Written by Paul Siluch
January 16th, 2025

I took my family on a research trip to Disneyland this past weekend. We own Disney shares in portfolios, so what better way to see how the company is doing?

Thankfully, the horrific fires were well north of Anaheim but some employees from LA were staying in Disneyland hotels after being evacuated. Many Canadian firefighters were already there or on the way.

Judging by the crowds, Disney is doing just fine. Of course, the company is so much more than parks today, you have to dig deeper to get your arms around it.

We all face change, with some years more chaotic than others, and 2025 may be one of those years. Walt Disney’s journey is a story of adapting to change, for few companies of his era did it as adeptly as he did.

2025 is an interesting number.

Note that I said “number” and not “year.”

The digits add up to 9 as follows: 2 + 0 + 2 + 5 = 9. Any number that adds up to 9 or a multiple of 9 will evenly divide it. This means the number 2025 evenly divides 9 by 225. The same works for 3 and 6. It is a pattern some people discover intuitively while many don’t.

The number 9 is special to many cultures. It is considered lucky in China; the king of the single digit numbers signifying completion in numerology and has special relevance in all parts of culture. There are nine planets, for example, and it takes nine months to gestate a baby.

2025 is also a perfect square: 45 x 45 = 2025. This is rare in that only 1849 (43 x 43) and 1936 (44 x 44) occur in the last two centuries.

Written by Paul Siluch
December 13^th, 2024

"There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen."

-Vladimir Lenin

It has been a very full couple of weeks in the world:

• After 53 years in power, the Assad dynasty in Syria fell, toppled by rebel forces with support from Turkey. The geopolitical impacts are not known yet, but oil prices rose, as they always do when something explodes in the Middle East. Oil is not a large export for Syria so any ripples in the energy markets are likely to be short-lived. Syria’s main exports are olive oil and nuts, so a regime change won’t affect global trade much at all. However, Russia and Iran stand to lose influence in the region while Turkey gains.

• • The president of South Korea attempted martial law but was stopped by the Korean legislature – a victory for this sometimes-shaky democracy.

• • U.S. employment worsened.

• • Canada cut interest rates by 0.5%, which is well below U.S. rates right now. As a result, the Canadian dollar hit its lowest point against the US dollar since the 2020 pandemic.

Markets continued their uphill march, despite the news.