Fire in a Crowded Theater Yesterday’s market declines—the Dow down 3.15%, the S&P 500 down 3.29% and tech stocks, as represented by the Nasdaq index, off 4.08%–were entirely within the normal range of mini corrections, which we’ve experienced numerous times since March 9, 2009. But they represent an interesting test of character for the press […]
2018 Third Quarter Market Report If you believe that the trend is your friend, then perhaps the U.S. stock market is in for an excellent fourth quarter. U.S. equity markets suffered small losses in the first quarter, followed by decent single-digit gains in the second quarter. Now that the third quarter is in the books, […]
The New Manufacturing We hear about how artificial intelligence is going to change the workforce, and how computers are taking over the world. But perhaps the biggest shift in our industrial lives has been flying under the radar: rather than making things, we will soon be “printing” them. A new “metal printing press” developed by […]
What High-Achieving People Have Learned to Give Up High-achieving people will tell you that they sacrificed to get where they are, but what, exactly, did they sacrifice? An article in Forbes magazine lists 18 things that high-achieving people routinely give up—and many of them are not what you would expect. Number one on the list: […]
The Uneven Recovery of Americans After the Great Recession One of the consistent themes we’ve been hearing in the political arena is that the economy and stock markets are doing very well, and that we’ve finally recovered from the Great Recession. But recovery to market highs and the personal recovery from the losses experienced during […]
Beware the Bears If you’ve been paying attention to the financial news lately, you’re probably seeing a lot of ominous predictions—and they’re usually backed up by some ominous headline. The most simplistic are saying that the bull market has now lasted ten years, so therefore it’s about to come to an end—as if bull markets […]
New Tech, New Jobs It’s interesting to watch economists and tech prognosticators go back and forth over whether artificial intelligence, robots and other thinking machines will kill or create jobs. Most recently, the McKinsey Global Institute and India’s Tata Communications have come out with reports that are more optimistic about our ability to earn a […]
Withholding Tempest in a Teapot Chances are, you’ve read an article recently telling you to be careful about the withholding in your paycheck, to make sure your employer (assuming you have one) is taking out enough money so that you won’t have a big tax obligation come April. This is the result of a big […]
Generational Financial Divide If some random person off the street handed you $10,000 in cash, no strings attached, and would pay the taxes on this windfall, what would you do with it? Researchers asked this question of people who they categorized in the Millennial generation (age 18-34), Generation Xers (age 35-54) and Baby Boomers (over […]
The Irreplaceable Formula A roundtable of prominent CEOs was asked an intriguing question: what makes an irreplaceable employee? How would you describe this person? You might think their answer would cite extraordinary skills, a great educational background or industry certifications. But instead, the CEOs listed three different attributes: A drama-free personality. The idea here is […]
