In March 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to strike down the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PAPSA), ending the federal ban on sports betting in every state except Nevada. This allowed states to decide if they wanted to legalize sports gambling. Today, 38 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico have done so.

For many years, the major sports leagues’ concerns with gambling were primarily to do with the integrity of their product. The leagues felt that allowing gambling could compromise their sports and pose as a destructive force. Eventually, they began to realize that gambling could actually increases interest and revenue tremendously. In the 2010’s, the league’s began to change their tune by investing in casinos and gambling companies, putting teams in Las Vegas, and joining the push to end PAPSA. The league’s and the government realized legal gambling would create jobs, generate tax revenue, and lower the rate of crime involved with illegal gambling.

Now that we are five years since legalization, we can look at how sports betting impacted the U.S. economy. According to the American Gaming Association, The legal U.S. sports betting market generated$7.56 billion of total revenue in 2022, an increase of about 75% from 2021. Americans legally wagered $93.73 billion, compared to $57.53 billion in 2021. New York accounted for $1.37 billion of the national revenue total, as their launch of online sports betting in January 2022 saw it become the largest legal sports betting market in the country by a long shot. New York imposes a 51% state tax on gross gaming revenue. Tax rates vary across states, but in 2022, 27 of those states combined for $1.5 billion tax revenue from sports betting.

It’s not just the tax revenue that has positively impacted the economy. According to a report published this May by IBISworld, there are more than 24,000 businesses employing over 200,000 workers related to sports betting. The leagues are also making more money, not just from partnering with the sportsbooks and casinos, but also selling their data to technology companies that work with the casinos, as well as increased viewership and interest. Specifically, the NFL has increased viewership every year since 2018.

Another interesting financial aspect about gambling is that even when the Casinos are on a losing end of a wager, tax is still being paid. If you, as a gambler, made more than $600 for the year, you have to pay income tax on that. What this means is that nearly every wager placed, whether won or lost by the casinos, generates tax revenue.

It’s no secret that gambling has supplied a boost to the U.S. economy in the form of tax revenue, job creation, and consumer spending. However, everything comes with a cost. Gambling addiction has been on the rise each year since legalization. The lack of regulation in the beginning allowed for extremally predatory and misleading ads that lured in people to start betting with promotions described as “risk-free bets” when in fact, you had to risk money in order to get credits that were in the form of bonus bets. While there is very limited data on this subject because it is all so new and hard to quantify, there are probably plenty of people that would never have placed a sports bet prior to 2018 who now have an addiction. It will be interesting to see how regulation evolves over the years and whether or not the monetary gains for the economy are worth the social costs.

As I grind through my job, I often wonder how I could possibly make more money than my parents. After all, my parents made more money than their parents, who made more money than their parents.

Being the typical millennial I am, as I scroll through social media, I see plenty of memes and jokes about “boomers” telling their millennial children, that ‘at their age, they were able to afford a house and feed an entire family, all while saving for retirement.’ There is indeed actual data outside of memes that support this notion. So, it’s not just me, but millennials, on average, are less wealthy than their parents at the same stage in life, despite making more money and being more educated. Why?

There are a multitude of factors we can point to, and it’s not because millennials are dumb or lazy (okay some us are but not more so than other generations). Socioeconomic factors like cost of living, economic growth, and overall views on saving money are the real culprits for millennials finding themselves at a financial disadvantage compared to their parents.

Let’s start by taking a look at the cost of living. It costs way more to live as an adult now, that it did 30-50 years ago. Just think about all of the little things you need* to spend on that your parents and grandparents did not. Internet, cable, Wi-Fi, email, and most other tech-related “utilities”, that are so common now, did not exist as little as 25 years ago. In addition, many items that did exist have drastically increased in price, outpacing wages. Increases in college tuition, housing, healthcare, and child care have out paced wages. Simply put, it costs way more to live in this current society and wages have not compensated to the same extent.

Another huge factor is the differences in generation population and corresponding economic growth. Boomers are typically the children of the traditionalist/silent generation, those people born between 1928-1945. The traditionalist generation was one that grew up on the heels of the Great Depression and WWII, causing their parents to have less children, yielding a smaller demographic compared to other generations. Boomers get their name because their parents had far more children due to changing mindsets about war and family than their grandparents, thus leading to the “Baby Boom” in the 50s and 60s. Naturally, with more boomers entering a growing workforce, job opportunities were plentiful as they came of age because there were way more of them in a growing economy fill than there were incumbents to block them from filling such roles.

