Financially Forward: Gerald Harris

August 5, 2019, is a day that investors would love to forget but few will. The Dow Jones Industrials plunged 767 points, the worst drop in 2019, and the sixth worst one-day point decline in Wall Street history. Losses on the New York Stock Exchange outnumbered winners by a margin of six to one. Bad as the close was, it marked a recovery of 200 points from the low of the day. With this carnage occurring in the week preceding Tishah B’Av, the timing was perfect.

Should we feel sorry for the shareholders of Kellogg or should we envy them? Strong arguments can be made for either opinion.

A few years ago, the CEO of a Seattle-based design and marketing firm observed something curious at her company. At the beginning of the week, employees were pumped and put in a hard day’s work. However, by the end of the week, much of their energy had been drained and their productivity was way down.

November 2015, the FDA approved genetically engineered (GE) salmon for human consumption. Developed by the Massachusetts firm AquaBounty, these salmon, called AquaAdvantage, have been engineered with growth hormones from Chinook salmon and genes from an eel, a completely different species. AquaBounty believes these engineered changes will make their salmon grow at twice the rate of a normal salmon. They are scheduled to be on store shelves in 2020.

When Avigail Ruben* was born, her parents felt blessed, grateful, and had big dreams for their baby. But as Avigail started getting older they sensed that there was a problem. Unfortunately, after consulting with doctors, they learned that their concerns were justified.

Lake City, a small city in Florida, was very happy staying out of the headlines and providing residents the quiet and simple joys unique to small towns. An unexpected event changed that overnight: Cyber criminals took control of the city’s computers and demanded $462,000 in ransom to free them. Lake City reluctantly agreed to those demands, and payment was made with Bitcoin through the city’s insurance company.