Many millennials hate interacting with people, according to a new survey.
Nearly a third of people 18 to 24 prefer ordering from the drive-thru at restaurants because “they don’t feel like dealing with people,” according to a study by Ohio-based Frisch’s Restaurants, which owns and franchises 120 Big Boy Restaurants.
That’s bad news for fast-food employees.
It gives restaurant chains an added incentive to invest in automation technology, such as digital tablets that allow customers to buy food without human interaction.
Many restaurant chains, such as McDonald’s and Panera Bread, are already heavily invested in automation. Both have rolled out digital tablets at restaurants nationwide.
The technology has been praised for helping to improve customer-service speed and accuracy.But it also threatens to eventually replace human workers — especially as labor costs rise, according to analysts and labor activists.
By Caitlyn Stulpin | For NJ.com
on August 27, 2016 at 8:10 AM, updated August 27, 2016 at 9:39 AM
WOODBURY — Downtown Woodbury is better than its been in years, local leaders say, thanks to the efforts of 40 new business owners.
The city has seen several setbacks in recent years, including the loss of grocer Bottom Dollar, Prya Art Gallery and King of Steaks.
The biggest blow came with the announcement that Inspira Health Network will close its Woodbury hospital in a few years and open a new one in Harrison Township. Inspira will keep a presence at the former Underwood Memorial Hospital site, where 500 jobs will remain. The hospital currently employs 1,600.
Ridgewood NJ, Building a trusting relationship with a financial professional is important because you’ll be sharing information about your assets and income, and you’ll want to feel confident when acting on any advice you receive.
But be wary of becoming too close, says Dennis Notchick, an Investment Advisor and Certified Financial Planner with Safeguard Investment Advisory Group (www.safeguardinvestment.com).
“People often become good friends with a broker who’s not doing a very good job for them,” Notchick says. “Even when they begin to realize they aren’t getting their money’s worth, they can’t bring themselves to break the ties. The personal relationship has come to mean more to them than their bottom line.”
Notchick recalls once when a couple in their 60s came to him to discuss whether there were better options for their money. Based on their financial professional’s advice, they had invested $1 million in variable annuities.
“Variable annuities can be very expensive,” Notchick says. “The fees can range from 3 to 4 percent per year, so I pointed out to the couple that they were being charged exorbitant fees and could reduce $30,000 or more in costs.
“The husband was on board and ready to make a change, but the wife was hesitant. She didn’t want to jeopardize that friendly relationship they had with their broker. They decided to stay where they were, paying over $30,000 in fees each year, just because they want to keep that friendship.”
So what should people do when they want to find an advisor they can trust, but don’t want to go overboard with the relationship?
For starters, Notchick suggests they ask these questions:
• Is the advisor a fiduciary? The fiduciary standard says that the financial professional must always act in a client’s best interest. Many advisors, at least right now, are held to a lesser standard. Their advice only needs to be generally suitable for the client, which allows these professionals to steer clients to investment products that are more profitable for the advisor. Beginning in January 2018, a new U.S. Department of Labor rule will be in full effect and require that all financial professionals meet the fiduciary standard when providing retirement advice. Some brokers call themselves fiduciaries – but how can you tell which hat they are wearing when giving you that advice? • What licenses does the advisor have? If an advisor only has a securities license, then you will only receive securities-related advice. If an advisor has an insurance license, you will only receive insurance-related advice. Make sure you work with an advisor who understands both worlds and creates a plan based on the client’s philosophy, not someone else’s. • What’s the advisor’s experience? It’s worth knowing not only how long the advisor has been in the business, but more importantly what kind of training and experience he or she has. For example, Notchick says, those who earn the Certified Financial Planner designation must go through extensive training and pass a rigorous exam, but real world knowledge/experience of all the areas of financial planning are also critical.
“Certainly, it’s important to have an advisor you can trust, but you still want to keep the relationship professional,” Notchick says. “When that relationship becomes more like a friendship, high fees almost always mean the investor will pay the price.”
