Saturday, March 21, 2026

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

Allen Harris

Allen Harris is the founder, CEO and CIO of Berkshire Money Management based in Dalton, Massachusetts. He is a Certified Exit Planner, Certified Value Builder and Certified Business Valuation Specialist, and specializes in working with business owners intending to accelerate their growth and/or transition. Harris is also the author of 'Build It, Sell It, Profit: Taking Care of Business Today to Get Top Dollar When You Retire,' publishes the Berkshire Business Confidence Index, and hosts the BMM Business Roundtable. He built and sold his previous business, the Navigator Newsletters Group, a financial publication with 16,000 paid subscribers (one of the five largest of its era). Beyond his professional work, Harris is passionate about the well-being of animals. He is an avid supporter of spay and neuter efforts and animal rescue. Additionally, he is a strong advocate for both economic revitalization and the arts in the Berkshires, including First Fridays Artswalk, Shakespeare in the Park, Alchemy Initiative, Tanglewood, Jacob’s Pillow and other nonprofit organizations.

written articles

CAPITAL IDEAS: Time to trim your 2025 tax bill

What you do before December 31, 2025, can be worth more than the same move on January 1, 2026. Talk to your financial advisor about steering you through these tax-avoidance tips.

CAPITAL IDEAS: Are small banks about to crash the economy?

The Beige Book survey supports further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. However, inflation is becoming a problem again. The Fed should not cut rates later this month, but I believe they will.

CAPITAL IDEAS: Is the stock market in an AI bubble?

The number of web searches for the term “AI bubble” hit, well, bubble proportions in August 2025, according to Google Trends.

CAPITAL IDEAS: ‘Financial advisor near me’

In markets, we are told to focus on what we can control: costs, diversification, taxes, and behavior. Vanguard’s latest research adds two more controllables to your checklist: your stress budget and your time budget.

CAPITAL IDEAS: Three questions answered by the Fed and what they mean for your money

As if in response to my pushback on the Fed's recent interest rate cut, Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, released an essay that gently pushes back on my inflation concern (question #3) as well as a couple of other questions on investors’ minds.

CAPITAL IDEAS: The market’s valuation rivals the dot-com bubble. What’s next for stock prices?

I am no Pollyanna—"Capital Ideas" has routinely cited high stock market valuations as a concern—but it is not as bad as the headlines suggest.

CAPITAL IDEAS: How the rich legally avoid taxes (and how you can, too)

For high-net-worth investors, thoughtful tax planning can contribute more to long-term wealth creation and protection than simply wringing out another percentage point of pre-tax return.

CAPITAL IDEAS: Interest rates are coming down. What does that mean for your investment portfolio?

Much of what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at the annual Economic Policy Symposium signaled that an interest rate cut is likely to come at the Fed’s Sept. 17, 2025, meeting. President Donald Trump is likely pleased about that, as he has been pressuring the Fed to cut rates.

CAPITAL IDEAS: Is artificial intelligence any good at picking stocks?

AI has not yet provided evidence that it can reliably outperform the wisdom of buying the entire haystack rather than searching for individual needles. And neither have humans.

CAPITAL IDEAS: Bad vibes about the economy could be good for the stock market

If you are feeling uncertain about money these days, you are certainly not alone.

CAPITAL IDEAS: How much have tariffs contributed to inflation?

I am not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but big problems spring from little issues. It is my job to monitor and measure these things so that the aggregate of those issues doesn’t sneak up on us, or on our portfolios.

CAPITAL IDEAS: Is the stock market overvalued? Should you buy it anyway?

So, what will win out? The negative pull of seasonality? Or the positive push of technicals?

CAPITAL IDEAS: How President Trump’s megabill will change your taxes

Democrats and Republicans agree that any big bill will include something they hate, including the ones on which they vote “yea.” This one is no different.

CAPITAL IDEAS: When will tariffs affect your costs?

Companies are expecting to pass at least some of their tariff-related costs onto consumers in the coming months. Companies with lower profit margins, however, such as Walmart and Target, may have to pass on all, or at least most, of the tariff cost.

CAPITAL IDEAS: What do higher oil prices mean for the U.S. economy?

In anticipation of and following major geopolitical tensions between Israel, Iran, and the United States, the cost of a barrel of crude oil in...
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