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BILLIONAIRES WORLDWIDE-NEW RECORD SET

The world’s billionaires are riding high, with Forbes finding a record 2,781 of them around the globe this year, worth a record $14.2 trillion altogether. With many markets up, the surge in wealth has made 265 people billionaires over the past year, up from 150 newcomers in 2023.

These fresh faces include a fashion legend, an NBA hall-of-famer and one very famous popstar. They collectively command $510 billion in wealth, or $1.9 billion on average, and hail from 32 countries.

Once again, the United States leads the pack, with 67 Americans joining the ranks. The wealthiest among them is Todd Graves, the founder of fast-food chain Raising Cane’s, whose net worth stands at an estimated $9.1 billion. China maintains the second spot, nearly doubling its number of new billionaires from last year, to 31, despite troubles in the Asian nation. The richest are Maggie Gu, Molly Miao and Ren Xiaoqing (worth an estimated $4.2 billion each), who cofounded the Gen Z fast-fashion giant Shein. India, meanwhile, added 25 new billionaires, including Renuka Jagtiani ($4.8 billion), the chief executive of e-commerce conglomerate Landmark Group, which was founded by her late husband Micky Jagtiani, who died in May 2023.

The richest newcomer of all is Italy’s Andrea Pignataro. A former Salomon Brothers bond trader, he launched London-based financial software firm ION Group in 1999 and grew it through high-profile acquisitions into a major competitor of Bloomberg LP and FactSet. Pignataro, 53, is worth an estimated $27.5 billion, thanks to ION Group and other holdings that include the 1,280-acre Canouan Estate, a sprawling collection of luxury villas and hotels in the Caribbean paradise of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The richest women to join the ranks this year: Sofia Högberg Schörling and her sister Märta Schörling Andreen. The two daughters of Swedish investing tycoon Melker Schörling, who died in late 2023, have estimated net worths of $5.6 billion each. They are among 46 women to become billionaires over the past year.

Meet The Newly Minted Billionaires On The 2024 Billionaires List

The most famous newcomer is, of course, Taylor Swift, whose record-breaking, five-continent Eras Tour is the first to surpass $1 billion in revenue. The 34-year-old pop star amassed an estimated $1.1 billion fortune, based on earnings from the blockbuster tour, the value of her music catalog and her real estate portfolio. Swift is the first musician to hit ten-figure status solely based on her songs and performances.

NBA legend and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson is new this year, too, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, thanks to investments in professional sports teams, movie theaters, Starbucks franchises, real estate and healthcare. And French fashion designer Christian Louboutin, the man behind the iconic red-soled high heels, joins the ranks with an estimated $1.2 billion fortune.

At 19 years old, Livia Voigt is not only this year’s youngest newcomer, but also the world’s youngest billionaire. (Previously the youngest was eyeglasses heir Clement Del Vecchio of Italy, who is just two months older.) Voigt and her elder sister Dora Voigt de Assis each inherited a $1.1 billion fortune based on their stakes in Brazilian turbine manufacturer WEG, which was cofounded by their grandfather, the late Werner Ricardo Voigt (d. 2016).

More than half of this year’s newcomers are self-made billionaires, meaning they founded the companies that made them wealthy rather than inheriting their fortunes. The youngest of the self-made newcomers is Japan’s Shunsaku Sagami, founder of Tokyo-based advisory firm M&A Research Institute, which employs AI to find buyers for companies. The 33-year-old graduate of Kobe University is now worth an estimated $1.9 billion.

The manufacturing sector is the most prominent route to new wealth this year, with 46 new billionaires, including India’s Anil Gupta, chairman of KEI Industries, a Delhi-based company he inherited from his father and expanded into a manufacturer of stainless steel wires and power cables. The Luxembourg-listed firm exports its products to more than 55 countries. Another fresh face in manufacturing is Nicholas Howley, who cofounded airplane-parts maker TransDigm, which went public in 2006. Its formula: acquire companies that are the only ones making particular airplane parts and then jack up the prices. Howley is worth an estimated $1.1 billion.

The technology sector accounts for 38 newcomers, the second most, behind manufacturing. Booming demand for computer chips and increased interest in generative AI helped drive up shares of IT infrastructure firm Super Micro Computer, making its cofounder and CEO, Charles Liang, the richest tech newcomer, worth an estimated $6.1 billion. Turkey’s Haluk Bayraktar built a $1.1 billion fortune as CEO of military drone maker Baykar Defense. (His brother Selçuk, who runs the company with him and who is the son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Erdoğan, is also a new billionaire.) Their most famous export, the Bayraktar, has been used so successfully by Ukrainian troops that it inspired a popular folk song.

Among the 37 newcomers with fortunes in finance and investments: Seth Boro, Scott Crabill and Holden Spaht, all managing partners of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, who are worth an estimated $3.3 billion each. With bitcoin surging, newcomers from crypto include Giancarlo Devasini of Italy, a former plastic surgeon behind Tether, which is known for issuing USDT, the world’s most popular crypto stablecoin. Forbes estimates Devasini is worth $9.2 billion. Three other Bitfinex executives, Stuart Hoegner (who is worth an estimated $2.5 billion), Jean-Louis van der Velde ($3.9 billion) and Paolo Ardoino ($3.9 billion), join the ranks, too.

CONTAINER SHIPS DOMINATED BY FOREIGN COMPANIES

The 95,000-ton Dali was carrying 4,700 cargo containers weighing up to a collective 262,000 tons when it knocked down the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, creating what is known in the media business as “a news event” in Baltimore Harbor that dominated the airwaves and headlines for days.
But the story is not only in Baltimore Harbor. The story is global. The story spans every sea lane, river, harbor, and port across the world.
Epoch Times PhotoThe steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sits on top of a container ship after the bridge collapsed, Baltimore, Md., on March 26, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
The story is this: Just 16 companies—eight shippers, three factory groups, and five container lessors—control 81 percent of the world’s commercial ocean transport, container production, and box-leasing capacity.
The eight global corporations—none based in the U.S.—that dominate international maritime commercial shipping are aligned in three self-serving “cartels” that have divided sea lanes and “cargo slots” among themselves with little concern for interests beyond their bottom lines.
And, so, they are building bigger and bigger ships. The bigger the ship, the more cargo it can carry. For international shipping firms, that offers an economy of scale in saving fuel and lowering the cost of transportation per container. It works for consumers with lower-cost goods. Usually.
Container ships have been steadily increasing in size since they were created in 1956. But it wasn’t until the early 2000s that the “Big Boat Era” truly began.
Of more than 50,000 merchant ships now plying the world’s maritime trade routes, at least 5,500 are regarded as mega-ships. There are seven major types:
    • Small Feeder—Up to 1,000 TEUs (Twenty-ton equivalent units)
    • Feeder—1,001 to 2,000 TEUs
    • Feedermax—2,001 to 3,000 TEUs
    • Panamax—3,001 to 5,100 TEUs
    • Post-Panamax—5,101 to 10,000 TEUs (the Dali is in this category)
    • New Panamax—10,000 to 14,500 TEUs
    • Ultra Large Container Vessel (ULCV)—14,501 and higher TEUs
But they pose risks, such as cargo concentration, like what happened in Long Beach, California, in late 2021—that can degrade supply chain resilience because only a relatively few ports can accommodate them. And when one is disabled in a sea lane, such as now in Baltimore Harbor or in March 2021, when the Ever Given grounded in the Suez Canal, it can bottleneck maritime trade for weeks and cause worldwide inflation.
In the big ship era, one ship’s problem becomes the world’s problem.
The big ships pose hazards in confined waterways and the “cartel” is forcing ports— where possible—to retrofit infrastructure to accommodate them at great expense.
“If you build it, they will come,” Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor who analyzes maritime commerce at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, told The Epoch Times.
If not, your port, your town, your industries become backwaters—or maybe your bridge gets knocked down. Baltimore’s Key Bridge joins the Lixinsha Bridge in southern China’s Guangzhou province and the Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridge on the Prana River in Argentina as 2024 victims of mega-ship allisions—a new word to learn when a massive ship runs over a stationary victim—in confined waters. And it’s still March.
This puts American ports in an ever-narrowing crosshair. Without a cohesive national ports and commercial maritime policy—remember when the United States had a robust merchant marine fleet?—the “shipping cartel,” as labeled by the Biden administration, will rule the waves.
“The way we do things in the U.S. is very unique; ports are run locally by municipal governments or states and then the waters are run by the federal government, so it creates a big problem,” Mercogliano said. “And so, you get this competition and then you have the ocean carriers” dictating winners and losers.
No American port can handle the newest ultra-large container vessels. It cost taxpayers $1.7 billion to raise the Bayonne Bridge so New Panamax-sized carriers could enter the Port of New York/New Jersey. It cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion to improve the Port of Savannah, but less than two years later, another study is warranted because the mega-ships can’t get up the lower Savannah River and under the Eugene Talmadge Bridge.
“Mega container ships are changing our ports,” acknowledges xChange Solutions, a global container-leasing company based in Hamburg, Germany, in an April 2022 analysis. While providing “benefits like high freight volume and low fuel costs” the also impose “massive port infrastructure demands” on port operators.
Ports around the world are struggling to cope, writes Evangelos Boulougouris a professor of naval architecture, ocean and marine engineering at the University of Strathclyde for the Maritime Safety Research Centre. “The cost of such projects is immense: the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2016 to accommodate bigger ships ended up costing over $5 billion.”
“Ocean carriers and the financial institutions that bankroll them aren’t paying for updated ports, increased dredging, new warehouses, highways and so on to accommodate these ships. That cost is getting off-loaded to the public,” American Economic Liberties Project Director Matt Stoller told FreightWaves in May 2022.
 “We have a lot of ports in this country but we don’t have enough ocean carrier firms,” Stoller said. “The ocean carrier firms’ boats are too big for most ports.”
Many ports will soon be backwaters, the 54-member nation International Transport Forum’s 2015 “Impact of Mega-Ships” report predicted, noting the ever-growing big ships were generating cost savings for carriers and decreasing maritime transport costs for shippers, but reducing the number of ports that can accommodate them.
Which brings us back to Baltimore Harbor.
“A long-term fear of Baltimore’s is they may lose business permanently because of [the Dali crash] and that’s because they’re saying in New York/New Jersey, ‘You can just shift your cargo here,’” Mercogliano said. “
I hate to say it—you know, no one will say it— but you there are four port directors up and down the East Coast are going. ‘Thank God that’s not my port … but, how can I use this to get some business my way? You know, how can I grow Philadelphia? How can I grow Savannah? Because that’s what they do. They have to compete against each other. There’s a finite amount of cargo out there.”

