Taxes Up (but not so much as you might think…) If you think taxes are higher than their historical rates, well, it depends on how far back in history you’re comparing them to. Take a look at the accompanying chart, which shows tax revenue as a percent of total national income for four countries—France, Sweden, […]
The Anti-Trump Fund to Watch You can go to Las Vegas and bet on the U.S. election, or make a side bet with your friends. Or you can buy an ETF. Say what? Professional investors have noticed that the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (ticker: EWW), an ETF that focuses its investments in Mexican stocks, […]
2016 Third Quarter Report The Bull Continues… 100 days after the Brexit scare, three quarters of a year after the most recent Fed rate hike, the markets once again confounded the instincts of nervous investors and went up instead of down. Last week, Fed Chairperson Janet Yellen told the world that the U.S. economy is […]
Chances are you’ve felt a bit discouraged by the global warning reports. On the one hand, they say that our world is in for trouble unless we make significant changes in how our global economy produces the energy it needs to function. On the other, they tell us that even if we shift totally over […]
Remember Brexit? Of course you do. Many short-term traders thought the sky was falling when British voters unexpectedly decided to opt their country out of the European Union. But the process of extricating the British economy from the complexities of European membership has been deliberate and thoughtful—on both sides. Recently, the UK’s new Brexit […]
Inventorying Your Possessions Nearly 60 percent of Americans do not have a home inventory of their possessions, and of those that do, 48 percent do not have any receipts evidencing their value.¹ It’s great to have insurance against damage and loss, but if you can’t show proof of your possessions, it may result in a […]
Everybody should have a power of attorney—that is, a legal document that gives a designated individual the right to act on their behalf when making financial decisions. The power of attorney is most often used by adult children to make decisions on behalf of aging parents when they are no longer capable of making sound […]
The White House Council of Economic Advisers has released a report showing a long-term decline in the share of American men ages 25-54 who are participating in the labor force (see first chart), to the point where the U.S. now has one of the lowest male labor force participation rates in the world (see second […]
The joke among futurists is that flying cars are 20 years in the future and always will be. But a company called AeroMobil has recently demonstrated an elongated, road-ready flying vehicle with stowable wings that can navigate both city traffic and the airspace between landings and take-offs from the world’s airports. Meanwhile, a company called […]
Do plants respond to your touch? Do they feel or enjoy music or your singing voice? The answers, according to new research conducted at the University of Western Australia, are yes and no. Lead researcher Olivier Van Aken says that plants rapidly respond when you pinch a flower, step on them or just brush by […]
