Financial Mindset

Dylan Taylor made his first million at 27. Last year, he became a billionaire at 53, after taking his space-holding company, Voyager Technologies, public on the New York Stock Exchange. But don’t expect his two children to inherit all of it. “I’m not a huge believer in generational wealth transfer,” the founder and philanthropist tells Fortune . “I don’t think that’s good for the kids. And I don’t think it’s good for society, frankly.” It’s why, like Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates , Taylor has put a hard cap on what his kids will one day receive; “It’s a lot, but it’s eight figures, not nine,” Taylor responds, when asked exactly how much his children can expect to inherit. When you’re worth as much as Taylor, there’s only so much you can spend in one lifetime. Eventually, the conversation turns to what happens to the rest. “At some point, once you have a couple hundred million dollars, you can’t really spend what you ...

The ongoing dialogue regarding the ever-imminent displacement of white-collar workers by AI is predicated on the assumption that the technology will become as skilled as the very workers it threatens to displace, thereby cutting labor costs. But a new study found that’s not quite what’s playing out in many companies that have carried out AI-related layoffs. A survey of 350 global business executives with an annual revenue of at least $1 billion by the research and advisory firm Gartner found that many have reduced their workforce irrespective of AI adoption. While 80% of those surveyed who have piloted an AI or autonomous technology have reported workforce reductions, the businesses cut jobs due to automation regardless of whether the technology was actually generating returns. “Looking only at layoffs is shortsighted in terms of getting value from AI,” Helen Poitevin, VP analyst at Gartner and a key researcher of the study, told Fortune . “Chasing value only through head...

Two of the most influential CEOs in tech spent the last year warning that AI would gut white-collar employment. Now they’re admitting they were wrong, joining other leaders like Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon in casting doubt on an AI job apocalypse.  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in an interview with Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn on Tuesday, said he was “pretty wrong” about AI’s economic impact—a reversal from his June 2025 warnings that entry-level roles were at serious risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who once claimed AI could eliminate 50% of white-collar jobs, now says automation may actually expand the work people do. Solomon, meanwhile, has argued consistently since at least late 2025 that the panic was overblown—and is now pointing to a century of American economic history to say he was right. “I’m delighted to ⁠be wrong about this,” Altman told Comyn. “I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-coll...

Stock futures jumped while oil prices and bond yields tumbled Monday evening on reports that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was coming together, even as the U.S. military conducted new airstrikes on Iran. Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average surged 297 points, or 0.58%. S&P 500 futures were up 0.64%, and Nasdaq futures leapt 0.90%. All three indexes pulled back a bit from earlier highs. U.S. oil futures sank 5.5% to $91.32 a barrel, but also pared steeper losses. Gold rose 0.48% to $4,545 per ounce. The U.S. dollar was up 0.07% against the euro and up 0.04% against the yen. The yield on the 10-year Treasury plunged 7.2 basis points to 4.50%. Reports over the holiday weekend pointed to an emerging agreement that would extend the ceasefire for 60 days. At the same time, Iran would allow ship traffic to flow freely through the Strait of Hormuz, while the U.S. would lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports. But the thornier issues of Iran’s ...

When the CEO of a family-owned business hangs up the hat, bad things are likely to happen. According to recent McKinsey research analyzing more than 200 family-owned businesses across 50 countries and 10 sectors, these companies underperform on revenues, shareholder returns, and earnings for five years after a leadership transition, compared with the five years before. On average, returns fall 5.7 points. Revenue growth and earnings margins decline too. So what makes succession in family-owned businesses so difficult to get right? The usual suspect is the heir — the sniping siblings on HBO’s  Succession  embody the popular fascination with families in business. But the data does not support the stereotype of the underperforming heir. McKinsey’s research shows family-owned businesses decline after a CEO transition regardless of whether the successor is a family member or an outside executive. Indeed, only about one-third of al...

Hong Kong’s fertility rate has sunk to roughly 0.8 children per woman, far below the replacement rate of 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population. Registered births in the city fell to just over 31,000 in 2025, a record low following years of declines.  Long working hours and high childcare costs make starting a family a difficult choice for many households. Hong Kong’s statutory maternity leave stands at 14 weeks of paid leave; it offers just five days of paternity leave. Hong Kong has tried to implement policies to subsidize some of the costs of childcare, including a one-off “ baby bonus ” of 20,000 Hong Kong dollars ($2,550) to no avail.  Hong Kong’s problem isn’t unique, as several Asian economies like South Korea, Japan, and Mainland China are also grappling with falling birth rates . Even less wealthy markets across Asia, like Thailand, are aging faster than their level of development would suggest, leading to fears that such countries might “grow old before...

In 1974, New York Times humorist Russell Baker identified a “ pig in the python ” working its way through the economy: the bulge of 76 million Baby Boomers squeezing through America’s economic system, distorting everything they passed through. When Boomers flooded the labor market in the 1970s, they created a competitive squeeze that never fully released — leaving the generations behind them without the wage rebound economists had predicted. When they bought homes, prices soared. When they took the top jobs in business, culture, and civic life, they held them — and held them, and held them. For half a century, the Baby Boom generation has functioned like a slow-moving wave through the American economy — and as the last of them cross into retirement age, the country is discovering just how much of its future they’re still holding in place. In the labor market, four decades of Boomer dominance suppressed wages and opportunity for younger workers, and their ac...