Despite this new age of video games, electronic toys, and diminishing attention spans, children are returning to a toy that is almost as old as me. Mattel’s Barbie doll is back and at the top of many holiday shopping lists. Some of the credit for Barbie’s new-found popularity can be attributed to the pandemic. The lockdowns and the subsequent search for things to keep children occupied had mothers remembering their own fascination with all-things Barbie. Buying a Barbie, however (at least until recently), had parents wrestling with several negative stereotypes. Leading the list was the doll’s image of a whites-only…
Insights & Advice
General Interest
How to save money with tax-gain harvesting
Tax-gain harvesting is an opportunity to convert a long-term taxable gain into a potentially tax-free cost basis. Readers are probably familiar with tax-loss harvesting. Tax-loss harvesting is a form of tax planning. It’s the process of selling some investments at a loss, usually to offset gains you’ve realized when selling other assets at a profit. The losses can offset the gains, thereby reducing your tax bill. As the owner of a financial advisory firm (Berkshire Money Management), tax-loss selling is not an unfamiliar practice to me. Not only do I appreciate it because it reduces tax obligations, but I like…
Golf continues to grow
In 2020, during the midst of the pandemic, golf made a comeback. More than 24.8 million people discovered outdoor refuge on the links last year, and the popularity of the sport continues to grow. Golf, as many have discovered, is an outdoor activity that has proven to be an almost perfect answer to the limitations of the pandemic. Players can get outside, exercise, and at the same time, socially distance themselves from one another. Last year, the U.S. saw the largest increase in golfers (2%) in 17 years. This year, the number of rounds played was up 16.1%, compared to…
Markets are on the cusp
It was another tumultuous week in the markets. Volatility spiked as events in Washington and around the world injected an atmosphere of caution and indecision among investors. I expect more of the same. Welcome to October. A month in which I see a continuation of the last few weeks of uncertainty. The political circus in Washington, D.C. is not helping, and is set to continue making headlines in the days ahead. The debt limit controversary is probably the largest challenge investors face this month. Simultaneously, the battle between progressive and moderate Democrats over the passage of two government spending programs,…
Are mandatory vaccinations legal?
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the broadest measure of economic growth. The U.S. GDP grew 6.4% in the previous quarter. By any standards, that’s a remarkable growth rate. GDP for this quarter has dropped precipitously to a forecasted rate of 3.7%. At the start of the quarter, there were growth expectations of 6.5% from Oxford Economics and Morgan Stanley. Typically, a 3.7% growth rate would be considered exceptional. However, measuring a $21 trillion economy is complicated and includes some mathematical estimates. I won’t run us through the calculation, but here’s the gist of it: the demand had been so significant that…
When doves cry
“How could you just leave me standing, alone in a world so cold?” —Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to Congress (and Prince) Last week I wrote about the probability of two separate bills passing into law. The total spending approaches $5 trillion. Whether you are for or against the bills, there is no denying that it’s a massive amount. I didn’t get into whether I think they’re good ideas. And I don’t think I will today. The politics of each component are nuanced. Many are politically charged. The two bills are both being called “infrastructure” bills. Still, many people are quick…
Non-fungible tokens come of age
NFTs are digital assets. For those like me, who are old enough to be grandparents, and may still read the newspapers, the concept of a digital asset may not be all that intuitive. “Non-fungible” means that it is a unique asset that can’t be replaced with something else. NFTs are bought and sold online (usually with a cryptocurrency), and stored and encoded in the same way. The difference is that cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are fungible and can be traded, or replaced, with another bitcoin. These digital assets can include everything from original art, videos, and music, as well as…
McConnell praises Biden
“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together … mass hysteria!” —Dr. Peter Venkman In a surreal turn of events, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–KY) praised President Biden (D) for his role in getting the Senate to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. The legislation is called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (aka The Act). Keep in mind, McConnell had previously been vocal about stopping the Biden administration’s agenda. But infrastructure spending is typically favored by both sides of the political aisle. Talk of a bipartisan infrastructure deal has been occurring for years. It’s closer to law than it’s ever been before….
