Financial Times Blog

15 April 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Lifestyle, what are 40 career mistakes no one over 40 should make?

 

Tax rejig raises fears of New York wealth drain – Pg. 3

–          …expects more to follow after the April 15 tax deadline makes clear the full impact on New Yorkers of the 2017 Trump tax reform

–          …law…setting a $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local taxes that households could deduct from their federal taxes.  That cap on so-called Salt deductions threatens a hefty bill for many wealthy New Yorkers, who pay as much as 12.7% in state and local taxes.  Florida, by contrast, has no personal income tax

–          Real estate executives see Salt as a factor behind the city’s sagging luxury property market

–          The fact that so many of the high-tax states, including California, are Democratic leaning has prompted Mr Cuomo to blast Mr Trump’s tax plan as a “declaration of an economic civil war”

 

Trump attacks on Fed stir global concerns for central banks’ independence – Pg. 4

–          The Fed is not alone in facing a threat on its independence: the Turkish and Indian central banks have also been pressured to loosen policy

–          Economists fear that given sluggish growth rates and an absence of inflation, central banks are likely to face increasing political demands for looser policy

–          The independence of big central banks seemed assured after they tamed the scourge of inflation and helped lead efforts to fight and mitigate the financial crisis a decade ago

 

If you could only rescue one book from your shelves, which would it be? – Pg. 12

–          (Prof Note: What a crazy question!  The answer, of course, is simple: Foundations of Real Estate Financial Modelling, Routledge, 2^nd edition, 2019 by Roger Staiger)

 

Can you be a mother and a senior law firm partner? – Pg. 13

–          Last year, just over half of entrants to law school, in the US were women; in Britain, it was two-thirds

–          The generally accepted issue is the choice many women face between partnership – on call 24/7 and under pressure to generate business – or starting a family

–          While overt sexual discrimination is often challenged, unconscious bias and lazy assumptions are also holding women back…

–          For example, partners looking to build a team to work on a deal may assume a mother will not want a demanding client calling at 2am, or to travel frequently for work.  These assumptions are not made about fathers

–          The problem is exacerbated by pressure to bring work into the firm…

–          More fundamentally, …questions the idea that partners need to be permanently on call (Prof Note: I completely disagree with this question and/or the postulate associated with this question!  When you, the client, are paying $1,000+/hour that person BETTER pick up the phone (or call back in 15 minutes to allow for bathroom breaks) at any time of the day/night.  Remember, the globe has 24 time zones.  The lawyer, man or woman, that does not want this lifestyle, can work for a significantly reduced rate and pick their schedules.  My personal opinion!  P.S. K&L Gates, our outside counsel, picks up the phone 24 hours a day!)

–          (Prof further Note: P(Gain)’s lead outside counsel is a woman!)

 

Answer: (1) Pursuing full-time higher education (Prof Note: Completely disagree.  I now view a Ph.D. as a retirement programme.  Now, the decision to leave one’s career for a number of years and generate no income, well, that is questionable); (2) Keeping your nose to the grindstone (Prof Note: Most evenings I spend watching the sunset.  A pleasure that never gets old); (3) Hiring the wrong people (Prof Note: Call those references!!!); (4) Leaving vacation days on the table (Prof Note: Now this is just insanity!); (5) Complaining about millennials (Prof Note: Laughing…it is the millennials that will bath me in my elder years…best be nice to them!); (6) Labeling yourself as inexperienced; (7) Barely clearing the bar; (8) Starting a business (Prof Note: Completely disagree.  It is not easy to start a business, I can attest.  But best to do after 40 when one is well capitalized and know the players!); (9) Quitting without a fallback (Prof Note: Completely disagree.  Your “fallback” is your resume and experience and expertise.  If miserable in a position and not needing the position to support a family, just quit!); (10) Shopping around a splashy resume; (11) Flopping in interviews; (12) Letting your old skills get rusty (Prof Note: I spent most of the weekend relearning VGA code for a client database project.  25+ years of dust had to be removed from grey matter); (13) Neglecting to learn new skills; (14) Expecting a major change to be lateral; (15) Staying in one lane; (16) neglecting creative expansion; (17) Dressing down (Prof Note: Shoes?  What shoes?!); (18) Fumbling to raise question; (19) Losing your cool (Prof Note: Completely disagree but it should not occur often.  There are times to become unhinged.  Just do not lose control of your temper, when exerting your temper.  Also, be careful to note, “I am angry at the situation.”  Be careful to not personalize anger.); (20) Sticking with a soul-sucking job; (21) Constantly multi-tasking; (22) Eating sad desk lunches; (23) Refusing to delegate (Prof Note: I remain weak at this but am getting better!); (24) Delegating everything ; (25) Getting stuck in your “story”; (26) Taking jobs just for the money (Prof Note: I find personal fulfillment to be the most important); (27) Sticking with one income stream (Prof Note: Love the “hustle”…the side “hustle”); (28) Succumbing to procrastination; (29) Backstabbing; (30) Spending decades in an office chair; (31) Sleeping at the office; (32) Showing up late (Prof Note: My late father told me, “If you are going to steal time from an employer, do it in the middle of the day.  Never show up late or leave early!”); (33) Showering with warm water; (34) Acting like you are a decade younger (Prof Note: Most comment that I act like decade(s) older); (35) Saying “yes” to everything; (36) Saying “no” to everything; (37) Firing people on a whim; (38) Wasting time on fruitless projects; (39) Blowing through your budget; (40) Using corporate funds for personal expenses; (41) NOT focusing on passive income streams needed in retirement!!!

13 April 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, what % of Americans live paycheck to paycheck?

 

Japan population set to lose equivalent of a small city every year until 2013 – Pg. 1

–          The natural population fell by more than 430,000 people last year, ….

–          …partly offset by a record net inflow of more than 161,000 migrants but the overall pace of decline still hit a new high of minus 0.21%.  That has left the population at 126.4m, down from a peak of 128m in 2010

–          Population decline is hitting especially hard in rural and regional Japan, due to a high pace of migration to Japan’s cities, as well as rapid ageing

–          (Prof Note: Rural America suffers its own issue.  In Southern, MD the economy is dominated by Pax River.  Young individuals can, apparently, earn $19/hr washing airplanes.  This leaves little the labour pool for construction in the area sparse.)

 

China to extend credit-score system for public to business – Pg. 5

–          China’s attempt to build a credit-scoring system for its population based on behavior and past misdemeanors is being extended to business

–          This database will be shared with commercial banks “to improve information asymmetry of banks and to improve the credit scores and loan availability of small and medium-sized enterprises with good credit scores”…

 

Technology – Pg. 6

–          One of the key questions is whether advertisers will continue to stay loyal to services such as YouTube and Facebook.  In 2017, some advertisers turned off their YouTube advertising spending over fears they might be placed next to extremist or inappropriate content.  YouTube responded by announcing policy changes, algorithm updates and content takedowns, and most of the advertising dollars have flooded back

–          (Prof Note: My largest fear is censorship.  What is the cost of “Free Speech”?  In a recent presentation I stated the cost of “Free Speech” was individual net worth of eight figures.  One must have sufficient assets and passive income, free of public influence, to suffer the onslaught of public decry over non-conforming speech.)

 

The private equity bubble is bound to burst – Pg. 9

–          The average London home at the end of last month was worth 5% less than it was two years ago…

–          The global private equity market, worth more than $5tn at the last count, has been on a tear since soon after the 2008 crisis.  Its business model of buying up companies, cutting costs, adding debt and selling five or six years later has delivered juicy returns.

–          The sector has received a twin boost from the ultra-low interest rates of the post-crisis years: they made debt cheap and lured investors desperate for higher returns than are available from listed securities.  It recent years, it has generated an average return of 17%, compared with last year’s negative 4.4% for the S&P 500 and a negative 8.7% for the FTSE 100

 

US petrol at risk of hitting $3 a gallon this summer – Pg. 13

–          …backdrop of rising crude prices and strong fuel demand, ….

–          Petrol at $3 a gallon would reflect a spike of at least 20 cents from the current national average….prices at the pump average $2.784 a gallon, or 30 cents ore compared with a month ago

 

Asian bonds issued at record pace as Fed pulls back on raising interest rates – Pg. 13

–          Asian bond issuances in dollars and other major currencies are at a record pace this year, as companies rush to make the most of dovish signals on interest rates from the US Federal Reserve and a greater willingness by Chinese regulators to approve the allotment of offshore debt

–          The majority of new issuance has not been licensed for sale to US investors.  However, the value of dollar bond sales that unregistered foreign companies are permitted to raise from US institutional investors has also reached a record high for the year to day, amounting to $25bn across 25 deals

 

Answer: 31%