If 2013 wasn’t a great year for your wallet, perhaps lucky ’14 will be better. We’re hoping the charm lies in one of these mags.
Judging from its authoritative looking cover, The Economist’s outlook issue has the greatest promise. Sadly, at least for US investors, the wonky weekly misses big. One piece predicts the US will likely be back to its old dominant ways after taking a back seat to China, while a second has Beijing closer than ever to being the global top dog. Elsewhere, a piece written through the prism of Trafalgar Square rather than the Washington Memorial’s lamely argues the tech elite will in 2014 join “bankers and oilmen in public demonology” and are making inroads in politics.
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine’s special report about “Navigating Medicare” is important and useful. The publication offers a solid guide for readers, who may now or will soon be fretting about the care of aging parents. Elsewhere, readers may wonder why James K. Glassman is touting his top stock picks for 2014. Who’s buying individual stocks anyway? That is, when most financial gurus and research demonstrate that S&P 500 index funds, mutual funds and ETFs can offer better lower-risk alternatives to hit-or-miss stock picking. Another Outlook 2014 item takes the temperature of the bull market and calls it “younger than it looks.” We say, “Bubble anyone?”
It’s the typical trite and true advice in Money’s most recent issue. The personal finance glossy boasts ways to help readers make more money in 2014 — these sorts of features must get mighty old for regular Money readers — but more often than the suggestions are obvious. The art department also could use a stern talking to, as readers may be puzzled as to how a man’s hand punching through a brick wall gripping a wad of crumpled C-notes is relevant to the “Make More in 2014” feature.
Entrepreneur tells us that crowdfunding — ventures that allow average folks to invest early in startups — will be all the rage in 2014. But the way the business magazine touts crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, you’d think there was nary a risk for would-be investors or borrowers. “But the latest platforms such as Upstart and Pave, don’t even require a solid idea or business plan,” chirps one article.
For those New Yorker readers debating whether to buy the new Britney Spears album, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones provides two pages of erudite commentary. “The title admonition is a deracinated descendant of a phrase from black gay club culture,” Frere-Jones writes of the single “Work Bitch.” The song “Passenger” “has a genuine chorus, satisfying dynamic shifts, and guitar sounds that provide relief from the nylon shimmer of all the bright synthesizers.” We’re guessing Frere-Jones likes it, but still prefers the taste of his own prose soufflé. Either way, if there’s truly no better music out there to write about, could we be spared both?
New York’s “Year In Culture” issue provides evidence there is indeed new music out there worth hearing, and to which some of us may not already have been subjected. Take the album “12 Stories” by 38-year-old country singer Brandy Clark, which, to our pleasant surprise, is No. 1, according to this publication. Other lists were likewise unpredictable, with “Breaking Bad” rating only No. 3 behind “Arrested Development” and “Hannibal.” Light artist James Turrell’s show at the Guggenheim didn’t even get a mention. We were a bit surprised, however, after reading a profile on Steve McQueen, director of “12 Years a Slave,” to see that his monumental movie didn’t make the top 10, while “Much Ado About Nothing” was No. 4.
Time puts Carl Icahn on its cover, declaring him “Master of the Universe,” and promising to explain why Icahn is “the most important investor in America.” Given that this is Time magazine, we suppose we shouldn’t have been surprised to read such a dull profile of such an edgy guy. We would have liked to hear him pressed to explain, for example, his assertion that poor corporate governance is to blame for rising income disparity. “Most of these guys don’t earn what they make,” Icahn says of corporate fat cats. Whatever one’s opinion on whether Icahn has earned what he has, it’s hard to resist the charm of a man whose father refused to pay his room and board when he got accepted to Princeton.