2026 Midyear Outlook

What if your best marketing strategy was giving money back?

The London Stock Exchange recently celebrated 25 years of its FTSE4Good range of indices, designed to assess and boost corporate “sustainability”. Strictly excluded were firms involved in areas such as tobacco and weapons that were considered controversial. The restrictions quickly expanded to exclude the defence industry, fossil fuels and gambling. The subsequent rush to ESG…

Hackers broke into a real estate closing company’s servers and waited three months for the right deal — then intercepted a wire and stole $1.2 million from a couple who did everything right, right down to the closing table. Dr. Eric Cole was a former CIA hacker, Cybersecurity Commissioner under President Obama, and longtime security…

For most of its history, marketing lived on the expense side of the ledger. It was the function that built awareness and made the company look good. Its budget was treated accordingly: nice to have, first to cut, hard to defend in a downturn. But that era is ending. There is growing consensus that marketing’s…

Every year, many taxpayers are tempted to inflate or falsely claim deductions in their income tax returns to reduce their tax liability. This could include claiming deductions for investments that were never made, overstating medical or education expenses or submitting fabricated receipts. While such claims may seem like an easy way to save tax, they…