#MARKETS: Risk management and ages 50–80. Kiplinger's News Letter. @RealConstable @Batchelor Show

By SIMON CONSTABLE

 

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            Wall Street 1914 Irving Underhill , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

#FRANCE: The harvest is in, planting sunflowers, crashing Lithium. @RealConstable @BatchelorShow Occitanie

 BY SIMON CONSTABLE

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1974 © European Union, 2024, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kiplinger's Retirement Report: Why Your Investments Must Change as You Age — and How to Do It

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Retirement planning has gone from fairly simple a few years ago to mind-bogglingly complex today. That means you must make investment decisions solid enough to provide income for many decades while remaining flexible enough to shift as your circumstances do.

It is a big change. “My grandparents had fixed pensions. They received the same amount of cash each month from the pension fund for the rest of their lives,” says Richard Rosso, director of financial planning at wealth management company RIA Advisors in Houston. The magic of managing the assets to make those payments possible was left to Wall Street. Now “the burden, more than ever, is on the individual,” he says. Read more here.

Udo Keppler , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

#SCOTLAND: Net Zero means empty village shops. @RealConstable @BatcehlorShow Dumfries, Scotland

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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Hospital of Our Lady, Edinburgh. See page for author, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

#BRETTON WOODS, NH: Celebrating 80 years the dollar supremacy. @RealConstable @BatchelorShow Occitanie

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Read more about Bretton Woods…

WSJ: FINANCIAL FLASHBACK• 80 YEARS AGO: Bretton Woods

In July 1944, representatives of 44 nations met in Bretton Woods, N.H., to rejigger the global monetary system and hopefully stabilize the war-ravaged world economy.

The dollar became the new reserve currency, officially replacing the British pound, which had been the dominant currency since the early 1800s. World War I almost bankrupted Britain decades earlier, so the move was long overdue.

The Bretton Woods agreement fixed the value of all exchange rates relative to the dollar. The greenback had a fixed value of $35 a troy ounce of bullion.

Marc Chandler, managing director at currency trading company Bannockburn Global Forex, says picking the greenback over other currencies made sense. “The U.S. emerged as the only major economy not hurt economically by the war,” he says. More here.

WSJ Video: Nelson Mandela's Life and Legacy

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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Paul Weinberg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Briefings Magazine: The (Tough) Economics of the Olympic Games

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The world is always revved up when the Olympic Games start. Tickets sell like hot croissants. The finest athletes in the world ready themselves for competition. And this year, Paris is the stage for it all. What’s not to love?

When it comes to money, quite a lot, actually. 

Historically, hosting the games has been an economic sinkhole. Go back and look at the results, and you won’t find any gold medals here. More than half of the 11 Olympic Games since 2000, in fact, lost money—often billions of dollars—or barely broke even. “The balance sheets are usually in the red when it’s over,” says Konstantinos Venetis, director of global macro at TS Lombard. Read more here.

A young Mohammed Ali (1942–2016) wins first prize. Boxing light-heavyweight podium 1960 Olympics 

Polish Press Agency (PAP), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons