With Christmas nearly here, many parents and grandparents are scrambling for the last minute gifts and stocking-stuffers to delight the kids in their lives. There's nothing better than seeing the wonder in children's eyes as they unwrap a present, but there's another gift you can give your children or grandchildren that will be just as powerful. Passing on wealth to your children or grandchildren for college, a down-payment on their first home, or for other reasons can be a powerful kick-start to their lives. I suggest using UGMAs to accomplish your wealth transfer. Here's what Fidelity has … [Read more...]
Despite its High Taxes, Connecticut Can’t Pay its Bills
Despite some of America's highest taxes, and despite being America's wealthiest state, Connecticut can't seem to pay its bills without breaking into its rainy day fund. Such raids on state savings are rare, and usually happen in states reliant on commodity royalties for revenue. When commodity prices tank, those states have a hard time making up the difference. Connecticut is a well rounded economy, with a heavy dose of the finance business located in its South Western corner, and the insurance capital of America, Hartford, dead center. The state isn't suffering from a wild swing in a … [Read more...]
New Shepard and Crew Capsule 2.0 Advance Blue Origin in the Modern Space Race
On December 12, Blue Origin launched and landed a New Shepard rocket for the first time. After New Shepard hurled the Crew Capsule 326,075 feet into the sky, the capsule used thrusters and parachutes to gently land back on earth. At Popular Mechanics, Launching tourists to space with New Shepard is only a small part of Blue Origin's larger spaceflight plans. In October, Jeff Bezos's rocket company conducted a hot-fire test of the Blue Engine 4 (BE-4), the most powerful American-built rocket engine in decades. Blue Origin has big plans for the BE-4, hoping to sell the rocket engine to United … [Read more...]
Why is the Stock Market the Calmest it’s Been in Over 50 Years?
Despite the volatility in the market for bitcoin, 2017 is turning out to be a calm year for stocks. In fact, it's the calmest year for stocks since 1964 when measured by the average daily move of the S&P 500 index. Ben Eisen explains at The Wall Street Journal: The S&P 500′s average daily up-or-down move so far this year is 0.3%, according to The Wall Street Journal’s Market Data Group. That’s just over half the comparable move last year and less than a fifth of the average daily move in 2008. If it finishes the year this way, it would be the smallest absolute average daily move since … [Read more...]
You’ve Read the Last Issue of Intelligence Report: MTI and RAGE Gauge
In case you missed it, here’s what Dick Young wrote in his December 2016 issue of Intelligence Report: My Revitalized Market Tension Index (MTI) When will we know that the economy has entered recession? This month, I am reintroducing my Market Tension Index (MTI) to help you and I determine whether the economy is in recession. This will be the first of what are likely to be many more proprietary indicators and tools I plan to roll out to help you become a more comfortable, confident, informed investor. My revitalized MTI is a composite index of indicators that have historically peaked … [Read more...]
Ranching in Wyoming, Slow Money, and Finding the Key to Your Success
You know, there’s nothing wrong with making money slowly. With all the hype surrounding bitcoin and making money fast, there’s virtue in making it over time—you appreciate what you have when you finally get it. Respect for money was an important lesson I learned, of all places, as an intern at a start-up company while at Babson College. One morning in the conference room the founder told me, “Always remember, most investors don’t respect money. They don’t appreciate the hard-work it takes to earn it. They’re looking for a quick buck. We’re trying to create something. We’re builders. We … [Read more...]
Can Apple Ever Catch Up in Streaming Music?
Spinning Christmas tunes last night through our Sonos made me wonder how Apple missed this huge opportunity. Looks like they’re trying to pick up their game with the acquisition of Shazam. Too little too late? Spotify, a small company that seemingly came out of nowhere has been able to amass 60 million streaming subscribers. Meanwhile, Apple, creator of the iPod and the unrivaled master of MP3s sat on its hands while streaming music proliferated. Now it's playing catch up, with 30 million subscribers, Apple is well behind. Tripp Mickle writes that Apple may be able to use Shazam to close the … [Read more...]
Are Futures a Good or Bad Evolution for Bitcoin?
Bitcoin futures began trading on Sunday. In a maniacal market like the one for bitcoin has become, no one is sure what to expect. On the first day, the contract's trading became so volatile that its trading was halted twice. Web traffic was so heavy that the CBOE website was slow or unavailable at times. While many are cheering the potential of these futures contracts, others are worried about threats to bitcoin and the cryptocurrency's market stability. Alexander Osipovich and Gabriel T. Rubin report: The launch of the bitcoin futures represents a milestone for the digital currency. But the … [Read more...]
$70 Million in Bitcoin was Stolen, Did Anyone Notice?
Judging by the seemingly unstoppable rise in the cost of bitcoin, it would appear no one even noticed that $70 million worth of the digital currency was stolen by hackers. The victim was the crypto-currency mining operation known as NiceHash. Steven Russolillo reports: Andrej P. Škraba, head of marketing at NiceHash, said to The Wall Street Journal that approximately 4,700 bitcoin had been stolen from a bitcoin wallet, an online account that stores the digital currency. Bitcoin wallets, like other online bank accounts, have been targets of hackers in the past. “It was a professional … [Read more...]
This Tax Bill Needs Better Messaging
My friend from the Cato Institute, Chris Edwards, outlines some of the areas where Republicans have failed to provide adequate messaging on what will be one of the largest federal tax overhauls in decades. Edwards writes that vague reporting on the bill from various groups who have analyzed it, the bill's "reforms are impressive and promise to lift all boats in coming years with a rising tide of growth." Edwards continues: The Democratic class warfare will continue even after President Trump signs the bill, and that will create two big problems. The first is that the Democrats will probably … [Read more...]
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