Accelerated Obsolescence

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An interesting thing about GM’s announcement the other day that it will only sell electric cars 14 years from now, by 2035. The New York Times – aka the Pravda of the Hudson, described this as a “seismic” shift.

Indeed, it is.

GM just gave anyone thinking about buying a current model year not-electric GM car a very good reason to think twice. Not for political reasons – as a protest against GM’s decision to participate in the force-feeding of electric cars down the American gullet – but rather for financial reasons.

Would you buy something really expensive that its manufacturer just announced it won’t be making anymore in the not-so-distant future? Something it considers obsolete  . . . and “dirty”?

A threat to public health?

All new cars lose value over time as they accrue miles and wear – and transition into being old cars. This is depreciation. But what happens to the value of a car that you know ahead of time will have a lot less and perhaps no value at all within a short period of time?

Including social value?

Electric cars are being deified the same as “mask” wearing and jabbing – all of them bundled together as evidence of goodness while not-electric cars and declining the “mask” and the jab are being framed as indices of badness.

Just as it’s hard to eat out or even go shopping without “masking” it is probable that by 2035 – possibly,, sooner – it will be hard to drive if you don’t plug in.

2035 is actually a lot closer to now than 14 years from now – in car terms.

It is already 2022 – in model year terms – even though it is only a month into 2021, the calendar year. The car industry is putting the finishing touches on the 2023 and 2024 models right now; these will be making their debuts at press events and so on within the next 12-24 months.

Cars are being designed as you read this for five years from now – which brings us to within nine years of 2035 and well within the useful service life of the typical new car, which is 12-15 years – and not far from the lifespan of the typical six-year new car loan a person might take out in 2026 or 2027.

A virtuous signal is being sent – and not just by GM – that there isn’t much point  in spending time and money designing other-than-electric cars for the future that’s already almost here.

Nor in buying one.

And it won’t be just GM. VW and Ford are on-board, too.

Chiefly because that’s all the government will allow them to sell. The president select has already announced Our Electrified Future, which will arrive not organically – the natural result of people expressing a preference for electric cars – but forcefully, via regulations and mandates that favor the electric car and disfavor the non-electric car.

This is why the stock valuation of GM and Ford went up after the selection.

And will be more than just a dampening effect on the designing and building of electric cars only, or mostly. It will be restrictions and taxes and other such things on not-electric cars – to nudge people out of their not-electric cars. Including the ones they might buy this year or the next – or a few years down the road from now – which are likely to still be in good running order 14 or fewer years from now.    

And would be worth something to another buyer – or a dealer, as a trade-in.

The effect of electrification-by-force on the resale value of current and near-term future not-electric cars will be catastrophic.

And that could be – hopefully – deliciously catastrophic for what GM sells today

Which is almost entirely not-electric.

The one electric car GM does sell right now – the Chevy Bolt- is so unsaleable that Chevy dealers are having to discount them by as much as $10,000 off the MSRP of $36,500 – because most people aren’t willing to spend $36k for a compact electric sedan when they could buy a non-electric compact sedan for half as much (and go twice as far and not wait five times as long).

The same problem besets the Nissan Leaf, which is the only other electric car even pretending to be an economical car.

Teslas, which do sell, are electric cars only incidentally. What sells them is that they are high-performance luxury-sport cars and they sell to the handful of very affluent people who are in a position to spend $50k-plus on any car.

And who don’t have to care about depreciation.

But now – with the president select enrobed and issuing “executive orders” – cars like the Bolt and Leaf have a political advantage over the not-electric cars that up to now have always had the economic advantage, including the resale value advantage:

The Government Motors – and government-imposed – accelerated obsolescing of the not-electric car, which will become worthless sooner in order to make its electric forced-replacement appear to be worth more.

Or at least, the smarter buy.

If you don’t think it’s stupid to spend $36k to drive around in a compact sedan you used to be able to buy for $16k.

. . . .

