Effects of COVID-19 on Jobs and Income

An investment magnate and former resident of Belvedere, California, Michael T. Jackson pillars his California community. As a professional, Michael T. Jackson is interested in the effects of economic inequality, an issue that has been recently heightened by the pandemic.

Income, wealth, and economic inequality are not rare in the United States. However, the COVID pandemic has ravaged the country, causing lockdowns. As a result, most people in the middle and lower classes were unable to work and had to rely on savings to pay for rent, food, or other daily necessities. During the first months of COVID, the highest income workers had the lowest job loss (96 percent of jobs were kept), while lower-income workers had the highest job loss rate (81 percent of jobs were kept).

The federal government passed stimulus relief packages, and states offer unemployment benefits. However, still, it is not enough to mend the severe economic inequality Americans face and have faced every day. In June of 2021, Forbes published an article detailing the stimulus packages and how they boosted the economy effectively. The research was inconclusive as it is also possible that the Economic Impact Payment contributed to some economic growth. The Congressional Budget Office stated that the stimulus checks might have increased economic output by 0.6 percent under the Cares Act, while unemployment benefits boosted the economy by 1.1 percent.

The Ireland Funds Business Plan Competition

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A former resident of Belvedere, California, who now lives in Florida, Michael T Jackson directs investments for the hedged equity investment firm SFG Asset Advisors. In addition to his work with SFG, Michael T Jackson sits on the board of directors for The Ireland Funds.

A global philanthropic network established in 1976, The Ireland Funds raised more than $600 million to support the charitable causes of over 3,200 different organizations in Ireland and elsewhere around the world. One of its internal initiatives is The Ireland Funds Business Plan Competition.

For the past nine years, The Ireland Funds Business Plan Competition has helped early-stage entrepreneurs develop and fund globally scalable businesses. It is currently focused on young professionals who want to create high-tech startups in Ireland.

The top winner of the 2020 Ireland Funds Business Plan Competition is the plug-and-play music device manufacturer Signal Optimiser. This company took home the €15,000 first prize on June 23. The smart survey tool company Opinion X and the health/safety professional freelancing platform Safety Freelance took home €7,000 first runner-up and €2,000 second runner-up prizes, respectively.

Historically, Boutique Funds Outperform Large Funds

Former Belvedere, California resident Michael T. Jackson was founder and CEO of Emerging Growth Management, an investment fund which he managed from 1986 to 2001, earning consistently high returns in the process. No longer living in Belvedere, Michael T. Jackson now lives in Florida and works at SFG Asset Advisors, a firm he founded in 2001.

SFG partners with specialized investment managers who operate in niche markets based on the firm belief that size is the enemy of returns. This belief has proven true according to studies comparing historical returns of large and boutique funds. One such study by Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) compared the returns of boutique funds with fewer than $100 billion in assets, versus their larger peers, between 1998 and 2018. The research covered 1,300 global investment firms together with 5,000 institutional equity strategies.

Over that 20-year period, researchers found that boutique firms generated returns that were 0.62 percent higher on average. That means that investors who invested solely in boutiques over that period had 16 percent higher returns.

Boutique funds focused on US small-cap value equities did best, outperforming large funds by 1.62 percent every year on average. Those focused on emerging market equities were second, outperforming large funds by 1.08 percent annually.

Napa Medical Research Foundation’s Program for Vineyard Workers

Napa Medical Research Foundation pic

A former Belvedere resident with decades of experience as an analyst and investor, Michael T. Jackson now focuses on supporting nonprofit organizations in areas such as human rights, health care, and women’s issues. Recently, Michael T. Jackson founded the Napa Medical Research Foundation (NMRF).

Created to provide less expensive medical care, the NMRF seeks innovation in treatment procedures ranging from ultrasound technologies to regenerative medicine. The foundation’s community programs include the Vineyard Worker Health Program (VWHP), which recognizes the challenging physical demands of working in the wine industry.

Those working in vineyards often develop injuries from repetitive motions in their back or limbs. Chronic conditions result from these injuries when they remain untreated. The VWHP exists to prevent chronic pain from negatively impacting individuals’ lives and decreasing production for their employers.

Once patients have been screened for eligibility, they receive physicians’ evaluations with ultrasound technology to identify the precise nature and location of their injuries. The next step includes regenerative health treatment with stem cells or platelets from the patients’ own bodies, allowing them to heal naturally without requiring surgery.

For more information about this program and the work of the NMRF, visit www.napamedicalresearch.org.

First-Generation Immigrants Linked to Academic Improvements for All

Diversity, Minority

Diversity Image: pexels.com

A former Belvedere, California resident, Michael T. Jackson guides SFG Asset Advisors, a single-family investment firm serving the San Francisco area since 2001. Born in England and raised in Ireland during his early childhood, Michael T. Jackson came to the United States at age 11. He worked his way through higher education and has a strong appreciation of the hard work ethic of first-generation immigrants.

A recent study at Brigham Young University revealed that having immigrants in the classroom improved academic performance among all students. Taking data sourced through the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment, which spanned 41 countries, researchers found that immigrants in countries that are relatively homogenous perform 15 to 20 points lower than their native-born peers.

However, in countries with a foreign-born population of 15 percent or higher, this gap narrows to 10 points, and in countries where the population is more than 25 percent immigrants, the gap is only five points.

Another core finding was that each 1 percent increase in immigrants in a country correlates with a 1.2 percent increase in overall math performance. The conclusion of the researchers is that “current sociopolitical narratives” pointing to the negative impacts of immigrants are “erroneous and misleading.”

Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and the 1941 Pulitzer Prize

Ernest Hemingway
Image: biography.com

Former Belvedere resident and current Florida resident Michael T. Jackson spent 15 years as the chairman and chief executive officer of Emerging Growth Management in San Francisco. He is the founder of SFG Asset Advisors in San Francisco, near Belvedere. Beyond his work, Michael T. Jackson is an avid reader, and his favorite novel is Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction stands as one of the literary world’s most renowned honors. Despite the significance and high profile of the award, in numerous years, no prize has been awarded in this category, most recently in 2012.

In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize committee made a unanimous decision to recognize Ernest Hemingway’s fifth novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, as the year’s most deserving work of literature. The committee’s decision was upheld by the Pulitzer Board, typically the last stage in the award process.

However, Columbia University president Nicholas Murray Butler, an advisor of sorts to the board, found the novel’s content offensive and urged the board to withdraw its support. The Pulitzer Board ultimately agreed to Butler’s demands and did not give an award for fiction in 1941.

Eleven years after this Pulitzer controversy, Hemingway wrote one of his most enduring works, The Old Man and the Sea. This novel was awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, an acknowledgment not only of the book’s literary quality but also Hemingway’s lengthy, accomplished career as a writer.

BULLY: The Documentary that Inspired a Movement

 

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BULLY
Image: imdb.com

Retired entrepreneur Michael T. Jackson previously lived in Belvedere, California and founded two companies in San Francisco: Emerging Growth Management and SFG Asset Advisors. Michael T. Jackson has since moved from Belvedere to Florida. In partnership with The Fledgling Fund, Mr. Jackson has supported numerous documentaries, including “Sin by Silence”, “Saving Face”, and “BULLY”.

Directed by the Emmy Award winner Lee Hirsch, “BULLY” is a documentary that reveals what it’s like to be one of the 13 million American kids who get bullied every year. With a character-driven narrative, the documentary takes a close look at the lives of five children who represent different facets of the bullying crisis, and reveals how the crisis transcends geographic, economic, racial and ethnic borders. It also documents the teachers’ and administrators’ responses, and the expanding movement among kids and their parents to change the bullying culture.

“BULLY” (the documentary) inspired a social action campaign called “The BULLY Project” and the subsequent “10 Million Kids” initiative to bring the film to schools around the country and show it to 10 million school children and their educators.

Liquidity Risk in Investing

 

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Liquidity Risk
Image: investopedia.com

Former Belvedere, California, resident Michael T. Jackson is the founder of SFG Asset Advisors (SFGAA). Having moved from Belvedere to Florida, Michael T. Jackson oversees investment activities at SFGAA, including managing portfolio liquidity risks.

In investing, liquidity risk is the risk that an investor will not be able to find a market for his or her investment. It is the risk that an investment will not be bought or sold fast enough to mitigate losses.

The risk plays out in the market when buyers and sellers of securities are not able to find each other quickly. As a result, buyers raise their bids, or sellers sell below their target price. For example, an investor holding a bond valued at $100,000 may need cash quickly but is unable to find a buyer for the asset in the market. The investor ends up selling for less money to meet his urgent liquidity need.

Although this risk is more prevalent in markets for long-term illiquid investments, such as real estate, fundamentally, every asset carries a certain amount of liquidity risk, depending on factors such as market efficiency and the availability of buyers. In the market, this risk is usually reflected in wide bid-ask spreads or unusually wide price movements.

Early History of Polo

 

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Polo
Image: Polomuseum.com

Former Belvedere, California resident Michael T. Jackson has long enjoyed horsemanship, especially polo. The Founder and former CEO of SFG Asset Advisors, Michael T. Jackson used to be an avid polo player in his college years, and has remained a polo enthusiast to this day. Currently retired and living in Florida, Michael T. Jackson is a member of the Palm Beach Polo Club, where he and his wife frequently attend polo games.

Polo is one of the world’s oldest sports, dating back to wartime training exercises among Asian nomads nearly 3,000 years ago. The sport as it is known today originated in India, making its way west after British military officers learned the game from residents of Manipur. Within two decades, it had spread to every continent, thanks in part to James Gordon Bennett, the publisher of the New York Herald.

This rapid spread led to changes in gameplay. Polo became more orderly and began to shift from dribbling along to high-speed swings, leading to a change in the types of horses used. Polo ponies today include thoroughbreds, quarter horses, and ponies, and are often much taller than those of the past. These changes have served to make polo a faster-paced and more spectacular game.

The Ireland Funds – Inspiring a Generation of Young Musicians

 

The Ireland Funds pic

The Ireland Funds
Image: irelandfunds.org

Michael T. Jackson resided in Belvedere, California from 1994 to 2002. He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California. While he and his wife moved from Belvedere to Florida several years ago, much of their family continues to live in California’s Bay Area. Michael T. Jackson focuses on a number of philanthropic causes and serves on the Board of Directors for the US chapter of The Ireland Funds.

Founded in 1976, The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network involved with Irish-related causes across the globe. Through chapters in 12 countries, the organization has raised more than $550 million to fund various programs, including Music Generation.

Music Generation is a music education project established in 2009 in partnership with the rock band U2, which was formed in Dublin and has become one of the best-known groups in the world. U2 and The Ireland Funds sponsored the program with gifts of over €7 million, deemed as the single largest charitable donation to music education in Ireland’s history.

Through the program, tens of thousands of young people have been able to access subsidized tuition for musical training within their localities. Moreover, in excess of 350 job opportunities opened to musicians who were employed to help deliver the program across the country.

Since its initial development, the program has received a second round of major funding from U2, The Ireland Funds, and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, as well as a commitment from the Irish government to co-fund the program in the future.