Juggling Dynamite

Stellar astronomer and TED Senior Fellow Lucianne Walkowicz works on NASA’s Kepler mission, searching for places in the universe that could support life. So it’s worth a listen when she asks us to think carefully about Mars. In this short talk, she suggests that we stop dreaming of Mars as a place that we’ll eventually move to when we’ve messed up Earth, and to start thinking of planetary exploration and preservation of the Earth as two sides of the same goal. As she says, “The more you look for planets like Earth, the more you appreciate our own planet.”  Here is a direct video link.

Whatever our goals this year, may we always remember that each of us are the master of the change we wish to see: “If it is to be it is up to me.”  Teach, lead and inspire!

See: Three New Years Resolutions that will end the world’s dependency on fossil fuels.

After a couple of decades of giving financial industry foxes near unfettered range to abuse the savings of trusting clients, enforcing a fiduciary standard on all who offer financial ‘advice’ is the only sane course in the long build back to financial stability.  If you are one of the majority that are still taking your personal financial and investment advice from those not held to a fiduciary standard, it’s time to wake up and put the best interests of your family and financial health first.

Of course, increased financial security for savers means reduced profits for the financial industry, and so the foxes are fighting necessary changes every step of the way, with all their formidable political clout.  They must not win. We, the people, our pensions and institutions, simply cannot afford the plundering of savings to continue.  See DOL Fiduciary rule could take $2.4 billion bite out of financial services industry:

The DOL’s proposed conflict-of-interest rule “could drastically alter the profits and business models of investment product manufacturers like BlackRock and wealth management firms like Morgan Stanley that serve retirement accounts,” according to Stephen Ellis, director of financial service equity research at Morningstar Inc. “Current government and financial industry reports have a high-end annual cost of $1.1 billion,” but the low-end impact could be more than double that at $2.4 billion, Mr. Ellis wrote in a research note issued yesterday.

The $2.4 billion number is Morningstar’s low-end estimate of prohibited mutual fund front-end load commissions and mutual fund 12b-1 fees paid to full-service wealth management firms for commission-based IRAs. It is a revenue number, according to Morningstar.