One of the biggest money-makers in today’s job market requires no real skills, no degree, and no experience.  Baby Boomers are necessarily appalled, and even some of the older Millennials.

The ‘job’ is social media influencer, and it’s raking in tons of money for those lucky enough to jump on the bandwagon at the right time and with the right angle.

Earlier this year, one Florida-based social media influencer, Jessy Taylor, posted a tearful video lamenting the prospect of working a 9-to-5 job after her 100,000-follower Instagram account was deleted.

Having previously worked at McDonald’s, Taylor said she wasn’t cut out for a 9-to-5 job because she had no job qualifications and brought nothing of note to the table–other than fast food….CLICK for complete article

The asset class of beautiful machines, which had already been struggling mightily, got whacked by the events in Monterey, California, last month. “Whether it’s threat of recession, broad economic volatility or too many cars crammed into too few hours, there’s no denying this year’s Monterey Auction Week results were depressed when you compare the results to recent years,” vintage-auto insurer Hagerty explained after the auction. The blow has now filtered into the monthly price index for vintage automobiles, the  Hagerty Market Index for September.

The index dropped 1.3% in September to a value of 148.24, down 5.0% for the 12-month period, and now in a bear market, down 20.5% from the all-time high in August 2015, a deeper drop than the peak-to-trough decline of 16% during the Financial Crisis. The index, after three years of declining, is now back where it had first been in September 2013….CLICK for complete article

Innovation and imagination often go hand in hand to bring new technologies into being and into the mainstream.  Augmented Reality (AR) is one technology that is on the cusp of dramatically expanding its mainstream presence.  Many of us remember how AR burst into the mainstream with Nintendo’s Smartphone game, Pokémon Go.  This “activity” game showed us all how AR can integrate digital images with reality, but can AR go beyond entertainment, can it be put to use in other ways to enhance and improve the human condition?  Here are some of the latest ideas and projects that aim to do just that, in a wide range of fields:…Click to read full article.

The median earnings of men working full time year-round in 2018 ticked up to $55,291. Adjusted for inflation, this was below the amount they earned in 1973, according to the annual data trove released by the Census Bureau today. In other words, there has been a “real” income decline for men over the past four-plus decades!

Women have seen a lot of progress in their real earnings, but they started out much lower, and they still haven’t caught up with men – whose earnings are sitting ducks. The median earnings of women working full-time year-round in 2018 ticked up to $45,097, a new record….CLICK for complete article