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50 COMMENTS

  1. I honestly don’t care what cars will be produced in 14 or 15 years. By 2035, what’s left of the USA will be an empty shell of its former self. A memory that will be illegal to even speak of. The population that’s left will likely be a source of slave labor to the Chinese world rulers.

    The vast majority of people left here now don’t possess enough critical thinking skills to understand that they have been robbed of the country that their fathers and grandfathers fought to hand down to them. They couldn’t figure out how to fight their way out of a paper bag without the help of Zuckerberg or Dorsey. Just a herd of mindless sheep doing as they’re told. Wear a mask they’re ordered, yes master. Close your business, yes master. Take the “vaccine” jab, yes master, give me two, I trust you that it really is a vaccine and is safe! Don’t speak serf, so sorry master. Just please don’t take my little screen from me or block my ability to visit your pages online so I’ll know the correct way to think. It’s my reason for living.

    Every norm has been turned upside down. Good is bad, bad is good, up is down. Money for now is free, we’ll just send you some “stimulus” occasionally. National debt, meaningless. The whole thing just being squandered to further enrich a selfish, ruling elite who would sell their own children for power and money. The greatest country the world has know taken as the property of a few fascist oligarchs and corrupt politicians.

    So do I care if the ruling class will be driving only electric cars in the near future?
    No.

  2. The car makers have plenty of room to virtue signal. It becomes ever more likely that by the time they are claiming they will be all electric, no one will be able to afford ANY kind of car, or maybe even a bicycle. At the behest of the bank cartel and its minions in government and corporations, we are in the midst of economic suicide. Every single negative aspect of fiat currency is being pursued aggressively. In my considered opinion, economic failure was imminent in 2019, which is why the plague “appeared”. To hide the fact, and minimize the impact on the 0.1% by extracting what wealth remained among the 99.9% and delivering it to the 0.1%. Slaves don’t need cars.

  3. OT, a bit, or, maybe not, RE:Obsolescence. Have any of you gotten those credit card dealies in the mail, the rebate from The Fed, or whatever they’re called: payoff, tax refund, corona curse money, Clockwork Orange stimulus?
    I looked into them some, you have to call a 1-800 number and sign up. I imagine lots of people threw them away thinking they were junk mail credit card offers. They sure did look it.
    Seems like you can even go into debit with them – and pay credit card-like interest on them – only some of the money is available to cash out, the rest has to be used as a debit card,… a.k.a. Tracker Jackers to observe your purchase history and all that.
    I haven’t read Anything online of any articles about them. Are they precursors to,… oh, what’s that $1000.00 per month Andrew Yang is enticing people with, I forget what they call that dangling carrot. Is this the beginning of that? The set up, for more? Forever.
    Is this something you all are avoiding, or is it just more of your money back, heck yah, sign up? I’m not sure what to do with this.
    It. Is. Free Money, afterall. …Said the mouse to the cheese.
    Right?

    • Here is what I know about it and it is pretty limited. The prepaid debit cards were sent to states that use the Andover MA or Austin TX addresses for the filing of their 1040 form. The TX address is used by overseas filers – US Virgin Islands, Guam, APO, FPO. The following states also use the TX address: FL, LA, and TX. My guess is if you are a legal resident, a resident of a US territory, or overseas military and the IRS did not have a bank account on file to deposit the funds to you probably received a prepaid card. I think they did this for security, as well as convenience, because it was likely sent overseas and check cashing is not the most inconvenient thing in St Croix or Puerto Rico.

      • I’m in Iowa.
        Oh, hmm, I got the card because I still file by snail mail, more Obsolescence, I guess?
        Almost no one else got the card, I take it? You’re all already signed up for cashlessness? It seems.
        I hadn’t considered that. Things are further along for the great reset …everybody’s already signed up for cashlessness.

        • No, not everybody has signed up for cashlessness. Some people also made more than the income thresholds and did not receive a stimulus payment.

