| Dear Reader, Yesterday was the final day of the Virtual SIC 2020—and it was as exciting as the grand finale of the Fourth of July fireworks. Highlights included legendary billionaire investor and former Goldman Sachs partner Leon Cooperman... world-renowned futurist and human-longevity pioneer Peter Diamandis... famous investor and well-known TV personality Doug Kass... and John Mauldin’s traditional panel concluding the SIC. This year, it was titled, “Returning to the New Normal.” Lee Cooperman, a self-made billionaire and the son of a working-class family, is the epitome of the American dream. He talked to David Bahnsen, who is regularly named as one of the top US financial advisors by Barron’s, Forbes, and the Financial Times. In their conversation, Lee listed 10 COVID-created issues that we need to watch out for. He thinks the crisis will change capitalism forever, with bailouts being followed by higher corporate taxes and stock buybacks becoming a thing of the past. After retiring from running his Omega Advisors hedge fund, Lee says he has become more of a long-term investor. For example, he believes that oil could go to $50 per barrel next year and has taken positions in energy companies like Energy Transfer Operating LP (ETP-E), Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp. (MGY), and WPX Energy (WPX). In their fireside chat on the housing market, real estate specialists Barry Habib and Ivy Zelman brought a lot of excellent data to the table. Both are extremely bullish on the residential housing market. Ivy pointed out that most of the current first-time home buyers are 20- to 29-year-old Millennials—the very generation that, only a few years ago, demographers feared would never leave their parents’ basements. For investors, more caution is warranted in the multi-family residential area where we see a huge backlog while demand is shrinking at the same time, and commercial real estate, which will likely experience a tough time from 2020–22. In his conversation with John Mauldin, Doug Kass—hedge fund manager, author, and a former guest host on CNBC’s Squawk Box—revealed that he is quite bullish on the banking sector. Some of the stocks, he said, are priced lower today than at the height of the 2008–09 Financial Crisis, and underappreciated by analysts. Doug also believes that the post-COVID-19 economic downturn will be short lived, possibly as short as three quarters. Asked for potential bearish signs by John, Doug named political polarization that prevents common sense and much-needed legislation from being passed, and the emergence of “machines and algorithms that worship at the altar of price momentum.” Due to this, he believes we might see more flash crashes in the future. Honoring his reputation as a leading futurist, Peter Diamandis gave a virtual presentation that looked like something from a sci-fi movie. Peter compared our current timeline to the pre-historic asteroid strike that killed the slow, lumbering dinosaurs and replaced them with more adaptable, furry mammals: “Over the last 10–20 years, that asteroid has been exponential technologies.” The silver lining in the current crisis, he said, is that “the human race has a singular enemy”—and a tsunami of solutions is coming that will cause a massive transformation in how we think of healthcare and how we do business. He said the “6 Ds of exponential transformation” are: digitize, deceptive, dematerialize, demonetize, democratize. We’ve seen this in things like genome mapping and 3D printing, which both went from hugely expensive novelties to industry disruptors that are now available and affordable for everyone. Finally, the day—and this year’s unique SIC—ended on a high note when Louis Gave, David Bahnsen, Mark Yusko, and Karen Harris as moderator joined SIC host John Mauldin to wrap up the many insights of the conference and close with their outlook for the next year. The discussion was quite spirited. Louis said he’s not long-term bullish on the US dollar—a sentiment that was affirmed by Mark who thinks it will go “devastatingly lower” and that “soon every interest rate on the planet will be negative.” David, on the other hand, expects oil to be higher a year from now and believes that, seeing the dismal effects of NIRP in Europe, the Fed won’t allow interest rates to drop into negative territory. John opined that rather than an “Alphabet-shaped recovery,” he sees a “Rocky Mountain recovery” with many peaks and valleys. He also cautioned that we shouldn’t think of “the economy” as a whole, but that some segments will do extremely well while others will sink. There’s no way I can give you every piece of information. But I don’t have to, because you can see it for yourself... with your Virtual SIC 2020 Pass. All of our presentations and panels are now up in video and audio format, and the final transcripts and slides are being added as I write. Let me remind you that now that the SIC is over, you have only one more week to take advantage of your 50% discount. By midnight on June 4, this offer will expire for good. The good news: You no longer have to wait for the next day to watch more of the SIC. If binge watching is your thing, you have the opportunity to do so now. So please don’t wait any longer and get your Virtual SIC 2020 Pass today. John Mauldin was right when he predicted that this would be the best and most important SIC ever. I hope you’ll decide to find out for yourself. Sincerely, Ed D'Agostino
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