Six Early Warning Signs to Identify When Your Business Needs a Turnaround – Insights from Management Consultants

The process of managing a business is riddled with various obstacles and hurdles, and at times, these challenges can become quite daunting. It is of utmost importance for businesses to possess the ability to identify the early indicators that suggest a significant requirement for business turnaround.

Neglecting these warning signs can result in severe repercussions, such as financial turmoil and even the eventual shutdown of the business. To avoid such outcomes, it is crucial to be aware of the early warning signs of underperformance and take corrective measures. By implementing practical and effective strategies for business turnaround, one can prevent from ever reaching a crisis point. STERLINGCOOPER.INFO provides turnaround services and its book has a section called: “Medicine for Troubled Companies”.

Six Early Signs that Indicate the Need for A Business Turnaround.

  1. Downward-sliding profits: A strong business is indicated by financial expansion. If your earnings have declined instead of increasing for five or more quarters in a row, this is a clear indicator of issues. Even if the numbers are flat, it should still be a red flag.
  2. Cash flow struggles:Having difficulty in meeting the financial obligations or depending on credit to meet your expenses indicates that the cash flow is not in good shape. If you find yourself accumulating debt to sustain your operations or cover deficits, it is a warning sign that the business might be facing difficulties. Even if you have a steady stream of business, constantly facing cash shortages, overdrafts, and bounced checks is a problem that needs business turnaround. While it is common to experience fluctuations in working capital, it should be manageable. If you don’t have an income or cash flow budget in place, it is a clear indication that the business is heading towards trouble.
  3. Lack of Innovation: If the business is not keeping up with the ever-evolving market trends and failing to introduce new ideas, it could result in a lack of growth and a decline in competitiveness. When you notice that the rivals are making progress and expanding their market share while your business is struggling, it’s a clear indication that there is a need for business turnaroundand make necessary adjustments to stay relevant and competitive in the industry.
  4. Poor Financial Management: Inadequate financial managementhabits, like neglecting to maintain precise records or overlooking expense monitoring, have the potential to result in financial difficulties. Disregarding crucial financial ratios such as the current ratio or debt-to-equity ratio may obscure fundamental financial issues.
  5. Legal or Regulatory Issues:Neglecting to adhere to legal or regulatory obligations can result in financial penalties or even legal proceedings, both of which can place additional strain on the resources of your business. It is crucial to prioritize compliance in order to avoid these potential consequences and safeguard the stability and prosperity of your organization.
  6. Resistance to Change: Beingresistant to change or refusing to adapt to new market conditions can pose a significant obstacle to the success and growth of any business. It is crucial for businesses to remain flexible and open to evolving trends in order to stay competitive and meet the ever-changing needs of customers. Failure to embrace change can result in missed opportunities, decreased efficiency, and ultimately, stagnation in the market. It is important for business owners to recognize the importance of adaptation and be willing to make necessary business turnarounds in order to thrive in today’s dynamic environment.

 Conclusion

Early detection of these signs through vigilance allows for proactive steps to avert a major crisis in your business.  Additionally, seeking guidance from a skilled business consultant or financial advisor can offer you invaluable perspectives and effective strategies for business turnaround. Always keep in mind that it’s never too late to implement constructive changes and guide your business towards a prosperous future.

Sterling Cooper, Inc is a business acquisition advisory and management consultant company in the USA having decades of experience in corporate turnaround strategies. From emerging startups to established enterprises, Sterling Cooper’s tailored approach fosters innovation, efficiency, and market leadership. Our seasoned team leverages a meticulous selection process, financial acumen, and industry expertise to seamlessly integrate acquired entities into a cohesive and dynamic portfolio. For business inquiry fill our short feedback form or call us at our Toll-Free Number 1-866-285-6572.

BECOME A BILLIONAIRE, PAY LESS TAXES AND OWN MANSIONS AND YACHTS NEVER HAVE REPORTABLE INCOME!

.LIVE LIKE A BILLIONAIRE AND HAVE NO INCOME TO REPORT!

How the very rich lose money, overvalue art, buy very expensive life insurance, and somehow profit without having reportable income!

Do you want to pay less taxes? Great. Step one, be a rich person. Have no reportable income, always borrow instead.Then, buy a yacht. Or a sports team. Give a lot to charity. Lose some money in the stock market. Above all, make sure most of your money exists in the form of assets, not cash — stocks, real estate, a Dutch master painting, fine jewelry, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

They say that money is a universal language, but it speaks at different volumes. When you have a fathomless bounty of wealth, money doesn’t quite register as an expense until you add a lot of zeros to the end — so spending a lot to save a lot is a no-brainer. It’s why the mega-rich often hire expensive tax lawyers, wealth managers, or even set up a whole office dedicated to tax strategy. “It’s not just preparing the return,” says a tax accountant. “There’s so much more involved in planning, in accumulating, offsetting, and trying to mitigate the taxes as best as possible.”

For the rich, taxes aren’t a springtime affair with a quick visit to H&R Block, but a year-round endeavor.

How much tax a wealthy person owes in a given year is a complex tapestry threaded with exemptions, deductions, credits, and obscure loopholes you’ve never heard of. The ideal is to owe zilch. If that sounds impossible to achieve, just look at the leaked tax returns of the wealthiest Americans that nonprofit news site ProPublica analyzed.: Over several years, billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Michael Bloomberg, among others, paid no federal income taxes at all.

How do they do it? Here are some basic rules they live by.

Don’t take a paycheck

If your income is earned through wages paid to you by an employer, chances are your taxes are on the simpler side of the spectrum. Not as simple as it is for wage earners in other countries, where the government simply tells you how much you owe, but getting a paycheck from your boss means your taxes are automatically withheld each pay period. Filing your tax return might be as easy as filling out one form.

