Wealth Management News & Insights
Financial Markets
- Federal Reserve Press Release: Recent indicators point to modest growth in spending and production. Job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation has eased somewhat but remains elevated. [Federal Reserve]
- Jittery Investors Turn to Cash in Hunt for Yield: Inflows to money-market funds are at levels last seen in 2020. [WSJ]
- Climate Change May Usher in a New Era of Trade Wars: Countries are pursuing new solutions to try to mitigate climate change. More trade fights are likely to come hand in hand. [NYT]
- For Tech Companies, Years of Easy Money Yield to Hard Times: Rock-bottom rates were the secret engine fueling $1 billion start-ups and virtual attempts to conquer the physical world. But in 2023, reality bites. [NYT]
Financial Planning
- The U.S. Consumer Is Starting to Freak Out: The flush savings accounts and cheap credit that helped keep Americans spending at high rates since 2020 are disappearing. [WSJ]
- How the Young Spend Their Money: Young people have always perplexed their elders. Today’s youngsters are no different; indeed, they are baffling. They have thin wallets and expensive tastes. [Economist]
- Affordable Care Act Enrollments Reach Record High: Enrollments under the Affordable Care Act have reached an all-time high on the federal and state exchanges, helping drive the nation’s uninsured rate down to record lows despite steeper monthly premium costs. [WSJ]
Business Strategy
- One Company’s Trick to Getting 95,000 Hours Back? Canceling Meetings: Meetings have proliferated—now everyone just wants them to end. ‘Sometimes it’s just someone talking nonsense about something’. [WSJ]
- Women Get “Nicer” Feedback — and It Holds Them Back: When it comes to giving feedback, it’s important not only to balance kindness and candor, but to maintain that balance consistently — no matter who you’re talking to. [HBR]
- How Cash-Needy Private Companies Are Avoiding Dreaded Down Rounds: Few rules govern private markets, but some companies’ confidential maneuvers to bypass a valuation hit could raise eyebrows. [Bloomberg]
- Companies Tap Tech Behind ChatGPT to Make Customer-Service Chatbots Smarter: Some businesses are figuring out how to harness the buzzy technology to improve online chat functions, though executives are wary of AI’s tendency to get things wrong. [WSJ]
- Salesforce’s Business Model Faces Test as Elliott Management, Others Weigh In: Cloud-software company contends with activist investors as its growth slows. [WSJ]
- Companies Cut Temp Workers in Warning Sign for Labor Market: Employment through staffing firms has fallen for five straight months; similar pullbacks have preceded recent recessions. [WSJ]
- Laid Off in Your Living Room: The Chaos of Remote Job Cuts: Angst rippled across laptop screens this month, with dozens of companies announcing layoffs and finding ways to breed extra chaos in the process. [NYT]
Life & Work
- The Rise of the Uber-Luxurious Office: How the top end of the market is defying the gloom. [Economist]
- F.D.A. Outlines a Plan for Annual Covid Boosters: In advance of a scientific meeting on Thursday, officials proposed offering new shots to Americans each fall, a strategy long employed against the flu. [NYT]
- Long Covid Is Keeping Significant Numbers of People Out of Work, Study Finds: An analysis of workers’ compensation claims in New York found that 71 percent of claimants with long Covid needed continuing medical treatment or were unable to work for six months or more. [NYT]
- Everyone Wants Your Email Address. Think Twice Before Sharing It: Your email address has become a digital bread crumb for companies to link your activity across sites. Here’s how you can limit this. [NYT]
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