While boomers had more children, on average, than Millennials do now, they still did not have as many as their own parents. This would create less opportunities for millennials in the workforce to replace the boomer incumbents in higher paying jobs, not just because there were less of them to replace their predecessors, but also because the economy came to screeching halt in both 2008 and 2020.

Millennials came of age during The Great Recession of 2008, thus the economy ceased to create the same level of opportunities to out earn their parents. Prior to the financial collapse of 2008, many people were able to buy a house and reasonably expect that property to appreciate significantly over the course of their ownership. Once the housing market collapsed, this was no longer true for millennials, leading to far less of them becoming home owners than their parents were at the same age.

On top of these major factors, millennials have a much different mindset than their parents and grandparents when it comes to saving money. Boomers and their parents were taught to earn and save for retirement, climb corporate ladders, own a home and have children. Millennials on the other hand, are much more influenced by social media to spend, have more of a work life balance, travel, and delay having children. There fore millennials spend way more of their paychecks than their parents did at their age, leading to less investments in their retirement.

The point of all this is not to complain or blame the generations before us, but to understand the financial position we’re in so we can all prepare for our future. It is not impossible to get a mortgage and buy a house as a millennial, our parents faced very high interest rates as well. You can still travel and delay having children thanks to advances in medicine and fertility treatment. There are ways to budget for this and still save, so it is important to think about your retirement and how much you are actually spending, and focus on how you can adjust your budget to accomplish your desired lifestyle to a reasonable degree while also putting some money away for retirement.

While our parents were taught and conditioned to work and save, work and save, work and save, it is OKAY that our generation prefers to actually try and enjoy life to some degree while also trying to make a living wage. Just as every generation before us had jobs that did not exist when they were children, so do millennials and we will keep finding jobs tomorrow that do not exist today. Take me for example.

(Full disclosure: I am a white male raised by an upper-middle class family, so I do recognize that the odds are stacked in my favor, but I think my experience is still valuable.)

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance, and went on to work traditional 9-5 jobs for big companies in my first few years out of college. During the pandemic, and more so the shift to a more virtual workforce, I found that I had a greater opportunity to offer my skills and services by freelancing. This allows me to serve multiple clients, and customize my workload to some degree. I am not relying on a single employer to fund my life, and I can adjust my work and amount of clients to fit my desired work/life balance. I find that an increasing amount of my peers are choosing a similar route, especially those who work in marketing, advertising, PR, and graphic design industries.

So if you are a millennial (or older Gen Zer) concerned with your future retirement and earning potential, the best thing you can do is strategically consider how you can leverage you’re knowledge, education and skills, in way that may be a tad less “traditional”, but one that can allow you to work in an environment that is more suited for your lifestyle and spending habits.

‘You need to go to college to get a good job and make a good living’ is what my generation (Millennial) has been the story told by our parents (Boomers) since we were young. But times are changing and the cost of a Bachelor’s degree keeps rising, so let me ask the question, is a college degree really worth the investment? Is there a college tuition bubble that is primed to burst in a matter of time?

Of course, this is a pretty complicated question as there are many types of jobs, schools, and factors that go into this. Nonetheless, based on recent data I believe that a bubble is growing in the education world, specifically for private institution 4-Year bachelor’s degrees.

Before I dive into the numbers, it’s important to understand how bubbles form and why they burst…

The most famous bubble bursting in recent history was the US Housing Market in 2008, which led to the Global Financial Crisis. In this instance, people were borrowing money to purchase houses they couldn’t afford due to the expectations that they would be able to sell that house in the future for much more than they bought it for. The banks that loaned people this money either believed it too, or were just very greedy and turned a blind eye. Either way, housing prices began to drop and people were unable to pay their mortgages and the banks who loaned the money needed government bailouts.

Now think about this in terms of the price for a college degree. On average, students who graduated from a private 4-year university spent approximately $126,000 for their education. In 2021, the expected starting salary for a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree after taxes was approximately $43,000. The median salary in 2021 for a person who graduated high school but did not attend college was approximately $30,000 after tax. Over the last 10 years, the average wage increase across the board has been 3.28% which has only outpaced inflation by 1.4% (this is not including the anomaly that is 2022 inflation). Based on these number, the average college graduate can expect to take home approximately $240,000 over the next 5 years after tax, while the average non-college graduate can expect approximately $180,000, a mere $60,000 difference.

Since a college graduate will only make $60,000 more than a non-college graduate over the first 5 years of their career on average, we can take a look at what that means for the return on investment for that degree they paid $126,000 for. Since they only made $60,000more over those 5 years than they could have if they decided to forgo college, the return on their investment (ROI) will be approximately -53%. It would take them 11 years just to break even on their investment, and another 7 years to double their investment. In other words, it will take about 18 years just to double the investment of a private education which is an annual yield (APY) of just 5.6%. For comparison, the S&P 500 has had an average APY of approximately 10% over the last 50 years.

Alternatively when you do the same math with the price of a public bachelor’s degree the numbers look much better…

As of 2021, the average 4 year cost for a state school was approximately $30,000. Assuming the same salary figures as above (which is a stretch), it would only take a public school graduate 3 years to break even on their investment. Over the same 18 years they will have made nearly 7.5x their investment, which is an APY of about 41%.

Like I said before, there are plenty of other factors to consider. For instance, most of the country’s top schools, in terms of mid-career salary, are private institutions. But when you look at the top state schools they’re not too far behind. UC-Santa Barbara had the top mid-career salary for a state school as of 2021 ranking them 21st overall and just $20,000 behind the #1 school, MIT, while a private institution, is a land-grant university, meaning it receives government funding unlike most private universities.

While it is tough to definitively answer whether or not the price of a degree is worth it, the numbers are starting to tell a story. They are telling us that an affordable degree could be well worth your investment. This notion can lead to more and more college applicants to go this route instead of an overpriced private institutions.

Just like the price of houses, if students were to keep borrowing money to pay for extraordinarily high private education tuition, it could end up taking them decades to recoup their investment, in turn leading to significant regression in the price and feasibility of a private university education, as well as reluctance from lenders to even fund these educations.

Jim Boeheim has become synonymous with Syracuse Basketball due to the fact that he has been the University’s head coach for 47 years. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest coaches in the history of the college game, establishing Syracuse as one of the country’s most successful programs that doesn’t wear the color blue. In his half-century long career, Boeheim won his and the program’s sole championship in 2003, and has reached the Final Four 4 times (2 of which happened to be while I was a student) in 37 NCAA tournament appearances.

The team has had a shaky 2022-2023 season, and Boeheim has become increasingly irritated and disrespectful to the media and other schools in his conference, recently whining about how they “bought” their teams with NIL deals. Many people though Boeheim would finally step down after his sons graduated last season, but he is still hinting at a return next year in spite of the team’s woes. His lack of self-awareness is setting himself up as a grumpy old man with a big ego who does not believe anybody can do the job better than him.

Many Syracuse fans may disagree, and I embrace it, however let’s look at the facts. The team is underperforming, he is not recruiting top tier talent, and he does not produce NBA talent.

Recruiting

Even if you agree that Boeheim isn’t the best coach, a common counterpoint would be that he has consistently been able to recruit big names to come to the bitter cold north and play for the Orange. However, that is simply not the case anymore. In the last 4 recruiting classes, the Orange have only had a single Top 100 recruit in each class, and 2 of them have since transferred. This notion that he is this juggernaut recruiter has simply not been true since the early 2010’s when he was able to get names like Dion Waiters, Fab Melo (RIP), Jerami Grant, and Michael Carter-Williams. He has not had a single Five Star recruit since Chris McCollough in 2014, who only ended up playing in 16 games before a season ending injury.

NBA Production

Since the championship run 20 season ago, led by future NBA Hall-of-Famer Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse has had just 4 alums last more than 4 seasons in the NBA. The best player of the crop has been Jerami Grant, which says enough. Compared to the other CBB powerhouses who pump out NBA talent year in and year out, Syracuse doesn’t even come close. If you cannot produce NBA talent, how can you expect to convince a top recruit to endure the Syracuse winters and play in his stubborn 2-3 zone which is rarely, if ever, used in the NBA?

The Team Stinks

Over his career, Boeheim has a winning percentage of roughly 72%, but in the last 4 seasons he is barely above .500. The team has failed to win 20 games in 7 of the 10 seasons since leaving the Big East for the ACC. The 10 seasons prior, the team never failed to capture 20 wins and averaged over 26 wins per season.

He’s a grumpy old man

While Boeheim, has never been known for his warm personality, he has been getting into bitter interactions with the media and is even whining about other teams “buying” players with NIL deals (which is allowed now). He’s almost 80 years old, and I can’t imagine he is able to connect with players on a way they can trust, considering he is almost a century older than them.

It’s time.

Boeheim’s entire identity is being Syracuse’s head coach, which is probably why he refuses to leave and pass the torch. The team has plenty of young assistant coaches who have earned a shot. I believer they could do just as good of a job recruiting, if not better, and won’t have that high of a bar to reach in terms of recent regular season success.

Listen Jimmy, I know it’s hard to step aside and recognize that your time is up. I get that it’s hard to accept the notion that someone younger than you could be better at the job you’ve been doing twice as long as they’ve been alive. But sometimes it takes a bigger man to recognize that a young mind with fresh energy and ideas could revitalize a stagnant program and bring them back to their winning ways.

He also picks his nose on the sidelines every game as he watches his team lose and it’s pretty gross.

Please Jim, just say goodbye, walk off into the sunset. I’d say we would name the court after you but it already is. It’s time for someone new.

On August 16, 2022, The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) was signed into law. The IRA was created to direct new federal spending toward reducing carbon emissions, lowering healthcare costs, funding the Internal Revenue Service, and improving taxpayer compliance, all in an effort to help curb the rising inflation.

However, the House GOP is sending a message by passing a partisan bill yesterday (that WON’T make it through the Senate) that would cut that IRS funding.

So, what does this all mean?

Why is inflation so high? What is the purpose of the new IRS funding from the IRA? What message is the GOP sending by passing this bill?

Why Inflation is High

Inflation is reaching historically high levels due in large part to lingering effects from the pandemic. At the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, consumers began spending less because of lockdowns, and in turn, started saving more. Then, when Covid-19 restrictions eased, people started spending more again. Companies, however, couldn’t keep up with this increased consumer demand. 

Just as there are many causes of broad-based inflation, there are many factors that have given way to higher energy prices. Large in part, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting Western countries’ sanctions which put severe limits on the import of Russian oil. Both events played a significant role in rising energy prices and supply-chain issues.

The result of all these things? Higher prices for most goods and services.

Corporations and wealthy individuals have been getting away with not paying taxes. Ergo, most people can’t afford to buy things while those who can do not fund the government with their taxes, which is contributing to inflation and leaving the economy in a very shaky state.

IRA Funding From The IRS

Excerpts from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) indicated that the legislation might lead to increased payments on personal taxes for Americans of all incomes. However, this calculation was based on an assumption that companies would pass on parts of the minimum corporate tax to employees, which was criticized by Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center (TPC). The TPC estimated that the bottom 80% tax filers by income would actually receive a net benefit. The 80th-99th percentile would incur a small cost (0-0.1% increase in average federal tax rate) while the top 1% would incur a 0.2% increase. The costs mainly are imposed indirectly as corporations facing higher taxes, which may end up reducing the wage increases for workers; individual tax rates were not changed.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to NOT use the new funding to increase the rate of audits of those making less than $400,000 a year above historical levels, but to instead focus on “high-end noncompliance.”

The GOP Response

“Our first bill will repeal funding for 87,000 new IRS agents, because the government should be here to help you, not go after you,” declared the very newl House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was barely able to get elected by his own party.

Republicans claimed throughout the midterm campaign that Democrats were sending “an army of IRS agents” to go after middle and lower-class taxpayers with the new agency funding in the IRA. A tad misleading. 

Republicans also say they are not buying the assertions from administration officials stated above and have vowed to keep up scrutiny of the IRS.

The Democrat Response to the GOP Response

“They don’t want a fairer tax administration, they think it’s bad for some of their supporters,” Rep Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, said in debate with Republicans. “What they’re attempting to do tonight is bad for middle-class families. It’s bad for small businesses.”

This new House Republican measure would increase the budget deficit by more than $114 billion through 2032, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

My Interpretation

Inflation is high. Corporations haven’t been paying the limited taxes they owe. Lawmakers are trying to curb rising inflation by funding various programs, including the IRS so that it can collect from the top 1% more efficiently. The GOP is trying to appeal to their supporters and say that Democrats are spending money and use it to come after poor people to force them to pay more taxes with guns. The Democrats are saying, “false”.

Will any of this actually reduce inflation? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Speaking of tax… If you need help getting your businesses’ 2022 financial statements ready you should hire an outsourced CFO or bookkeeper from Skyview! For more info email me at brandon@skyviewcfo.com!

Earlier this month I wrote an article about the global scandal concerning the Crypto exchange, FTX. In the latest news surrounding the Ponzi-like Scheme, various celebrities who were hired to endorse the company are being sued for endorsing the fraudulent company.

This raises and interesting debate among the growing industry of influencer marketing. Obviously, no reasonable person would expect Larry David, of all people, to know a single thing about Crypto, even the commercial itself leans into that notion. However, if celebrities are going to make livings off “endorsing” products, and “influencing” their followers in regard to what they should consume, it would make sense that they should understand what it is they are endorsing.

Especially with hindsight, it is hard not to laugh at the overwhelming irony that this commercial graced us with. While I do feel bad for the unsophisticated investors who were victimized, Larry David getting sued for endorsing a company in an ad where he only said negative things about sounds like it was written by Larry David.

While it may seem unfair and erroneous I do think that David and the other celebrities who endorse this: Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, and more, should be held accountable and made an example of for other celebrity and influencer endorsers in the future. If you are going to endorse something you should at least have to perform some level of due diligence to try and verify if it is a legitimate company and something you would want to recommend to your followers. On the flip side, you shouldn’t blindly buy or invest in something just because Larry David told you not to.

Let us know your thoughts on the FTX scandal!

Brooklyn Nets star, Kyrie Irving, became the second celebrity endorser to be dropped by a major shoe brand in the last week, following in the steps of Kanye West.

Since his arrival in Brooklyn over two years ago, Kyrie has been nothing but a cancer for the team and his teammates. Before Brooklyn, he ruffled feathers in Boston during his short tenure as a Celtic, where he insisted that the world may be flat. Prior to Boston, Kyrie won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, before demanding to be traded away from Lebron James on the heels of four straight NBA Finals appearances.

Irving has seemingly always prided himself on utilizing his platform to spread his views with his followers, but the problem is that he continuously talks out of both sides of his mouth. He thinks he is smarter than everyone, and it takes endless begging to get an apology out of him. In 2017, when he made headlines after claiming the earth is flat, Kyrie defended himself by saying, “I do research on both sides. I’m not against anyone that thinks the Earth is round. I’m not against anyone that thinks it’s flat. I just love hearing the debate.” Oh really, Kyrie? You’re not against anyone who thinks the earth is round?! Good for you! Because, well the earth is indeed round.

Many months later, Irving apologized for offending the science community and even said that it was a good lesson of how words that come from influential people can have enormous power. Hmmm.

Kyrie saying the earth is flat, albeit hilariously dumb, is not the main point here. Kyrie explicitly noted at that time that debating conspiracy theories can have a large impact on his followers, given the magnitude and influence of his platforms. Clearly, like the earth being round, Kyrie did not actually believe that either.

Suffice it to say things did not go well for Irving in Boston, and his weird conspiracy rhetoric did not stop there. As a Brooklyn Net, Kyrie again began to make headlines for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s not simply the fact he refused to take it, it’s why. Many notable people have refused to take the vaccine for various religious and political beliefs, but Kyrie? Well he started following and liking Instagram posts from a conspiracy theorist who claims that “secret societies” are implanting vaccines in a plot to connect Black people to a master computer for ‘a plan of Satan.’ Kyrie was unable to play in any Brooklyn Nets home games for the 2021 season due to a NY mandate, and the Nets went on to get swept by his former team, Boston, in the first round of the playoffs.

Now, less than a year later, Kyrie finds himself back on the hot seat after posting a link to a documentary that is anti-Semitic propaganda including the notion that the Holocaust never happened. When questioned by the media originally, Kyrie actually said that him posting it on his platform is not promoting it, and that the media should treat him like a human being. But I thought he understood the lesson on the impact of his words when it comes to political theories? Guess not.

The Nets are the gold standard when it comes to handling PR crisis’s in the absolute worst way possible. They did not suspend him immediately, nor did they mention him in their original press release apologizing to those who were offended. Brooklyn Nets owner, Joseph Tsai, actually tried to educate Kyrie on the offensiveness of the documentary and that the Holocaust did indeed happen. But apparently Tsai’s efforts were futile, as the Nets finally suspended Kyrie saying that he is currently “unfit to be associated” with the Brooklyn Nets.

But let’s get one thing straight here, Nets. Kyries is not just currently unfit to be associated with a basketball franchise located in the most Jewish populated city in THE WORLD outside of Israel, he will always be unfit. This incident is not just a one time mistake, it is a pattern. A pattern that suggests giving Kyrie a large platform to spread his wildly inaccurate theories that pose a threat to people is not a good idea.

Not long after the Nets announced their suspension, Nike announced that they too were suspending their relationship with Irving, and that they would not be releasing his upcoming signature shoe.

Kyrie has been able to remain on the court despite his controversial views in the past, but it is looking like this may be the straw that breaks the camels back. The guy is extremally talented at basketball, but he can’t be worth all the drama he brings with him. The Nets should permanently cut ties with him showing their fans that they will not let people who put out such threatening propaganda deserve to represent their team. Hopefully the NBA will step in, who is run by Adam Silver (Jewish), if the Nets don’t penalize Irving any further.

While it has been terrible seeing anti-Semitic propaganda take over the headlines there is a nice silver lining that it will cost you millions, your reputation, and possibly your career. Tsai and the Nets have allegedly given Irving a “to do” list of myriad apologies and donations before he can resume playing, but Kyrie has hinted that he may just consider retiring.

I miss the old Kanye…

No but really, I remember the first time I listened to The College Dropout. I was spoiled. As a rap/hip-hop fan, I thought that every album should be that great. Kanye followed it up with hit after hit, cementing himself, not just as one of the most talented rappers, but as one of the most talented musicians of our generation. While this is my opinion, it is hard to argue that his historic rise wasn’t due to incredible talent as he followed up his 2004 debut album with now-classics like Late Registration, Graduation, 808s & a Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, all of which peaked at #1 and went at least triple platinum. (I even liked Yeezus and The Life of Pablo which both went double platinum).

Everyone handles success differently. We’ve seen many young stars fall off early and others able to handle the limelight. As for Ye, it has become increasingly evident that his stardom, combined with mental illness, has turned him into a man who now believes he is untouchable, or as he would probably put it: God-like.

In addition to being a historically great musician, Kanye has supplemented his success with other ventures, especially as a fashion designer. His shoes still sell for thousands of dollars on the secondary market even though they’re pretty hideous.

Kanye, like any successful artist, has developed a devout following. I was definitely a big fan but never considered myself to be a Kanye “Stan”. In case you don’t know what a Stan is, it is a slang term that means die-hard fan. It is a reference to the song Stan by Eminem, in which he raps from the point of view of a crazy fan who murders his pregnant girlfriend because the fictional version of Eminem had not been responding to his fan mail. Kanye’s “Stans” love him and will go to bat for him, probably due to all of the great memories his music has provided them over the years.

Stans will buy his shoes and clothing, go to all of his concerts, and often defend his racist remarks. Ye still has many Stans, even though his last four albums were borderline unlistenable (yes, that’s my opinion but look me in the eye and tell me you like Jesus is King).

It’s hard to admit your childhood idols aren’t who they once were. Usually, that happens to us in sports, as I’m sure most Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers fans could probably relate to right now. (I’m sort of kidding I think Brady will still somehow win another Superbowl). Nonetheless, it is hard to admit the talent has faded from those we once thought to be indestructible.

Over the last few years, however, Kanye has made it quite hard on his Stans to remain on his side as he continues to go on these despicable tirades, support white fascists, run for president, and in his latest work, SAYS HE WANTS TO KILL JEWS.

As a Jewish person whose great-grandparents hid in haystacks in 1940s Poland to avoid the Nazi’s, it’s not a difficult decision for me to say, “yeah, I don’t like this guy anymore”. Not to mention that his music is essentially just Church Choir music these days. I do find it perplexing for anyone to still be defending this man. Unless, of course, you yourself are a white male fascist.

In case you are unaware of his anti-Semitic remarks let me break it down for you: On October 8th, he tweeted that he is “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”. Not leaving much up for interpretation here, but Kanye goes on (in the same tweet) to claim that he “can’t be Anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jew[ish] too”. If your confused it’s okay, I had to look this one up. What he is trying to reference here is a theory that black people are decedents of Israelites. In fact, Kanye clarified by saying, “When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are.” (The tribe of Judah was one of the 12 tribes of Israel.) Kanye is not the only famous person to support this theory.

He also went on to say that he thinks George Floyd died from a drug overdose, and not from the knee of Derrick Chauvin being pinned on his neck for nine minutes. So if you don’t feel bad for Jews being slammed by Kanye, at least (hopefully) you’d find it rather despicable for him to mitigate the death of Floyd. Right? RIGHT?!?!?!?

Soooo Kanye thinks that Black people are Jewish, but that Jewish people are manipulating and controlling Black people. “Milking them for everything they’re worth” he often says. He blames every person who does not want to do business with him on the “Jewish Media”. He specifically called out Ari Emmanuel, CEO of Endeavor and who the Entourage character, Ari Gold, was loosely based on (fun fact), as another powerful Jew doing anything to mute him at all costs.