You can pick and choose which deductions to take (like for student loan interest, or for having a home office), but the vast majority of households take the simpler standard deduction, which this year erases $14,600 from your tax bill. For tax year 2024, you’ll pay a 37 percent tax on any income you rake in over $609,350. That sounds like it would add up to a sizable amount for multimillionaires and billionaires — unless that income is just a minuscule share of their increasing wealth.

Jeff Bezos, when he was still Amazon CEO, had a base salary of around $80,000 a year. Elon Musk doesn’t take a salary at all at Tesla. Apple CEO Tim Cook does get a $3 million salary, but it’s a small slice of the $63 million he received overall last year.

Most wealthy entrepreneurs are paid in bountiful stock rewards; Musk is currently fighting to keep his record-breaking Tesla pay package, made up of a bunch of stock options and now valued at almost $56 billion. ProPublica found that, because their income fell below the threshold, at least 18 billionaires got a Covid-19 stimulus check.

Paul Kiel, a ProPublica reporter who was an integral part of the newsroom’s billionaire tax return stories, says the income versus wealth divide was crucial in helping the public understand how differently the wealthy operate. “If you can avoid income as it’s defined in our system, and still get richer, that’s the best route,” he tells Vox.

Stocks aren’t taxed until they’re sold — and even then, what’s taxed is the profit on the sale, called a capital gains tax. Billionaires (usually) don’t sell valuable stock. So how do they afford the daily expenses of life, whether it’s a new pleasure boat or a social media company? They borrow against their stock. This revolving door of credit allows them to buy what they want without incurring a capital gains tax.

Though the “buy, borrow, die” strategy isn’t quite as sweet right now because interest rates are high, a Wall Street Journal piece from 2021 notes that those with $100 million or more could get interest rates as low as 0.87 percent at Merrill Lynch. The taxable value of a stock also resets when it’s passed on to an heir, so that if a wealthy scion chooses to sell their inherited stock, they’d only pay a tax on the increase in value since the original owner’s death.

Plan on losing money

If you do, regrettably, have to sell assets, fret not: just lose a lot of money, too, and pile on the offsets. “We do what’s called tax-loss harvesting,” says Wieseneck, using a simple example to illustrate. Say someone owns Pepsi stock, and it tanks. They sell at a loss, but then buy about the same amount of Coca Cola stock. The Pepsi loss can erase some (or even all, if you play your cards right) of the taxes owed on the gains made on Coca Cola stock.

“During the year we try to accumulate losses,” says Wieseneck. “At the end of the year, if I know you have a capital gain on a sale of a property or a house or another investment, I’ll accumulate some losses for you that can offset [it].” Capital losses don’t also have to be applied in the same year — if you know you’ll be selling more assets next year, you can bank them for later.

It’s illegal to quickly sell and then buy the same stock again — a practice called a “wash sale” — just to save on taxes, but the key word is “same.” Public companies often offer different classes of stock that essentially trade the same, and it’s not hard to trade similar-enough stocks back and forth. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs), for example, are like buckets containing a mix of stocks that can themselves be traded like a stock. A few different ETFs might perform roughly the same on the stock market; a person could sell one ETF and quickly buy another while avoiding the “do not sell and buy the same stock within 30 days” rule.

Play tax rate arbitrage

Another tool in the tax shrinking arsenal: leveraging the differences in tax rates, which vary based on the type of asset and how long someone owned it. Long-term gains — assets held for longer than a year — from the sale of stocks and bonds are taxed at rates as low as zero percent and as high as 25 percent. Short-term gains, meanwhile, can face a tax as high as 37 percent. Collectibles, which include art, antiques, cards, comic books, and more, have a max rate of 28 percent.

The basic strategy here is to always get the lowest tax rate possible for your gains. A favorite tactic of billionaire investor Jeff Yass, according to reporting from ProPublica, is to place bets both for and against large companies, trying to amass a bunch of short-term losses on one end and long-term gains, which already enjoy a lower tax rate, on the other.

Another kind of magic trick is to place high-tax income into lower-tax or no-tax wrappers, which can include things like tax-advantaged retirement accounts. One example is what’s called the private placement life insurance policy, a niche product that only the very wealthiest of the wealthy use. It can cost millions of dollars to set up, so it’s not worth it unless you’re rich, but the premiums a policyholder pays into the policy can be invested in high-growth investment options, such as hedge funds. The money you’d get back if you decide to cancel the policy isn’t taxed, but it’s not even necessary to take the money out. You can borrow money from the policy at low interest rates, and its benefits pass on tax-free to beneficiaries upon the original holder’s death. It’s insurance, says Michael Kosnitzky, co-chair of the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman’s Private Client & Family Office practice group, “but it also holds investment assets and, like any permanent insurance policy, the cash surrender value grows tax free.”

A recent report from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, laid out how big the scheme had gotten, currently sheltering at least $40 billion. The report found that the average net worth of people with such life insurance policies was over $100 million.

Business or pleasure?

When you’re very rich, it’s important to treat everything as a business expense. Private jets are expensive luxuries, but the cost can be fully tax deductible if the plane is mostly being used for business — and what counts as “mostly business” isn’t clear cut. Maybe you take a trip on your jet partly to take a business meeting, but also to spend a few relaxing days in a beautiful getaway spot. Private jet owners often set up LLCs and rent out their planes when they’re not personally using them to take advantage of the tax deduction, reported ProPublica.

In fact, many expensive hobbies of the ultra-rich coincidentally turn into business expenses — yachts, racehorses, golf courses, and more. They’re often run very professionally, says Kiel, “but never quite seem to make a profit.”

“Generally you’re not supposed to write stuff off that’s a hobby,” he continues. “But the wealthier you are, the more your hobbies appear to be businesses or are operated like businesses.”

Despite the ubiquity of this practice, there’s risk to it, especially as the IRS ramps up audits of tax write-offs for private jets. If the wealthy are going to buy exorbitantly expensive yachts and claim it’s being used for a business, says Kosnitzky, “you’d better be on very solid ground.”

Philanthropy pays

Charity is a time-worn way the ultra-rich reduce their taxes — and it has the added bonus of putting a nice luster on their reputation. Many charitable organizations set up by billionaires are tax-exempt, and charitable donations are tax deductible. You can completely control when to make a donation, and of what size, depending on how much taxable income you have in a given year; it’s a nimble method of offsetting taxes.

But the worthiness of charitable deductions can be questionable, because they’re “very, very loosely regulated,” says Kiel. The donations themselves can range from buying mosquito nets to prevent malaria to “paying for your kid’s private school.” Recall, for example, that former President Donald Trump once used money from his foundation to buy a painting of himself. Often, the wealthy can pour money into foundations and funds with philanthropic aims without actually distributing that money to anyone. One popular charitable medium today is called a donor-advised fund. Rich people put their money into these funds, and “advisers” who manage the account eventually give away the money — eventually being the key word. Even if the money hasn’t gone to a good cause yet, donors can take the tax deduction right away.

In other cases, what raises eyebrows is whether an ostensibly charitable organization actually serves a public good. These charities get tax-exempt status because they’re supposed to have a “pro-social” purpose, says Daniel Reck, an economics professor at the University of Maryland who recently co-authored a paper analyzing tax evasion among the ultra-rich. Some billionaires claim their foundations qualify because they’re opening up a historical mansion or private art collection to the public. In fact, there are many examples of tax-exempt organizations not holding up their end of the bargain. As ProPublica reported, the historic landmark Carolands Chateau enjoys tax benefits but is open to the public just two hours per week. A private art gallery established by the late billionaire Sheldon Solow only recently became open to visitors, despite some of the art being held in a tax-exempt foundation.

Also crucial to utilizing charity as a tax avoidance strategy is pumping up the value of your generosity. “You donate some fancy piece of fine art to a museum, you get an assessment for the art, it’s much more than you could actually ever sell it for,” explains Reck. “You get a big tax write-off.” It’s not just fine art, either — one popular form of overvaluation (until Congress passed a bill putting an end to it last year) involved inflating the value of land. Called a “syndicated conservation easement,” it took advantage of an incentive for environmental conservation, in which landowners who agree not to develop their land would get a tax break proportional to the fair market value of the land. “The game is that people just massively, ludicrously inflate these fair market values,” says Reck. In the syndicated version of this tax break, a group of investors buys land, gets an overvalued assessment on it, and shares the tax write-off between themselves. “Now there are a bunch of court cases about it,” Reck says.

