The past few years have been marked by “great” trends. In labor, the Great Resignation was followed by the Great Reshuffling, as people moved between sectors. At the other end of the wealth spectrum, we have the Great Rebalancing, as 37% of ultra-high net worth families said they would rejigger their investments in 2023, and 27% say they will in 2024. That’s the takeaway from UBS’s fifth and largest annual Global Family Office survey. It polled 320 family investment offices, with an average net worth of $2.6 billion, in seven regions of the world. Accounting for $600 billion of wealth, the sur ..read more

It’s hardly news that Americans are unhappy with their economic situation. On Tuesday, the Conference Board backed that up by releasing its latest Consumer Confidence Index figures showing a dip in enthusiasm for the third month in a row. However, it’s not a big dip but rather ongoing malaise. The report concludes that “the gauge continues to move sideways within a relatively narrow range that’s largely held steady for more than two years.”  Poor Employment for Much of the World Empirically, Americans have less reason for pessimism than workers in much of the world, but that may not provi ..read more

By October 2022, crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Foundation and FTX Future Fund had given $140 million to charity. It was a huge windfall for effective altruism, a 21st-century movement that takes a utilitarian approach to philanthropy—encouraging individuals to do the most good by donating to cost-effective causes. One month later, FTX imploded, and “SBF” became the poster boy for unfettered greed, leaving his EA beneficiaries in crisis. There is no evidence that anyone in the EA movement was aware of the FTX fraud, and one of its founders, Will MacAskill, has strongly denounced Bankman-F ..read more

By October 2022, crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Foundation and FTX Future Fund had given $140 million to charity. It was a huge windfall for effective altruism, a 21st-century movement that takes a utilitarian approach to philanthropy—encouraging individuals to do the most good by donating to cost-effective causes. One month later, FTX imploded, and “SBF” became the poster boy for unfettered greed, leaving his EA beneficiaries in crisis. There is no evidence that anyone in the EA movement was aware of the FTX fraud, and one of its founders, Will MacAskill, has strongly denounced Bankman-F ..read more

Sports economists in the U.S. like Andrew Zimbalist and Victor Mathewson argue that hosting the Olympics is a poor economic decision, causing irreversible financial strain to a country under the illusion of enriching it with monumental global value. They cite examples like Athens 2004, with a $15 billion hemorrhaged investment which brought in $168 billion in debts (an EU rescue package it is still paying) and derelict facilities. Rio De Janeiro in 2016 spent over $13 billion of taxpayers’ money and was left with piling debts of about $113 million, thousands of displaced citizens, and rising p ..read more

Sports economists in the U.S. like Andrew Zimbalist and Victor Mathewson argue that hosting the Olympics is a poor economic decision, causing irreversible financial strain to a country under the illusion of enriching it with monumental global value. They cite examples like Athens 2004, with a $15 billion hemorrhaged investment which brought in $168 billion in debts (an EU rescue package it is still paying) and derelict facilities. Rio De Janeiro in 2016 spent over $13 billion of taxpayers’ money and was left with piling debts of about $113 million, thousands of displaced citizens, and rising p ..read more

The pandemic washed over American cities with frightening speed in early 2020, but it hasn’t receded at anything close to a uniform pace. And neither has the economic side effect of remote work—leaving business districts feeling, at best, a little lonely, at worst, zombified.  Several studies published last year have revealed one particular difference that should be grounds for measured optimism. Figures for office occupancy and downtown recovery tend to look a lot better in smaller cities than in the biggest markets—a fact often lost in the media. For instance, building-security firm Kas ..read more

The pandemic washed over American cities with frightening speed in early 2020, but it hasn’t receded at anything close to a uniform pace. And neither has the economic side effect of remote work—leaving business districts feeling, at best, a little lonely, at worst, zombified.  Several studies published last year have revealed one particular difference that should be grounds for measured optimism. Figures for office occupancy and downtown recovery tend to look a lot better in smaller cities than in the biggest markets—a fact often lost in the media. For instance, building-security firm Kas ..read more

The pandemic has catalyzed a shift in consumer behavior, giving rise to what’s now termed the “introvert economy.” This shift sees consumers increasingly favoring the comfort of their homes over traditional social outings—a trend with significant implications for businesses across industries. Consumers are choosing to go out earlier, if at all, to then enjoy the comforts of home and connected entertainment, such as catching up on favorite Netflix shows. Consumers are also becoming more risk-averse in social settings, choosing screens over face-to-face engagements, especially when it comes to t ..read more

Suddenly, investors can get real income from bonds again. Bonds had been moving up in price, and thus down in yield, for about 40 years—a trend that accelerated after the financial crisis in 2008. “There wasn’t much need for people to look at individual bonds,” says Kevin McPartland of Coalition Greenwich, a major benchmarking firm. “Rates were low, and people, if they wanted a larger fixed-income allocation, they would look at mutual funds or ETFs,” he says, referring to the bundles of assets in exchange-traded funds. For an idea of how times have changed, consider trends in the 3-month Treas ..read more