Unless you are visiting our site for the first time (in which case, welcome!!), you will have noticed by now that it's new and--we believe and hope--improved. A website for any sort of professional services firm is an interesting thing. We don't sell a tangible product...
"Our life is frittered away by detail...
Way back in June of 2001 I introduced Beacon’s first Friday Brief. Its purpose was to communicate, educate, and occasionally console as in a one-on-one conversation. On that inaugural day, there was a lot of worry and deep concern about our country, our safety and...
There has a been a lot of talk the last few years about whether a college education provides a good return on investment (ROI). High tuition, absurd annual increases, and stagnant employee wages (not to mention the rise of the Gig economy) over the past...
Here are some facts which I present, for now, without commentary: From February 19th to March 23rd the U.S. stock market was down about 35%. Since March 23rd, the market has been up over 30%. The stock market is still down about 15% since the...
We’re wrapping up an historic week for the US economy. On Monday, the unthinkable happened when oil prices dropped below $0 a barrel for the first time ever. On Thursday, the US Labor Department announced an additional 4.4 million first-time claims for unemployment, effectively wiping out...
“I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant.” Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto when their attack on Pearl Harbor was completed In February, when the US coronavirus outbreak started, our workforce reached a high of 164.6 million workers. Since then, close to 30 million, or...
In today's brief we're taking a break from discussing the current state of the economy and the stock market, two things out of our control, to turn our attention to something we can control: the interest rate on our mortgage. This isn't to diminish COVID-19...
Yesterday morning at 8:30am the Labor Department released the absolutely bewildering number of last week's initial jobless claims: 6.6 million. The week before that it was 3.3 million. These numbers are so high (and likely to go much higher) that it's hard to put them...
The stock market has enjoyed three straight days of gains after the Senate passed a massive economic stimulus bill in an effort to cushion the U.S. economy from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The stimulus bill will now head to the House, which will...
