While the rest of the world sends visitors here to blow their minds with Buk-ee, I’m reminded of something I’ve believed for 47 years.
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In September 1989, Boris Yeltsin came to America.
At the time, he was a rising political figure within the Soviet Union – a reformer who was beginning to question the system he had spent his life serving. He later became the first president of Russia.
The trip was part diplomacy, part public relations, and part fact-finding mission. Yeltsin toured the country, met with officials, and saw the polished version of American power.
But the moment that sticks with him didn’t happen in Washington, D.C
It happened at a grocery store in suburban Houston.
After visiting NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Yeltsin and his entourage made an unscheduled stop at Randall’s Supermarket in the Houston suburb of Webster, Texas. The visit only lasted about 20 minutes, but it left a deep impression.
Saw the meat counter. Product. Frozen foods. Endless shelves. Choices. The sheer abundance of ordinary American life.
Credit: Houston Chronicle
This was not the village of Potemkin. It was not a private store for party officials or the privileged elite. It was not a dog and pony show for foreign visitors.
It was a supermarket where ordinary Americans bought milk, bread, beef, and grains.
One of Yeltsin’s aides later said that the last vestiges of Bolshevism collapsed inside him after that visit.
In hindsight, that grocery store visit seems like a small scene in a much larger breakdown.
Two months later, the Berlin Wall finally fell.
Not long afterward, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, and the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time.
The world is taking another look at America
For decades, some of the smartest people in the world believed that the Soviet Union might catch up with America. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson even predicted that the Soviet Union could reach economic parity with the United States by the late 1980s or 1990s.
The experts had their models. All Yeltsin needed was a grocery store.
Fast forward to today, something similar is happening.
As the World Cup brought fans from around the world to the United States, social media was filled with videos of foreign visitors enjoying their own “Yeltsin moments.”
Only this time, it’s European soccer fans walking into a Bucs restaurant and trying to get around a gas station with 100 pumps, clean bathrooms, barbecue sandwiches, and acres of snacks.
It’s visitors who wander past Bass Pro Shops and realize that what Americans call a “shop” can include boats, aquariums, waterfalls, fishing gear and enough outdoor gear to outfit a small army.
It’s the people who post videos of Chick-fil-A sandwiches being served by polite young workers. It’s the American suburbs filled with homes that seem enormous compared to what many people abroad are accustomed to.
Some of this is funny. Some of it is culture shock. But there is a dangerous point underneath.
Many of these visitors were sold a very different story about America. They are told that this country is broken, angry, poor, dangerous, and broken. Then they get here, visit our restaurants, walk into our stores, drive through our suburbs, and see the truth with their own eyes.
America is not perfect. Far from it. We have a lot of things to fix.
But the story many people tell about America is a lie. Sadly, a lot of Americans bought it too. They are told every day that their neighbors hate them, that the country is hopelessly divided, and that the American dream is dead.
I don’t believe it for a second.
We are not as divided as the media makes us seem. We are not as weak as our critics would have us believe.
Advantage of the American investor
America’s daily abundance continues to shock people who did not grow up with it, because this abundance is no mere coincidence. It is the result of a system that has spent 250 years rewarding risk-taking, competition, creativity, capital formation, and entrepreneurship.
That’s why I love this country. That’s why I love being an American investor.
We don’t just live within this system. We get to own pieces of it.
The United States is home to about 4% of the world’s population, yet we account for more than 26% of the world’s GDP. Even more impressive is that America accounts for about 43% of the world’s total stock market value.
We have the deepest, most dynamic, and most valuable stock market on Earth.
Our companies are building the next generation of microchips, data centers, energy systems, software, medical discovery, defense technology, robotics, logistics networks, and financial platforms.
You can’t just watch America’s growth machine from the sidelines, people. You can own a share in it.
And for a long period of US history, this was one of the smartest things you could do.
Yes, there have been scary times: wars, recessions, inflation, bear markets, banking crises, terrorist attacks, and pandemics. Every generation has its own reasons to believe that the American growth story is over.
But time and again America adapts, recovers, and moves upward.
This is why, in the long term, you can buy dips in America. a period.
When the best companies in the United States collapse due to fear, headlines, or temporary profit-taking, history says those moments can create some of the best buying opportunities you will ever see.
Don’t let the bears fool you
Take, for example, the recent volatility in AI-related stocks.
The usual bears are back on TV. People like famous British investor Jeremy Grantham were claiming that this was the “most expensive market in history”, warning of a 70% collapse.
This is just nonsense.
A lot of these negative comments come from Europe before the American media parrots them. I don’t think that’s a coincidence… especially when it comes to artificial intelligence.
The truth is that Europe has fallen behind in the AI race. The United States did not do that.
Some of the loudest critics seem less like objective analysts and more like people who envy American leadership. So, instead of celebrating prosperity, they complain about it.
But the numbers tell the real story.
The AI boom is not just hype. S&P 500 earnings for the first quarter of 2026 rose nearly 28% year over year. FactSet now estimates that earnings will grow 23% in the second quarter — and 24% for the full year.
Analysts routinely underestimate earnings estimates, so the real number is likely higher. This is amazing, people.
The AI building behind much of this boom has been enormous. The four largest scalers alone are expected to spend approx 725 billion dollars on AI infrastructure this year.
This shows up in real orders, real backlogs and real revenues.
Vertif Holding company (VRT), which provides power and cooling systems for data centers, is said to have a backlog of $15 billion. GE Vernova Company(Jeff) Gas turbine backlog reached 100 GW in the first quarter. Oracle Corporation (ORCL) has remaining performance obligations of approx $638 billion On his books.
By the time all is said and done, Goldman Sachs believes total spending on AI will reach this point $7.6 trillion Between 2026 and 2031.
That’s why I still believe the best AI and data center infrastructure stocks see big buys on big dips.
The center of this prosperity is not Europe. It’s not China. It is not a command and control economy where ordinary people are not allowed to participate.
It’s America.
So, as we head into the Fourth of July weekend, I want you to enjoy celebrating America’s 250th birthday. Enjoy the fireworks. Enjoy cooking outside. Enjoy the fact that people from all over the world come here and see what many Americans have forgotten.
The United States is an economic oasis. The best way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday is not just by watching fireworks. It’s owning a piece of what makes this country worth celebrating.
Find the next wave of AI winners
Right now, the AI boom is creating one of the biggest opportunities we’re likely to see in our lifetime. That’s why I want to help you find the truth AI shares now.
I’m not talking about the obvious names that everyone already hears about on CNBC or sees on every AI-generated list. And I’m talking about the next wave of AI winners – companies that are quietly supplying the chips, memory, cooling, power, storage, software, and infrastructure that makes AI possible.
This is exactly what My stock picking system It was designed to do.
For 47 years, I’ve studied the numbers that matter most: sales growth, earnings growth, analyst reviews, and institutional buying pressure. My system helps me track where real money is moving before most investors hear the names.
In my last private briefingI’m revealing a group of AI-related stocks that I believe could rise 100% or more over the next six to 12 months. I’ll also give you my #1 stock token that you can buy now – for free.
sincerely,
Louis Navellier
editor, Market 360
The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor owns, directly or indirectly, the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations contained in the article described below, or otherwise mentioned:
