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This is a gush. Legal platform Abovethelaw discussed my analysis  of Skadden partner David Eisman’s jump to OnlyFans. There Eisman will be general counsel. Not a video presenter.  Could Eisman be telling us: The future is in the X-rated economy. Not traditional knowledge work paths. The latest in that unraveling: KPMG is laying off 4% of the advisory workforce. For instance,  The Economist details the kind of money involved in everything from porn to virtual companions. And recall that OpenAI, which financial experts like Henry Blodget say is in dire need of the bucks, considered venturing into erotica. Could have been fast money.  Me? I'm still kicking myself for being so scared of the big bad wolf of stigma. Several years ago, there I was beyond my peak earning years. I had the opportunity to regain financial ground by creating content for soft porn. What if anyone found out, I thought. Back then, partner at Paul, Weiss Brad Karp and some of the gang at Jones ...

  The cliche - we Boomers travel and travel - has blown up. With fuel prices so high, more of us are stuck in-place. Forget going abroad. Forget even the 2-hour day trip to the lake in this nice weather.  What we're doing today instead is focusing on our money. It's about 10:30 AM ET and the Dow is up 482.95. With the stock market holding up, despite the geopolitical whatevers, we might have to start seeing money differently. Not fret so much about outliving our funds?  UPDATE: Dow Jones Industrial Average INDEXDJX: .DJI 49,588.86 +727.05  (1.49%) today Apr 30, 1:45 PM EDT  •  Disclaimer

The March 21st - March 27th 2026 edition of The Economist documents the monetary aspects of the global sex economy. Here are snippets: Porn - $100 billion   Exchange of Sex for money - 0.6% of females over 15 of age   Virtual companionship - to be determined. And,  OnlyFans - $7 billion.  That could expand exponentially.  According to Bloomberg , OnlyFans is in advanced talks for a possible sales deal for a stake in the business. The buzz is that this is fertile territory for M&A.  To assist with those kinds of deals, Bloomberg Law just reported that OnlyFans poached from elite law firm Skadden partner David Eisman. The position is general counsel. In his 20-year career at Skadden he specialized in entertainment and media and was a key player in the M&A group in Los Angeles. Will there be snickers throughout the legal sector about Eisner's new employer? Will Skadden CMO Luke Ferrandino have to go on the defensive?  Maybe not. ...

  Increased sales 400%, with 34% reduction in resources.  Created model for AI Overview Citation, with 22% success rate. Edited four books in 2025 - 2027 on New York Times bestseller list. Those are outcomes. And that's what the humans doing the six to seven second look at a resume need to see. Otherwise they won't continue with the review. That focus on outcomes should not only be detailed in the Professional Experience section. It also needs to be frontloaded in the Summary. No one cares that you are passionate and hardworking. When you make it to the interview, hold much of the personality. The charm offensive is five years ago. Sure, present yourself as poised, confident and energetic. But the points to be made are what results you can achieve for that particular employer and how. Do enough research to customize the "sales" pitch. And that's what a job interview is: your best shot at selling.  Should you offer to work a few days for free to confirm your abil...

  It's already a fundamental in current job search to "dumb down" your resumes and cover letters. With some exceptions, it's become downright common sense to leave off advanced degrees (limit it to the BA/BS), senior titles and experience dating back more than a decade. The risk to avoid is appearing over-qualified, anticipating premium compensation and/or "older." But less well-known is the growing need in actual interviews (and later on-the-job) to prevent coming across as among the smartest kids in the room. Yes, with some exceptions it's smart to dumb down.  Essentially employers are time-pressed to identify who can generate the best and most results most affordably doing a very specific task. That's what you should be focusing in on. Not showcasing your overall high cognitive intelligence or splendid education.  That's not entirely new. Way back in 1995 psychologist Dan Goldman popularized the importance of Emotional Intelligence - that is...