The gray area and the illegal stuff

Some of the above tactics occupy an ambiguous, blurry zone of legality — it might be okay or not on a case-by-case basis. Some wealthy people may be alright with the risk, but Kosnitzky notes that it isn’t wise to play the “audit lottery” — there’s also reputational risk to consider. For those determined to take an “aggressive” tax position, a lot of documentation and even having their lawyer prepare a memo defending their tax strategy may be necessary. They might still end up paying a penalty and owing taxes, but exactly how much is up for negotiation.

The paper Reck co-authored found that sophisticated tax evasion methods used by the very wealthy, including evasion through pass-through businesses or offshore accounts, often goes undetected by random audits. This suggests that current estimates of the “tax gap,” or the difference between taxes paid to the IRS and the amount it’s actually owed, is very likely an undercount.

The difference between avoidance (legal) and evasion (illegal) is hard to untangle at times because wealthy people will dispute their audit, deploying brilliant tax lawyers to argue that the government is mistaken. These battles can take years to settle. It’s not just that the IRS needs a bigger budget to do all the audits it wants to — it did get extra funding in the Inflation Reduction Act — but that auditing a wealthy taxpayer is costlier, and much more time-consuming, than auditing a poor one. The structures of the well-off’s businesses are often extremely complex, too, which also makes auditing them more expensive.

Reck noted that rich people dispute a greater share of the tax that the IRS says they should pay after an audit. In the middle of the income distribution, about 10 percent of the auditor’s recommended adjustment is disputed, says Reck. Among people with the highest income, however, the disputed share exceeds 50 percent. “That suggests that the taxpayer and their advisers, at least, believe that they’re either in some gray area or were allowed to do what they did.”

“We’ve talked to a lot of former IRS agents, and they would often hear the line that for wealthy taxpayers, their tax return is like an opening offer,” says Kiel.

TAYLOR SWIFT- “SWIFTONOMICS” MAKING MONEY!

Taylor Swift and the strange power of ‘Swiftonomics’

When Chris Galvin was searching for Taylor Swift tickets for his 13-year-old daughter, Lily, last summer, the best he could find was a pair for $2,000 plus a spot in a parking lot 10 minutes’ walk from the concert for nearly $500.

That was for the concert closest to their home – the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, a Silicon Valley city located in the San Francisco Bay Area – where Swift performed at the end of July.

Galvin hadn’t moved fast enough to find cheaper tickets. Before they had even become available to buy, the shows were so highly anticipated that the city announced in a news release that it would temporarily change its name to “Swiftie Clara”. Swift was even named Honorary Mayor during her visit.

After reaching out to his social media networks and shelling out $500 including fees, Galvin was able to secure two last-minute tickets to an early August performance at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, a city in Los Angeles County more than 560km (350 miles) from his home.

Swiftie Dad
A ‘Swiftie Dad’ with his daughter at the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California on August 8, 2023 [Caroline Brehman/EPA]

Galvin surprised his daughter with the news that they were going to LA a few days before the event.

“The road trip, standing in line for merchandise, and the overall experience turned out to be a lot of fun,” he says. “I’ll never forget sharing that experience with her. It was so cool to see her singing, dancing and just in awe for her first real concert.”

Now a music tech executive, Galvin was a professional DJ in Southern California during the 1990s. Though Swift’s music isn’t similar to what he played at underground raves, he says the atmosphere at Swift’s SoFi Stadium show was reminiscent of the PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect) ethos of the old-school rave scene in Los Angeles.

“The positive vibe was incredible,” Galvin says. “Random Swifties would simply walk up to Lily, strike up a conversation, and ask if she wanted to trade [friendship] bracelets.”

His daughter made some lasting relationships, and mothers of young fans gave him several rave-reminiscent friendship bracelets, with phrases like “Swiftie Dad” spelled out in beads.

Friendship bracelets are a big thing among Swifties. Fans started trading friendship bracelets after she sang about them in You’re on Your Own, Kid on her 2022 album, Midnights: “Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned / Everything you lose is a step you take / So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it / You’ve got no reason to be afraid.”

Swiftie Dad bracelet
Chris Galvin’s ‘Swiftie Dad’ bracelet [Courtesy of Chris Galvin]

Swift mania

But what is now known as the Taylor Swift Effect runs far beyond a craze for friendship bracelets. The six shows she performed at SoFi, where Galvin and his daughter went to watch her, generated an estimated $320m in tourism revenues, taxes and extra jobs for Los Angeles County, according to a special report by the Center for Jobs.

“Swiftonomics” effect has caused countries to vie for her attention. When the initial list of tour dates was published in June 2023 with no mention of Canada, Canadian Members of Parliament filed a complaint with the Speaker of the House of Commons calling it a “snub”. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hurriedly issued an invitation and, a month later, six dates for Toronto and three for Vancouver were added to the list of international tour dates for 2024.

Swift has also received invitations from the president of Chile, the mayor of Budapest and the leader of an opposition party in Thailand. New Zealand’s finance minister, Grant Robertson, bowed out of the contest to attract Swift, saying he couldn’t afford to invest public money on a marketing campaign.

It’s little wonder that Swift was named Person of the Year for 2023 by Time Magazine.

Taylor Swift
The cover of Time Magazine announcing the 2023 Person of the Year with US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift [Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin /TIME/TIME Person of the Year/ AFP]

The rise of Taylor Swift has been astronomical and is a story that resonates strongly with teenage admirers, though fans of all ages consider themselves to be “Swifties”. The 34-year-old was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, with aspirations for the country music scene at the age of 14. She released her debut album at 16 in 2006.

That first album was a hit on both the Top Country Albums (where it spent 24 weeks at number one) and on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at number five and hung out on the pop chart for 284 weeks – almost five and a half years. She remained more prominently in the country music world for several years until she released 1989, her first overtly pop album, in 2014.

Somehow, fans seem to identify strongly with Swift’s well-documented struggles in love, using her songs to get through their own challenging experiences; others particularly admire her shift from country to mainstream pop music on her own terms. Young women say they grew up feeling inspired by a woman who set new standards for herself and others in business that has set a lasting impression of self-empowerment.

“I find it cool and powerful that she can re-record all of her old albums and encourage her fans to listen,” says Lily Galvin. “It shows her strength and independence as a woman and artist. I also like how she serves as a role model for so many people. Plus, she creates great music and seems like a really nice person.”

Taylor Swift 2007
Taylor Swift performs during the 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in May 2007, in Las Vegas, when she was more prominent on the country music scene [Mark J Terrill/AP]

Taking back control

Indeed, it is Swift’s business prowess, which includes the re-recording of her first six albums in order to take back control of the master recordings, which has made her an intergenerational inspiration for women both within and outside of the music industry.

In 2019, her former record label, Big Machine Records, owned the masters of the original albums and its owner sold them to a publishing company founded by Scooter Braun, a former music manager for Justin Bieber and Kanye West, whom Swift claimed bullied her on several occasions in her career. So, she re-recorded them all.

“Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it,” she explained in a 2019 Tumblr post.

“Or when his client, Kanye West, organised a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

In the Tumblr missive, Swift told her fans that the new Taylor’s Version albums would be the “healthier option” to buy. She cautioned other artists to make sure they protect their personal rights before they sign any contracts that are not in their best interests – like her early recording deal, which didn’t give her ownership of her own catalogue.

“Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create,” she wrote. “And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.”

An economic phenomenon

The international leg of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour returns in February with a four-night run at the Tokyo Dome in Japan and, as of this writing, will conclude with three nights in Vancouver, British Columbia in early December 2024.

Pollstar estimates that the Eras Tour has already grossed more than $1bn after just 60 shows and 4.35 million tickets sold, breaking a record previously held by Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which took place over 328 performances between 2018 and 2023 and generated $939m.

That’s an exponential difference in terms of the number of shows each artist needed to perform. Ticket sales from Swift’s 2024 performances are expected to gross another $1bn. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film cost $15m to produce and passed $250m in global sales in November to become the top-grossing concert film of all time, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

As the Eras Tour continues its schedule of concerts around the world in the new year, Swift is likely to continue to generate more money than the gross domestic product (GDP) of several countries.

