Business & Finance

Technion president favors isolating campus from politics while solving global problems

In a telephone interview, Sivan described what on the surface might be viewed as two conflicting goals, but which in fact are complementary.On the one hand, he said, Technion strives to isolate itself from politics. On the other hand, Technion intends to become more involved in solving some of the world’s overarching problems such as environmental issues, energy, human health, and ethics. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

Time to consider Roth conversions, estate planning

We are nearing the end of 2019. And, there’s something significant to note about this year and 2020: There will likely not be any tax increases during these years. Currently, we are enjoying the lowest income tax rates in decades as well as the highest estate tax exemptions. Income tax rates range from 10% to 37% and capital gains tax ranges from 0% to 20%, while the estate & gift tax exemption is $11,400,000 per person! What does this have to do with you? Plenty! Especially if you have retirement accounts and/or are worth more than $2 million per person. [Sheryl Rowling, CPA]

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Business & Finance, Sheryl Rowling, USA

A consortium of 100 geniuses

Besides being Jewish what do these people have in common?  Amir Amedi, Ron Arad, Marc Benioff, Michael Bloomberg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg,  Daniel S. Goldin, Roger D. Kornberg, Deborah Nadoolman Landis, John Landis, Uri Levine, Shuki Levy, Daniel Libeskind, Shimon Peres (z”l), Ehud Shabtai,  Amir Shinar and Barbra Streisand. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, International, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, The World We Share, Travel and Food

Processing a billion garlic bulbs a year

From an initial ten-acre plot of garlic in 1956, the family has expanded its holdings to 6,000 acres throughout central California. The company, also known as Christopher Ranch, harvests approximately 100 million pounds of garlic annually, which translates into the production of approximately one billion garlic bulbs every year.  The company has a workforce of 1,000 permanent employees, and upwards of 2,000 employees who are brought in for the harvest season under a federal program with Mexico. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Travel and Food, USA

More details on sale of Seacrest’s Nellie Cohn Residence

Ferris told San Diego Jewish World that only 25 of the 54 units had been occupied, making unprofitable the facility designed under auspices of the San Diego Hebrew Home to accommodate Jewish religious practices. She said surveys of the Jewish community indicated that one of the problems might have been that the residential facility had only independent living units, rather than a mix of units such as there is at the 250-unit Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, The World We Share, Travel and Food

Seacrest Village sells its Rancho Bernardo facility

Although it issued no news release to announce it, Seacrest Village Retirement Communities has sold its 56-unit Rancho Bernardo campus at 12730 Monte Vista Road to Pacifica, which will maintain it as an independent living community.
Michael Mather, Seacrest Village’s director of community relations, says residents of the facility have been able to transfer to the main campus in Encinitas, if they so desired.. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger, San Diego County, The World We Share

Weaponizing the dollar

Ironically, the US itself can weaken the world role of the dollar by unrestrained budget deficits (although the mechanism is uncertain) and certainly by overusing economic sanctions as a form of warfare. Sanctions involve ending a country’s direct links with the US economy, and indirectly by limiting its use of the dollar. We can cut off its use of US financial institutions and urge foreign banks to do the same by threatening their access to US financial facilities. Our weakening of the Iranian economy indicates that economic sanctions can be quite effective. The natural way for a sanctioned country to respond is to seek other currencies with which to do business and use financial institutions without links to the US. If the US does a lot of this, a critical mass of “sanctioned” countries might find a common new currency for their international transactions. The Chinese Remindbi comes to mind. The dollar’s world role would be greatly reduced. [Lawrence Krause, PhD]

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Business & Finance, International, Middle East, USA

Our Shtetl San Diego County: September 25, 2019

Items in this column include: 
*A few of Bern Schwartz’s works now at Museum of Photographic Arts
*Jewish Federation’s Men’s Event Dec. 8 to feature comedian Modi Rosenfeld
*Political Dots and Dashes
*Cohn Group of Restaurants to temporarily manage four more eateries
*Mazel tov! Mazel tov!

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

Why Should You Want Help with Your Financial Planning

There are many different aspects of financial planning, from retirement planning, to employee benefits, to ensuring your estate and assets are properly protected. It’s a lot to manage all on your own. In this post, we’ll talk about the value of having a financial advisor to consult, and the criteria you can use to ensure you are choosing the best person (or people) for the job.

More and more, we are seeing financial planning companies offering a service known as “robo-advising.”

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Business & Finance, Sheryl Rowling

The top four new tax law surprises

By Sheryl Rowling SAN DIEGO –We recently completed the first tax season since passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. There were sweeping changes and most taxpayers experienced many unforeseen surprises. Rather than lament,  we should learn from these surprises and turn them into planning opportunities for the future. Let’s  look: Surprise #1: Many

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Business & Finance, Sheryl Rowling, Travel and Food, USA