Cross Singapore Off The Itinerary
March 31, 2010This column is the reason I may never be able to visit Singapore. My firm cannot consider opening an office there, and I must refrain from dispatching staff to meet with Singapore-based clients should the opportunity arise. Even my travel-loving daughters ought to think twice before touring the Southeast Asian city-state, though I doubt they would actually have trouble there because of my actions. All this may be a mild …
Mosques And Minarets
March 30, 2010The two-story, beige brick structure that houses the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation school and mosque squats alongside the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, not far from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Few motorists on the busy highway would notice the mosque but for its minaret and gleaming blue dome, which stand out in that drab and commercial Jamaica neighborhood. The Islamic Center’s architectural flourishes caught my eye recently as …
Deferring Divorce In Hard Times
March 29, 2010Hard times are doubtless putting a strain on a lot of marriages, but many couples may have to put up with one another longer than they would like. The Washington Post recently reported that divorce rates declined in 2008, as the financial crisis spiraled into the worst recession in generations. David Goldberg, a divorce lawyer and mediator in Gaitherburg, Md., said that in his 44 years of working in family …
A Risk Premium For ‘Riskless’ Debt
March 26, 2010For decades, finance professors have taught students that the interest rate on U.S. Treasury obligations reflects the cost of money for “riskless” obligations. Other borrowers’ riskiness could be measured by how much more than the Treasury rate they were required to pay. It is time to revise the lesson plan. Our national finances have deteriorated to the point that many corporate obligations are trading at lower yields than Treasury bonds. …
Wi-Fi In The Sky
March 25, 2010It is no big deal that I am writing this column on my laptop while flying from San Francisco to New York. People have done that for years. But as I write, I can send instant messages to colleagues at my office and surf the Web for research material. The Internet has arrived in the skies. And that, of course, is a big deal. I am a little behind the …
Shomari Hearn in Forbes
March 24, 2010Forbes, March 24, 2010Shomari Hearn discusses when it makes sense to use a 401(k) loan to buy a house.
Captain EO Returns
March 24, 2010Captain EO has returned to Disneyland. Now Michael Jackson’s posthumous comeback is complete. “Captain EO” is a 17-minute, 3-D space fantasy film that George Lucas helped produce and write, starring Jackson as the hero and Anjelica Huston as the villain. Francis Ford Coppola directed the big-budget short in 1986, when Jackson was at the height of his fame as the self-proclaimed King of Pop. The attraction debuted at Disney’s EPCOT …
Visiting Nelly
March 23, 2010Not long ago, I took a colleague and his young daughter to meet Nelly, who is a very old acquaintance of mine. Nelly is 57, which would be unexceptional but for the fact that she is a bottlenose dolphin – the oldest one in captivity. She was born at Marineland, near St. Augustine, Fla., in 1953, and has spent her entire life greeting and performing for tourists there. I met …
Retirement Annuities: A False Sense of Security
March 22, 2010A lot of people worry about outliving their money. Commercial annuities, sold by insurance companies, promise to keep paying as long as the beneficiary lives. So it’s a good idea to buy annuities with our retirement funds, right? I don’t think so – at least not for most people, and not right now. On this point (and quite a few others), I find myself disagreeing with the Obama administration. Assistant …
New York Hocks Its Future
March 19, 2010While the federal government is putting money into stimulating the economy, the state of New York is taking money out. Strapped for cash, the state is sucking money out of its own industrial development agencies (IDAs). Industrial development agencies are local government-sponsored entities that work to promote commerce by providing assistance to businesses in their region. IDAs are tax-exempt, but that didn’t stop the New York Legislature from making a …
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