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With a career that spans 20 years, I’ve covered numerous stories and topics. I’ve measured wheat crops in Kansas fields, hunted mushrooms in Asheville, elbowed my way on futures exchanges’ trading floors, learned about the science and economics behind renewable energy and a host of other subjects. Below is a sample of recent and featured work published in U.S. and international magazines, newspapers, newswires and websites.
The Alpha Opportunities of Declining Biodiversity
How institutional investors are starting to navigate the challenges of natural capital investments.
Chief Investment Officer
Give the Kids Their Inheritance Now or Make Them Wait? 3 Things to Keep in Mind.
Are you better off giving money to children now when you can see the results or doing it through your estate after shuffling off this mortal coil?
Barrons.com
I Tried Talking to My Parents About Estate Planning. The Chicago Bears Game Was a Problem.
Ten years ago, I tried to talk to my parents about estate planning, and the conversation lasted about a minute, with my mom saying it was taken care of, and wouldn’t elaborate on what “it” was. My halfhearted attempts since then went nowhere, but this year I knew I had to get beyond my parents’ reticence to talk.
Barrons.com
A Veteran Value Investor on 3 Things to Avoid—and Why He Likes Meta Stock
Managing one mutual fund for 25 years is a rare feat. Managing that fund and beating your peers and respective index is tougher still.
Barron’s
A Leading ‘Quant’ Investor on ValueInvesting, Private Credit, and MarketRisks
Cliff Asness, chief investment officer of AQR Capital Management, one of the world’s largest quantitative fund managers, is feeling vindicated these days. The firm, with $103 billion in assets, uses analytical strategies to bet on different market factors, and lately these strategies have yielded solid returns.
Barron’s
Opinion: Lithium Is At The Heart Of The Electric Vehicle Revolution — Here’s How The Market For The Raw Material Works
Tesla drew attention to the raw materials needed to make electric-vehicle batteries when it signed a sales agreement with Piedmont Lithium to secure about a third of the startup’s production for up to 10 years, even though its mine isn’t operational yet.
MarketWatch.com
Investing in the Inputs
Sustainable infrastructure investing is becoming more than just owning solar and wind farms and is extending to the materials needed to build those and other large projects. It is also forcing investors and consumers to consider a circular lifecycle of products, rather than seeing outputs as a single use.
Chief Investment Officer
Some of the world’s best whiskey and mezcal makers are using these clever strategies to adapt to climate change
Your favorite cocktail is being affected by climate change. The impact of drought and heat on wine quality and production in traditional viticulture regions are well-known, but the spirits industry is also facing the impact of a warming planet.
MarketWatch.com
Sustainable Agriculture Is The Next Way Esg Investors Can Fight Climate Change
The original green sector – agriculture — hasn’t been on the radar for environmental, social and governance investors, given industrial agriculture’s heavy dependence on pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified seeds. But ESG investors are turning their interest to agriculture as a way to fight climate change.
MarketWatch.com
Is Opec relevant in an oil market of falling prices and overproduction?
As the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meets on 2 June, questions are rising about the oil cartel’s continuing relevance.
The Guardian
This Metal Is a Hot AI Play. It’s Beating Gold and the Stock Market.
Gold and copper might grab headlines, but silver is one of 2024’s best-performing commodities, up 21% year to date, beating its metallic cousins—and the S&P 500 index. But many investors are seemingly shunning the gray metal.
Barrons.com
Aging in Place Is Gaining Popularity Among Retirees. How to Prep Your Home.
Even before the pandemic made some common senior living arrangements less desirable, a growing number of older Americans had been expressing a preference for remaining in their current home throughout retirement.
Barrons.com
Kindred Spirits: How to Get Into Booze Collecting
Owning an ultra rare Scotch whisky, like the Macallan Fine & Rare 1961 that sold for $32,500 at Bonhams in February, is out of reach for the average tippler. But that doesn’t mean spirits collecting is only for the wealthy.
The Wall Street Journal
Swindlers Are Now Using AI. Here Are the Warning Signs.
Artificial intelligence is making financial scams harder to spot. Interactive deepfakes such as live phone calls or video conferences with what seems to be a real person are becoming more common.
Barrons.com
Medical Technology and the Fight Against Cancer
The fight against cancer has gone on for decades, and today, a better understanding of biology has led to greater innovation, more effective products and significant profits for successful companies.
Chief Investment Officer
Kids With Special Needs Deserve Benefits. A Trust Protects Them.
Like many parents of special-needs children, financial advisor Lisa Bamburg is extra protective of her 27-year-old nonverbal autistic son, Joel. When her mother wanted to leave Joel a $1 million inheritance, Bamburg made sure the gift wouldn’t compromise his Supplement Security Income and Medicaid benefits.
Barrons.com
If we take these five steps now, we can ward off a climate disaster
If there was one bit of optimism in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, it’s that humans can still mitigate some of the worst effects of climate if we act now.
Marketwatch.com
When You’re Finally Ready to Retire, Consider Climate Change in Your Move
If you are already at retirement age, moving to Florida might make sense. But if you are planning for a future retirement, you should take climate change into account.
Barron’s.com
India’s traveling, middle-class giant awakens
As recently as 10 years ago, most hotel chains were only in India’s biggest cities, charging higher prices compared to surrounding countries. In smaller cities, independent hotels were often travelers’ only choice, says Manav Thadani, founder and chairman of consultancy Hotelivate. Fast-forward to today and the country’s booming economy is enriching younger generations, changing travel patterns in the process, Thadani says.
hotelsmag.com
You Can Buy Gold Bars at Costco. But Are They Worth It?
Ron Williams, a retired Air Force production superintendent in Utah, usually buys gold investment coins and bars from his precious-metals dealer. But when he found 1-ounce gold bars available on Costco Wholesale’s website recently, he decided to give them a shot.
The Wall Street Journal
El Niño Takes Toll On Us Rice Farmers – And Points To Even Higher Prices
Blame El Niño. The weather phenomenon is causing havoc for US rice farmers and a sharp price spike in the world’s most important staple food may foreshadow possibly higher prices in Asia in the coming months.
TheGuardian.com
This new technology could save the troubled nuclear power industry
The future of the nuclear industry may happen somewhere on scenic but relatively isolated land that’s about 100 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park. Amid the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory campus, a plan is in motion to build a type of nuclear reactor unlike any that’s currently in use to produce electricity.
The Guardian
Three Reasons to Take Social Security Early
Conventional wisdom holds that retirees are financially better off delaying their Social Security benefits to get a fatter payout. But for some people, not delaying—or even claiming before full retirement age—makes sense.
The Wall Street Journal
USDA’s $2.8 billion for ‘climate-smart’ agricultural projects is a ‘huge step’ in fighting climate change
In an effort to address climate change, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing in new revenue streams and research for farmers and other agriculture producers who embrace practices to improve soils and mitigate carbon emissions.
MarketWatch
Italianate Update: Two New Forte Hotels Burnish Gilded Age Design
The eye of the owner is very important”: It’s a translated Italian saying that Sir Rocco Forte refers to when discussing what sets London-based Rocco Forte Hotels apart from other luxury brands.
Hotelsmag
4 Ways to Lock In Yields Above 5%
With some money-market mutual funds and high-yield savings accounts still spotting 5% yields, it is easy to be complacent and let cash sit. But with the Federal Reserve likely to begin cutting interest rates later this year—recent hot inflation readings notwithstanding —such high yields are likely to come down quickly.
The Wall Street Journal