Taylor Swift Chiefs
Taylor Swift cheers during the first half of an NFL football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday, December 25, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri [Charlie Riedel/AP]

The fascination surrounding this has not been confined to music industry commentators and the tabloids. The Washington Post used World Bank data to report that she made more than the annual economic output of 42 nations in 2022.

The Economist took it one step further and conducted an investigation of the 2023 tours by Swift and fellow global pop star and friend Beyoncé to see if they were spurring inflation (conclusion: they weren’t).

In fact, only sporting events tend to boost ancillary spending around major events, economists say. But of course, Swift’s got something to do with giving sports a boost, too – American football, at least. Her budding romantic relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has boosted televised views for the NFL in the US since she began attending games in September.

According to Nielsen data, TV ratings for the October 1 Chiefs game against the New York Jets that aired on Sunday Night Football were the second-highest they’ve been all season at 27 million views, a figure bested only by last February’s Super Bowl. Viewing from women and girls aged from 12 to 35 shot up significantly, particularly in the 12-17 age group.

It seems that Swift’s fans are tuning into Chiefs games en masse with hopes of catching Swift watching from a skybox.

Taylor Swift Chiefs
A Taylor Swift fan cheering the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday, December 25, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri [Reed Hoffmann/AP]

Perfect timing

“Taylor Swift has perfectly timed her concerts to a period where peak consumer spending and peak employment rates are really a substantial qualifier of our current economy. Six months from now, we likely aren’t going to see tours of this magnitude,” Frances Donald, Manulife Investment Management’s chief economist and a self-confessed Swiftie, told CBC in June 2023. She added that the enthusiasm people feel for being able to gather and celebrate in this way since the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic will run its course.

For corporations, politicians, governments and celebrities alike, touting a connection with Swift, however tenuous, has become a popular marketing and clout-generating tool in both social and traditional media.

“Are you a Swiftie?” asked NASA in an Instagram post in October 2022. “We are too!” a rep for the US space agency continued, before describing an extreme rotating neutron star captured by its Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory telescope.

Swift has yet to have a constellation named after her but, back on planet Earth, a Seattle concert set a new record for seismic activity when her dancing fans caused the equivalent of a magnitude 2.3 earthquake at the Lumen Field stadium, which holds 70,000 people.

Taylor Swift The Eras Tour - Nashville
Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour on Friday, May 5, 2023, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee [George Walker IV/AP]

She has even been cited in the naming of a new species. In findings published in April 2022 by ZooKeys, entomologist Derek Hennen identified a previously undocumented arthropod and called it Nannaria swiftae, with a vernacular name of the Swift twisted-claw millipede.

Hennen was reported saying Swift’s music had alleviated “some rough times” in his life, and that he played her music during a 17-state quest to find undiscovered millipedes. The chestnut brown and orange Nannaria swiftae, he wrote, was discovered among “mesic forests with hemlock, maple, oak, tulip tree, witch hazel, and pine” at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee and in three counties in the state. Hennen named it in recognition of Swift’s “talent as a songwriter and performer and in appreciation of the enjoyment her music has brought [to me]”.

Though Swift’s full global economic (and seismic) impact may have yet to be accurately measured and explained, her vast cultural influence is easier to see, especially in the United States.

A vinyl sensation

According to Billboard, Swift’s Midnights was the number one album of 2022 in all formats in the United States. Her 10th studio album was one of every 25 of the more than 41 million vinyl records sold in the US that year, and it was not even released until the end of October.

Data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) shows that 41 million represents more vinyl albums sold than compact discs (CDs) for the first time since 1987, but still short of the 300-plus million vinyl records sold annually in the US in the late 1970s when they were at their most popular.

In the UK, vinyl sales rose by 11.7 percent to 5.9 million in 2023, according to British Phonographic Industry figures released at the end of December. Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was the best-selling LP.

Taylor Swift vinyl
Vinyl records and CDs on sale at the HMV store on Oxford Street on December 28, 2023, in London, England. Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s version) was the best-selling LP [Peter Nicholls/Getty Images]

“One of the biggest impacts we’ve seen as a result of Taylor’s vinyl releases is a growth in the number of young women who are really getting into vinyl collecting,” says Caren Kelleher, founder and president of Gold Rush Vinyl.

“I’ve been blown away by how many young music fans are finding us on TikTok and will write to us and say they started collecting because of Taylor Swift. Choosing to spend your money on a new vinyl record – especially a limited edition one – sends the signal that you are not a casual fan: you’re a super fan. Artists of all popularity levels are seeing vinyl as a way to get creative in serving those fans.”

A digital copy of Midnights costs $11.99 in the US iTunes store; fans can spend a few extra dollars to get other editions such as the 3am Edition or The Til Dawn Edition with some added rare tracks. By comparison, vinyl copies, which come in four different colour schemes, average $32.99 at the online record shops that may still stock a copy or two, while a set of all four currently retails for $178.99 on Amazon.

Based in Austin, Texas, Kelleher’s independent vinyl record pressing plant has seen an overall boost that she can attribute, indirectly at least, to Swift.

“With top artists like Taylor producing so much vinyl at large plants, we’re happy that more artists and labels are finding their way to Gold Rush Vinyl, especially those who otherwise press in Canada and Europe, where the bulk of Taylor’s vinyl is made. The increased cost of doing business abroad is also sending more business back to America, which benefits our team.”

Taylor Swift Eras Tour
Taylor Swift attends a premiere for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in Los Angeles, California on October 11, 2023 [Mario Anzuoni/Reuters]

‘One of the most successful CEOs in the world’

Kelleher says she’s been a Swiftie since the release of the star’s second album – 2008’s Fearless. There was a time when she worried that she had outgrown Swift’s music, but then Folklore dropped in 2020. Both albums are considered successes relative to the year they were released, but look quite different in terms of physical sales.

Fearless received a rare Diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of more than 10 million in the US, with 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 chart at a time when streaming numbers weren’t included. Folklore was certified 2x Platinum for selling more than two million copies and has been recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records for earning the most one-day streams of an album on Spotify (female), with 80.6m streams in 24 hours.

“It only deepened my admiration for not only her songwriting skills, but her business acumen,” Kelleher says. “I’ve always found it refreshing that the business of Taylor Swift seems to come truly from what she wants to do, not what’s in the traditional music industry playbook. She’s one of the most successful CEOs in the world.”

A field of study

Interest in the cultural phenomenon of Taylor Swift has reached the hallowed halls of academia. Her lyrics, storytelling and societal influence are all growing fields of study at universities across the United States. Schools teaching Taylor Swift sessions include Harvard, Stanford and New York University, which presented her with an honorary doctorate in fine arts last year.

In the coming spring, the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley will begin offering a graduate, student-led course called Artistry and Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version.

Student-led courses on contemporary artists tend to fill up instantly and draw large waiting lists. For example, NBC reported that registration for the University of Florida’s upcoming spring course Musical Storytelling with Taylor Swift and Other Iconic Female Artists, which will look for parallels between her work and the discographies of artists like Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Dolly Parton, filled up in 10 seconds.

Taylor Swift honourary degree
Singer Taylor Swift attends the New York University (NYU) graduation ceremony at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York on May 18, 2022 [Shannon Stapleton/Reuters]

Swift also became the subject of academic conferences this year, joining the ranks of acts such as the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Tupac Shakur, who have all had full scholarly events dedicated to them.

In November, Indiana University’s Bloomington campus launched what purported to be the first international academic gathering to study the star, called Taylor Swift: The Conference Era. More than 1,000 people attended panels such as Taylor as an Anti-Hero, Tour Economy and Crowd Culture, and Feminism and Capitalism over two days. Similarly, an inaugural “Swiftposium” is planned at the University of Melbourne in February.

In Indiana, students, teachers and civilians alike mingled with scholars and culture theorists like Gina Arnold, an adjunct professor of rhetoric at the University of San Francisco, who was invited to be a keynote speaker after co-editing a 2021 issue of Contemporary Music Review dedicated to Swift.

“Taylor Swift is a great subject for academics because her mere existence touches on so many disciplines,” Arnold explains. “Music, media studies, women’s studies, queer theory, business, economics, film, literature – you can approach her work from any of these angles and find something to say.

“This is true of a lot of acts, actually, since to be a pop star these days requires that a person be adept at a multiplicity of topics like film, video, music, business and technology. But Taylor is the biggest and therefore easiest to study. And unlike, say, the Rolling Stones or U2 or other giant acts, she is actually of interest to college-aged students. Hence, academic interest.”