In an interview last week with Piers Morgan, when asked if he would walk back the ‘Def Con 3’ remark, Kanye laughed it off, admitted it was racist, and said he needs to “fight fire with fire”. So he is blaming Jewish people for everything going wrong in his life, thinks he is actually Jewish, but that Jews are manipulating everyone to “cancel” him. It probably doesn’t help the fact that Pete Davidson (a Jew) was dating his ex-wife and rubbing it in his face.

How are Kanye’s corporate partners/collaborators dealing with the backlash? Well, Adidas finally announced that it is cutting ties with him following the likes of Balenciaga, and various media platforms, including Lebron James’ show, The Shop, that have Kanye content in production. His agency, CAA, dropped him, and it looks like pretty much every partner associated with Ye has finally had it with him.

Adidas said they expect to take a $250 Million dollar hit by dropping Ye, which is kind of an annoying thing for them to point out. Essentially, they are whining, “hey look at us giving up all this money because his STANS still buy his ugly sneakers no matter what he does or say.” Good for you Adidas, so noble of you to give up all that money your making off of a self-proclaimed racist. MAZEL TOV.

Now let me say this: nothing will stop you (or me) from listening to The College Dropout occasionally and reminiscing on the good memories that the “Old Kanye” brought us as a talented musician, and yes, he may still get some royalties from that, but we all need to STOP SUPPORTING THIS MAN. Stop buying his stupid sneakers, stop listening to his terrible music, stop defending him because he’s bipolar. I empathize with mental illness but being bipolar IS NOT an excuse to incite fascism and to blame everything that goes wrong for you on a specific culture or race. This man has consistently showed us that he is a menace, and a threat to the Jewish people by calling on his Stans to share his belief that the Jews “control everything” and are responsible for everything bad that happens in this world. Sounds exactly like something Hitler would say.

Let me spoil something for you. Jews do not control everything. I mean if they are, I guess my secret Jewish Illuminati meeting invitations are getting lost in the mail. But seriously, if Jews DID control everything, I’m sure there would be a lot less people getting away with blatant Anti-Semitism. If we controlled everything, Donald Trump probably wouldn’t have been president (don’t give me that Jared Kushner is a Jew crap). If we did control everything I WOULD HAVE WAY MORE CLIENTS.

Are there a lot of Jews in Hollywood? Absolutely. Are there a lot of Jews in the media? Sure. Are there a lot of Jewish lawyers? Plenty. That does NOT mean every Hollywood exec, media personality, or lawyer is Jewish. In fact, it’s pretty racist to assume that if I say so. If the powerful Jews in those industries go after you for making anti-Semitic remarks… it’s probably because we fear anti-Semitism.

Here’s one thing I do want you to take away from this long winded rant. The reason so many Jews have gravitated to those professions and are indeed considered “powerful” is because 6 MILLION OF US WERE KILLED IN THE HAULACAUST SO WE HAVE DEVELOPED A TIGHT KNIT COMMUNITIES THAT FOCUS ON FAMILY, AND APPRECIATING WHAT OUR ANCESTORS WENT THROUGH TO ENSURE OUR SURVIVAL. WE MAKE SURE TO RAISE OUR CHILDREN TO BE KIND, EDUCATED AND SUCCESSFUL SO THAT WE CAN PUT OURSELVES IN THESE POWERFUL POSITIONS TO ENSURE THAT PEOPLE LIKE KANYE DON’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS AND TO DAMN WELL MAKE SURE THAT ANOTHER GENOCIDE NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

Anyways, although it was a little late, good for Adidas and all of the other companies and people denouncing Kanye West over this. It should not have come to this point, but I’m sure Adidas and Balenciaga will survive without Ye just as they did long before him.

And as for Kanye, I know you had a dream you could buy your way to heaven but too bad you woke up and spent it on a necklace.

A question I get asked all the time is “where do you find your clients?”

The answer: Networking

When I first started Skyview CFO, I landed my first few clients through a website called bark.com where people can post certain business requests. However, it became too costly as I would have to pay for their contact information, and I wouldn’t be often paying a lot of money for dead ends. So once, I had enough of a client base I stopped paying for leads and focused on a more organic sales approach.

