3 things I'm thinking about this week...

 
1 - Shut it Down. As of this writing the federal government shutdown is entering its 3rd day. And the markets are taking things in stride…so far. A prolonged shutdown would impact economic growth, elaborated on in this article. NBC News recapped the 20 previous shutdowns since 1976 here…the longest (in 2018) lasted 34 days but the rest averaged just under 7 days… about how long pundits see this one lasting. 
 

2 - AI and Jobs.  AI’s positive impact is hard to overstate as its efficiency and capability bolsters corporate performance and helps people across a variety of industries and professions (including ours). From an investment perspective, I see AI as a real positive for the business owners that our clients are through their common stock investments. Yet throughout history, technological change has left a list of short-term winners and losers as society adapts to the new world order. Wal-Mart’s CEO commented last week “AI is going to change literally every job” and that their headcount growth is expected to be flat despite business growth. That says a lot.

3 - Innovations in Scamming. Innovation has a positive connotation, doesn’t it? Yet there are areas where it isn’t the good guy. Think about cyber scams. Innovation here means it advances constantly…fewer childish looking misspelled emails and more realistic social engineering (think about AI voice fakes). This article highlights an artful (and nearly successful) attempt to snare a veteran reporter who (thought) he’d seen it all. A tip: when you get an email, text or call with urgency…remember that’s a key tactic of scammers.

...and one more thing

This easy tip turned my iPhone into a digital photo frame by shuffling just the pictures I want to see (easy to customize) on the lock screen. I love it.