Electronic Personhood

Did you hear that the European Parliament has proposed to grant “personhood” status to intelligent machines (aka robots)? If you don’t believe it, here’s the exact language:

“At the least, the most sophisticated autonomous robots could be established as having the status of electronic persons responsible for making good any damage they may cause, and possibly applying electronic personality to cases where robots make autonomous decisions or otherwise interact with third parties independently.” Read More “Electronic Personhood”

The Trade War that Isn’t—Yet

When most of us hear talk about something described as a “war,” we intuitively recognize that there could be very unpleasant outcomes on all sides. Wars have one thing in common: there is seldom a clear-cut “winner” amid the damage and destruction.

So when President Trump declares a “trade war” against the world’s second-largest economy, it’s natural that many people—including, apparently, a large number of investors—would feel spooked about what’s to come in our collective future. This explains why every escalation of words, and new lists of things that will be taxed at U.S. and Chinese borders, has provoked sharp downturns in the markets.

But what, exactly, is a “trade war?” Beyond that, what is a “trade deficit” and why are we trying to “cure” America’s trade deficit with China? Read More “The Trade War that Isn’t—Yet”

By Colleen Weber, CFP®, CPA

Regardless of whether you are an avid reader of Market Watch or just tune in to the nightly news every now and then, you know that 2017 was a banner year for stocks. In fact, both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 celebrated the launch of 2018 by reaching record highs¹ and until the beginning of February 2018, we were experiencing the second-longest bull market since 1929. Read More “Is Your Retirement Plan Ready for a Market Downturn in 2018?”

Better Conversation-Starters

Sometimes our social interactions seem to happen by default, and we don’t get much out of them. Consider the stock greeting: “How are you?”

What information are you likely to get when you ask this tired question? Tired answers, like: “Busy,” “fine,” “okay,” or “good.”

And what did you learn from that? How did you improve your relationship with the other person as a result of this exchange? Read More “Better Conversation-Starters”