Risk management best practice and future developments

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 15, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photo By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK- Stronger-than-expected corporate earnings have helped fuel the rebound for U.S. stocks but some investors are pointing to potential risks ahead for profits that could sap the market’s momentum. With the vast majority of S&P 500 companies reported, second-quarter earnings are expected to have climbed 9.7 percent from a year earlier, well above the 5.6 percent estimated on July 1, according to Refinitiv IBES. The robust profits have supported a rally that has taken the S&P 500 up about 14 percent this quarter, after a brutal first half. Some market participants are growing concerned, however, that strong corporate numbers may not last, as companies face an array of challenges, including surging inflation and changing consumer spending habits. These may make it difficult for stocks to hold their recent … [Read more...] about As earnings support U.S. stock rebound, worries over future profits grow

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The legal industry has been remarkably buoyant in a tumultuous world. It has weathered 9/11, the global financial crisis, economic downturns , automation, digital transformation , domestic and international instability, and the Pandemic. Through it all, the legal sector has prospered financially , even as its resistance to change has misaligned it with business and distanced it from society . Law’s financial success has come at a steep price—the health and well-being of its workforce, an obscured purpose, and high profits but low customer satisfaction. Public trust in lawyers , legal institutions , and the vitality of the rule have law are historically low. Most Americans believe the legal system is accessible only to the wealthy and the data confirms this. The legal system is widely perceived as lacking accessibility impartiality, transparency, diversity reflective of the society it purports to serve, … [Read more...] about Democratic Degradation Is Law’s Ultimate Disruptor

C orn dogs will fry. Pigs will parade. Butter cows will greet visitors from their climate-controlled enclosures. This month is go-time for Ferris wheels, bacon-wrapped beef on a stick and llamas dressed in costumes . For the first time since the pandemic laid waste to the business, state fairs across the U.S. will swing open their gates hoping disease and deficits are behind them. The big question is whether they can overcome higher prices, vendor worker shortages and lingering fear of Covid-19 to regain or surpass their pre-pandemic form. “This whole year, everything about it has felt normal in a new world,” said Jerry Hammer, CEO of the Minnesota State Fair, second only to Texas in size and host to the llama costume contest, which also includes alpacas. “We’re in a much different place than we were three years ago. People are excited about the fair this year. The issues we have are typical, where they haven’t been for the last two years.” State fairs seem like … [Read more...] about State Fairs Hope To Put Disease And Deficits Behind Them In Their First Full-Throttle Season Since Covid

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Humanity depends on the agriculture sector to produce our food, feed, and fiber, and that demand continues to grow. Increasingly we look to crops as more climate-friendly sources for fuels, plastics and other “bio-materials.” The challenge is to fulfill this diverse and expanding demand without driving land-use-change (LUC)- the conversion of previously uncultivated lands to farms. LUC leads to the loss of biodiversity and a massive release carbon dioxide from those soils. Through the refinement of farming practices and the use of new technologies, the productivity of many major crops has been steadily increasing (see graphs below), but climate change may compromise that trend. There is another way to expand crop production without adding new land - a farming method known as “double cropping.” In temperate climates there is normally one crop harvested from each acre each year. Double cropping involves pairing two crops that … [Read more...] about We Are Asking For More Than Food From Our Farms. A New Cropping Option May Help Meet The Demand

The country’s chief economist expects more private sector funding for public infrastructure projects materializing soon, as President Marcos approved the plan to revisit the supposedly “antimarket” provisions of the guidelines of the Amended Build-Operation-Transfer (BOT) Law. “We have already received the President’s directive to review the implementing rules and regulations or IRR of the BOT Law. We are presently awaiting the convening of the committee to review the rules,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told the 2022 economic forum organized by the Economic Journalists’ Association of the Philippines (EJAP) and San Miguel Corp. (SMC). “We have received several private sector stakeholders’ comments expressing their concerns over specific provisions of the IRR. Of course, a careful review of the rules requires that we perform a balancing act: encouraging private investment to promote job creation, technological innovation, and product competition while … [Read more...] about Marcos OKs Neda review of ‘antimarket’ BOT Law rules