About Dennis Notchick
Dennis Notchick, CFP is a Registered Investment Advisor Representative and Certified Financial Planner with Safeguard Investment Advisory Group (www.safeguardinvestment.com) in San Diego, Calif. He has nearly a decade of experience as a financial professional, and holds Series 3, 7, and 63 and 65 Securities Licenses and a California Life/Health Insurance License. Notchick has a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University Northridge.
By Chelsea German
Your odds of “making it to the top” might be better than you think, although it’s tough to stay on top once you get there.
According to research from Cornell University, over 50 percent of Americans find themselves among the top 10 percent of income-earners for at least one year during their working lives. Over 11 percent of Americans will be counted among the top 1 percent of income-earners (i.e.: people making at minimum $332,000 per annum) for at least one year.
How is this possible? Simple: the rate of turnover in these groups is extremely high.
Just how high? Some 94 percent of Americans who reach “top 1 percent” income status will enjoy it for only a single year. Approximately 99 percent will lose their “top 1 percent” status within a decade.
Now consider the top 400 U.S. income-earners—a far more exclusive club than the top 1 percent. Between 1992 and 2013, 72 percent of the top 400 retained that title for no more than a year. Over 97 percent retained it for no more than a decade.
According to the Justice Department, certain donations to the Oscar winner’s charity came directly from a multibillion-dollar embezzlement drama in Southeast Asia.
On the evening of July 20, under a tent at a vineyard in St. Tropez brimming to his specifications with booze, billionaires and babes, Leonardo DiCaprio was preparing to host one of the glitziest charitable events of the year: the third annual fundraiser for his Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. Earlier that same day, under far less glamorous auspices half a world away, the U.S. Department of Justice was filing a complaint with the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles that suggested the recent Oscar winner is a bit player in the planet’s largest embezzlement case, totaling more than $3 billion siphoned from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund called 1MDB.
July 24, 2016 — 12:15 PM EDTUpdated on July 24, 2016 — 7:00 PM EDT
On Monday, Yahoo! Inc.’s years-long fight to survive as a standalone company will draw to a close.
Verizon Communications Inc. will announce plans to buy Yahoo’s core assets for a bit more than $4.8 billion before the market opens, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The deal includes Yahoo real estate assets, while some intellectual property is to be sold separately, the people said. Yahoo will be left with its stakes in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan Corp., with a combined market value of about $40 billion.
A transaction stands to finally seal the fate of web pioneer Yahoo after months of speculation and pressure from investors including Starboard Value LP. The deal will add the company and its millions of daily users to Verizon’s growing stable of media properties and is also likely to end the reign of Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer, who tried and failed to re-invent Yahoo as an independent company.
Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni and Yahoo spokeswoman Rebecca Neufeld declined to comment. Yahoo hasn’t laid out plans for its investments in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.
If 2016 is the year of the monkey, it surely belongs to its more famous animated cousin, Mankey. On February 27th, millions celebrated 20 years since the birth of Pokémon, a series conceived by Satoshi Tajiri, a video-game designer, in 1996 on the back of Gameboy’s successful worldwide launch in 1989. His idea was simple and extensive; an animation following the adventures of a young go-getter, Ash Ketchum, and his friends as they set about collecting creatures in a bid to enter tournaments and understand the infinite animal kingdom of pocket monsters. Celebrating 20 continuous years is a worthy milestone. Pokémon brought endless riches to those—including your correspondent—who grew up during a Japanese breakout in the 1990s.
Mr Satoshi’s imaginative world toes the line of many modern mythmakers; underpinning the animation is his childhood love of collecting insects, blended with Japan’s technological innovation. Crisp aesthetics spanning climates and pseudo-cultures, and an unlimited universe of creatures, gives Pokémon its distinct character. The catchphrase familiar to children of the 90s—“Gotta catch ‘em all”—encouraged a scientific purpose and an admiration for the unknown in inquisitive children. Pokémon is a Darwinian tale of observation, collection and recording with Buddhist mind-set, featuring a protagonist sporting denim jeans with a sense of adventure akin to a wandering Sufi. With the exception of Star Wars, no multinational saga on the small or big screen comes close to this level of spirituality.
