News

The first flakes of the season just fell outside our office window — the kind that sticks to the trees and reminds you that winter is officially here. As the cold settles in, the familiar office banter begins: “Have you turned on your heat yet?” For many, this comment is half joke, half challenge. But […]

The financial press often uses the term “innovation” in vastly different ways. Many financial innovations, such as mortgage-backed securities, are simply new methods to monetize other products, creating fees and often problems in their wake. Innovations can also encompass more useful products. Thomas Edison’s lab tested thousands of filament designs before finding the one best […]

As cooler fall weather settles in and the final quarter of the year begins, many of us feel a renewed sense of focus. That “back-to-school” energy often extends beyond closets and calendars — it’s also the perfect time to revisit your financial to-do list. At Hanson + Doremus, we view this season as an opportunity […]

We are all watching the fighting in Ukraine and the Middle East in real time today. Both are certainly serious but neither involve a direct confrontation between the world’s biggest powers, China and the U.S. The Taiwan issue, however, does. We would not be surprised if this resurfaces as a major flashpoint sometime during the […]

Today’s investment headlines are chock full of articles debating whether a bubble is brewing in AI-related technology shares. Investor concerns on this issue are well-founded. According to JP Morgan, AI-related stocks have accounted for 75% of S&P 500 returns, 80% of earnings growth and 90% of capital spending growth since ChatGPT was first launched back […]

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recently awarded the Nobel Prize to three economists for explaining how technological advances drive lasting economic growth. Joel Mokyr won for identifying “the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress,” while Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won jointly “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.” It may […]

Over the summer, my family and I spent three and a half weeks in China and Japan, visiting five cities, including my hometown of Shenyang. Experiencing these places again after over a decade in the U.S. revealed how rapidly technology, consumer behavior, and demographics are reshaping Asia’s two largest economies. Here’s what I observed. Automation […]

Last month, we discussed America’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR), the average number of children a woman between the ages of 14 and 49 is expected to have over her lifetime. It’s been falling. After holding steady for some years at around 2.1, a rate which ensures a stable population, America’s TFR has fallen to 1.6. […]

Why is the stock market performing so well given the extreme level of political, economic, and social uncertainty today? We have been getting different versions of this question a lot recently. Making sense of financial market prices can indeed be challenging – on any given day they reflect a mix of both economic forces and […]

“Authoritarian,” “Free Range,” “Gentle” – these are not the names of professional race horses, but rather a small sample of the parenting styles available today in the information age. In investing, certain styles move in and out of favor over time. So, too, in parenting. Indeed, the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers among us may […]

Financial innovation is a feature of the investing world. In the not-too-distant past you had to pay $15 per trade or more to buy stocks in whole-share denominations. Nowadays, trades are almost always zero-commission, and you can buy fractional ownership of stocks through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). But innovation has not stopped there. Why buy a […]

Choosing where—and how—you want to live as you age is one of the most important personal and financial decisions. And there are many options, from independent living to assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing facilities. There are also Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) which offer it all on one campus. I sat down with […]