New cyber attacks are hitting businesses and governments around the world each day. Every time a new technology is created, such as the cloud, the Internet of Things, and big data platforms, they expand the possibilities of human endeavor, but also create new avenues for criminals to exploit in their efforts to cause damage, coerce cooperation, or simply steal money or secrets. In a wide ranging paper embedded below, Hewlett-Packard explains the State of Security Operations today. In it, HP examines regional trends in security, the differences in approach between small businesses and large … [Read more...]
Is This Solving the Pension Problem?
How many consultants do pensions really need? It's a pretty simple problem: Pensions are underfunded and are dependent on unrealistic future returns. That's not stopping the independent reviews. This from the Boston Globe: The pension fund has been in a period of upheaval since December 2013, when it was revealed that it had lost $25 million in a bankrupt hedge fund whose troubles it had failed to disclose for more than two years. Since then, Governor Charlie Baker has named three new “management” trustees to the fund’s board and has signed a new public records law that requires the … [Read more...]
You’ll Be Surprised When You See Amazon’s Astonishing Job Plans
On our drive to New Hampshire we pass by an Amazon fulfillment center in Fall River, MA. The time it takes to drive the length of the building, going 65 mph, is breathtaking. I’ve never seen a larger warehouse with so many truck bays. And now Amazon is looking for office space in Boston to host some of the 100,000 new jobs it plans on adding over the next 18 months. The Boston Globe reports Amazon's strategy in Bean Town. Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that it plans to add 100,000 jobs nationwide over the next 18 months. And it sounds like that could include a big expansion into Boston. The … [Read more...]
Can One Man Smash the Business Roadblocks in Teetering Illinois?
With the recent passage of a Right to Work law in Kentucky, Illinois is nearly surrounded by states with such laws. Only Missouri, far away from Chicago, the industrial heart of Illinois, remains a union state. With at least five Right to Work bills working their way through the Missouri legislature and headed toward the state’s newly elected Republican governor, it’s likely that soon Illinois will be an anti-business island in a sea of pro-business states. Additionally, three of Illinois’ neighboring states have lower corporate income tax rates. Today Illinois demands 7.75% from its … [Read more...]
Would You Trust your Money with “The Mooch”?
Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital and the SALT conference is an adviser to the Trump administration. He has promised to repeal the Department of Labor rule forcing brokerages to act as fiduciaries for retirement account investors. If you’re uneasy about the appointment of “The Mooch,” make sure you’re doing business with a boutique investment counsel service such as Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., that is held to higher fiduciary standard (read more about this crucial investor protection here, here and here). Brian Hershberg of The Wall Street Journal details … [Read more...]
This is What Happens When a Few Massive Companies Outweigh the Others
You need perspective in this market, especially when it seems like everyone is doing the same thing. One way to gain it is to work on a tree lined street in Newport, RI. Here in January when it’s 18 degrees, the constant wind brings new meaning to the task of "asset protection." It’s a stark contrast to the glitzy lobbies of NYC with their boutiques selling cold pressed coffee or flavored lattes. That sounds pretty nice right about now. Life has a way of giving you perspective whether you like it or not. Here’s my perspective on indexing and the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is a market cap … [Read more...]
Once Frightened Boomers are Now in a Hurry for Retirement
During the years following the financial crisis Baby Boomers held on to their jobs. Either loath to abandon their good pay or to draw from their beaten down savings, they delayed retirement. Now, perhaps emboldened by the stock market hitting new highs, Boomers are more inclined to head for the exits. Bloomberg reports that 800,000 Boomers opted to retire in the fourth quarter of 2016. For more than five years, the six-month trend for this figure — a significant demographic source of downward pressure on the headline labor force participation rate — had been heading higher, before plateauing … [Read more...]
January 2017 RAGE Gauge Surprise
The numbers are in and my January RAGE Gauge has never looked better, with a reading of Neutral. This is not a stock market indicator, far from it, stocks are not cheap. It is a pulse of the social, political and economic landscape using a proprietary method I’ve devised and tweaked over time. I use it as a back-of-a-napkin snapshot to give me a feel for the current landscape. One component I like to use is background checks, a barometer for final handgun sales, and a measure of fear. The December reading is the first since April 2014 that didn’t produce a record high for its month. This … [Read more...]
To Me There Isn’t a Better Way to Live
Over the Christmas break we were up in Bartlett, NH skiing where, in between time on the slopes, I read the book Tracking the Wild Coomba by Robert Cocuzzo about the life of the late “frontier” skier Doug Coombs. I say “frontier” because Coombs hated the word “extreme.” To him, that meant risk, and he spent his career teaching his ski clients how to reduce risk in their craft. Coombs first experienced big mountain skiing at Mt. Washington’s Tuckerman Ravine, not far from our cabin. He would spend weekends camping at the base, working his craft each day. From there he went to Montana State … [Read more...]
Hedge Funds turn Frugal after Years Long Crisis Nightmare
After years of playing the markets like casinos, hedge funds are facing pressure from clients to avoid risk. After a number of recent failures (read here, here and here), this pressure has increased. This pressure hasn't gone over well with some managers who are fighting back, while others are accommodating their new clients. Laurence Fletcher writes at The Wall Street Journal. An industry once known for maverick traders and huge profits—from George Soros’s $1 billion profit betting against the pound in 1992 to John Paulson’s $15 billion profit from U.S. subprime mortgages—faces a … [Read more...]
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