• EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNICATION is always “reliant on the style of the communicator and receptivity of the audience. Optimal communication demands the input of voice tone, eye contact, body language, and meeting the listener at their level… However, too many people hide behind their computers and today’s mode of business communication is email, in which facial expressions, subtleties of inflection, and visual clues to messaging are lost.  While email is the most readily at hand, it’s actually the least effective means of communication, other than social media posting… But there are some rules of etiquette which can facilitate ‘connection’ – the point of communication: Keep it business; Avoid smiley faces & emojis; Make it clear whether a reply is or not requested; Design specific messages to keep your reader best focused on-topic; Read over before sending to check grammar and ensure you’ve addressed all concerns to avoid a reply for clarification… Everybody receives messages a little differently, so pause to consider this before drafting to save time, energy and miscommunication.”  [JOURNAL OF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – May/June 2021]
  • IF COMMERCIAL OR INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE SALES ARE BEING CONSIDERED, sooner than later may be advisable. For a century, tax deferral on profit has been deferrable under ‘section 1031 Like-Kind exchange’ provisions of the federal tax code. But among the tax increases proposed by President Biden & Congress, this deferral would be eliminated for gains exceeding $500K and, if passed, the effective date could be any day thereafter. Combined with very likely increase in the capital gains tax rate, the impact could be devastating. Call us for courtesy consultation, if this risk is applicable to your 2021 planning.
  • CRYPTOCURRENCIES LIKE BITCOIN HAVE BECOME “THE GLOBAL CURRENCY OF CRIME since, transferrable and convertible without any personal info, they are increasingly being utilized by home sellers, yacht dealers, auction houses, luxury carmakers, even a professional basketball team (Mavericks), as well as for ransomware payments.” The ‘value’ of cryptocurrencies being traded globally on varying exchanges is now estimated in the trillions of dollars, with a new block of coins being generated (called ‘mining’) every ten minutes on average, 70% in China, and collectively using as much annual energy as the entire country of Argentina.  [THE WEEK – 5/28/21]
  • “EVEN BEFORE THE COVID-19 VIRUS, LOTS OF YOUNG & HEALTHY PEOPLE had developed debilitating symptoms for medically unexplained reasons – like chronic migraines or chronic fatigue syndrome following an infection, which parallel symptoms now defined as ‘Long Covid’ and ‘Post-Covid Syndrome’… The most debilitating effects which continue over 12 weeks are characterized by: (1) Severe breathlessness or exhaustion from physical activity; (2) fatigue or cognitive complaints in the form of brain fog or memory problems; (3) Heart palpitations or dizziness… Many doctors brush off people with no laboratory proof of past infection, since the same symptomatic patterns are found in those without positive viral or antibodies. But  are inconclusions are consistent: British studies have found that of people who tested Covid-positive, some 14% later manifested these symptoms and suggesting the potential for a ‘public health catastrophe,’ while Washington University researchers concluded that antibody cell protection could persist for a lifetime with repeated bouts of illness likely to be uncommon.”   [ECONOMIST – 5/1/21 and NATURE JOURNAL 5/24/21]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

       Ineptocracy  (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy – “a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.”  

       P.C. update: University of Wisconsin’s new guidelines for campus speech and students’ Rights: “free from any official speech code” … but also from hearing any “insulting and demeaning comments.”