Wages, inequality, housing, generations and work.
112 articles · page 4 of 6
The stock market’s recent spike in extreme volatility produced good explanations about its fundamental and technical causes. Still, it failed to address the permanent, fundamental conflict that underlies the volatility: the possible shift in political-economic power between and the deep-rooted conflict between business and labor, Wall Street and Main Street.
Of all the commentaries about the fast-breaking allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace, few people have discussed how this will affect future workplace behavior. If the outcry continues to be intense, the future workplace for men and women working together will be very different. So, as many companies start their annual holiday…
Is buying in a country club a good investment, an ego trip, or a way to become a member of an adult Disneyland? It may not be all three of these choices. The once-coveted dream of owning a home in a county club was a dream for millions of Americans. But now, this lifelong…
For highly trained and well-compensated financial experts who routinely delve into the outer limits of stochastic calculus, Black Scholes, and Finite Difference Method techniques of numerical options pricing, Wall Street does a lousy job of gauging public opinion. Like most people who have to give self-evaluations and the old saw…
Fidelity National Title Group, a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial, the largest title insurer in the world, has issued an underwriting bulletin to its agents in 28 states not to insure any land used “for the production or distribution of marijuana.” According to the memo issued June 29, 2017, by Fidelity National…
Robotics, automation, globalization, Uber, and gig economies have all captured the attention of anyone planning a career or life over the next decades, but what is missing is the link between these new definitions of work and what happens when work ends. It would be logical to assume that any fundamental change in the…
It looks like it’s official: The consumer purchasing frenzy is slowing down, and auto sales are among the biggest victims. According to Yahoo News, auto lending is slowing down after eight years of strong sales as missed payments rise. That’s partly because, as Business Insider’s Frank Chaparro recently detailed, subprime loans to people with…
For a much-needed parody about the failure of corporate capitalism, check out this article in the Monthy Review. If you don’t think unregulated corporate capitalism has a lot of problems, how do you explain the sad fact that Trump became a billionaire? This is a clever, much-needed light parody about the danger of unregulated,…
Many veteran political observers say they cannot recognize the Republican Party that elected Donald Trump. They should not be surprised. The reason is that it is not the Republican Party. It is the party of the John Birch Society, which morphed into the far-right Libertarian Party. This is why veteran Republicans, such as Dwight…
Face it: Financial planning in the Trump world hinges on politics, not investing. This makes it more critical than ever for people providing financial advice to tell clients about the implications of political decisions made in Washington and less about the basics of investing. Everyone has heard of the $26 billion-a-year fantasy football leagues.
The financial media operates 24 hours a day, and despite the proliferation of company, market, and economic news and endless commentary, financial journalists avoid discussing the biggest financial crisis facing every American: the retirement crisis. Politicians don’t want us to talk about it since this is the ultimate form of bad news for working…
Most Americans don’t know about the political philosophy of neoliberalism, but they would recognize its main ideas since MAGA Republicans promote them every day in Washington. Since it re-emerged after World War II, neoliberalism (the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism), the political philosophy immediately attracted the attention of the right-wing…
People planning for retirement, along with financial professionals who do retirement planning, should incorporate the risk of medical bankruptcies into contingencies as the Trump administration moves to shift more medical treatment costs to individuals as part of their new conservative policy regime. Bankruptcies due to medical costs are widely cited as being the greatest cause…
For decades, investment professionals have focused on wealth management, trading, selling funds products and 401(k)s, but there has always been one glaring omission: These same professionals have intentionally avoided the millions of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck and have no savings. And since they are unable to participate in the investment game and generate…
In an earlier post on this site, the case was made that the American public was outraged that no one went to jail for the systematic housing fraud that happened starting in 2005 and precipitated the worst recession since the Great Depression. The resulting recession wiped out over a trillion dollars in housing…
The long arm of revenge has finally been felt by the Democrat Party. This is because the ongoing autopsy of the 2016 presidential election will find many real culprits, including the Democratic National Committee’s efforts to derail Bernie Sanders and bad campaign decisions by Clinton, but the festering one is that the 2007 housing…
The TError management Theory may be the best explanation for the MAGA movement One reason the current presidential election campaigning has brought out the worst in American politics and journalism and focused extreme attention on the deficiencies of the nation’s justice and economic systems is undoubtedly the rise of the Tea Party, the 2007 recession,…
Every financial advisor dreams of a future when their expanding practice includes a large number of wealthy, retiring clients having portfolios north of $500,000. But it’s time for a reality check. That is not going to happen because more new jobs don’t pay much, and worse, even people with 401(k)s are highly skewed in their…
If there is a winner of the upcoming Power Ball Lottery, they could end up winning over $1.4 billion. And accompanying this once-in-a-lifetime bonanza will be a tax bite that could run as high as $400 million, depending on how the payout is taken, as well as other considerations, such as the winner’s home state…
While it’s not politically correct, here is something for political pundits to ponder: Are the Republicans trying to finish what bin Laden started? In a 2004 video message, Osama bin Laden boasted about leading America to a path of self-destruction, in an interview with Ted Koppel, the former managing editor of ABC’s “Nightline.” In the…
