcome any and all
points of views and are certainly open to other
suggestions.
In This Issue:
Society: The Sanctity of Marriage
Greece: What a Joke!
The Markets: Carnage
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2. What a Joke!
Can you believe the latest in Greece? What are
they doing and what are they thinking? We are
not politicians (thank God) but, for the life of us,
we have no idea what will come next. We all now
know that their recently elected Prime Minister,
Tsipras, has resigned and has called for new
elections. Great! We are filled with confidence!
We can only imagine what the powers that be
within Europe are thinking.
We don’t trust this man and we never did. How
could we after all that he has done? He worked
behind the scenes and tried to use Putin to gain
more leverage. We didn’t like that and we can
assume that we are not alone in our thinking.
Then, when he had exhausted his options, he
called for a referendum. This was done so quickly
and in such a way that was so calculated to pass
the buck. And now, after all is said and done, he
has resigned and left everything up in the air.
For the life of us, we will never understand how
the Greeks got this additional bailout. We believe
that this is absolute CRAP with a capital C. We
said it all along and we will never understand.
The wrong message is being sent and it is not fair
to the rest of the European countries, especially
those in precarious financial turmoil.
Sometimes it is better to cut ties. As difficult as
this may have been, we are absolutely
convinced that this would have been the way to
go. Not to be too harsh, but with friends like
them, one does not need enemies.
As far as we are concerned, it will only get worst
and it is a terminal situation. We realize that
there are those who may disagree with us. We
respect their opinion but we remain adamant in
our beliefs.
Trump Update
The train continues to roll and he leads the field.
The shock is now over and we are left to deal
with the reality of the situation. From our point
of view, his appeal lies in the fact that he truly is
not a politician. If he was, he would care what
people think and act and think accordingly. He
has no such constraints and is therefore more
appealing than the traditional politician.
The truth of the matter is that most of us are sick
of the so called ‘professional politician’. We
don’t trust them but are forced to deal with
them because they often are only choice.
Therefore, when someone like a Trump comes
out of the woodwork with no agenda and
unaffiliated, people can’t help but be attracted
to him.
For this reason, in spite of his ego and his
massive wealth, he will continue to appeal to
many.
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3. The information contained herein does not constitute an invitation to subscribe or acquire in any way financial products and serves as specialized research
information only. It is provided as information only and is not intended to act as a financial promotion. As a general guideline, we do advise, even though we are
trying to assure accuracy in our material its content should not be relied upon by you solely without your own independent decision process. If you are unsure
about any specific investment decision, you should obtain appropriate expert independent advice. Due to financial markets volatility and unpredictability Fraser
Mackie cannot accept responsibilities for continued accuracy of its research material, and or content in perpetuity. The company gives no warranty as to
accuracy of the information and accepts no liability for any errors, misprints or omission herein (whether negligent or otherwise). All rights reserved.
for quite some time now. We assume that you
are nervous and this is understandable. Our
advice is to fasten your seat belts and hold on
tightly. It could be quite a ride.
Conclusions
We hope that you enjoyed what we had to say
about the institution of marriage. The statistics
are probably higher than you might have
anticipated; they were for us. As for the
Greeks, we are simply disgusted and are left
to wonder what will be next. We can assume
that it will not be good. It never is. As for our
dear Mr. Trump, he continues to astound and
amaze us and it doesn’t appear as if he is
going away. We actually have to begin to take
him seriously. We never thought that it would
come to this. Did you? We will, of course, be
closely watching the markets and hope for
some kind of rebound. We are nervous but
can only hope that the recent past and the
markets continued resilience will prevail and
we can once again see an upward swing.
That being said, we now want to take the time
to wish you all a great week and sincerely
hope that the markets recover and we can
once again earn the money that we deserve.
Carnage
We assume that you all saw what happened to
the markets last week. In what amounts to the
worst week since 2011, the Dow tumbled by
about 900 points on Thursday and Friday. We
tend to put a more positive slant on things and
we sincerely feel that this was an overreaction.
We look for a bounce next week.
We also must remember that the markets have
shown an incredible amount of resilience over
the last few years. For this reason, we have
perhaps become somewhat spoiled and
optimistic and tend to look at the rosier picture.
There have been so many times that we have
seen this, that our optimism is understandable.
That being said though, there is some pressure
that has to be dealt with. We have the Federal
Reserve threatening to raise interest rates and a
slowdown in China. Their currency has been
devalued and their manufacturing is down. This
is to be expected because their economy has
had an unprecedented run over the last thirty
years and has only been going upwards. This is
perhaps a temporary bump or even a long
anticipated slowdown that is more realistic
according to market conditions.
As for next week, we will be obviously looking
closely at the markets. We tend to think or
perhaps hope that the selloff was exaggerated
and the markets will right themselves early in the
week. If, however, this does not prove to be the
case, all bets are off. For those of us who are
numbers watchers, we are clearly in the red for
year and this is something that we have not seen
Fraser
Mackie
LTD
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Wealth
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