Ask anyone from Victoria, Australia, what the wealthiest part of Melbourne is and you will resoundingly hear one name: Toorak. That’s because Toorak’s position as Melbourne’s most elite neighborhood is irrefutable and has been from around the very beginnings of the state of Victoria, which separated from New South Wales in 1851 and 50 years
Caveat Emptor: This piece is not about the fairness of our tax system. It is a simple analysis of the proposed business tax plans in DC at the time of this piece. Draw your own conclusion about the fairness of the tax system, and who should pay what. There are tax increases in the works
Every so often I focus on what seems, from personal experience, to represent customer “support” bordering on consumer fraud. Reasonable customer service is part and parcel of what one is purchasing from our increasingly small number of mammoth retail companies. As those who read my Forbes columns know, I generally write about issues of general
urbazon | E+ | Getty Images You may want to reconsider any plans to travel abroad. That’s the recommendation from the U.S. State Department, which updated its Travel Advisories list this week warning Americans against foreign travel to include about 80% of countries worldwide. Calling the risks the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic poses to travelers as
Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket: Kimberly-Clark (KMB) – The consumer products company’s stock dropped 6.4% in premarket action after it reported weaker-than-expected profit and sales for its latest quarter and gave a full-year forecast that came in below Wall Street consensus. Kimberly-Clark said it faced a number of
A beachfront residence is seen in East Hampton, New York. Jeffrey Basinger | Reuters A home in the Hamptons rented for $2 million for the summer, as demand far outstrips a record low supply of homes for sale and for rent, according to brokers. The number of homes listed for sale in the Hamptons plunged
FG Trade | E+ | Getty Images Company: Harmonic Inc. (HLIT) Business: Harmonic provides video delivery software, products, system solutions, and services worldwide. Its products enable customers to create, prepare, store, playout, and deliver a range of broadcast and streaming video services to consumer devices, including televisions, personal computers, laptops, tablets, and smart phones. The
In this article APO HIG ALL mdphoto16 | E+ | Getty Images Private equity firms are buying up insurers — and the policies they hold — at a feverish pace. Some groups, namely financial advisors, fear the trend may be bad for consumers who own annuity and life insurance contracts. Critics are concerned the buyers
Fifty-million-dollar sales grab headlines. But a better reflection of how New York City’s real estate market has fared recently are what might be called “regular” luxury sales. Record-busting transactions in Brooklyn’s Park Slope and Manhattan’s Morningside Heights prove the pandemic has not stripped the life from the sector. Far from it. Observers who believe Covid
Today’s column addresses questions about whether it’s always best to wait until full retirement age to take survivor’s benefits before switching to retirement benefits at 70, how the earnings test is applied this year and benefit amounts for disabled adult children. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and
Biden is proposing to increase the highest long-term capital gains tax rate from 20% to 39.6% for those who make over 1 million dollars of income. This tax hike would negatively impact crypto whales who are sitting on large amounts of unrealized gains. How Are Cryptocurrency Capital Gains Taxed Currently? Capital gains tax is
Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday he believes the United States may struggle to reach “true herd immunity” to Covid, suggesting coronavirus infections will be around in the years ahead. However, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stressed that new cases alone should not be the metric receiving the most focus
A plastic bull figurine, symbol of the Frankfurt stock exchange is pictured in front of the German share price index DAX board at the Frankfurt stock exchange. Kai Pfaffenbach | Reuter LONDON — Corporate earnings season is off to a flying start, but the positive surprises have so far failed to generate upward momentum for
Many of those with the largest megaphones about the importance of mitigating climate change are white: Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, and more recently, Jeff Bezos, to name few. But the effects of climate change often hit people of color the hardest. CNBC Make It talked to a
fotostorm If you’re missing one or more stimulus check payments, there is still time to claim the money. But the deadline is fast approaching. The IRS is urging individuals who still have not received their stimulus checks, or received less than they anticipated, to file a federal tax return to claim it. This year, the
CoreLogic Deputy Chief Economist Selma Hepp, Selma Hepp The real estate markets in Northern and Southern California have never been hotter. Multiple offers and bidding wars define them. Compass West President Kamini Lane and Selma Hepp Executive, Research & Insights, and Deputy Chief Economist at CoreLogic (the Irvine-based data analytics company) lend their insights and
By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue After living with the Covid-19 pandemic for a year, are Americans feeling less confident about their ability to live comfortably throughout retirement? The new Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) 2021 Retirement Confidence Survey has the answer: No (by and large). In fact, the nonpartisan group’s survey found, retirees and workers overall are more
Households making $1 million or more a year would receive half the benefit of repealing the $10,000 federal cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, according to new estimates by the Tax Policy Center. Seventy percent of the benefit would go to those making $500,000 or more. At the same time, 96 percent
Summertime in the United States could return to a pre-Covid-19 normal if 75% to 80% of the U.S. population is vaccinated, Dr. Peter Hotez said Friday. “We can vaccinate our way out of this epidemic if all the adults and adolescents get vaccinated by summer. We can have an extraordinary quality of life, with going
Federal Reserve Jerome Powell testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on “The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress” on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2020. Susan Walsh | Reuters Federal Reserve officials next week are likely to paint a robust picture on the economy while simultaneously not even hinting at policy changes