For as long as memory serves, it seems Wall Street bankers had the upper hand. High frequency traders front running the average investor, activist taking seats on boards to revamp struggling companies, short sellers suppressing stock prices for profit. This week Main Street pushed back, with real money and real consequences. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund run by celebrated stock picker Gabe Plotkin, needed to be bailed out after one of its short trades, GameStop took on catastrophic losses, courtesy of an army of retail investors that drove the price up over 2000% so far this month.
This week’s Withum Wealth Minute aims to provide travel tips in the current pandemic-ridden world.
Each new year, I reflect on the year that just ended by replaying it month by month. March 2020 was a wild, shocking month for everyone.
Over the last year, healthcare has been at the forefront of everyone’s minds. How could it not be, when we are living through a global pandemic?
For those of you who plan to stay indoors this winter, we wanted to share some of our team’s favorite TV shows for you to binge, if you haven’t seen them yet!
Ghost Protocol, the fourth movie in the popular Mission impossible series, involves hacking, password decoding, cryptocracy and network hijacking action for thriller and SciFi fans.
Like bubbles rising to the top of a newly uncorked bottle of champagne the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for 2021 retirement benefits will climb by 1.3%, according to the Social Security Administration. However, this is below the average COLA of 1.5% for Social Security benefits over the last decade so think of it more like a warm can of soda. It is important to note that this average includes years in which there was no COLA increase and another that was limited to just 0.3%. In contrast, the 2000’s decade had a higher average cost of living adjustment of 2.7%, despite also having no COLA increase in 2009.
IKEA has decided to discontinue their annual printed catalog. For the first time in over 70 years, IKEA will not be printing out their catalogue which, believe it or not, was the most printed book in the world at one point.
So, its official! It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but the Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2020 is…. “Pandemic”.