Big tragedy over in Paris this weekend

You would think the markets would be trading down with the World’s largest tourist destination suffering the worst terror attack in their history right at the start of the holiday shopping season.  Clearly, if it can happen in Paris – it can happen in any major city and you would think that would have investors acting cautiously.  Well it did – for about 5 minutes – as the markets opened down about 1% in Europe and the US futures but 4 hours later (7am, EST) and we’re back in the green – it’s simply amazing what traders are willing to ignore these days.  

I was eating at an outdoor cafe in Washington, DC this weekend and I’m glad I didn’t see the above picture first or I wouldn’t have been quite as relaxed.  We all know it’s not that hard to get a gun in the US and, so far, we’ve been lucky there have “only” been 325 mass shootings so far this year – and mostly by US citizens – so we don’t worry about those, right?  

Check out Florida on this map – it looks like it’s going to sink under the weight of the mass shootings!  Even the gangs in LA are warning their members to stay away from Florida…  That’s why, in the US, we have the occasional terrorist attack and we just move on – terrorists would have to step up their game considerably to kill more Americans than Americans do!  In France, on the other hand, there’s only 1 homicide per 1M people per year, vs 32 in the US.  That’s why they are still shocked when someone kills their citizens.  

Keep in mind that’s 32 people PER YEAR out of 1M so, over the course of your 75-year life, you have a 2,400 out of 1M chance of being murdered in the US – better than 1 in 50.  Not you, of course, you are reading a stock market newsletter, which means you are probably in the top 10% and you are not likely to live in “those” neighborhoods – and pray you never do!