A feminist in the eye of the beholder

Kelleher at Gold Rush Vinyl thinks that Swift is good at averting the pervasive pressure for businesswomen in the US to employ aggressiveness or other traditionally masculine traits to get ahead in work. In her view, this makes her a good feminist role model.

“I appreciate that Taylor Swift’s brand of feminism is one in which being a smart, empowered and successful woman means you don’t have to have all sharp edges,” she says. “You can sing songs about heartache, hope, and friendship bracelets and still make it at the top.”

But Arnold, who has written books about music festivals, Nirvana and Liz Phair, and is a co-editor of the 2023 anthology The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Record Store: A Global History, says she doesn’t “see Swift as a feminist, exactly”.

“She is more like her idol, Dolly Parton, who if asked if she’s a feminist says, ‘No, I’d describe myself as a businesswoman’,” says Arnold. “I love how Dolly sees those things as very different – it says so much. And it is so incredibly difficult to make it as a businesswoman in America, at least at those heady levels, that it pretty much doubles as being a feminist.

“I think Taylor is a feminist in that she is a role model for young women as far as what heights they can scale. It should be noted that if Taylor Swift is feminist, she is a very white one – not intersectional. But that’s valid.”

Taylor Swift bracelets
Teenagers trade bracelets while waiting for the beginning of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert movie in a cinema in Mexico City, Mexico October 13, 2023 [Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters]

Kelleher notes that Swift’s take on storytelling helps her bond with her friends, who like to discuss the intricacies of her lyrics and music: “Particularly this year with the Eras Tour and the re-releases, Taylor’s music has strengthened my relationships with so many friends who also love her music – even if it’s just by giving us more reasons to text one another and share reactions to new songs.”

Just as the US dates that Swift performed in 2023 did, her international concerts in the new year are expected to roll in another billion dollars and draw fans of all ages, with plenty of enthusiasm for and money to spend on trips and outings to see the entertainer. Fans think the experience is more than worthwhile.

“Going to Taylor Swift’s concert was amazing!” says Lily Galvin, the California teen whose favourite songs are Betty from Folklore and Is It Over Now? from 1989 (Taylor’s Version).

“She’s so amazing. The show was so well produced, the stage was so cool and huge, the other people in the audience were so fun, and I loved all of the dancers. The sound was amazing. I thought it was such a vibe when she played the piano. Low-key fire.

“Also, I felt like you could just be yourself and be accepted for who you are, no matter what, because we all like Taylor Swift.”

Top 5 Benefits of Hiring Management Consultants – Role of Management Consultants in Business Transformation

In the fast-paced world of business, organizations often find themselves in need of transformation to stay competitive and relevant. Business transformation has become a buzzword, signifying the need for companies to evolve and embrace change. Small or big, businesses need external expertise to navigate complex business challenges and achieve strategic objectives. Resistance to change, lack of clarity in strategic objectives, and the absence of a structured transformation plan are common hurdles organizations face. This is where the expertise of management consultants comes into play. Thus, management consultants are perfect hire for organizational growth and transformation. They are the driving force behind organizational change, helping businesses adapt to evolving market dynamics and thrive in the face of uncertainty.

 

Business Management Consultants

Business management consultants excel in analyzing organizations to pinpoint areas for enhancement. Collaborating closely with businesses, they devise customized strategies to fuel growth and boost performance. Consultants offer invaluable insights and direction, aiding businesses in navigating through intricate challenges to accomplish their objectives.

Additionally, management consultants are instrumental in executing change initiatives. They collaborate with businesses to craft action plans, establish objectives, and oversee progress. Few of the common approach management consultants adopt for business transformation are as follows.

  • Objective Assessment
  • Strategic Planning
  • Change Management
  • Technology Integration
  • Skill Development
  • Risk Management
  • Continuous Improvement

 

Benefits of Hiring Business Management Consultants

Partnering with business management consultants offers a range of benefits for organizations looking to transform their operations. Some of the key advantages include:

 

  1. Customized Solutions

Business management consultants are adept at providing tailored solutions to meet the unique needs and challenges of each organization. By conducting in-depth assessments and analyses, they can identify specific pain points and develop strategies that align with the company’s goals and vision. For instance, A retail company struggling with declining sales may partner with consultants who conduct a thorough analysis of consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive landscapes. The consultants then design a tailored strategy, including personalized marketing campaigns and improved customer experiences, to address the specific challenges faced by the company.

 

  1. Objective Perspective

Consultants provide an objective perspective on the organization, helping businesses identify blind spots and areas for improvement. Their unbiased viewpoint can be valuable in driving change and overcoming resistance. Management consultants providing objective perspective will help businesses turnaround quicker through multi-pronged approach on organization restructure, financial restructure, performance analysis, tax strategies and more.

 

  1. Cost Efficiency

Partnering with consultants can often be more cost-effective than hiring and training in-house experts. For instance, instead of hiring a full-time Chief Financial Officer (CFO), a startup in its early stages might engage financial consultants on a project basis. Organizations can access a diverse skill set without the long-term commitments and expenses associated with full-time employees, making it a flexible and efficient solution.

 

 

  1. Accelerated Growth

Management consultants can play a crucial role in accelerating an organization’s growth. Through strategic planning, process optimization, and market expansion initiatives, they help businesses unlock new opportunities and navigate challenges, leading to faster and more sustainable growth. For example, a manufacturing company aiming to expand globally partners with consultants who specialize in international business. These consultants assess market opportunities, navigate regulatory complexities, and develop a growth strategy that enables the company to quickly establish a global presence and capture new markets.

 

  1. Change Management

One of the biggest challenges in business transformation is managing change. Consultants provide guidance and support to employees, helping them adapt to new ways of working and ensuring that transformational efforts are embraced and implemented successfully. Consultants also offer services managing the change in the organization during merger & acquisition, and joint venture, enabling them to facilitate smooth and successful change management processes for their clients.

For example, A traditional wholesale trader undergoing a digital transformation engages management consultants to assist in the cultural shift toward embracing technology. The consultants can develop change management programs, conduct training sessions, and facilitate communication strategies to ensure a smooth transition for employees adapting to new technologies and processes.

 

Sterling Cooper, Inc.

Sterling Cooper, Inc. is a premier business acquisition advisory and management consultant firm in the USA, boasting decades of experience. Catering to a wide spectrum from budding startups to well-established enterprises, Sterling Cooper’s bespoke strategies nurture innovation, streamline operations, and cultivate market dominance. Their adept team employs a rigorous selection methodology, coupled with financial proficiency and industry acumen, to seamlessly assimilate acquired entities into a synergistic and vibrant portfolio. For business inquiries, fill our short feedback form or call us at our Toll-Free Number 1-866-285-6572.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES WILL NEVER BE INEXPENSIVE IN THE USA

Why There Will Never be an Affordable EV

There will never be affordable EVs? If you already know why there aren’t any affordable vehicles, you already know the answer.

It isn’t legal to sell them.Here, that is.

All new vehicles offered for sale in the United States must comply with a whole book (literally) of federal regulations that cannot be complied with inexpensively – and that is why the vehicles that are available are so expensive. Many of these regulations have to do with what the government styles “safety,” but that’s disingenuous as well as something else.

A 1969 VW Beetle was not an unsafe car. The assertion is ridiculous. Millions of people owned and drove Beetles and most of them never got hurt driving them. The cars were not prone to wheels coming off while being driven or their steering columns shearing off due to weak welds; such things – if they did happen – would indeed have been safety issues.

Beetles had no such issues.

But those old Beetles didn’t have air bags or tire pressure monitoring systems or back-up cameras or “advanced driver assistance technologies.”

Did that make them “unsafe?”

According to the federal government, yes. The “safety” regulations require all new vehicles to have those things, as well as body structures capable of absorbing much greater impact forces in a crash than an old Beetle’s body could absorb. If they don’t, they are considered “unsafe” and can’t (legally) be sold in this country.

It does not mean the Beetle – and other inexpensive cars like it – was “unsafe.”

It means they were non-compliant. And they couldn’t be made compliant.