        • Hey Helot,

          I got one of these cards a few weeks ago. There are all kinds of associated fee’s but if you take it to a bank you can cash out $2500 per day. I went that route.

          They are counting on most people to use them as a debit where the bank will get all of the associated fee’s; tracking of their spending habits. It’s a preceding element to the UBI which is surely coming. At first it will be like the “sTiMuLUs” without strings. Then there will start to be strings attached like vaccines and such.

          Take the money as cash while there aren’t strings attached. Then pay down debt/buy silver.

    • Hi Helot,

      Yang and the UBI (sounds like a band) amuse me… $1,000 per month? That might cover the nut of a single young person renting a room in a house with 2-3 other people. Key item being renting. A room. Anyone who rents their own place or does not own their place would need at least twice that to live – barely – and that assumes the value of the UBI doesn’t plummet like a Weimar Deutschmark, which it would since if everyone stops working and begins collecting the wealth is no longer being produced to back the UBI.

      It’s a hook dangled before the innumerate and the immoral – which of course is precisely why they’ll bite it.

  4. 2035 is far enough away that it can be adjusted. As much as I dislike Marry Barra this probably isn’t the worst PR move. They get to virtue signal today and appease the useful idiots, while continuing to build the trucks that sell. Ford is going down a similar path. Even though some models can take 8 years to develop, many times it’s less. Even with the 8 year figure, it gives them 7 to reassess their options and change it to “an electric fleet by 2040, etc…

    • Hi Mattacks,

      This isn’t PR; it’s real. Product planning cycles are 4-10 years ahead of now, so GM is investing – literally – in the future lineup of EVs and will have less to put into trucks and such. If there isn’t a major change in politics – and regulations – by five years from now, there will be no investment in new-design trucks (as has been the case with the current Dodge lineup, which is 11 years old now).

      • Save for styling changes, and improvements in engine/drivetrain performance, what’s the NEED to re-design ANY pickup line? A truck…is a truck…is a Gott-damned TRUCK! The only changes I’ve seen of any worth is where they’ve become a hybrid van/truck with the extended and/or quad cab, to give sufficient versatility over the tried-and-true bench seat that seats three. Beyond that, any given Ford, Chevy, or Dodge pickup dating back to the SEVENTIES will do the job that a “pick-em-up” truck is intended to do.

        Who knows, maybe it’ll be my greatx11 13 y.o. grandson driving his father’s vintage ’57 Vette across the Iowa plains, being chased down by a robot “Smokey”…if we have to operate our rides on a “Samisdat” basis, so be it. Likely taking away our rides will be the proverbial “last straw”.

  5. Raider you know darn well Liberals see women and minorities as protected species and Alpha Males- actually all hetero men as a threat.

    Bara is an accepted token as well as a member in good standing of the Oligarchy.

    • Hi Coinage,

      I don’t dispute that, but wokeness only goes so far. It ends when the money ends. Even liberals are not so foolish to allow their wokeness to decrease their bank account. When the money runs dry even the left must re-evaluate. As of now, they haven’t felt it – borrowing is cheap, money printing is rampant, and stock prices are high.

      What happens when it reverses? Because, it will. Nothing stays on top forever. What happens if Barra’s “electric only” gamble doesn’t pay off? When GM customers who aren’t interested in electric cars start looking at Toyota, Honda, or Dodge. When the dealerships close because people don’t want what they are selling and the guys on the assembly line are laid off. It happens with every business. Do they keep her on as the $50 stock price goes to $5 or $10/share? When the bottom line is bright red and liabilities are eating away at assets? Not likely. Unfortunately, until these woke companies starting losing money this will continue.

      • Barra seems to be suffering from the delusion that GM still has the marketing clout they had back in the 1950s when the company had nearly half the U.S. car market all to itself.

        It doesn’t. There’s plenty of competition out there willing to fill the void as long as Uncle doesn’t tax and regulate the option out of existence. (Which may well happen and could be what she is counting on.)