Pokémon’s crown as the ultimate in children’s entertainment is clear enough; more than 277m games sold, over 21.5 billion trading cards printed in 10 languages, 17 feature films and $57.65 billion in revenue as of 2015. No current-day phenomenon comes close to Pokemon-imperialism. Peppa Pig, a favourite for younger naysayers, can only claim $1 billion of revenue, including merchandise sales. Generation X tilts towards Scooby Doo. Neither can justifiably claim to outdo and outlive Japan’s most successful export. Such is Pokémon’s multiplatform success that even its proprietors are unable to pin a word onto it. On its official website, Pokémon is not limited to an animation, a video game. Nor is it merely a merchandise conveyor belt. Instead, the Pokémon Company describes the franchise as “one of the most popular children’s entertainment properties in the world”, a multi-faced god bridging a gap between commercial success and on-screen creativity.
The bizarre financial paradoxes unleashed by central planning continue.
While the S&P rises to new all time highs day after day, the IMF is about to downgrade global growth again, $13 trillion in global bonds trade with a negative yield, and the shape of the US yield curve is where it was the last time the US entered a recession. But what remains the most perplexing aspect of the unprecedented disconnect between market surreality and fundamentals, is the ongoing surge in corporate defaults, which is now on pace to surpass 2009, the worst year in history for corporate bankruptcies.
According to S&P, with half of 2016 in the history books, corporate bond defaults just hit the milestone “century” mark, or 100, last week, rising by 50% from the number of bankruptcies at this time last year and the highest level since the US emerged from recession in 2009. The number rose by four to 100 in the first full week of July, as defaults in the US oil and gas sector ratcheted higher, according to Diane Vazza of S&P Global Ratings, the FT reports.
As a result, the total amount of defaulted debt has risen to $154 billion.
But what is most troubling is that at the current run-rate, with half of 2016 still to come, the global debt default total is on pace to surpass 2009 for the all time corporate bankruptcy record.
In the new reality of negative rates, borrowers get paid and savers get penalized
Simon Kennedy simonjkennedy
April 19, 2016 — 12:01 AM EDTUpdated on July 15, 2016 — 1:09 PM EDT
Japanese families seem to have a sudden affinity for home safes. According to the Tokyo-based manufacturer Eiko, shipments have doubled since last fall. And in Germany, insurer Munich Re has stashed some 10 million euros ($11.4 million) worth of its own cash into vaults.
Why the squirreling? One possible reason is the creeping imposition of negative interest rates across the world, which could make it more rewarding to bypass banks—and a safe or vault is, well, more secure than a mattress.
Welcome to the upside-down world of modern monetary policy. In this new reality, borrowers get paid and savers penalized. Almost 500 million people in a quarter of the global economy now live in countries where interest rates measure less than zero. That would’ve been an almost unthinkable phenomenon before the 2008 financial crisis, and one major economies didn’t seriously consider until two years ago, when the European Central Bank first partook in the experiment. Now the ECB and the Bank of Japan are diving deeper into the sub-zero world as they seek more ways to spark inflation.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) issued the following statement after the House Financial Services Committee released a staff report of its investigation into the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision not to prosecute HSBC or any of its executives or employees for serious violations of U.S. anti-money laundering laws and related offenses.
“While the vast majority of Americans pay a price if they break the law, the Justice Department has once again proven that the rules don’t apply to those with special privileges and connections under the Obama Administration,” said Garrett. “Despite their best efforts for three years to side-step Congressional inquiries and oversight, the House Financial Services Committee was able to find that DOJ has been misleading the American people about their decision not to prosecute HSBC employees and executives on anti-money laundering charges, proving that too-big-to-jail is alive and well.”
Background:
The Committee initiated its investigation in March 2013. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of the Treasury failed to comply with the Committee’s requests to obtain relevant documents, necessitating the issuance of subpoenas to both agencies.
