• “IT IS STRIKING TO SEE HOW ILL-SUITED MOST COMPANIES ARE FOR GEN Y VALUES of creativity, community and equality.” Millennial priority drivers include: opportunities for development & advancement; ‘purpose’ in their work; transparency of information, including business strategy; working with senior execs who drive that strategy and share experience; with recognition for their time & efforts. “Leaders of the future will require new competencies & expertise to drive business performance while facing unprecedented challenges, and will expect their employers to engage them in drastically different ways than their predecessors… setting the tone for a changing employer contract in the foreseeable future.”  [INTERCHANGEGROUP – Jun 17, 14]
  •  AMERICA IS BECOMING A NATION OF RESIDENTIAL RENTERS, as “millions of middle-class families are being shut out & priced out of a housing market with limited inventory and artificially inflated values – the new bubble in real estate… a result of the 2009 real estate meltdown: vast numbers of people dropping out of the workforce (800,000 last April alone)… and the millennial generation who can’t find jobs, much less a down-payment… Some 63% of households now rent, many in luxury high-rise apartments (the main source of construction projects in most cities, as the only commercial buildings for which banks are willing to lend)… Meanwhile, banks & gov’t-sponsored Fannie Mae continue to unload distressed single family homes for rental purposes – over 2MM foreclosed housing assets with another 1.5MM cases still open & pending resolution, and another 2.5MM now delinquent over 90 days… in packaged bulk sales to cash-laden hedge funds and private investor groups. (Blackstone alone has over a billion worth of homes and spends another $100,000 weekly)… It’s a perfect storm of a fundamental change in the landscape.”  [FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT –Jun 14]  
  • “THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) HAS ADMITTED that even if we shut down every coal-fired power plant in the country, it would reduce the earth’s temperature by just one-twentieth a degree Fahrenheit in a hundred years.” The 626-page Obama regulatory order and current ‘talking head’ debate over cutting power plant emissions is, as usual, a political scam over who gets the dollars, while diverting public attention from the real issues that politicians wish to avoid. “The cheap natural gas produced by the fracking revolution and other new energy technology has enabled America to move away from ‘dirty coal’ – it will continue to do so and almost certainly be ‘greener’ in 2030,” but for reasons that go far beyond  the drivel coming out of Washington.  [THE WEEK – Jun 13, 14]
  • SELLING A REDUNDANT LIFE INSURANCE POLICY HAS BECOME A VALUABLE STRATEGY FOR SENIORS who no longer need to protect beneficiaries – e.g. after a divorce or spouse passing away, children grown and financially stable, businesses sold, financiers paid off, estate taxes no longer applicable, etc. Especially for ‘term’ policies nearing expiration, conversion to ‘permanent’ status with subsequent sale can provide a cash payout which otherwise would be zero. With existing ‘whole life’ policies, payouts are typically much higher than ‘surrender value’ and often without tax impact. Even when within an ILIT (Irrevocable Trust), a life settlement “may be in the best interest of beneficiaries, by freeing up capital for investment” and helping Trustees meet their fiduciary obligations. DCG offers courtesy analysis of Value which may be currently trapped in redundant policies.  [WEALTH MANAGEMENT – Jun 6, 14]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:   “A world that enriches and empowers the already wealthy by squeezing the life out of the poor and powerless can theoretically keep itself going. But our world is sinking fast by the weight of its systematic gluttony, its appetite no longer supported by the earth’s resources… Sustaining the ecological viability of our way of life is the challenge.” – Jim Tull
  • Bill O’Reilly’s powerful & courageous solution to epidemic crime in poor black neighborhoods: (1) active discouragement of pregnancies out of wedlock (now some 73%); (2) strict discipline in public schools including mandatory student uniforms; (3) mandatory prison time for gun & drug peddlers; (4) challenging the entertainment industry to stop peddling gangsta’ garbage.  http://www.cnsnews.com/video/national/oreilly-americas-race-problem

DUITCH CONSULTING GROUP – UTILIZING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE TO PROVIDE OPTIMAL STRATEGIC, FINANCIAL, OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT PLANNING & POSITIONING