        • Morning, Jason!

          Lots of facets to the Barra Problem. I think one – and it’s not just her – is the disconnect from reality (for the rest of us) that attends a $22 million annually pay package. A person with that kind of coin no longer understands that a $40,000 EV is economically impossible for most people, irrespective of its other merits (if any). $100k to someone like Barra is what finding 25 cents under the sofa cushion is for most of us.

          These people live in their own economic elysium.

      • Wokeness is but another pretense, foisted upon the useful idiots already flummoxed by 12-16 years of political and societal indoctrination, for TPTB to amass wealth beyond the dreams of rajahs and pashas. Folks that (1) see through their BS (2) seek to be INDEPENDENT and (3) have the fortitude to not shy away from a confrontation are their greatest threat. Said “Threat” is most manifest in the White, Heterosexual, CHRISTIAN male, hence why the war on same, but truth is, both genders, all creeds, and all “colors” can be the same “threat”. Folks, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride for at least the next four years, and prepare to engage that much longer, but it’s better to go down fighting than live but a moment as a SLAVE. I haven’t worked my ass off nor served my country just to see it go down the shitter to a conglomeration of international banksters, corporate moguls, and political hacks. My children and grandchild will yet be free, and if its my ass that gets shot off…well, I’ve had 62 years of having it “good” so far.

  6. Why not cut holes in the floor so we can move them with our feet Fred Flintstone style? Or Mr. Fusion. I’m also envisioning a Mad Max type scenario where people rig up Diesel engines to their electric douche canoe.

  7. Reality has to set in at some point. It just has to. To use a word often misused by the left, it’s unsustainable. It’s a house of cards.

    If all they have is electric, GM will be no more. There is no actual real money in it. Yeah, I know, the taxpayers will bail them out (yet again) with the funny money, so we will be paying even if we don’t actually buy. But as Margaret Thatcher said, “we run out of other peoples money”.

    But they don’t give a f*** what consumers actually want. No amount of yawning and outright rejection seems to make them rethink this all. Nope, double down and just discontinue the vehicles people are buying.

    The vilification of non electrics will be heating up. The Biden regime seems very intent on that by the flurry of executive orders aimed at the energy sector. Gas is going to be much more expensive for no real reason outside of politics.

    The Game Stop stock thing, actually gives me some hope. It’s time for the general public to stick it to these people. Granted they are shutting that all down too. But there is a difference this time, it’s pissing off people on both the right and left for a change.

    If we can stop the vilification of the gas car, it will make it so much harder to get them off the road, and keep their value up. If its clear GM won’t be able to steal from the taxpayers, they will stop this nonsense, or go out of business.

    • ‘If we can stop the vilification of the gas car …’ — richb

      The opposite of vilification is fetishization … as in installing a glass wall between the great room and the garage, so one’s shapely mechanical steed can be admired day and night.

      Or, as Eric has suggested, smaller more cuddly motorcycles can be moved right INTO the living room, as tactile mechanical art.

      The forbidden IC-engined archetype of transgression becomes inherently desirable, as priestess Mary California, advocating chastity and continence, demands that we keep our groping mitts off the forbidden fruit.

      No Mary … the Otto cycle is as vital as the reproductive cycle. Undo the hood latch and spread it open, b*tch.

  8. The numbnuts pushing electric cars are also pushing for the electric grid to be powered primarily by wind & solar. The end result will be scarce, rationed and extremely expensive electricity. Good luck charging the 4 wheeled junk!

    • Allen, you’re spot on…To steal a
      lines from Doc Brown, “I’m sorry, but the one “clean” power source capable of generating the gigawatts we need is a nuclear reaction.”

      I have heard nothing about nuclear plants being fast tracked to construction. Nor have I heard of any new designs coming out.

