$AAPL, $CSCO, $EBAY, $GOOG, $MSFT Look Cheap as American Economy Enters Golden Age

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$AAPL, $CSCO, $EBAY, $GOOG, $MSFT Look Cheap as American Economy Enters Golden Age

Introduction

In parts one and two of this three-part series I presented a case that focused on the long-term potential for a bright future of economic strength and growth.  Moreover, I pointed out that I felt that the best of what our economic future holds goes mostly ignored, in favor of a focus on our problems. Therefore, I concluded that there exists a general pessimistic view of our future that I believe is wrong.

In the long run, the real strength of any economy rests in its productivity capacity.  Ultimately, the more product that an economy can produce, simultaneously the more wealth it produces. My point being is that money is not wealth; instead, it is merely a medium of exchange.  In other words, money is simply a tool that people can utilize to purchase the real wealth of an economy, which is its product and service.

To put this into context, metaphorically, if there only existed one pair of shoes in the world, then only the richest among us desirous of wearing shoes could afford to buy them.  Therefore, the majority of the richest of all people would be forced to go barefoot, regardless of how much money they had. On the other hand, if there were billions of pairs of shoes in the world, then obviously shoes would be plentiful, cheap and everybody would own them.

Thesis For a Bright Future

The general thesis behind this series of articles is that already-known technological advances portend to unleash a surge in productivity that has never before been experienced by mankind.  Technology is growing exponentially, and with it the productivity capacity of our economy, and all the economies throughout the world. Therefore, it appears obvious to those willing to look, that the potential currently exists to raise the standard of living of every human being on this planet beyond anything the world has ever seen before.

That is something to be optimistic about, and it is not a sci-fi fairytale. Many of the game changing advancements are already in late stages of development, and will be appearing in our economic soup over the next 5 to 10 years. To be clear, I am talking about technologies with the potential to completely revolutionize our way of living worldwide.  The potential exists for impeccable health, limitless and free energy while simultaneously delivering clean air, unlimited sources of fresh pure water and abundant supplies of healthy foods, to name just a few.

Since I blog on investing, and although it’s exciting to think about all the possibilities to improve the state of living of every person on this planet, as an investor I am also interested in the profit potential. Throughout the course of my research, I came across several interesting projects that publicly traded companies of all sizes are currently participating in.  Although the profit potential for many of these future inventions is enormous, so are the risks.

Because technology is moving so rapidly, there is no guarantee that today’s most exciting developments won’t be usurped by better ideas before they ever reach commercial potential. Therefore, extreme caution and continuous due diligence are the order of the day.  But the opportunity to profit handsomely makes it well worth the effort.  Fortunately, there are numerous ways and strategies that can be used to participate in the coming Golden Age.  Prospective investors can choose to go the high risk route through startups and small cap newbie’s, or a more conservative approach might look to established large-cap companies whose participation could accelerate an already profitable business model.

The following company reviews, courtesy of F.A.S.T. Graphs™, looks at companies of various sizes and development that are currently participating at some level in the game changing opportunities discussed in this three-part series.  These include biotechnology, nanotechnology, Big Data, distributed power, robotics and much more. Most importantly, they are not offered as a comprehensive list, because as I have previously stated, these articles barely scratch the surface of the many developments being worked on throughout research labs of all levels all around the world (the lab in the garage is resurging).

Perhaps, and even more importantly, I’m not suggesting that the necessary research to find profitable opportunities has already been done.  Alternatively, I am suggesting that the following companies presented in order of cap size and estimated earnings growth (EPS) offer a fertile field to begin digging in.  I would also like to point out that the current estimated earnings growth does not include any contribution from the technology advancements being discussed.  In other words, those would be future growth accelerators if they were to come to pass.

For convenience, and perhaps to jumpstart the research process, I have included individual F.A.S.T. Graphs™ on several selections that appear attractive.  The idea is to illustrate how companies of all shapes and sizes are participating in what has been written about in these articles. They are not recommendations to buy; they are recommendations to research more deeply.

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Learn about how Cisco (CSCO) can develop a smart grid for distributed power.

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Summary and Conclusions

The undeniable truth is that during the last century the quality of life in America has improved more than ever before. This is not to say that America has not faced numerous challenges, because as we all know, we have.  However, according to the book Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Steven Kotler, perhaps our biggest challenge is controlling our thoughts:

“The next 25 years can remake the world, but this won’t happen on its own.  There are plenty of issues to be faced, not all of them technological in nature. Overcoming the psychological blocks-cynicism, pessimism, and all those other crutches of contemporary thinking-that keep many of us from believing in the possibility of abundance is just as important. To accomplish this, we need to understand the way our brain shapes our beliefs and our beliefs shape our reality.”

I don’t believe that we can find the information that we need to reshape our thoughts from mainstream media.  Unfortunately, there are no “good news” newspapers. Therefore, in order to access the positive information we need to reshape our thoughts requires other sources of information. Even more unfortunately, most of the really good sources are not free; you have to subscribe to them. The following represents a sampling of some of the places that I go to for information:

Trends Magazine

Kurzweil – Accelerating Intelligence

Scientific American

The Scientist

The bottom line is that there really are a lot of extremely promising and exciting happenings in the world that promise to make life better for us all.  We should be very careful to guard what we allow into our minds so as not to be overcome by the barrage of bad news that we are inundated with. There is an awful lot out there to be excited and positive about, if we are only willing to make the effort to look. And I’m talking economics, not philosophy, that is capable of leading us into an explosion of productivity at every level of business and commerce.  Our minds are the greatest resource at our disposal, let’s feed and nurture them.

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