  We thought "it" - the reduction-in-force - was going to get started that Monday. That would be a relief. After all the rumors of who was "on the list" and who was "saving" whom the reality of where the ax fell would end one type of suffering. During the process I developed TMJ and had to be fitted with a super mouth guard. The jobs targeted were good ones.  Yes, passing through our minds was: Just quit. You show them. But, come on, severance and some continuation of healthcare insurance most of us couldn't afford to pass up. Monday came and Monday went. There had been some kind of glitch. Somehow, even though the giant food corporation had on-site almost 30 lawyers, a WARN   document hadn't been processed. That is the written whatever filed 60 days before the event by businesses intending to lay off 50 or more employees or 33% of them.  So, what Meta  employees are enduring before the massive RIF on May 20th isn't atypical.  My position in ...

 In the top-tiers it used to be: Whew, you made it. No need to worry. Even maybe now you could let yourself coast a bit. Recently the rug has been pulled from under some partners at KPMG and EV. Often with no warning. They might have even received a positive performance review. Financial Times reports: " KPMG  and  EY  have removed members of their equity partnership – the senior practitioners who own the firm and share its profits – and instead offered them 'salaried partner' roles, several people with knowledge of the matter told the FT." The dynamic is: Those assessed as "underperformers" aren't building revenue in the partner pool of compensation. Therefore, they have become a liability. This can no longer be tolerated because: To recruit, retain and motivate top talent the money has to be better than what competitors are offering. With some branches of professional services such as consulting/auditing slowing down in demand, less overall revenue co...

 Remember when Lake Erie went on fire and Ohio was a national joke? And how once prominent cities such as Youngstown were compared negatively to nearbytPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The latter had reset from the steel era to health, education and tech. In contrast, Youngstown seemed caught in an economic time warp. There too were those brutal midwest winters.  Now, given its extreme affordability, excellent healthcare facilities like the Cleveland Clinic and free outdoor recreation provided by the state parks (Michigan charges), it's taken on an aura as the retirement paradise. Also it's family-friendly and purchasing a house is doable. Simultaneously, other traditional retirement meccas, ranging from Arizona to Florida, are being rated as no longer a fit for budgets and the implications of climate change. Given the extreme heat, that air-conditioning bill has become a stunner.  Large one-bedrooms (680 square feet) in Toledo, OH such as at Cambridge Woods can lease for unde...

  Paul, Weiss, once a litigation powerhouse, has experienced a flight of high-profile partners in that practice.  After the firm's deal with the Trump administration to lift the Executive Order but before Scott Barshay became chair, star litigator Karen Dunn left. A number of partners and associates went with her to form a litigation boutique. It's thriving. Now this and it's on Barshay's watch. As The New York Times reports today: "The partners — Kannon Shanmugam and Masha Hansford — are departing to start a practice focusing on Supreme Court and other appellate litigation at the rival firm Davis Polk." Shanmugam has been a heavy hitter for wins for clients in front of the US Supreme Court. It had been rumored that when the EO was presented he argued to file a lawsuit, not negotiate with the administration. It was said that he had even drafted the complaint.  Hansford, who started out as an associate at Paul, Weiss, then went to the DOJ for SCOTUS work, retu...

To get work. To get ahead at work. To start a business. To keep that enterprise rolling. All require networking - that is, the effective kind in which you can motivate other human beings to help you.  But, obviously networking isn't going so hot. Just read Reddit about chronic joblessness and not enough business for small businesses. Either those needing that connection are backing away from even trying to engage or are screwing it up (worsening their situation by presenting themselves as pests). This year, two bits of provocative insight have come our way about this. One is the recent study conducted by Talkspace.  Essentially when relationships feel difficult, Talkspace found, folks are cutting them off and rarely going back. No talking it through.  The result is the loss of what we might think of as our "interaction muscle." It withers from the lack of practice. For instance, gone is the skill in how to assert boundaries in a conversation. So-and-so says something you...

 We stopped the close reading of what the financial gurus are saying. We get it: No one really knows where the US whatevers, especially the stock market, are going. As for the financial projections, including another great depression, they are jaw-jawing about on Main Street, we tune out. We know that they don't know. Last night before we went to sleep we checked Dow futures. They were up. This morning the actual Dow is up.  Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Index: DJI Compare 49,655.58 USD ▲  +213.02 (+0.43%) today April 21, 9:31 AM EDT  ·  Market Open But it would be naive to connect any dots in an upbeat way. Those I care about have been shuttering their small businesses. Too many of those I coach have to do a memory-erase: letting go of how it had been to have a very good job with tons of perks.  What I bear witness to is so much pain.