      Now nuclear power has its own problems, but if we’re serious about reducing air pollution in general (and that means CO2 since it’s now a pollutant), then we need to spin up more nukes.

      But why we don’t is another story for another time.

      • I am certain there is a way to capture/generate energy from “the ether” as the old timey ideas called it. Today’s physicists call it “dark energy” to avoid being like the people they ridicule, but whatever. Ultimately a similar concept. Of course if someone figures it out they’ll be dead before morning.

  9. Well, couple of thoughts. First, do you notice how they keep pushing back the date when electric cars are all they will sell? I seem to remember that not all that long ago, it was 2030. Or even 2025. Someone may be talking to engineers or someone else in the know, who is telling them how full of shit they are for mandating the impossible.

    Also, diesel. Keep an eye on development of electric semis. They’re vaporware, and as long as they stay vaporware, there will be diesel fuel and DEF available.

  10. Interesting graphs over at Mish Shedlock’s site breaking down CO2 emissions by country. If the US stopped all CO2 tomorrow it would only be about 10%, for something like 70% of the world’s economic activity. In other words, we’re not the problem and while we might be “showing the way” as the solution, kneecapping the middle class isn’t going to reduce CO2, in fact by the time they’re finished wrecking up the economy we’ll be burning wood again, like the 1970s. Meanwhile China and India aren’t even going to start worrying about CO2 until 2030 according to the non-binding Paris Accords.

    https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/john-kerrys-straw-man-arguments-for-wasting-money-on-climate

    • Hi RK,

      Yup; and -leaving aside the AGW assertion – the amount of aggregate C02 reduction from “transitioning” to electric cars will be trivial. So why?

      The answer must be either titanic/willful stupidity… or a purposeful effort to further impoverish and control the masses.

      PS: Barra in the leather biker jacket – such a rebel! – is laughable. She is the apotheosis of the corporate tool.

      • If there’s one thing the CONVID scam has made crystal clear, it is that TPTB are finished with playing the part of protecting individual liberties.

        The CO2 thing has always been a laugh. Plants NEED it, we learned this in elementary school. Their by-product of photosynthesis is what humans NEED, O2. Also learned in grade school.

        Plants filter the air, and of course, any “leftover” CO2 (is there such a thing?) is not shown to produce harm to the environment. Living things are mostly carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (in the form of water).

        • CO2 is a lagging effect to temperature. As the world warms more CO2 is naturally released and is not the cause.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFcchad00fU
          Our world is in a period of 13,000 year ice ages and due to the precession of earths axis.
          (Looking for this video was difficult in that Goober had attempted to pass it down the memory hole.)

        • Yep! And in addition, each additional molecule of CO2 contributes marginally less to the warming effect. Therefore, the more plant food entering the atmosphere the less overall effect the additional CO2 contributes to any “warming”. I place warming in parenthesis because when one looks at historical graphs of CO2 levels and temperature (going back millions of years) there is no correlation to increasing levels of CO2 to past warm periods. In the distant past, there were periods where the atmosphere had 2-3000 parts per million of CO2 and yet we still transitioned to ice ages.

      • I’m sorry, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate Mary Barra. I’m sure she’s probably a nice person and fairly intelligent, and you could probably have a beer with her, but frankly she’s a symbol of the feminization — and hence the decline — of America. It’s no accident that GM, the company that made the small-block V8 an American icon, has announced it will no longer manufacture internal-combustion vehicles under its “first female CEO.” Sure, it’s not only her decision, and there are plenty of effeminate men in GM who are behind this, too. But still.

        I am somewhat conflicted about this, because I have an intelligent and accomplished daughter, and I don’t hate women per se, but the more women I see in positions of power, the more misogynist I become — Hillary, Jacinda Ardern, Susan Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, etc. etc. Frankly most of them think and act like fucking children or adolescents.