Bitcoin was, and is, touted as a tool of financial inclusion. After 13 years, Bitcoin has an estimated 100-120 million users out of a worldwide household population of two billion. Contrast this with UPI with more than 600 million users in India, in a household population of around 300 million. This means that, on an average, there are nearly two users of UPI in each household. UPI: The next big stock idea According to the June 2022 data from NPCI, the total value transacted, annualised, is at $1.5 trillion. In terms of transactions, annualised, more than 70 billion transactions are carried out on the UPI platform. It is being extended to more than 30 countries worldwide. UPI is developed and managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an Indian company — talk about Make in India and Make for the World. UPI costs nothing to the users and is a real-time payments system. It instantly deducts amounts as low as Re 1 from a bank account and credits it to … [Read more...] about Move over Bitcoin, here comes UPI, the next big investment idea

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For two years, the Covid-19 pandemic rattled financial markets, dominated news coverage and disrupted daily life in ways most Americans would never have predicted. But now, in year three, the coronavirus has been downgraded to a persistent yet manageable threat—on par with the flu. Thanks to some familiar medical solutions (vaccines, antiviral meds and public safety measures), three-quarters of Americans say the worst of Covid-19 is behind us. Now, a new disaster looms. American healthcare stands in direct path of the perfect storm. Forecasting disaster Doomsday predictions often prove wrong or overinflated. But, in 2004, a team of hurricane experts at Louisiana State University predicted “ a catastrophe [is] right on the horizon .” They were right. Less than a year later, New Orleans was eleven feet under water. Hurricane Katrina killed 1,833 people and left thousands more homeless. How did the researchers … [Read more...] about These 3 Healthcare Threats Will Do More Damage Than Covid-19

Stock options can definitely be a great tool in retaining the staff with the right attitude. SMEs have a knowledge gap in one area related to compensation and benefits (C&B). It is often entrusted to the so-called experts even by large enterprises. Big global consultants conduct benchmark studies on compensation and the exercise is repeated at frequent intervals. SMEs do not have the luxury of infinite cycles of data collection and analytics. Often, SME employees wear multiple hats and hence the task of fixing compensation becomes even more tangled. At the same time, this is a core issue that needs to be tackled. What are the factors that need to be considered so that SME leaders get the compensation balance right? In our coaching practice, we always look at the markers that indicate the attainment of goals. What are the markers for a good C&B strategy? The objectives of compensation management are to attract, engage and retain employees through competitive … [Read more...] about Demystifying the complexities of employee compensation

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Holy turnabout, Batman. Since early 2021, the U.S. has gone from having indoor face mask wearing requirements to dropping many such requirements to what can be seen in the latest update of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) K-12 Schools and Early Care and Education (ECE) Programs guidelines . The CDC is now recommending that “Schools and ECE programs should consider flexible, non-punitive policies and practices to support individuals who choose to wear masks regardless of the Covid-19 Community Level.” Now it’s not clear whether the “consider flexible non-punitive policies and practices” was referring to not punishing those who “choose to wear masks” or not punishing those who hassle people who “choose to wear masks.” Lucky Tran, PhD, an organizer for the March for Science and a science communicator at Columbia University, seemed to take it the former way when tweeting the following: As you can … [Read more...] about What New CDC Covid-19 School Guidelines Says About Bullying Face Mask Wearers

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The last months have seen allegations of Russia abducting Ukrainian children and subjecting them to illegal adoptions in Russia. In March 2022, less than a month after Putin attacked Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported that Russian forces have illegally removed 2,389 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to Russia. In April 2022, Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner, Lyudmila Denysova , tweeted that more than 121,000 children have been forcibly deported to Russia over the weeks. This number includes orphaned children and those who have one or both parents. Denysova added that Russia was “mak[ing] changes to the legislation to organize the accelerated procedure of adoption of children from Donbas.” According to Denysova, “Russia repeats the 2014 scenario when it was taken out of the occupied Crimea of Ukrainian children so-called ‘train of hope’ for their adoption.” As the evidence of such … [Read more...] about We Must Act To Protect Ukrainian Children – From Abductions And Other Abuses Suffered In Putin’s War