Weekend Digest: The Kennedy Fortune Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

NOTHING CERTAIN EXCEPT DEATH AND TAXES, UNLESS YOU ARE A KENNEDY

Forbes estimates America’s “aristocracy,” the Kennedys, to have a family fortune of $1 billion.

Protected by a labyrinth of trusts, as well as tax strategies that would make Joseph P. Kennedy proud, the Kennedy fortune now spans approximately 30 family members, and includes the surnames Shriver, Lawford and Smith.

At nearly $175 million as of 2013, Caroline Kennedy is the richest descendant by far, but more modestly endowed relatives, such as Robert Shriver, who is running for Los Angeles County Supervisor, still possess assets in the tens of millions, according to public financial disclosures required of government officials.

Forbes reports, “The bulk of the family’s wealth is held in dozens of trusts, which range in value from tens of thousands to as much as $25 million.”

Nearly all are managed by Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, a family office located in New York City with assets dating back to 1927, according to Christopher Kennedy, a member of the Kennedy family who sits on the office’s board.

But is investing of those trusts an inside or outside task, and how do all these trusts help protect the family fortune from “the prying fingers of ne’er-do-well heirs”? And what about tax loopholes? Plenty of those too.

For an inside look at the management of the Kennedy fortune like perhaps you’ve never seen before, click on this link.

VIDEOGAME PRESCRIPTIONS?

It is possible, reports Fast Company.

Feeling anxious, depressed, fearful, or unable to focus? Is your memory getting fuzzy? Medication might help. Therapy might help. And someday soon — according to neuroscientists, game designers, and drug makers — you might be prescribed a videogame that helps as much as (or more than) either.

How is this possible?  Fast Company says innovative companies “are fusing game mechanics with principles of cognitive psychology to create a new paradigm for digital healing.”

Digital healing that could be particularly helpful for cognitive decline in senior citizens as well as for children with ADHD.

What is the common thread among these two conditions that videogames could help improve and is it possible prescription games could get FDA approval?

Take an intriguing look at this new wave of healthcare by clicking this link.

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN FOR DELL

Inc. posts, “If Dell’s famous founding story is an American legend, the blueprint for so many tech companies started in dorm rooms, the company’s more recent history is also a cautionary tale.”

In the past decade, the company missed the switch to mobile devices and lost its spot as the world’s largest PC maker. But lately, Michael Dell has been leading his company through a sweeping transformation.

Of Dell’s roughly $60 billion in revenue last year, one-third came from new lines of business in the enterprise market, including cybersecurity, networking, Big Data services, and cloud computing.

The big idea: to become the industry leader in modern IT solutions, and to do it much the same way the company revolutionized the PC industry in the ’90s.

Dell, who likes to say he runs “the world’s largest startup,” points to the company’s new private status as key to making the kind of aggressive, long-term bets that could catapult it past its competitors.

For the evolution of all this and a look at the potentially very bright future of born-again Dell, go to this link.

DOING FOR OTHERS THROUGH INSTAGRAM

Entrepreneur Anthony Danielle was one of the first users of Instagram and at the time an amateur photographer. That changed as his Instagram photos of fashion on New York City streets began to draw attention and brands started reaching out to him.

We get requests every month. There are at least five or ten requests from different companies. On a personal level, as @takinyerphoto, I get two or three requests every month. We give those jobs out to other Instagrammers. We vet them carefully to make sure they have quality followings.

So what does Danielle do instead? Find out at this link.

“NOT INTERESTED IN PHOTO OPS”

That’s how President Obama lashed back at those who have criticized him for not visiting the Texas border with Mexico regarding what The Washington Post calls a “burgeoning humanitarian crisis.”

The Post says the President’s comments came “after a meeting with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and local leaders to discuss his administration’s response to an influx of tens of thousands of foreign children, mostly from Central America, who have entered the state illegally.”

“Nothing has taken place down there that I’m not intimately aware of,” Obama said during a hastily arranged news conference here, where he began a two-day visit to the state for Democratic fundraising and an economic event. “This is not theater.”

Despite his stance, The Post says Obama is under increasing pressure from both parties to go to the border for a firsthand look.