        Of course I am fully aware that there are decent right-wing women out there (i.e., Lauren Boebert) but they seem to be the exception and not the rule. And of course there is certainly such a thing as “toxic” and obnoxious and violent masculinity, so I am not saying that every manifestation of maleness is necessarily good, either. But overall, if you look at the sweep of human history, all progress has been the work of men, and as Nietzsche observed, the feminization of society is an indicator of its degeneracy.

        Frankly, to be blunt about it, no matter what the feminists have been saying for the last fifty years, women DO have a place. It may not necessarily be in the stereotypical kitchen, I will agree to that, but it is most certainly not in positions of executive power, either.

        • Isaiah 3:12: “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.”

        • Hi X,

          Mary Barra is doing what GM has been pushing for well over a century now – the electric car phenomenon. I don’t think it has to do with her gender, but her false and cloudy interpretation of what consumers want. Thomas Murphy tried the same thing back in the 1970s with the Electrovette (hideously ugly car, BTW). They hear the liberal media and left wing nuts shouting about climate change and how we are all going to die in nine years. They believe that all of use adhere to this social conditioning. Most Americans couldn’t give a crap. Sure, we want cleaner air and smog free cities, but until China and India get on board why are the rest of us running around like Chicken Little?
          GM is taking a gamble they are likely going to lose. Americans do not want electric cars. People are not going to be forced to buy something they do not want. We like our pick up trucks, our large SUVs, and loud motorcycles. We like horsepower and being able to drive cross country without it taking us three months to return. Not only that, but what do we do with the lithium batteries in these cars when they die? Can’t take them to the landfill. The battery acid will get into the water supply and kill us all. The electrical grid that is already 40 years behind in needed repairs? Throw an additional 50 million cars on it, yeah, that will make it work better. Does anyone believe Exxon and BP and Sunoco are going to sit back and allow this to happen?

          Hey, I just thought of something! Has anyone seen Cars (yes, the PIXAR flick, kiddie cartoon). Maybe Exxon and BP are behind this! Something to think about though. I never thought Demolition Man would become a documentary, and here we are…..my Cars insight may not be too far off.

          Let GM believe this is going to make them relevant. This time though I hope we don’t bail them out….again.

          • Yes, RG, a thoughtful reply. Certainly electric cars have been around for a century — and they have largely failed.

            However, I disagree with you that Mary Barra has a “false and cloudy interpretation of what consumers want.” If a male executive had a “false and cloudy interpretation of what consumers want,” sales would fall and he would be canned.

            But Mary Barra knows damn well what consumers want from the sales numbers — big trucks with big IC engines.

            She is simply engaged in colluding with the government to force people into getting what she thinks they SHOULD want, and this is frankly the way females treat children — you WILL eat your peas, and be happy about it or mommy will take your dessert away; in other words, you WILL drive an electric car and be happy about it, or you will have no transportation at all, little boys and girls.

            • Hi X,

              Then she is doomed to failure. I do disagree though that a male executive would be fired. I can name quite a few Fortune 500 companies destroyed as a male sat on as CEO. Jeffrey Immelt who was the CEO for GE for 16 years. He completely destroyed a once great American company taking its stock price to about a 1/4 of its value from when he took over in 2001 and completely obliterated their stock dividend. Lest not forget Worldcom, Enron, and Sun Microsystems to toss out a few more.

              Also, Lisa Su who has literally turned a once feeble company (AMD) with a stock price of around $5/share to the next great gaming computer processor to rival Intel and Micron. I would also throw in Indra Nooyi, Pepsi’s former CEO, who nearly doubled growth during her tenure increasing revenue from $35B to over $63B.

              Mary Barra may be a bad CEO, the consensus is still out. She has shrank the once idolized brand by 25% since she took over in 2014. Some of this was necessary. GM was not competitive in certain countries and to stay there and continue to lose money made no sense. Barra is taking a huge risk with GM’s brand going fully electric, but GM has been fading for many decades and this is not due to only Barra’s decision making. Also, we can add Ford and their revolving door of CEOS (all men) as another once great American car company that has lost its way.

