March 17, 2020 was the day Hanson & Doremus officially moved online, everyone working from home. The big question was, could business still function without the office? The reassuring answer was yes it could, business has continued quite seamlessly and mostly uninterrupted. In discussions with employees the consensus is that we are just as productive […]
News & Insights
What Comes Next?…
It’s been a strange, sad time for the world — and yet, also a period of radical adaptation, learning, reflection and reassessment. That’s not all bad. Historically, pandemics have led to big breaks from the past, and that’s what we seem to be experiencing now. Everything we thought we knew is being questioned. Widespread assumptions, […]
The Looming Debt Dilemma…
In the last six weeks, Congress has passed with broad support three separate pieces of legislation aimed at offsetting the devastating economic impact of the COVID pandemic. The $3 trillion price tag for these initiatives is three times what the federal government borrowed last year and more than four times the cost of the TARP […]
How Do We Get Back To Working?…
A character in an Ernest Hemingway novel once said that bankruptcy happens “two ways: gradually, then suddenly.” This is how we have experienced Covid-19. The question now is, how soon can the economy be restarted? Wall Street will not find its bearings until we get some idea about Main Street. Here is a stab at […]
We Are All Amateur Epidemiologists Now…
There is no cure for Covid-19 today so the best we can do is figure out who has the virus (symptoms or no symptoms) and try to mitigate the spread. Other countries had their principal outbreak before us and might offer us public health lessons to learn from. China was slow to admit to the […]
When Coronavirus Gives You Lemons…
With plenty of uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic it’s hard to know how to control certain elements. But with the recently passed CARES Act there are some opportunities on the financial planning front that may help people better weather this storm. The chart below outlines some key takeaways. One item we find particularly relevant is […]
Ghost In The Machine…
Often, components essential to the functioning of an engine work so smoothly they stay hidden until something breaks. Then again, sometimes we will ourselves to drive on even after being warned about faulty parts. Over the last six weeks, we’ve experienced a whiplash of selling and buying across bond markets. First, prices dropped with the […]
The Market Doesn’t Mind Bad News…
What it minds is uncertainty. And uncertainty is what we have today. No one really knows how bad the novel coronavirus outbreak will get and how far it will spread. On the economic front no one knows how badly all this will affect the global economy and how long it will take for things to […]
It’s Official…Novel Coronavirus is Now a Pandemic…
…an outbreak which has spread throughout the world. This according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The worst pandemic of the last century was the “Spanish” flu of 1918 which infected one-third of the world’s population and killed 50 to 100 million people, including nearly 700,000 in the U.S. No one expects this one to […]
Decision-Making Under Stress…
Ongoing uncertainty about COVID-19 may have you feeling stressed-out and unsure of how to proceed with the decisions of daily life, both big and small. Know that you are not alone – stress brings predictable changes to the areas in the brain responsible for logical decision-making for most of us. Research shows that when we […]
The Manufacturing Industry Hedges its Bets…
Between 1980 and 2011, the value of goods exported throughout the world increased from just over $2.0 trillion to $18.3 trillion, or just over 7% per year (see chart below). Over this period, falling transportation costs and improved communication tools allowed companies to source raw materials and components anywhere in the world for final assembly, […]
It’s a Slippery Slope…
One of the most fascinating things I read this week was an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by Douglas Hodge, once CEO of investment giant PIMCO – and one of the dozens of parents who got arrested in last year’s college admission cheating scandal. Hodge paid $850,000 to get four of his children into […]