Corporate activism comes of age
For decades, corporations stuck to their knitting, while letting Washington and American voters decide how to deal with social and political issues. But times are changing as companies become bigger and more powerful. Corporations are speaking out on issues from LGBTQ+ rights to gun control. To some politicians, managements and their boards are throwing their weight around in ways that make elected officials uncomfortable. At first, I dismissed much of their actions as simply rhetoric, or just good public relations, but more companies are speaking out—frequently—on many issues. Take the gun control issue. U.S. politicians on both sides of the…
The back-to-school season
It is not an easy decision. On one hand, consumers want to go out and shop for their children’s upcoming school year. But at the same time, they are concerned that if they do, they might catch the coronavirus. There is no easy answer. The 2021-2022 school year was supposed to usher in a new beginning. As such, retailers are still expecting sales of clothes, school supplies, and college dorm décor items to increase by 5.5% from last year’s depressed Covid-levels. Even so, that still won’t match 2019’s 6.7% increase, but it is getting close, or was until the Delta…
Buy now. Pay later.
When does a loan not feel like a loan? That is the idea behind one of the more exciting new concepts being floated by the financial technology community. It is an idea that is just catching on here in the U.S., but it could challenge traditional credit cards over time. Are you really going into debt when you buy something and pay it off in a set number of installments? Technically, yes, but it doesn’t feel that way, especially if you are paying 0% interest on the installments. That’s evidently what Square, a leading financial service, digital payments company believes…
What’s that smell?
Imagine opening your laptop or cell phone and catching a whiff of your favorite perfume. Scroll back to last summer’s Maine vacation photos and smell the pine forest at your campsite. Digital scent technology can make that happen sooner than you think. Digital scent technology, also called olfactory technology, is an engineering discipline that enables media, such as video games, movies, music and web pages, to sense, transmit, and receive scent-enabled content. Simply put, the day when you can smell through the internet is almost upon us. The market is tiny right now, with less than $20 million in sales,…
The movies return
The Memorial Day weekend launched the unofficial beginning of the summer season. Movie owners are holding their breath in hopes that consumers, once vaccinated, may start to return to the cinema. Is it a false hope? Much has been written about the demise of the movie theater, even before the world was ravaged by the Coronavirus Pandemic. Sky high prices for tickets and the exorbitant costs of concessionary items like $8 bottles of water and $15 baskets of popcorn had made the movie-going experience almost as costly as a rock concert. At the same time, consumers were being offered the…
The carbon market comes of age
At the beginning of this year, the global price of carbon was $24.05 per ton of CO2. In order to achieve the emissions reduction goals of members of the Paris Agreement, prices need to reach a range of $50-$100 per ton of CO2. That makes buying carbon an attractive investment.The ongoing concerns about climate change have spawned several emission trading schemes over the last decade. The reasoning is simple: if left unchecked, carbon emissions (among other factors) will have a material impact on our environment and will do severe damage to the global economy.The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol of…
Fed puts markets on notice while crypto crashes
It had to happen at some point with economic growth spiking as high as it has, and inflation beginning to creep up. Investors should have expected the Fed to think about a change in policy. This week, we had our first mention of the dreaded “T” word. T is for taper and in the minutes of the Fed’s April FOMC meeting released on Wednesday, the entire financial community jumped on just one phrase: “it might be appropriate at some point” to consider tapering asset purchases if the economy shows “rapid progress.” In other words, the Fed is signaling that they…
Gold regains its mojo
In inflationary environments, investors historically have hedged their bets by buying gold. However, this time around, the precious metal has languished as investors bought alternative investments. But times are changing. The primary alternative to buying gold has been cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and Ethereum, two of my 2021 buy recommendations (for those with a strong stomach) have enjoyed spectacular gains in 2021. Bitcoin, at one point in May, had gained almost 100%, while Ethereum saw gains of more than 400%. In addition, other commodities held more interest than gold for most investors. In January 2021, I recommended investors focus on some specific…