The Beetle – and this is just one example – was designed back in the 1930s. It could not be made compliant with the regulatory requirements of the late 1970s without being totally redesigned. That is to say, it had to be replaced with a new design that was compliant. Enter the Rabbit, for those who remember. It became the Golf and it is today the least expensive vehicle that VW sells.

Oops. Was.

VW stopped selling the Golf last year. It is no longer compliant – or soon wouldn’t be. It will be replaced by an EV that is compliant. One that will cost a great deal more than the Jetta, which isn’t an EV and remains – for now – the least expensive model VW still sells. The base price of a 2024 Jetta is $21,435.

The base price of a 1969 Beetle was $1,799.

Adjusted for what they style “inflation” – as if the devaluation of the buying power of money were something that just sort of naturally happened over time as opposed to something deliberately done by the people who control the money supply – that just under $1,800 base price back then comes to just over $15k today.

That’s a roughly $6k difference and more than that, actually, since what you pay for a car affects what you pay for insurance and taxes. Not to mention maintenance. The new Jetta is not a car that can be maintained by the person who buys it, unless that person happens to be a VW mechanic with access to all of the specialized equipment necessary to perform the maintenance.

The ’69 Beetle could be maintained by a Compliant Idiot – some will remember the eponymous service manual that could be understood and used by practically anyone to service an old Beetle, using basic tools anyone could afford to buy or just borrow.

Of course, the Beetle did not not come with AC and the other amenities that come standard in a car like the Jetta – and that’s great, if you can afford the Jetta. Plus the insurance and the taxes. Increasingly, average people can’t. It’s why the typical loan on a new car like the Jetta is six years long, or twice as long as it took to pay off a ’69 Beetle.

That’s another way to measure the cost of compliance.

Getting back to EVs. These could be made Beetle-like or even more so in terms of their affordability precisely because it is possible to make a very basic, very simple EV. The Beetle was a body draped over an engine that was as simple as a car engine gets. It didn’t even have a radiator (being air-cooled). Its engine could be removed from the car in about 30 minutes by anyone with a floor jack and crescent wrenches.

An EV could be similarly simple. A body draped over a skate. The skate consisting of an electric motor and a battery pack, both of which could be . . . simple. Also, light. Assuming the rest of the EV was, so as to not need to be powerful, in order to move a lot of weight. But that is next-to-impossible because of the need to be . . . compliant.

EVs must be able to absorb the impact forces decreed by the government, just like other vehicles. They are required to have multiple air bags – and these can’t be just bolted to the dashboard. They must be integrated into the dashboard and steering wheel. This requires designing the car around the “safety” systems – and that’s not inexpensive.

And that’s why there will never be an inexpensive EV, even if the “breakthrough” in battery technology that never seems to break through ever does. Because the vehicle, itself, will remain expensive to manufacture – whether it’s powered by a battery or by something else.

Oh. And about that something else.

When will people begin to question the legitimacy of the federal government decreeing how “safe” – according to its standards – new cars must be? Is that any more the government’s legitimate business than decreeing whether we’re allowed to go for a walk in the cold since we might catch cold?

 

Cross-Border (Mergers & Acquisitions) M&A: Key Considerations for U.S. Businesses

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) play a crucial role in helping companies expand their global presence and enter new markets. These deals involve merging or acquiring companies from different countries, providing businesses with strategic advantages and opportunities for growth. One of the main benefits of cross-border M&A is the potential for international expansion.

By merging or acquiring companies in foreign markets, businesses can gain access to a larger customer base, distribution networks, and established infrastructure. This expansion can lead to increased market share and revenue streams, helping companies achieve their growth objectives. However, it is important to recognize that cross-border M&A presents key challenges that need to be carefully considered.

 

 Legal and Regulatory Considerations

When participating in cross-border transactions, it is essential to comprehend the legal considerations involved. Each country has its own set of laws and regulations governing mergers and acquisitions, making it necessary to navigate the legal landscape in order to minimize risks and ensure compliance.

Failure to adhere to local laws and regulations can have significant consequences for the parties involved. To effectively navigate the legal aspects of cross-border transactions, it is recommended to seek the assistance of local legal experts who specialize in such deals. These experts possess a deep understanding of the local legal framework and can offer valuable guidance throughout the process of making the deal. Their expertise extends to interpreting local laws and regulations, enabling companies to identify potential legal pitfalls and find practical solutions.

Our firm can introduce your company to expert attorneys and accountants in China, Mexico, Canada the UK and Australia as well as other countries to expedite the process of understanding the intricacies of potential stand-alone acquisitions or possible mergers.

 Cultural Barriers in Mergers and Acquisitions

Overcoming cultural and language barriers is vital in global business mergers and acquisitions. The differences in communication styles, business practices, and work cultures between companies from different countries can create challenges and misunderstandings.

To navigate these barriers successfully, companies need to prioritize open and transparent communication, cultural sensitivity, and bridging the gap between different business norms. It is crucial to foster understanding and collaboration among employees from diverse cultural backgrounds. Additionally, investing in cross-cultural training programs can enhance employees’ cultural awareness and equip them with the necessary skills to work effectively in a multicultural environment. These programs can cover topics such as cultural etiquette, intercultural communication, and negotiation styles, ultimately creating a more inclusive and collaborative work environment.

 Tax Implications

The tax implications of a cross-border M&A deal can be intricate. U.S. businesses must carefully assess both U.S. and foreign tax laws to understand the financial impact of the transaction. This involves considering the most favorable deal structures and mitigating potential tax liabilities to optimize the financial outcomes. Our structured accounting advice will aid in the decisions.

Technology and IT Systems

The compatibility of technology and IT systems is a practical consideration often overlooked. IT systems and processes can differ significantly between companies, even within the same industry. This can make it challenging to integrate systems and processes smoothly, leading to inefficiencies and potential system failures. Additionally, differences in technology standards and protocols between countries can create compatibility issues that need to be addressed.

Talent Retention

The success of a cross-border M&A is closely tied to talent retention. Businesses must develop strategies to retain key personnel in both the acquiring and target companies. Clear communication about job security, career pathways, and organizational culture can foster a positive environment conducive to retaining critical talent.

Often the employees of the target company are fearful of the new owner and a public relations campaign is needed to keep employees in place, without getting recruited by competitors seeking to take advantage of “acquisition fear”.

Embarking on a cross-border M&A journey demands a strategic, comprehensive, and culturally sensitive approach. Businesses should collaborate with M&A Advisors such as  Sterling Cooper Inc. to navigate the complexities associated with international transactions successfully. By carefully considering these key factors, businesses can position themselves for a successful cross-border M&A experience, unlocking new avenues for growth and global competitiveness.

Sterling Cooper, Inc is a business acquisition advisory company in the USA having decades of experience. From emerging startups to established enterprises, Sterling Cooper’s tailored approach fosters innovation, efficiency, and market leadership. Our seasoned team leverages a meticulous selection process, financial acumen, and industry expertise to seamlessly integrate acquired entities into a cohesive and dynamic portfolio. For business inquiry fill our short feedback form or call us at our Toll-Free Number 1-866-285-6572.

 

PUTIN’S HOME NEAR FINLAND BORDER!

Secret Putin home on Finnish border revealed by drone – complete with £8,000 bidets and ‘stolen’ waterfall

Putin's secret house near Lake Ladoga has been filmed from the air
Putin’s secret house near Lake Ladoga has been filmed from the air

Vladimir Putin has reportedly built a sprawling estate complete with bidets costing £8,000 each, a “stolen” waterfall and the framework for an air-defence system less than 20 miles from Russia’s border with Finland.

The secretive complex is nestled deep in the forests of the northern region of Karelia, according to the Dossier Centre, a Russian investigative organisation which tracks various people associated with the Kremlin.

Leaked details and aerial footage of the estate, on the shores of Lake Ladoga’s Majalahti Bay, revealed it was protected by round-the-clock security, barbed-wire fences, intelligence officers and drone jammers.

The estate houses three properties known as The Barn, The Fisherman’s Hut and The Garden House.

Leaked details previously suggested the extravagant properties are decorated with expensive bidets, shower heads costing £3,500 apiece and a floor made from Fior di Bosco Italian marble worth £85,000.

Putin is believed to travel to the estate at least once a year, according to residents.

“There is no doubt the president relaxes here,” a reporter for Dossier Centres said in a video report.