Once I had a professional looking website and some testimonials from my first clients, my new approach focused more on promoting my business through word of mouth and networking. As a consultant for small businesses, I am in a unique position where 95% of the people I talk to either know someone who owns a small business or runs one themself. Therefore I approach any conversation with somebody new as a potential to land a new client.

By promoting my services in a more natural way, not only was I able to avoid the hefty fees from lead sources, but I was able to find clients who were more aligned with my company’s overall mission. Every business is different, and whether or not you are a business owner, improving your networking skills can only benefit your career and life in general. Below are some easy tips that can instantly give you a boost.

Talk to your current clients

This may seem obvious but the best source of information about your business is none other than the people you serve. I like to occasionally touch base with my clients and ask them there is anything I could be doing to improve their experience with me. If they do have feedback, not only do they feel heard and value, but I can improve my service and their experience. If they are content, I can naturally steer the conversation to if they need help in other areas of their business. This gets them talking about aspects of their business they may not have thought to bring up with me but has the potential for me to either point them in the right direction, or provide them with more services. I also try to wrap up the conversation by asking them to either leave a positive review on Google or Social Media, as well as asking them if they might no of anybody who could also benefit from my services.

Utilize your Alma Mater

I received my bachelor’s from Syracuse University, and although I have had some qualms with how they treat their younger alumni, they have also been a tremendous help in supporting my growth. Your alma mater is in a very unique position as they benefit from your success. A college looks good if their alumni go off and do great things, so they will provide you with certain resources if you ask them.

For example, I reached out to my old professor and they recommended me to be a guest speaker for the Entrepreneurship Club. Not only was I able to teach and promote my business to soon to be graduates, but I ended up hiring the president of the club to be my Social Media Manager. They provide me with brilliant interns and split the cost their salary with me while they earn credit for the experience.

They also did me a solid by naming me as the alumni entrepreneur of the month in their online magazine.

Ask People What They Do

If you are having a conversation with somebody new, always ask them what they do. People’s jobs are a huge part of their lives whether they love it or hate it. If they hate it, you can ask them what they’d rather be doing. If they love it, you can ask them what makes it so enjoyable. In either scenario a natural conversation will unfold where you are showing a genuine interest in their career and they will often return the question. Maybe they are an ideal client or potential employer for you, or maybe they know somebody else. Whether you are switching jobs or trying to find clients, creating as many natural conversations like this will eventually lead you down the right path.

Looking for office space can be a cumbersome process, so when I set out on my search for Skyview CFO‘s first HQ, I went into the process rushed, with a small list of needs.

The first space I toured was in a communal office, great location; right in midtown off of 5th avenue. It wasn’t We Work, but one of the few smaller companies I had been in contact with. A manager showed us around and was very honest. It did not feel like she was being overly “salesy”, answering all of our questions pragmatically.

However, when I asked about their policy for soliciting fellow tenants, she appeared to have never been asked this before. A key reasons I want to work in a communal office is to be surrounded by potential new clients.

When we were leaving she did not ask us when we were planning on moving or laying out what the next steps would be. There was no follow up email or anything to make me feel pressure to act quick or risk losing the deal. Despite this, I was still willing to sign, as it was just a 3 month term and within the my budget. I was also busy and wanted to get it over with.

Just a few days later, wouldn’t you know it? I get an email from WeWork.

It was like they knew I was about to sign a deal they could beat. The email was a promotion for 2 months free on a space with a 6 month commitment. I was warry at first; in my previous searches the spaces they listed were out of my range. Nonetheless, I responded to the email and in less than an hour I received an email asking me what size office I was looking for and where. By the next morning they sent me two different locations with a base rate LOWER than the competitor’s with two months free. It ended up netting out to half the price over the 6 month lease.

The first location I went to was in a marvelous building with doors that automatically opened for me by the person working at the front desk. They greeted me, knew who I was and why I was there.

The WeWork sales process was not perfect but they knew how to impress me, and understood what I was trying to accomplish. They asked all about my business. They emphasized their networking events, and suggested that I hang up a flier explaining my services. They followed up immediately, asked me when I wanted to sign, and clearly laid out the next steps.

In the end I signed on with WeWork less than a week after seeing the locations.

The moral of the story here is that I went into this process, ready to make a deal quick as long as my few needs were met. I wanted to feel valued, and that this would be both my new HQ and a good investment. WeWork’s pricing, on top of their persistent sales approach, led me to sign with them over their competition. Meanwhile, had the competition been quicker to follow up with me, I likely would’ve signed before I even got the email from WeWork.