Obama said he has been well-briefed by his Cabinet aides and called on Congress to quickly approve $3.7 billion in emergency funding to help manage the influx.

Perry, The Post points out, is one of the president’s loudest critics over border policies. With that as a backdrop was the meeting between the two testy and is it possible both political camps can ramp-up a solution?  Go to this link for the complete story.

FORMER IRS OFFICIAL WARNED COLLEAGUES ABOUT EMAIL CONTENT

After former IRS official Lois Lerner’s email surfaced, “warning her colleagues to be careful about what they write in emails amid congressional inquiries into whether the agency was targeting conservative interest groups,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) called it a “smoking gun.”

“[This is] a smoking gun, this is Lois Lerner clearly cautioning people not to say things on email and be delighted to find out that the local instant chat they have, this Microsoft product, wasn’t tracking what they said,” Issa, a California Republican said on Fox News.

It has previously been reported Lerner’s own emails disappeared during the congressional investigation into the Tea Party targeting scandal. The latest revelations were obtained by Fox News.

For complete details, follow this link from POLITICO.

TENNESSEE GETS BAD GRADE FOR ITS STATE MEDICAID PROGRAM

Federal Medicaid officials have notified several states of deficiencies in following expected requirements of the Affordable Care Act, but none fared worse than The Volunteer State, according to The Tennesseean.

While Missouri, Kansas, Michigan, California and Alaska had problems with just one item on a seven-point punch list, Tennessee failed to comply with six. Continued failures could put the state’s federal funding for its Medicaid program at risk.

Gov. Bill Haslam said he wasn’t worried about losing any of the funding.

“I have great faith in Darin (Gordon, TennCare director) and his team at TennCare to get that right. … I think we actually have one of the best Medicaid teams in the country,” Haslam said.

Tennessee’s program is called TennCare and has been plagued with delays in a massive and expensive computer program that will determine eligibility and currently there is no other state system set up where residents can apply. They must apply on the federal healthcare insurance exchange.

Is it as bad as it seems, and what is the federal government now requiring Tennessee to do?  Go to this link for the full story.

AKIN SAYS HE REGRETS APOLOGIZING

It’s been two years since Todd Akin’s Senate campaign was derailed after the Missouri Republican made infamous comments on rape, pregnancy and abortion that “doomed his campaign.”

One of the few regrets he mentions in a new book is the decision to air a campaign ad apologizing for his remarks.

“By asking the public at large for forgiveness,” Akin writes, “I was validating the willful misinterpretation of what I had said.”

POLITICO has received an advance copy of the book due out next week. In it, Akin argues that he could have defeated Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri, despite his comments, if it weren’t for the piling on from both liberals and conservatives.

Arkansans will be very interested in which conservative wrote the forward for the book. Nationally, what’s the take on how other conservatives across the country are receiving the news of its controversial content? For that discussion and other takeaways from Akin’s book, click on this link.

POPULAR KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGNS

Inc. echoes common knowledge that “if you’re trying to get an ingenious product into production, Kickstarter is one of the best places to crowdfund your idea and raise the money to do it.”

The critical component you’ll need to reach your funding goal on Kickstarter is the promise of a mind-blowing invention that will entice the masses to pull out their wallets.

So if you are interested, here are five “mind-blowing” campaigns underway right now.

Go to this link to learn more.

A KICK TO THE GUT

Make that five. That’s the amount of unanswered goals Germany scored in this past week’s semi-final World Cup match as it annihilated and embarrassed its opponent Brazil, the home team for the international soccer tournament. All of them scored in the match’s first 29 minutes.

Nothing else about Tuesday afternoon followed anyone’s expectations. From that modest beginning, this country went on to witness something never seen before in World Cup soccer: Germany scored five goals — more than many teams scored in the entire tournament — in the first 29 minutes of a World Cup semifinal on the way to a 7-1 victory.

Those 29 minutes will be scrutinized for generations in Brazil, poked and prodded and dissected the way Brazil’s dreaded defeat to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final has been.

As The New York Times reports, the goalkeeper from that 1950 Uruguay defeat felt like every day of the rest of his life was spent in a jail cell.

That cell just got more crowded.

How so?  Go to this link.