“During his visits, the local security is replaced by FSO [Federal Guard Service] employees, entrances are blocked off, and neighbouring islands are sealed off.”

The three houses boast two helipads, several jetties, a trout farm and a herd of cows for “marbled beef production”.

The grounds also house a factory kitted out with nearly £300,000 worth of Austrian brewing equipment capable of producing 82 pints of beer a day, and a second-floor tea room overlooking Lake Ladoga.

Drone footage published alongside the report appeared to reveal a waterfall, which the Dossier Centre claims was “stolen” from the Ladoga Skerries National Park, which sits within the estate.

It is not clear how the outlet’s journalists managed to avoid security to gain access to the grounds. Normally, it is only accessible via boat or aircraft.

A large raised embankment which could be used to station an air defence system is located at the back of the main property.

Vehicle tracks started appearing on the site shortly after it was constructed two years ago, further adding to the suggestion of surface-to-air missile systems being stationed there.

The Karelia estate was financed via companies linked to the Russian president’s associates and Kremlin-friendly oligarchs, the Dossier Centre claimed.

It said the owner of the estate was listed as Yury Kovalchuk, the chairman of Bank Rossiya, described by the US treasury as Putin’s “personal banker”.

He is said to run a network that looks after “the president’s leisure activities and all of his real estate”.

A nearby hotel is owned by Mr Kovalchuk, while a neighbouring residence is owned by Roman Abramovich, the Western-sanctioned former owner of Chelsea Football Club.

Construction on the 1,000-acre estate, which is roughly twice the size of Monaco, began more than 10 years ago.

Putin has very few assets declared in his name. They include a small apartment in St Petersburg, two Soviet-era cars from the 1950s, a trailer and a small garage, alongside his presidential salary of about £110,000 a year.

After Dossier Centre’s report emerged, the head of Putin’s presidential campaign said on Tuesday that the majority of the Russian leader’s savings were made up of his annual salary..

 

MAKE YOUR BUSINESS LAST 1,000 YEARS! Many have!

WANT YOUR BUSINESS TO LAST 1,000 YEARS??? Some did!

The average American business closes shop after about 21 years. Some businesses, though, last longer—a lot longer. Take Kongo Gumi, a Japanese construction company founded in 578 A.D., or Santa Maria Novella, an Italian pharmacy that’s been perfuming the elite since Michelangelo was decorating ceilings. Here are some longevity lessons from businesses with more than ample experience.

Kongo Gumi Co. Est  578 AD
The Lesson: Find a niche and don’t let go

Until it became a subsidiary of  Takamatsu Construction Group in 2006, Kongo Gumi was the world’s oldest continuously operating company. Even as a subsidiary, it still does things the really, really old-fashioned way. Its specialty is the restoration of Buddhist temples and other historic buildings. Workers could train for as long as 10 years, during which time they were sometimes set against one another, competing to see which craftsperson demonstrated the most skill working with the timber and clay traditionally used to build temples. “I think that’s where things have slipped through the cracks in a lot of other traditions or professions, because people either weren’t interested or there was actually a devaluing of some of that workmanship,” says Danielle Willkens, an architecture professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. By keeping these techniques alive, Kongo Gumi has made itself indispensable to the preservation of Japanese architecture.

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium, est. c. 803
The Lesson: Don’t be afraid to mix it up

Noted by a courtier of Charlemagne’s as having one of Europe’s best wine collections, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium has been delighting diners in Salzburg, Austria, for more than 1,200 years. If it’s not the world’s oldest restaurant, it’s one of them. The wine cellar, built to store the treasures of the monks in the attached monastery, was the genesis of the restaurant, says Nora Wunderwald, a publicity representative for St. Peter. After all, she says, patrons, who over the centuries have included  Mozart, Faust and  Karl Lagerfeld (who was feted at the restaurant by Chanel), needed some food to pair with their wine. The restaurant’s current operators, Veronika Kirchmair and Claus Haslauer, have made it a point to diversify the menu beyond schnitzel and strudel. This month’s offerings include confit fillet of char, artichoke Wellington and an innovation Charlemagne and his compatriots would surely have marveled at: brunch.

The Olde Bell, est. 1135
The Lesson: Furniture can change, but service shouldn’t

Once upon a time, perhaps during the reign of King Stephen (he spent most of his reign warring with his cousin Matilda, the Holy Roman Empress), you might pull into the Olde Bell hotel, about 35 miles outside London, expecting to get a pint of ale and a hunk of bread to dip in your stew before you fell asleep on a mattress stuffed with horsehair and, in the morning, continued on your way across medieval England. Since then, the Olde Bell has expanded to include more guest quarters and a nuclear fallout shelter-turned-wine cellar, but the idea that every weary and thirsty traveler deserves a place to rest and a pint of ale remains the same, says sales manager Debi Hayes—“except we’ve got comfier mattresses now!” History, of course, begets more history, with  Winston Churchill,  Boris Karloff,  Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Elizabeth Taylor all having spent time in the hotel’s cozy rooms and cozier bar, where sections of the original walls are covered with glass to keep them stable.

Santa Maria Novella, est. 1612 (pharmacy from 1542)
The Lesson: Signature products are signature products for a reason

For Gian Luca Perris, chief executive officer and “nose” of Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, the brand’s most enduring fragrance is inextricably linked to its most famous patron, Catherine de’ Medici. Acqua della Regina, with top notes of petitgrain and a base of musk, is still one of Santa Maria Novella’s bestselling products, a chance for today’s shoppers to capture a little bit of long-ago glamor and romance. In Perris’ telling, in 1533 the princess, as part of her wedding entourage, brought a perfume maker who was rumored to have been raised by Santa Maria Novella’s friars. The friars, who called the monastery of the Church of Santa Maria Novella home, had long dabbled in fragrant waters, often thought to keep the plague away. Catherine, possibly the 16th century’s most famous “it” girl, was both a patron and something of a muse to the pharmacy; for her marriage scent, her perfumier was ready to create his greatest perfume yet. “For their upcoming marriage,” Perris says, “he created a bridal gift for Catherine’s future husband: a perfume that enchanted the courts of France by embodying Florence’s elegance and grace.”

Brooks Brothers, est. 1818 
The Lesson: Focus on your core customer

Founded as a small clothing manufacturer and shop in Lower Manhattan, Brooks Brothers has been supplying prep school students and Wall Street bankers with starched shirts and blue blazers for 200 years, pioneering the ready-to-wear suit and blanketing downtown office cores with retail locations stocked with in-case-of-emergency ties and pocket squares. When  Ken Ohashi took over the company in late 2020, it was a strange moment for a brand that depends on people needing to dress up. For Ohashi, the key to outlasting Covid quarantines was to figure out what his die-hard customers might want more of. The answer, he says, was casual wear. Items such as oversize striped rugby shirts and corduroy pants embroidered with jaunty hunting dogs now account for 40% of the company’s business, up from 20% before the pandemic. Ohasi stresses, however, that Brooks Brothers sportswear is done the Brooks Brothers way. “Our core customer loves our sweatpants,” he says, “because you can get them monogrammed.”

Consolidated Edison, est. 1823 (as New York Gas Light Co.)
The Lesson: Location, location, location

ConEd, energy provider to New York City and many of its surrounding counties, is the oldest continuously operating company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It even predates  Thomas Edison himself—when he was born in 1847, the company that would someday bear his name was known as the New York Gas Light Co. Having dominated the market for gas lights across Manhattan (thanks, in part, to a little help from the bosses of Tammany Hall), the company—renamed the New York Steam Co. in the early 1880s—was primed to become a major player in the newly electrified NYC of the late 19th century. But it wasn’t the only business with designs on (literal) power. By the 1890s no fewer than 30 companies sought to provide electricity to the homes and businesses of New York and Westchester County. According to Dan Taft, a chief engineer in central operations at ConEd, “when laying the original electric feeder cables in the streets of Lower Manhattan in 1882, Edison was so impressed with the quality of the pipe-laying work being done simultaneously by the New York Steam Co. that he made arrangements to send surplus steam from his Pearl Street Station into the steam system, thereby becoming the very first co-generator.” By the mid-1920s the competition had been mostly wiped out, leaving ConEd (the name became official in 1936) the sole source of electric light in a city that uses a lot of it.