Business

And The Rich Get Richer

December 26, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

All over the world, one economic fact remains the same. The most rich people in every country continue to get richer and the poor share less of the wealth. Recent global statistics show that the wealthiest 1 percent of the population saw twice as much growth as those in the bottom half.

The middle class, which exists primarily in North America and Europe, has seen the most slippage over the past 40 years, according to the World Inequality Report 2018. While globalization of some industries has significantly raised incomes for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in China and India, that has been accomplished at the expense of manufacturing and other middle-income workers in the developed world.

The report is prepared by an international team of notable economists. In past reports, they have chronicled the increasing gap between the poor and the wealthy in the United States. The top 1 percent on the wealth scale held about 10 percent of the country’s wealth, the 1980 report showed. By 2016, that figure had risen to 20 percent. In Europe for the same time frames, the top 1 percent had gained less, showing just a 12 percent income share.

The researchers attributed the growing gap in the United States to less progressive tax policies. European countries tended to favor more support for education, which in turn enhanced earning power for the middle and lower classes in those countries.

The tax legislation recently passed in the United States will be most damaging to the country’s middle and low-income classes, most economists agree.

Has A Hacker Victimized You?

December 14, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

“Pwned.” Strange word that you won’t find in an English dictionary, but one that has affected people all over the world. It’s the coined word used to identify a person whose personal information has been breached when a corporate data base is hacked. Gamers recognize it as meaning “utterly defeated.”

We hear about it a lot these days. Large retailers and other companies have been attacked by hackers, compromising the data of millions of customers. Even Equifax, the credit rating company, was not immune. A breach of its data gave fraudsters millions of names to work with. The list of other well-known companies that have lost data has become long. The thieves have a hey day using the personal data for their own purposes.

Are you one of them and how can you find out?

An Australian named Troy Hunt may be able to tell you. He has accumulated some 4.8 billion pieces of hacked data and he uses it to help ordinary people determine if they have had their personal data lifted. His website, Have I Been Pwned?, has been in operation since 2013. It’s free.

Hunt has become a specialist regarding big breaches and has exposed some hack jobs before the victim companies have been aware themselves. He used to be a software architect at Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, but quit to work as an independent information security consultant and instructor.

The U.S. Congress recently availed itself of his expertise when he testified before that body, which has become increasingly concerned at the number of their constituents who have been victimized. He had to buy a new suit and tie (and visit a website to find out how to tie the tie.) His usual garb is beachwear or jeans — what the well-dressed Aussie wears while working on the beach.

The problem is serious. So much personal data has been breached that traditional methods for verifying identity, such as user names, passwords and/or knowledge-based questions, have become less reliable.

Hunt’s relentless search for hacked information has put him ahead of the game in several instances. He has made it harder for big companies that have been hacked to hide the fact. Uber, for instance, had failed to publicize a breach that put 57 million bits of information on passengers and drivers into the hands of fraudsters. On the other hand, when he advised Imgur, a photo-sharing corporation, that they had been hacked, they made the information public within a day.

People using his site to determine the status of their information can search Hunt’s website on their email address. Some 1.7 million people also have subscribed to alerts that sound when their data pops up in newly discovered breaches.

Bezos Surpasses $100 Billion in Wealth

December 8, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

Jeff Bezos Surpasses 100 Billion — The surge in Amazon transactions that put Bezos in the $100 billion-plus spot shot the company’s stock up 60 percent, to a record $1,213.4 per share.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Amazon’s largest shareholder captured the title of Richest Man in the World. When Bezos reached the $100 Billion in wealth, the moment was noted by Forbes Real-Time Billionaire Rankings. The exact time when the total ticked up to $100 billion was 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, November 24, 2017. He was able to continue his $100 billion figure for 5 days – through November 28.

His riches are a reflection of his long term devotion to building Amazon into the biggest “Everything Ecommerce Store” on the planet. Even his selection of the name of Amazon – the largest river in the world – reflects his goals and aspirations.

Bill Gates, Bezos’ competition in the race to see who can amass the greatest fortune based on the world’s technology mania, once enjoyed a few hours in the $100 billionaire’s spotlight. His personal wealth reached that pinnacle in 1999, but it was very short-lived. Gates today lists his personal wealth at $89 billion-plus. That doesn’t include the $35 billion he has donated to his charitable foundation.

The surge in Amazon transactions that put Bezos in the $100 billion-plus spot shot the company’s stock up 60 percent, to a record $1,213.4 per share. Amazon experienced a similar phenomenon in July, when a surge added $10 billion to the bottom line in one day.

