Today, we have about 4,000 publicly traded companies in the U.S. stock market and, according to the World Bank, nearly 40,000 companies around the globe, each with their own destiny in an ever-changing world. How can we identify the stocks that are likely to grow and prosper in the coming years so that our financial accounts will as well?

Let’s say you’re visiting Fisherman’s Wharf here in San Francisco, and I, a stranger, gently accost you to ask, “Would you rather have a container ship or a speed boat?”

People move to California for the climate, the mountains, and the sea, not for the earthquakes. There are about fifty quakes a day around the state, but the big ones are far enough apart that they always come as a surprise.

Microwave ovens, color t.v.’s, and a cabinet stereo in the living room. Computer chips, LED lights, commercial satellites, and a precursor to the Internet. Name the decade that brought these things to life. It was the 1960’s, a golden age of electronics.