The Sports Illustrated and Rosen Report Curses

3-23-25

Opening Comments

My last note was a review of my favorite restaurant in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, Cafe Maxx. The most opened links were my cooking video with Edvina and the video of Trump dragging his leg. Not surprisingly, the article about the importance of sex was near the top of the list.

I need an MRI on my shoulder that has already been surgically repaired. I called RAYUS Radiology, the only game in town near me, and the frustration began. I had the MRI order my doctor sent via email and I asked if I could email it to RAYUS. “No, emails allowed. You can send me a fax.” Let me get this right: You perform high-tech MRI and CAT scans but still use a fax? “The next appointment was two weeks away,” she said. I responded, “I will take the appointment on April 1st, but can you notify me of any cancellations.” The woman replied, “No, we do not have that ability. You need to keep calling back daily.” Welcome to the Twilight Zone of fax machines and no ability to be on a waitlist. Some things about South Florida are shockingly irritating, and this is one of them. Yes, I got upset. No, I did not swear at the woman. I showed great restraint and deserve some recognition. Is a Nobel Peace Prize warranted?

• Picture of the Day-Charts About Family Structure/Education

• Sports Illustrated Cuse & Rosen Report Curse for Tesla

• Quick Bites

  • Markets

  • World’s Wealthiest in Charts from 1988-2025

  • Nation of Homebodies

  • Eating Alone and the Happiest Counties in the World

• Politics

• Middle East

• Other Headlines

• Health

• Real Estate

  • What Does $9mm Get You On Palm Beach Island-Not Much?

  • Mortgage Refinance Woes

  • 15 CPW Sale Manhattan

  • Phoenix Squatter Sells House

  • Young Adults Flocking to Small Towns

Picture of the Day-Charts About the Importance of Family Structure/Education

A couple of interesting and concerning charts about the importance of family structure and education. Of the young men raised in an intact family, 36% graduate college, while only 19% go to prison or jail. AEI’s Brad Wilcox finds young men raised outside of an intact family with two biological parents are more likely to go to prison or jail than they are to graduate from college.

The Sports Illustrated and Rosen Report Curses

Any sports fan is aware of the curse associated with being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. On many occasions, the person highlighted by the prestigious cover ends up with some kind of misfortune on the heels of the magazine’s publication. This article outlines that, from 1954 through 2002, of the 2,456 covers SI had run, 913 featured a person or team that suffered some verifiable misfortune - a 'jinx rate' of 37.2%. This link outlines numerous Sports Illustrated “Jinx.” The majority of those instances were bad performances by a team in the immediate aftermath of a cover appearance (52.7%), followed by bad losses or poor performance by an individual (25.2%) and injury or death (11.8%).

Some of my most memorable examples, but there are many more:

The most blatant example of the SI jinx was the four different 2017 NFL preview covers of Tom Brady, JJ Watt, Aaron Rogers, and David Johnson where three out of four had season ending injuries post cover.

Let’s outline how Elon Musk’s Telsa fell into the jinx with the Rosen Report. On my December 29, 2024 newsletter, “Forever is Composed of Nows,” the chart below was the picture of the day. Note that the Visual Capitalist post is dated December 13th and the all-time high was December 17th!

Three-Month-Old Chart

Since hitting an all-time high of $488 on December 17th, Tesla stock is down to $249/share or -49%. The market cap was $1.4 trillion in the chart above and is now $780bn. On the other end of the spectrum, Xiaomi (+75%), BYD (+58%), Toyota (+13%), and Honda (+19%) market caps are up sharply since the above chart.

In addition to the stock decline, Tesla has since been removed from the 2025 Vancouver Auto Show, February year-over-year sales in the UK -21%, -71% in Australia, France -26%, and China -12%. In Germany, EV sales rose 30% year over year but Tesla sales there were -76%. Portugal, Sweden, and Norway saw large sales declines as well. A record number of Teslas have been traded in this month, in yet another sign the brand is struggling. Also, there have been numerous violent attacks on Tesla dealerships and random cars in recent weeks as the hate of Musk and his relationship with Trump upsets many people. Attorney General Bondi has called these attacks “nothing short of domestic terrorism.” In another crazy situation, Musk-hating hackers release the names and addresses of every Tesla owner in the US. Even former VP candidate Tim Walz is rooting against Tesla, an American company that makes ELECTRONIC VEHICLES and employs thousands of Americans. The Walz comments were so stupid that a CNN panelist called him a “complete moron.” Musk cannot believe the amount of hate towards him and Tesla, and it all happened AFTER I highlighted his company. Elon, I am sorry.

As if all I outlined was not bad enough, analysts have downwardly revised the stock forecast sharply with some as low as $120/share or approximately half of today’s value.

• JPM-$120/share and Wells-$130/share

Elon, I am a fan of much of what you do; you are the Thomas Edison of our time. What you have done for the EV industry, self-driving, space travel, Twitter, Neuralink, xAI, DOGE, Starlink, and more is incredible. You could be a bit more balanced and CEO-like in your behavior, but your results are impressive. I want to apologize for highlighting your greatness, which has since led to Tesla’s stock downfall. Maybe the curse of Sports Illustrated and the Rosen Report are real?

Quick Bites

• The S&P closed slightly higher Friday to avoid its 5th straight weekly loss by closing +.5% on the week. On the year, the S&P is -3.9%, Nasdaq -8.3% and Russell -7.8%. The first chart outlines sector performance for the day, month, 3-month, and YTD. Note the big underperformers are consumer discretionary and information technology, while the outperformer is energy even though oil is -3.3% YTD. The session was indeed volatile with major averages coming off their lows after President Donald Trump said there would be some “flexibility” with tariffs. Trump, however, maintained that the tariffs implemented at the April 2 deadline will be reciprocal, saying that all countries that have tariffs on U.S. goods will be charged. Two economic bellwethers were leading the way lower on Friday. FedEx was down 6% after it cut its earnings outlook, citing “weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy.” Nike shares were off by about 5% after the shoe and apparel giant said sales this quarter would miss analysts’ expectations because of tariffs and falling consumer confidence. The 2nd chart is interesting and shows that taking a long-term view makes sense despite negative headlines.

  

  

• I enjoyed the rolling list of the richest people in the world each year from 1988-2025 and how the list has changed. In the late 1980s, it was dominated by Japanese people, with eight out of 15, while the USA only had two people on the list. In 1988, $18bn topped the list. By the mid-1990s, more folks from the USA made the list like Gates, Buffett, Kluge, and Mars. By 2000, the USA dominated with 11 out of 15 and the Japanese were nowhere to be found. By 2010, the list is more international with only six from the USA and the wealthiest person in the world at $59bn of net worth. By 2020, the USA has 11 spots again and Bezos is on top with $175bn. By March $2025, Musk dominated with $330bn and that was after the Tesla meltdown. Just prior, he had $436bn. Watch the link for a few minutes, it is fascinating. This link outlines the world’s richest by decade and how they made their money.

• I am a person who loves being outside and active every day. Fishing, surfing, golfing, padel, working out, riding a bike, gardening… I do not like sitting inside all day. This article, “America is becoming a nation of homebodies,” is concerning, and the data suggests we have been seeing a decline of time spent outside of the house for some time. Compared with 2003, Americans in 2019 spent nearly 30 minutes less per day on out-of-home activities and eight fewer minutes a day traveling. There could be any number of reasons for this shift, but advances in technology, whether it’s smartphones, streaming services or social media, are likely culprits. You can video chat with a friend rather than meeting them for coffee; order groceries through an app instead of venturing to the supermarket; and stream a movie instead of seeing it in a theater. Outside of travel, time spent on out-of-home activities fell by over an hour per day, on average, from 332 minutes in 2019 to 271 minutes in 2021. Travel, excluding air travel, fell from 69 to 54 minutes per day over the same period. But even after the pandemic lockdowns were lifted, out-of-home activities and travel through 2023 remained substantially depressed, far below 2019 levels.

• I felt this was related to the prior bullet. This MarketWatch story is entitled, “The U.S. has hit a new low in global happiness. Eating alone could be the culprit.” Roughly 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day in 2023 — up 53% since 2003. Living arrangements, technology, and workplace culture are nudging more Americans to eat their meals alone — and happiness researchers say this is having negative consequences that deserve greater attention. “The increasing number of people who eat alone is one reason for declining well-being in the United States,” according to Gallup’s latest ranking of global happiness. The United States ranks 24th in this year’s report, its lowest position since the report began in 2012. Finland ranked first for the eighth year in a row. Ron Levey attributes that fall partially to young people under the age of 30 who are feeling worse about their lives than they used to. “They’re feeling less supported by friends and family, less free to make life choices and less optimistic about their living standards,” she says. As the 2nd chart shows, young people in the US have seen their views deteriorate sharply in recent years. Confidence in government is plummeting in the US according to young people.

  

Politics

• Although Trump has had some wins (shutting the border, supporting Israel, securing new US-based investments, bringing manufacturing back to America, getting American hostages released, and more). I feel a lot of his agenda has been stalled by federal judicial district court injunctions. Trump has seen far more injunctions and lawsuits than his predecessors, as outlined in this article. The numbers are staggering. He was blocked from eliminating USAID, blocked from deporting illegal immigrant gang members, blocked from offering buyouts to federal workers, blocked from banning transgender troops, and more. There are nearly 700 federal district court judges across the country. Barack Obama and Joe Biden held the White House for 12 of the last 16 years. They appointed 72% of the federal district court judges during that 16-year span. My gut tells me Trump will win most of these in the end, but there will be delays to his agenda.

  

• Pentagon weighs major cuts to top of US military

  • I am of the view that EVERY organization in the federal government can afford cuts. Way too much waste. I would like to see more details and clear examples, but believe, there are savings to be had everywhere.

• USPS chief speaks out on four changes and warns post offices could DISAPPEAR after mass delays and disruptions

  • USPS lost almost $10bn last year, or a loss of $3bn more than in 2023. It is a poorly run organization that is in dire need of fixing. Make it private.

    

• Musk uses immigration and claims of voter fraud to sell Social Security Administration cuts

  • I do not believe this administration or any recent one has been aggressive enough on entitlement reform.

• EU delays implementing first retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods to middle of April

  • The chart below outlines the tariffs before Trump imposed new ones and shows how punitive our “partners” were towards the USA. I am supportive of reciprocal tariffs, but I’d prefer Trump to have a clear plan and follow through with it.

    

• IRS nears deal with ICE to share addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants

• Tax revenue could drop by 10 percent amid turmoil at IRS

  • Staff cuts and disruptions related to the U.S. DOGE Service have officials bracing for a sharp loss of revenue. IF this were true, it would be concerning as we are already running massive deficits. IRS collected $5.1bn last year.

• Energy Secretary Chris Wright says Trump push to produce more oil is driving down prices

  • I paid $2.69/gallon for gas this week in Florida. I feel gas has come down.

• Putin bombs energy plants hours after telling Trump he would halt attacks

  • How does Trump respond, if at all?

• Trump Freezes $175M of UPenn Funds Over Trans Women

• How Trump finally nailed illegal immigrant activist — touted by Time magazine — who used churches to evade ICE for years

• Man who had prison sentence commuted by Biden now facing drug, firearms-related charges

• ‘Buy Tesla,’ Commerce chief Lutnick urges as Musk leads DOGE for Trump administration

  • I do not feel the Commerce Secretary should be pushing a stock.

Middle East

• Israeli forces are retaking a key corridor that cuts Gaza in half

• Israel warns more to come as airstrikes kill over 400 in Gaza after two month truce

• Trump warns Yemen’s Houthis will be ‘completely annihilated’

• 40,000 Israelis protest Netanyahu’s return to war in Gaza and his plans to fire intel chief

• Dozens of Wikipedia editors colluded on years-long anti-Israel campaign, bombshell ADL report claims

• Columbia University makes policy changes in dispute over federal funding

  • Wait. Withholding $400mm in funding impacted outcomes?

• Iranian Academic Suspended by Yale for Alleged Terror Ties Vows to Fight ‘Fascist Dictatorship’ United States

  • Or you can move to Gaza or Iran and never come back. Read her bio.

• 46% of Adults Worldwide Hold Significant Antisemitic Beliefs, ADL Poll Finds

Other Headlines

• ‘Transitory’ is back as the Fed doesn’t expect tariffs to have long-lasting inflation impacts

  • I don’t think tariffs will stick around for a year. There’s some truth to what the Fed is saying, but I’ve pushed back before—I took the opposite view of the Fed and Treasury during the pandemic, and wrote several newsletters raising inflation concerns while their leadership wasn’t worried.

• DoubleLine’s Gundlach sees more risk coming along with greater chance of recession

  • The widely followed investor now sees a 50% to 60% chance of a recession.

• This Forecaster Called the Market Correction. Why He Sees Stocks Bouncing

• Moody’s Chief Mark Zandi Tells CNN Trump Is Tanking ‘Rip-Roaring Economy’ He Inherited — Headed For ‘Recession By Design’

• Tariff fears are raising construction costs by up to 20%, says Related Group CEO

• Jamie Dimon on tariffs, geopolitics—and the misery facing the bottom 20% of U.S. earners

• StubHub files for IPO as companies start lining up to go public

• Microsoft rallies in last 10 minutes of trading to avoid first eight-week losing streak since 2008

• Accenture is DOGE’s first corporate casualty as shares dive on warning that contracts will be cut

  

• Darden Restaurants sales disappoint as Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse miss expectations

• Nvidia’s Jensen Huang on why DeepSeek’s new model will need ‘100 times more computing’

• SoftBank to acquire chip designer Ampere in $6.5 billion deal

• Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion to group led by PE executive Bill Chisholm

• Heathrow Airport reopens after nearby fire — but travelers told to expect delays

  • Crazy disruptions of flights and subways. Need better backup plan.