Approximately three years after its initial inquiries, the Committee finally obtained copies of internal Treasury records showing that DOJ has not been forthright with Congress or the American people concerning its decision to decline to prosecute HSBC. To read the House Financial Services Committee’s full report, click here.
Scott Garrett is Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises.
Apparently the message of the financial crisis didn’t get across
Quick: If you take out a $1000 loan that has a 20% rate, how much will you owe a year in interest?
Answer: $200. But if you got that wrong, you’re not alone. Nearly two thirds of Americans can’t calculate interest payments correctly, according to a new study. About a third said they didn’t even know how.
One of the silver linings of the financial crisis was that it was supposed to have taught many Americans a lesson, albeit painful, about the dangers of debt, and financial issues in general. Apparently, the message, though, didn’t get across.
All told, a new study, which was released today, estimated that nearly two-thirds of Americans couldn’t pass a basic financial literacy test, meaning they got fewer than four answers correct on a five-question quiz. Worse, the percentage of those who can pass the test has fallen consistently since the financial crisis to 37% last year, from 42% in 2009.
Ridgewood NJ, Politicians call them heroes and strangers thank them for their service.
But when their enlistment comes to an end, veterans need more than a pat on the back as they return to civilian life. They need jobs.
And increasingly, they seem to be getting them because the unemployment rate among veterans has been on the decline in recent years. In May, the veteran unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, down from 5 percent for the same month in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That compares to a 4.7 percent overall unemployment rate.
“I think in the last several years there has been a focus on the importance of hiring veterans and many businesses have taken that to heart,” says Nick Baucom, a U.S. Marine veteran who makes hiring veterans a priority for his company, Two Marines Moving (www.TwoMarinesMoving.com).
“But probably the biggest reason that the unemployment rate for veterans has trended downward is that, as a group, veterans bring with them experience and attitudes that make them great employees.”
Baucom’s moving company employs more than 100 veterans between its two locations – the Washington, D.C., area and Miami. He’s wants to hire more because his company is booked three to four weeks in advance and he could use the extra help.
“But with the unemployment rate for veterans dropping, it’s becoming more challenging to hire them,” says Baucom, who also is author of “On the Move: A Marine’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success.”
“I can’t complain too much, though, because I’m glad so many other employers are seeing the benefits of having veterans in their workforce.”
Baucom says there are several reasons veterans make topnotch employees, including:
• Their tenacity. Veterans know what perseverance is all about, if for no other reason than they survived boot camp, an arduous challenge that puts a person’s fortitude to to the test. Marines, for example, must prove they can hike 20 miles carrying a fully loaded pack. • Their decisiveness. People in the military don’t always have the luxury of taking all day to analyze a situation before making a decision. Yes, they must gather data and understand it thoroughly – but they understand the need to do it expediently. “A 90 percent solution now is better than a 100 percent solution later,” Baucom says. “Both in the Marines and in the business world, I’ve found that waiting for that 100 percent solution just leads to paralysis.” • Their initiative. Anyone in the military learns to follow orders. But they also understand that there are situations when they need to take action in the absence of orders. If something needs to be done, they don’t have to wait to be told.
“I know that Marines go through quite an ordeal in their training and in carrying out their missions,” Baucom says. “When we ask them to move a piano, it probably doesn’t seem all that difficult in comparison.”
About Nick Baucom
Nick Baucom is the founder and owner of Two Marines Moving (www.twomarinesmoving.com), a moving company that has operations in the Washington, D.C., area and Miami. Baucom, who also is author of “On the Move: A Marine’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success,” served in the U.S. Marines from 2002 to 2008, and was in Iraq in 2003.
Ridgewood NJ, The British vote to leave the European Union – commonly referred to as the Brexit – seemed to catch much of the world by surprise, at least temporarily shook up the markets and left many people wondering whether they should act quickly to protect their investments.
