locally grown

My guest today is American entrepreneur and politician, Christopher Collins. Chris served as the U.S. representative for New York's 27th congressional district (Buffalo NY area) from 2013 until 2019. Prior to his time in Congress, he ran for Erie County Executive in 2007 on a platform of smaller county government, lower taxes and operating efficiency and he defeated the Democrat incumbent with 63% of the vote in a county with 140,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Quite an accomplishment.

Unlike many of our elected representatives in our 3-tier constitutional republic, Chris was a successful entrepreneur and business guy long before he ran for public office. That means he built something of value to society that employed others in our free enterprise system. After earning his BS in Mechanical Engineering and MBA, Chris started his career as a mechanical engineer at Westinghouse Electric. In 1983, Westinghouse spun off their gear division, and Chris rose to be CEO of the Nuttall Gear Corporation located in Niagara Falls, New York. In 1997, Collins sold Nuttall to Colfax Corporation.

Chris moved to Florida a couple years ago and he and his wife, Mary, have three children and three grandchildren. Full disclosure: Chris’ younger brother Ted and I were fraternity brothers at Syracuse University.

Welcome to the Locally Grown Podcast Chris Collins.

Laz Lopez joins me today to tell his family's story of escaping communist Cuba and achieving the American Dream as a successful business owner in the U.S. In these challenging times, it's just the reminder we need about how precious and tenuous our American freedom really is.

Elon Musk recently labeled NPR and PBS as “government-funded media” on Twitter, angering both organizations. Is he right, and does it matter anyway?

For many years, I supported PBS and NPR financially. I just loved their music, movies and documentaries and their news and opinion programs, that while left leaning, were conducted in a civil tone. They at least made token attempts to cover both sides of a debate but things have changed and they are now peddling activism as journalism.  Listen as I unpack this for you in great fact-based detail.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”  

63 years ago, a great American, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called out injustice and held America accountable to its constitutional principles. Now there’s a new ideology permeating all corners of our society that demands we judge “not by the content of character, but by the color of skin.” 

For those of you who have been listening to my podcast and reading my blogs, you know that I periodically focus on making a stronger more sustainable you, by bringing in interesting, smart guests who can help you make money. Last year I had Whitney Tilson to help you align your investments with the macro-trends he sees in the world.  This week I am continuing that effort focusing on you, albeit from maybe a little different direction. My guest, Lyn Alden’s investment service, was introduced to me a really smart friend of mine, Dave Baggett who was also a guest on this show.

Lyn’s background lies in the intersection of engineering and finance. What a great combination. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management, with a focus on economics and financial modeling. She has been doing investment research for over fifteen years in various public and private capacities. Her work has been featured in Business Insider, Marketwatch, The Daily Telegraph, The Street, CNBC, US News and World Report, Seeking Alpha, Kiplinger and many other media outlets. You can subscribe to Lyn’s newsletter for free at www.lynalden.com, which is how I got started. This led to me joining her very reasonably priced premium membership, where I get access to her model portfolios and proprietary investment research. 

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