• MTA threatens another ‘Summer of Hell’ of subway disruptions if NYC doesn’t cough up billions — as transit agency touts its ‘great service’

  • Let’s see. Take the NYC subway and have service disruptions while getting mugged, shot, stabbed, or beaten. Maybe that should be the new motto.

• 3 dead, more than a dozen injured in mass shooting at New Mexico park

• Kids Are Spending Too Much Class Time on Laptops

• Harvard Eliminates Tuition for Families Earning up to $200,000

• China’s BYD launches EV charging system it says works nearly as fast as a fill-up

• Albany to crime victims: Drop dead

  • In 2019, before the law, only 5% of cases prosecuted in NYC criminal court were dismissed because prosecutors couldn’t meet their compliance burden in time. But the new threshold is impossible to meet. Around 50,000 cases — nearly a third of the total — were dismissed because defense attorneys successfully claimed prosecutors hadn’t met the stupid and unattainable new definition of compliance. Here is another stupid example of the system getting to the wrong answer: Brutal NYC domestic violence case dismissed on a technicality — showing the insanity of discovery laws, prosecutors say.

• What the JFK assassination files have revealed so far — including apparent KGB probe into Lee Harvey Oswald

  • I have not seen anything earth-shattering but also have not spent hours going through stories. However, not all the files were released.

• The best flashlights in 2025, tried and tested

• There’s a Good Chance Your Kid Uses AI to Cheat

  • More students are hiding their secret weapon from parents and teachers, racking up top grades while AI chatbots do the work. More colleges are giving fewer essay writing assignments outside of class due to the prevalence of AI cheating. Of students who reported using AI, nearly 40% of those in middle and high schools said they employed it without teachers’ permission to complete assignments.

• US unveils sixth-generation F-47 fighter jet — name is an homage to Trump

Health

• Stress and trauma can change your DNA

• I got diagnosed with colon cancer at 44 — these were my 4 main symptoms

• Health trend could be causing more harm than good

  • Details on various supplements and vitamins. Worth a look.

• Three glasses of this drink a day can prevent dementia — it also fights heart disease and cancer

• Harvard expert: Use these 10 virtues to set ‘the stage for happiness to find you’

• ‘Father of biohacking’ warns Bryan Johnson against trying to ‘cheat death’

• The shocking things 286 days in space does to a human body

  • No, thank you. Read the list of ailments. They look like they aged 20 years.

• A Facelift at 35? Why Younger Women Are Going Under the Knife Now

Real Estate

• Since I moved to Florida in 2017, prices of homes have gone through the roof. Check out this 3,858 square foot home on 1/4 acre that was built in 1954. It sold for almost $9mm and is on the north end of Palm Beach Island. This article outlines key drivers of the insane Palm Beach real estate market.

• 41.8% of US homeowners who sought to refinance their mortgages have received an application rejection, the highest share in over 12 years. The percentage has QUADRUPLED since October 2023, according to the NY Fed. If consumers are pulling back on spending and lenders are following suit, it will have a large impact on the economy.

• I love the building 15 CPW in Manhattan and made the mistake of buying a co-op on Park Avenue rather than buying in in the building when I could have afforded it. However, the apartment that just sold for $34mm has the ugliest interiors and the pictures in this link show the ornate ceilings and walls. The building has an amazing gym, pool, valet parking, restaurant, concierge, and more. The building is a who’s who of famous bankers, traders, hedge fund managers, CEOs, and entertainers. The unit first hit the market at $65mm in 2023 and is 5,398 feet with four bedrooms and 3.5 baths.

• Crazy story in Phoenix where squatters took over a home and sold it for $200k without the owners knowing about it. “Squatters stole my house,” Turner said, still in disbelief. “They actually moved in, posed as me, and sold my house.”

• Young adults have been flocking to small towns and rural areas at the most dramatic pace in decades—and it's a trend that's not letting up anytime soon.

  Since the COVID-19 pandemic, internal migration took an unexpected turn with large numbers of younger adults aged 25 to 44 flocking to these areas. And as a result, they've been fueling a small-town revival. The 2023 county population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau in spring 2024 showed that since 2020, two-thirds of growth in the population occurred in areas with fewer than 1 million residents, or in rural counties. "Perhaps the most striking statistic within the 2023 age estimates is the fact that since 2020, the country’s small towns and rural areas have been attracting younger adults at the highest rate in nearly a century," writes Lombard.

  © 2025 The Rosen Report LLC. All rights reserved. Does not constitute investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult with your lawyers and professional financial advisers. Rosen Report™ #771 ©Copyright 2025 Written By Eric Rosen.