  Pre-2026: The Haves are the wealthy.  The brutal factors in the current labor market -AI, cost-efficiency, offshoring, plus inflation - have blown that up. Emerging now is a new version of the Haves. They're the ones who can pay their bills on-time and have a reserve of funds in their checking account.  In contrast, are the Have-Nots. Essentially they consist of the 72% of adults in America who are living in financial anxiety and 48% of those have been paying their bills late.  Among the Have-Nots, recently personal bankruptcies have increased 11% . This new category in socioeconomics makes the concept of "middle class" irrelevant.  Smirk. Remember it used to be considered an attribute of being middle class to purchase only brands, own a house and speak standard English.  Well, store private labels are being purchased and served to guests without shame. Don't expect Lay's and Doritos at my Super Bowl party. The chips will be Walmart's Great Value. In more...

  "Wow. You're getting 30 hours a week." I assumed I was congratulating this 72-year-old woman on having the ability to land so much work.  She was having none of it. "I get $13 an hour. And am on my feet." Her regret was not investing. Instead she had paid for the children's education and weddings. Well, even if she had invested she might not have been better off. At least not emotionally. Look what we Boomers knew would happen with the Strait of Hormuz closed again and which did: FUTURES IND Close Future Change 49,447.43 49,165 -476 FAIR VALUE FUTURES (-7.57) FV Close Future Impl Open 49,633.43 49,165 -468.43 Last updated: Sun Apr 19 2026 | 7:43 PM EDT

There used to be so much stigma about losing a job, even because of a layoff, that the unemployed: Created rosy spins about how well the job search was going Maintained an overall low profile, taking survival jobs off-the-radar, and Knew that media was not their friend.  Not so much anymore.  A common MO has been to loop into doom-and-gloom, sharing (oversharing) the story of chronic unemployment with the media. That strategy is high-risk, both for the jobless and for the media outlet publishing what is turning out in this AI, cost-efficiency, offshoring low-hire era the "same old." Typical in BusinessInsider is the sharing by former UX designer Christopher Santoso who has been without a full-time job since May 2025. What's most soul-wearing to him is being ghosted when applying. So? Sure, presenting himself in the media can get the attention of employers. That means that such a strategy can be high-reward. I wish that be the outcome for Santoso. However, more probable i...

At 6 PM ET we can start checking the Dow futures. Unless there is a fix for the now-closed-again Strait of Hormuz  the gains we've made in our nest eggs in the past few days could go poof. And worse.  Sure, we Boomers are a fragmented lot. Who we are depends on how we experienced the economy. The oldest like myself entered into an era of abundance. Younger Boomers not so much so. But one thing we currently have in common is our necessary preoccupation with money. We could make it into our 90s. Through Facebook I'm encountering members of my class of 1967. So far only one who I know of has passed on. What we didn't expect is that here we still would be at age 80. The angst is if we will be able to keep paying the bills for this peculiar expansion of longevity. Policymakers, please fix the Hormuz issues. 

Agreed, currently capitalism is downright toxic. Predictably there would be a "hero" like Luigi Mangione who allegedly took action against it. That alleged offing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson resonated. Who doesn't live in high angst about a medical bill wiping them out. Most personal bankruptcies happen that way.  Now we have Daniel Moreno-Gama, another young man with a cause we can certainly identify with. As The Wall Street Journal documents: " ... Texas college student named Daniel Moreno-Gama was  charged with attempted murder  and arson as part of an alleged attack on OpenAI chief executive Altman’s home ... He was carrying an anti-AI manifesto ..." Moreno-Gama could also take on the aura of being exactly on the side of right. For that, he has been willing to sacrifice his own future. To more and more, those in the AI box are the bad guys.   Among the tipping points about this technology, from being regarded with awe to terror that the end is n...