But puzzled American investors should wait to see how this unfolds over time, rather than taking drastic measures they may later regret, says Joseph Mallen, Chief Investment Officer for Sawtooth Solutions (www.sawtootham.com), a technology-focused company that concentrates on wealth-management platforms.
“I believe this is much ado about nothing until further clarity on the result of the vote is determined,” Mallen says. “This may take years to sort out. The Brexit may not happen at all.”
While there was market reaction – really, overreaction, Mallen says – right after the vote, it was based more on perceptions than on anything of substance.
Ultimately, what could the Brexit mean for the future of the American economy? Mallen says no one has a crystal ball, but he offers these observations:
• Overall impact on U.S. markets may be negligible.After instant, but temporary, turmoil the markets in the U.S. recouped their early losses. “This is telling and in line with my expectations that the Brexit should have little to no impact directly on U.S. equity markets,” Mallen says. “We have seen U.S. treasuries gain on what I believe is a flight to quality, pushing the 10-year yield below 1.4 percent.” • The long-term investment outlook. If other European countries elect to follow suit with their own exits, there could be disruption in Europe-based equities. But Mallen says he doesn’t believe the Brexit, in isolation, will be negative either for the U.S. or for the United Kingdom. “I believe it’s a positive move for the UK, giving it more freedom to act independent of EU governance,” Mallen says. “The UK has more to offer the EU than the EU has to offer the UK.” Ultimately, Mallen says he believes the UK will become a pseudo-member of the EU, similar to the relationships Norway and Switzerland have with the EU. • Interest rates. The Brexit likely will be a further catalyst for U.S. interest rates to remain low for the next couple of years. “I don’t see the Federal Reserve raising rates, as that would be highly unpopular given the prevailing market sentiment,” Mallen says. “Also, I believe U.S. treasuries will continue to be a safe-haven asset for nervous international investors.”
The initial Brexit vote resulted in a wave of media attention, but it was perhaps more attention than will prove to be warranted as time passes, Mallen says.
In terms of impact on the market, the attention actually should be on the presidential election, he says.
“As much as Brexit was a welcome reprieve from the election, I believe that within weeks the U.S. elections will become the primary global-market media focus and that will continue through November,” Mallen says. “It promises to be a volatile campaign that, I believe, will impact global markets directly.”
About Joseph Mallen
Joseph Mallen is Chief Investment Officer for Sawtooth Solutions (www.sawtootham.com) in Minneapolis, MN, a technology-focused company that concentrates on wealth-management platforms. He has more than a decade of experience as a financial professional and holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in finance with a concentration in quantitative finance from the London Business School.
The social media platform that many have come to rely on as one of their main news sources – and that media publishers have come to rely on as one of the top methods of reaching their audiences – has just thrown the news in the back seat.
Facebook published an announcement last week, on Wednesday, June 29, stating they planned to make a series of changes to how information appears in their newsfeed. Posts from the people you are friends with will appear first, and posts from news publishers has been pushed back.
Facebook stated: Our top priority is keeping you connected to the people, places and things you want to be connected to — starting with the people you are friends with on Facebook. That’s why if it’s from your friends, it’s in your feed, period — you just have to scroll down. To help make sure you don’t miss the friends and family posts you are likely to care about, we put those posts toward the top of your News Feed.
Rystad Energy estimates US has 264bn barrels of recoverable oil
YESTERDAY
by: Anjli Raval, Oil and Gas Correspondent
The US holds more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and Russia, the first time it has surpassed those held by the world’s biggest exporting nations, according to a new study.
Rystad Energy estimates recoverable oil in the US from existing fields, discoveries and yet undiscovered areas amounts to 264bn barrels. The figure surpasses Saudi Arabia’s 212bn and Russia’s 256bn in reserves.
The analysis of 60,000 fields worldwide, conducted over a three-year period by the Oslo-based group, shows total global oil reserves at 2.1tn barrels. This is 70 times the current production rate of about 30bn barrels of crude oil a year, Rystad Energy said on Monday.
