We’ve come a long way from supercomputer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Artificial intelligence is learning and rapidly expanding its capabilities. It’s making jobs, research and many other tasks easier — not trying to leave us adrift in space…

And the top companies in the world are competing to incorporate AI into their business models, across virtually every industry.

But the way I see it, the #1 application of AI today is … how we pick stocks.

That’s why I sat down with an expert in combining technology and finance: Keith Kaplan.

And now we want to make sure you’ve met An-E (think “Annie”): a cutting-edge AI investing tool that’s easy to use, and can analyze (and potentially predict) at least 30 days of market moves.

Just like the best tech innovations help us do more with less, I believe this tool will help us become better, more efficient investors — reaping even more profits on our trades!

Now is the time to get ahead of the pack by investing with AI at your side, before everyone starts to catch on.

 

(Or read the transcript here.)

 

🔥 Hot Topics in Today’s Video:

  • Market News: What are the Federal Open Market Committee rate hike odds forecasting right now? (Plus, I go over a key economic indicator that points to a possible market breakout.) [1:45]
  • Mega Trend: Sales of electric vehicles are speeding past a critical moment, smashing all kinds of records. What under-the-radar industry might stand to profit from it? [6:05]
  • Invest Smarter: Watch this Q&A with Keith Kaplan from TradeSmith, who gives a rundown of this breakthrough AI program (AKA: what I see as the top application of AI). [15:20]
  • Start investing with An-E: If you’re ready for the power of AI to help pick your next winning stock, go here to get started (and learn even more about An-E)!

 

Until next time,Ian King's SignatureIan KingEditor, Strategic Fortunes

Did the Pandemic Cause a Baby Boom?

Did the Covid-19 Pandemic Cause a Baby Boom?

I read a headline this week that really left me scratching my head: “How COVID-19 Turned a ‘Baby Bust’ Into a ‘Baby Bump.’”

The idea was simple enough. Because the pandemic made flexible work schedules more normal, it made it easier for parents to juggle work and family responsibilities and encouraged women to have more children.

Well, that sounds wonderful. Birthrates have been in freefall since 2010, and frankly, we need babies. Someone has to pay for our future Social Security checks.

There’s just one glaring problem: It’s not true.

Preliminary 2022 data shows that there were 3,661,220 American babies born in 2022. That’s down from the 3,664,292 recorded in 2021, and 3,745,540 in 2019, the year before the pandemic made working from home more commonplace.

Or if you prefer to look at fertility rates, the average American woman had about 2.1 children in 2008, which is exactly the replacement rate. But then the global financial crisis hit, unemployment soared and family formation and births fell off a cliff.

Since 2017, the fertility rate has bounced in a range of 1.7 to 1.8, and there has been absolutely no evidence that the pandemic changed anything.

Now, I’m not suggesting that the fertility rate is destined to remain at subreplacement levels forever. Between 1980 and the onset of the crisis in 2008, the fertility rate trended higher. Families became measurably larger over those three decades.

But that also happened during a period in which housing was cheap and inflation and interest rates trended lower.

It’s important to remember that this isn’t a controlled experiment. We can’t know what birthrates would have looked like had the pandemic never happened. It’s entirely possible that births would have been even lower than they are today.

And other factors come into play here as well, such as women staying in school longer or starting families later.

It’s also hard to see this trend turning around in the future without a little help from falling interest rates or better home affordability.

Regards,Charles Sizemore's SignatureCharles SizemoreChief Editor, The Banyan Edge