  Dow Jones 30 Industrial Index  , DJIA 49,238.35 +659.63 +1.36%

SCOTUS Justice Brett Kavanaugh grew up in a household with parents who were professionals. SCOTUS Justice Sonia Sotomayor didn't. Neither did I. So? This issue of a privileged background - or membership in the "lucky sperm club" - is getting old. Essentially in America we're accepting that life isn't fair. From conception some have an edge. The joke is: Choose your parents wisely.  Proof that Radical Acceptance is the current mindset is that Sotomayor had to back down from attacking Kavanaugh for how differently he grew up from her and from so many immigrants and those who get paid by the hour. That mouth-full didn't go over well. Politico reports: " ... Sonia Sotomayor apologized Wednesday for suggesting that Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a sheltered upbringing that made him insensitive to day laborers being targeted by the Trump administration for immigration enforcement." She hadn't mentioned her SCOTUS colleague by name but she didn't have...

You bet, the generations which followed Boomers certainly have resentments. They size up that Boomers got a better deal than they did. A much better one. Everything from cheap higher education to secure corporate jobs (that is, at least until Jack Welch, et al., sent middle managers into the cold in middle age). Those hostilities have become raw. Therefore, Boomers have a ready-made excuse to look away from the suffering of younger generations. It's so heavy. No help is on the way for youth. They could be the worse off generation since The Great Depression.  What Boomers are looking at is their own money. Will they have the funds to continue with a lifestyle or to make it until they die? Inflation is blowing up the years of planning. And for them too help isn't on the way.  Social Security payments can be reduced in six years. Medicare is uncertain. Most have already crossed the line from very good health to scary medical conditions. How much in addition to Medicare/Medicare s...

During the next Super Bowl party, guests might not turn up their nose that I'm not serving the big brands. That's even though Pepsi, after losing customers through raising prices, got back some by lowering them. Instead for the annual entertainment hoopla of the Super Bowl, there will be the generics developed by the big boxes such as Walmart. I'll put them out there on the table, without apology. Just like AI is getting better and better so are the private labels like Great Value. I honestly can't taste the difference between Pepsi diet cola and Sam's. Recently Walmart has redesigned the look.  That's a worthwhile investment since private label has surged to a $330 billion industry. This isn't new. Way back in 2024, it was documented that there was a flight from big brands to private label.  The tipping point was price in an era of inflation.  The old-line obstacle to serving generic food items had been the socioeconomic "shame." You wouldn't...

Losing a job is very different now. America is no stranger to extreme economic downturns, mergers and acquisitions, the introduction of new technologies and reductions of corporate layers. Who among us hasn't lost a good job because of those developments.  One major shift, though, is this: Instead of the angst about maintaining your lifestyle during the search and with what you find, it's the probability of running out money. Almost 70% of the jobless drain their savings, with 44% missing regular payments such as rent. BusinessInsider  features those who are heading toward that brutal reality.  Essentially they're chasing after comparable jobs and not finding them. That's a key error of judgment, pushing them into being without income. Severance and unemployment end. Retirement funds get drained.  They can no longer assume they can pursue a linear path in earning a living. They're operating against the current headwinds of a low hiring rate, whole sectors such ...

  Dow Futures 48,763.00 Change + 8.00   0.02%  

  Nice try. The Wall Street Journal starts out its article on us Boomers with this: "The first of the youth-obsessed baby boomers turn 80 this year, including President Trump, and they want to shake up old age." That all-knowing tone from a respected legacy publication is supposed to trigger readers nodding their heads in agreement: Ah, that's what the Boomers are about. But, it isn't. Actually our generation is increasingly diverse in what we are about. Given so many changes, ranging from AI to a sustained roller-coaster investment scene, I, for one, am struggling to catch up to who I'm becoming. Pieces of that don't include, at least not for now, wanting to "shake up old age."  Primarily I'm focused on balancing not outliving my money with the peril of being too frugal and missing opportunities such as traveling abroad for enjoying life. Several years ago I phased out being an influencer. With the exception of protecting Social Security and Med...