This marks the beginning of the end for Googleâs search dominance. [The Jolt with Stephen McBride] RIP Google Search The S&P 500 has bounced back strongly after last Mondayâs panic. Japanese stocks, which were at the epicenter of the selloff, also recovered most of their losses. And bitcoin (BTC) has jumped back above $60,000. For reasons [I wrote on Friday](, I still expect markets to remain challenging heading into Novemberâs US election. Letâs get after it⦠- RIP Google Search? Last week, a federal judge ruled Google (GOOG) illegally preserved its search monopoly. Google was paying Apple (AAPL) $20 billion/year to make its search engine the default on the iPhone. The judge said these âbackhanderâ payments must stop. First off, this is bad for Apple. That $20 billion was pure profit. Roughly one-fifth of Appleâs earnings just went up in smoke. Its profits have been flat for three years, as you can see below. This ruling guarantees 2024 will be a down year. It also marks the beginning of the end for Googleâs search dominance. But not for the reasons many think. This ruling doesnât mean Google will disappear from your iPhone. Whatâll likely happen is youâll have a menu of options to choose from instead of one. This is how it works in Europe. Thanks to âdigital protectionâ laws, using the internet is like visiting the doctorâs office. Endless disclaimers and ticking boxes. Great job, Brussels bureaucrats (not). In short, most people will still choose Google. Well⦠until they start using artificial intelligence (AI). I was a Google power user. Now, I use AI chatbot Claude instead. No more sifting through 10 blue links. Claude just gives me the answer. And you can easily ask it follow-up questions when needed⦠or for references when you suspect itâs making stuff up, which happens sometimes. Many of my friends have dumped Google for AI, too. Try using Claude 3.5 Sonnet (or Perplexity) for a week. Let me know what you think at stephen@riskhedge.com. Iâm not exaggerating when I say this: Chatbots = RIP Google Search. This wonât happen overnight. Itâll be a slow bleed over years. Final thought on this: Last time a federal judge ruled a tech giant was illegally using its market power was back in the early 2000s with Microsoft (MSFT). Microsoftâs stock went nowhere for 12 years after that decision. Weâre in a different market environment today, but these rulings usually mean trouble. Apple and Google have been two of the best stocks to own over the past decade. Stock market âMVPsâ year after year. But their best days are behind them. There are much better businesses to own going forward. See how to access our portfolio of quality disruptors [here](. - Why you must invest in one chart. Hereâs how the value of cash stacked up against the S&P 500 over the past decade. Folks who owned stocks almost tripled their money. Those sitting in cash are 30% poorer. Gotta invest. Source: Federal Reserve Economic Data Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos says the best opportunities often come from asking, âWhat's not going to change in the next 10 years?â Uncle Sam revving the money printer is one thing we know wonât change. The US national debt recently jumped above $35 trillion. Weâve added $13 trillion to the scrap heap in just five years. More of our tax dollars now go toward repaying this debt than on the military⦠Medicare⦠or education. Yikes! When people talk about the out-of-control debt, usually the next words out of their mouth are âmarket crash.â They have it backward. The value of the dollar will keep sliding as we print more money. And just like your morning coffee and grocery bill is priced in dollars, so too are stocks. Dollar down means stocks up. [ShareÂ]( Iâm preaching to the choir, but this is why you must invest. To borrow a line from one of my favorite films, Trainspotting: Choose to protect your wealth from endless money printing. Choose to take control of your financial destiny. Choose to build a legacy for future generations. Choose assets. Because in a world where the value of your savings is being eroded by the day, owning things that hold their value isnât just smartâit's essential. - A little-known way to buy the worldâs hottest âoff-limitsâ startups. There are two stock markets in America. Public markets, where anyone can buy shares in companies like Apple and Google. And private markets, where mostly venture capitalists and accredited investors invest in hot startups like SpaceX and OpenAI. The number of public companies has been cut in half over the past 25 years. US-listed stocks are becoming an endangered species! Meanwhile, private market growth has been off the charts. Companies are choosing to stay private longer. Thatâs bad for ordinary investors who canât buy them until theyâre already worth many billions of dollars. But thereâs a backdoor way to invest in the worldâs most valuable private companies. The Destiny Tech100 (DXYZ) is a fund that allows you to own a slice of companies like SpaceX⦠OpenAI⦠Fortnite creator Epic Games⦠and payments giant Stripe. Put this in the âfun money tradeâ bucket. A cool opportunity, but donât throw more than 100 bucks into it. The Destiny Tech100 is a closed-end fund, meaning it can trade above or below its underlying value. And it comes with a 2.5% management fee. - Todayâs dose of optimism⦠40 years ago, tobacco companies were sponsoring the Olympics! Source: Neon Talk Thankfully, weâre long past âpeak smokes.â Cigarette sales per adult in America have collapsed 70% since the 1960s: Source: Our World in Data Smoking used to be cool. Now, when I see someone with a cigarette, Iâm surprised. One of the many ways the world is getting better. Stephen McBride
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