Healthcare Workers Turn Entrepreneurs, Instagrammers 💉

Similarly, David Redd wanted to spend more time taking care of his patients and less time on bureaucratic paperwork from insurance companies. He decided to become a first-time entrepreneur in his 60s. David started his own retail surgery startup, QuikSurg in Chattanooga, TN. 

These are just a few examples of the many healthcare workers finding themselves battered and frustrated by the pandemic. As of May 2021, over 115,000 healthcare workers have died of Covid, according to WHO. With the pandemic seeming like a never-ending affair, the misery of healthcare workers also seems non-stop.

US employers added just 235,000 jobs last month, compared to the 720,000 expected. Hiring was expected to fall from the record 1.1 million jobs in July, but nowhere near this much. It was the smallest employment gain in seven months.

The hospitality industry that was averaging 350,000 new jobs a month over the past six months, adding no new jobs in August. Meanwhile, restaurants lost 42,000 jobs, and retailers lost 29,000.

Looks like all our fears of Delta crashing the labor market’s recovery party came true. 

The only industries that weren’t as affected by Delta as the others were services, manufacturing and transportation.

This is clearly an impediment in the Feds plans to wind down its pandemic-era stimulus measures. Meanwhile the Biden administration can use these numbers to show that the economy still needs more support from the government, thus pushing its $3.5 trillion social package. 

The Democrats may release new taxes next week to fund the $3.5 trillion social policy bill. 

The Democrats’ social policy goals are ambitious: paid family and medical leave, expanding Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing benefits, extending the enhanced child tax credit as well as provisions to address climate change.

But the budget blueprint promises no new taxes on families making less than $400,000 per year, small business and family farms. This has left wealthy taxpayers scrambling to do proactive tax planning.

While we don’t know for sure what the new taxes will be, here’s a laundry list at what could be coming.

• Individual income tax hike: The top individual income tax rate could jump from 37% to 39.6% for those making more than $400,000 a year.
• Capital gains tax hike: The tax rate could double from 20% to 39.6% on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends. 
• Deductions cap: Taxpayers could face a new cap on deductions including charitable contributions as well as IRA/401(k) contributions. 
• Capital gains tax at death: Under the current law, you don’t pay capital gains tax on assets inherited after a family member’s death. The new proposal aims to make such assets taxable at death. 
• Return of the Gift & Estate Tax: Trump’s 2017 tax cuts temporarily doubled the estate tax exemption $11.7 million per individual, leaving fewer than 2,000 estates a year facing federal estate taxes. The Democrats are expected to revert this to $5 million, meaning a return of gift and estate taxes for many more families.

• Musk vs. Bezos - The two billionaire space fiends are on a war footing. After NASA ended its contract with SpaceX, Elon Musk blamed it on Jeff Bezos by accusing him of hiring lobbyists to meddle in the issue. 
   
• Peloton under investigation - With great success come grave problems. Peloton is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for injuries caused by its treadmill. 
   
• Amazon's hiring hurricane - The company plans to hire 55,000 employees globally in the coming months - that's over 1/3rd of Google's employee count and almost 100% Facebook's. 
   
• Good news for app developers - South Korea become the first country to pass a legislation allowing app developers to by-pass Goggle and Apple's hefty (almost 30%) commission on in-app purchases.
   
• Singapore's wealth boom - Despite pandemic uncertainties, the benchmark Index rose 26% since last year and the combined wealth of the country’s 50 richest people swelled to $208 billion from $167 billion.
   
• Hurricane Ida - A Fox reporter covering the hurricane in New Orleans was blown away on camera while broadcasting from a Louisiana parking garage. #NotAJoke
   
• Now for some funny news - A Chicago couple sent $240 invoices to guests who RSVP'd but didn't show up at their wedding, asking the guests to pay up for the losses. Pandemic times are bad.