Bezos, now 53, has capitalized on his successful wedding of technology and retail sales. He created an ecommerce phenomenon that seems to have no end. It is due to his unique genius that this holiday season is expected to end with record-breaking online purchasing.

Who Are the Leading Female Financial Advisors

November 30, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

Female Advisors — These women and an increasing number of others are making their mark, managing billions of dollars and educating others in financial issues as well.

There are no long lists of woman whose expertise in financial advising is readily recognized beyond limited circles. Many are doing well, but it tends to be in a less flamboyant manner than their male peers.

Two whose names are readily recognizable are Suze Orman and Melody Hobson. They are the media darlings, quoted when financial questions arise. Orman started as a stock broker, while Hobson climbed the leadership ladder at Ariel Capital Management to become president. Neither of these industry leaders holds the Certified Financial Planner credential which is recognized as the financial planning standard.

Orman’s accomplishments include a clutch of books, kits, calculators, tools and a resource center. Among her dozen or so how-to financial books are “Young, Fabulous and Broke,” “You’ve Earned It, Don’t Lose It” and “The Laws of Money.” Her business flows over into television and media appearances.

Hobson, just 10 years after graduation from Princeton University, had climbed from intern to president in Ariel. She is a contributor to Good Morning America’s money segments and is a fierce advocate for African American financial literacy. In 2015, she was on the Time Magazine list of 100 most influential people in the world.

Third on the list is Karen McDonald of Morgan Stanley. Barrons ranked her No. 1 in its 2014 survey. She has $21.2 billion in assets under management and heads a team of 15 that serves corporate clients, many of them in the top Fortune lists. She specializes in employee benefit solutions and other employee issues such as educating workers to become better money managers.

Susan Kaplan, top financial advisor, according to the Barrons 2013 survey, is president of Kaplan Financial Services in Newton, Mass. Her $1.4 billion in managed assets includes many accounts in the $3.5 million range. Her average client has $10 million net worth. She has contributed to Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street and Mutual Fund publications as well as various financial journals and appears on Bloomberg News, CNBC, WGBH and other media outlets.

Gillian KYU of Morgan Stanley Securities in San Francisco, earned the No. 2 spot in Barron’s list in 2013 and No. 6 in 2014. Her $3.5 billion assets under management typically range in the $20 million neighborhood. Her clients average $50 million net worth. She is licensed as both a financial advisor and a broker. She was reared in Taiwan and is fluent in English, Mandarin and Taiwanese and serves many clients with Asian ties in both their Asian homelands and in the United States.

Elaine Meyers ranks fifth in the 2013 Barron’s survey’s overall financial advisor category and third among the women on the list. She manages $2.63 billion, with a typical account size of $30 million. She is managing director of Credit Suisse (USA) Private Banking North America in San Francisco. She has prior experience with other international investment firms as well and has been influential in the financial advisory field for several decades.

While women still lag males in financial advisement, these women and an increasing number of others are making their mark, managing billions of dollars and educating others in financial issues as well.

Pay Equity 200 Years Away?

November 22, 2017 By Twila Van Leer

Two trends in the job market suggest that the gap in paycheck bottom lines based on gender won’t be going away any time soon.

The estimate, based on current conditions, say that it will take at least 217 years for equity to become the norm.
That outlook comes from the World Economic Forum. The forum gathers statistical data from 144 countries in the world with input from the International Labor Organization, the United Nations and World Health Organization

As one indicator that wage equity is not an immediate likelihood, the forum reports that fewer women are currently entering the workforce. That reduces the competitive pressure on employers to give male and female workers the same salaries.

Although the international agencies report that women are doing as well as men in health and education matters, the effort to promote pay equity continues to fall short. Salaries are, in fact, becoming less equal.

Women make less than men in the same field, the agencies report, but that is only one aspect of the problem overall. Women are more likely than their male counterparts to do work at home gratis. Women tend to work in fields that offer lower average pay. They are much less likely to rise to the top ranks in any of the fields.

Iceland leads the world in gender equality when it comes to pay, the forum reported. Western European countries also are making strides toward equity.

Gender equality is both a moral and economic factor, according to Saadia Zahidi, head of education, gender and work for the World Economic Forum. She said the countries that are seeing wage gaps gradually closing recognize that there are dividends for a country’s overall economy in parity policies.

The United States, although it scores high overall, still has big gaps in workforce participation and wages, the forum reported. The group estimates that the U.S. could add $1.75 trillion to its economy by promoting pay parity. Globally, the estimated economic benefit would reach $5.3 trillion by 2025 if disparity were reduced by just 25 percent.