              I am perfectly aware there are differences between men and women. It would be next to impossible for most women to compete against men in sports or contests of strength, but I do believe women can be successful CEOs and business owners. Just as there are plenty of men who are also successful CEOs and business owners. I prefer to let the company’s growth be the aptitude test that we focus on and not one’s gender.

              • Hi RG,

                Bill Ford is a man – and just as “committed” to this egg-sucking EV business as Barra. Both are typical modern corporate “leaders” – in that they follow every Woke trend. It’s sad to see two great American car companies go down this way.

              • Chrysler has already entered the fray. Not sure if anyone saw this commercial since it was only on air for about a week before they pulled it. I am sure everyone has see that ditsy actress from bad moms they have doing Chrysler pacifica commercials. Well they did a commercial where she hosted a gameshow against and the final question was why would you not drive an ev or hybrid pacifica. answer- “because you suck.” First time i heard that commercial i must not have been paying attention because i said did i just hear that correctly. Next time i heard it , i confirmed that is what she said. However Chrysler must have gotten an earful because that was the last time i saw the commercial on the air.

                • I should do a piece…”Who KILLED ‘Ma Mopar’?”

                  At least in my son’s garage lies a humble beast, a tribute to the elegant simplicity of yesteryear, a 1966 Plymouth Fury II…came with the “Poly” 318 2 barrel and “three on the three”. It now has a 360 yanked from PnP out of an ’85 Dodge Ramcharger and a “3+OD” four-speed, with the original drivetrain apart, in crates, until we figure out what to do with the old iron. It’s been an adventure thus far, scrounging parts from everywhere to put together this Frankenstein beast, but also a LEARNING experience. This is a lot of what the upcoming generation does NOT have….simple, PRACTICAL experience, passed down from father to son while twisting wrenches.

                  I hope the woke are PISSED.

              • Hi RG,
                I worked at AMD for many years. Actually, for most of my career in the semiconductor industry. You’re absolutely right about Lisa Su. She has been an absolutely fantastic ceo, by far the best ceo that AMD has ever had, and AMD has had some really bad ones, all men. I’ve been lucky and/or smart enough to hold onto most of my AMD stock options since leaving the company and have been well rewarded for my patience with AMD. Thanks, Lisa Su!

                • Hi Martin,

                  That is wonderful to hear. 😊

                  I have followed AMD closely over the last few years and see what a tremendous impact she has made on the semi conductor industry. AMD is also my go to stock. I bought a couple shares back in February 2019 when the stock price was around $19/share. I am glad I did. You are in an even better position than me. 😉

                  Thanks for your feedback. It is nice to hear from people who actually work in these environments and with these companies.

                  • Hi RG,

                    Owning AMD stock at this point still requires nerves of steel. Right now, AMD is very richly valued in terms of P/E. They just released their Q4 report, in which they beat expectations on both revenue and earnings, and the stock still went down. Sell on the news …

                    At this point, Intel may actually be a safer bet. And I hate to say this, being as I have always hated Intel. In the old days when I worked for AMD, I would always jokingly refer to Intel as the “evil empire”. I still think of Intel that way!

                    • Hi Martin,

                      Agreed, but under Su’s leadership I still believe AMD will be a $200 stick.

                      I actually recommended to a family member to invest in Intel awhile back because they have a pretty decent dividend yield, which is what this individual was looking for. Intel is also a pretty affordable stock based on their P/E ratio.

                      I do believe the momentum is with AMD though and I plan to hold it LT.

                      As for nerves of steel…..I invested in Blackberry a few years ago. Nothing is as stressful as watching this stock. 🙂

          • Copy on Demolition Man! Jesus, did that turn out to be increasingly accurate! Speech is heavily controlled, no physical contact, electric and self-driving cars, “sanctimonious assholes” everywhere…
            The only thing missing are “cryoprisons”.

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