It will take years for state and local governments to return to pre-recession fiscal health. And yet, despite ongoing struggles, financial risks appear to be stabilizing. The mechanisms that state and city issuers have in place – particularly the balanced budget requirement, powers of taxation, and independent treasury management – are working as intended.
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The selection of an appropriate interior designer, architect, or landscape professional for a project is not unlike choosing other professionals as one always checks on reputation, appropriate licensing, and insurance. However, there are certain aspects of hiring talent that must be addressed to optimize the client/talent relationship.
Beginning August 2, the Federal Aviation Administration will release registration numbers of all private flight operations unless a specified security concern is received. This reflects a change in the Block Aircraft Registration Request program, which since 2000 has allowed aircraft operators to prevent the general public from tracking their individual flight movements.
Goals-based wealth allocation sets forth the premise that upward mobility is unlikely without the assumption of idiosyncratic risk. And wealth mobility, as defined by keeping up with one's wealth segment, requires structuring a portfolio within three dimensions of risk: personal, market and aspirational.
Based on third-quarter events, the probability of more vulnerable markets has risen. Minor policy mistakes may have more severe impact. Yet, with expectations so low, a "less-bad" economic report, a credible policy initiative from the Obama administration or an important move by the Europeans or Chinese could trigger a meaningful global equity rally.
The Internal Revenue Service records more than 1 million tax-related cases of identity theft every year, and resolving these cases can be time-consuming. This newsletter identifies typical incidents and explains how to resolve them. It also discusses how intra-family loans can help to transfer wealth.
A significant number of family businesses eliminate family dynamics from the business equation, according to a survey. The researchers found significant differences between family-focused and business-focused family businesses in the complexity of the owners' lives, motivations to sell the business, and intent to use tax strategies to minimize taxes.
The world continues to work through a long-term structural shift of economic and political influence to a group of emerging economies, most notably China and India, while the developed world fights the hangover of more than a decade of excessive spending and debt accumulation. These long-term structural changes should drive patterns of economic growth for years to come.
Standard & Poor's downgrading of the U.S. AAA credit rating, combined with market volatility stemming from the deepening sovereign debt crisis in Europe, are likely to exacerbate the volatility in what has become an increasingly fragile market and macroeconomic environment. The current soft patch could easily morph into a recession.
The debt issues faced by the developed world, macro imbalances, and the unpredictability of global policy actions make this an especially uncertain environment. However, the Fed continues to make low-risk assets very unappealing. Overall, global equities appear reasonably priced in light of the paltry real returns on bonds.