It’s 11 a.m. and I’ve already received five breaking news push notifications. Keeping up with the news cycle in PR is a 24/7 job, yet I only work from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. My solution? A sticky note on my computer that equates to my version of a bible.

It’s my news “hot list” in a manner of speaking. It changes often and it’s always relevant to my clients. Jump to the bottom to see the latest, but first a quick word on how I put it together.

I would say it’s next to impossible to follow everything that is going on in the world, let alone good for my mental health to try and attempt to. So, to help combat this, I unplug on the weekends, and then come Monday I am ready to digest the news with a fresh mind.

Combing through the media landscape for legislative updates, market impacts and geopolitical tensions has become a crucial and weirdly cathartic part of my Monday morning routine. Over a cup of coffee, I educate myself on the general media sentiment and then spend time sifting out what matters most to my accounts.

This ritual also includes identifying noise vs. hard news. Future-of-work pieces or inflation predictions are important to the media discourse, but it’s vital to know when something is phasing out of the news cycle, over-hyped or simply too opinionated.

Has there been movement on the new tax proposal? SEC updates on ESG reporting? Electric Vehicle tax credit adoption? A senate vote? These are the types of questions that are top of mind for me. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of sifting through the news to find the things that directly impact my clients or drives business for them. Without further ado…

My Current Hot List:

• CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 – Promotes semiconductor manufacturing and science research in the US. Biden signed on 8/9/22. From a tax POV, tax credits are listed in the legislation to encourage investment in chip manufacturing. This also will have an impact on businesses making supply chain decisions in the near and long-term, which ultimately will affect business forecasting and modeling.
• Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 – Signed into law on 8/16/22. A loose reinvigoration of the Build Back Better Bill. Focused on addressing healthcare, climate change, inflation and tax. Key areas related to clients: Direct pay provision and tax credits (on the energy side) and the carried interest loophole.
• US Dollar – US dollar is very strong right now, watch for any major currency exchange rate changes. A strong US dollar can send positive AND negative ripples across the US economy – hedging strategy swap ups, major increases in investment for certain asset classes like real estate, a direct stock market impact, etc. Ask clients for data pulls on EU vs. US funds.
• SEC/ESG Disclosure Amendments – Proposal was originally released by the SEC in March, giving the public a 90-day “comment period” to obtain feedback. A recent virtual SEC meeting on 9/21/22 addressed ESG fund disclosures, but we should expect something more formalized soon. In turn, all eyes will be on the impact to the investing markets.

I could always go on, but the Post-it is only so big and there are only so many hours in the day. Expect more from me on this in the coming months!