Thoughts {World Series Edition}

{Photo shot from my seat at Progressive Field, Cleveland Ohio, World Series Game Two.  This is early in the game.  Thanks to my buddy Patrick for inviting me and having such great seats!}

So Tuesday morning a buddy calls me and asks if I can make it to Cleveland by 3:00 PM EST, Wednesday.  If so I have a ticket for Game 2 of the World Series between the Cubs and Cleveland Indians.   Needless-to-say I cleared the deck for that.  Here's my observation after spending thirteen hours driving across northern Indiana & Ohio and spending about a day in Cleveland.

Cubs won the game 5-1 to even the series.  Cubs bats came alive in this game and took Cleveland out of it early.  They started the game an hour early as rain was predicted.  It started spitting rain in the 7th inning and really came down right after the game was over.  It was cold, that wet cold you find in the Great Lakes region of the midwest late in the fall after we've had a day or so of rain.  High humidity and rain soaked conditions with temps in the low 40's makes for miserable weather conditions.  We were out there for about four hours.  Obviously the pain was worth it to watch the Cubs win!

People from Cleveland have to be some of the nicest and most gracious folks I've run into in some time.

If these old "rust belt" cities were stocks I'd buy an entire portfolio of them.  The cost of living in these places is much lower than other parts of the country and in many of these towns good things are happening under the hood.  Cleveland seems to have some nice things going for it right now.

The economies of Northern Ohio and Indiana seem to be doing pretty well right now as well.

If the political sign factor means anything then Mrs. Clinton would be in trouble as I never saw a campaign sign for Hillary along the Indiana/Ohio toll roads.  The good thing for her is there's not a lot of people that live in these rural areas.  My guess is she's going to do well in the Indiana toll road cities of Ft. Wayne & South Bend and the Ohio cities of Toledo & Cleveland.  More than enough votes there to offset the countryside.

If you want something healthy along these roads then find a Starbucks* and buy one of their sandwiches.  These beat the standard burger and pizza fare you find in most rest stops.

Finally on an investment note I just saw a print that US GDP grew at a 2.9% rate in the 3rd quarter.  I've not had a chance to plow through that number yet but first read is that's a really good result and can be chalked up firmly into the "Things are Getting Better" file.

Back Monday.

*Starbucks is a component of several ETFs we own in client and in personal accounts.