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September CPI Rises 3.7% as Gasoline Jumps 9.1%, Pushing Fuel and Travel Costs Higher for Small Businesses

Market Daily Staff 2 on October 15, 2026

Consumer prices rose 0.6% in September and 3.7% over the past year, up from 3.4% in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported October 14, 2026. Gasoline jumped 9.1% and accounted for more than half of the monthly increase. Core inflation rose 0.3% for the second month in a row, slightly above economists’ forecasts.

Key Takeaways

Annual core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose to 2.6% from 2.4% in August. Economists expected 2.5%.
The energy index rose 5.2% in September and is up 20.4% over 12 months. Fuel oil is up 74.2% year over year.
Airline fares rose 1.2% for the month and are up 22.4% from a year ago.
Food prices were flat overall: grocery prices fell 0.1%, while restaurant prices rose 0.2%.
The 2-year Treasury yield rose more than 10 basis points to 4.89% after the release.
The October CPI report is scheduled for November 10, after the Fed’s October 28 policy decision.

Energy Drove September’s CPI Increase

Energy was by far the largest driver in September. The energy index rose 5.2%, up from 2.1% in August, and gasoline rose 9.1% after seasonal adjustment, or 6.5% before it. Over 12 months, gasoline is up 34.2% and energy overall is up 20.4%.

Fuel oil stands out. It rose 15.3% in September and is now up 74.2% from a year earlier. That matters going into the heating season. The Energy Information Administration has already projected that households heating with oil, mostly in the Northeast, will spend about 21% more this winter, and many small businesses in that region heat with the same fuel.

Utilities were mixed. Electricity rose 0.2% in September and is up 4.4% year over year, while piped natural gas fell 0.3% for the month and is up 5.0% over the year. For businesses whose main costs are electricity and gas rather than fuel, September brought less pressure than the headline number suggests.

Core Inflation Edged Above Forecasts

The more important signal for interest rates is core inflation. It rose 0.3% in September, matching August, and the annual rate rose to 2.6% from 2.4%. Economists had expected a 0.2% monthly increase and 2.5% annually.

Collin Martin, head of fixed income research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, noted that two straight 0.3% readings bring the three-month annualized core rate to 3.4%. That shorter-term measure is useful because it shows whether the 12-month figure is likely to rise or fall in the coming months.

Shelter, the largest part of core inflation, rose 0.4% after 0.3% in August, and is up 3.2% over the year. Lodging away from home, which covers hotels and short-term stays, rose 2.0% for the month. Other core categories that rose included recreation (0.5%), used cars and trucks (0.7%), and education (0.6%). Communication fell 0.2%, and prescription drug prices fell 1.2%.

Restaurants Benefit From Flat Grocery Prices

The food data offers some relief for restaurant and food-service owners. Food at home fell 0.1% in September and is up only 1.8% over the year. Beef fell 1.0% and milk fell 2.0%. Restaurant menu prices, meanwhile, rose 0.2% for the month and 3.5% over the year, with full-service meals up 3.8% and limited-service meals up 3.2%.

That gap matters for margins. When ingredient prices are flat and menu prices are still rising, restaurants may have some room to absorb higher fuel, delivery, and utility costs. The risk is on the customer side: if gas and heating bills keep rising, households may cut back on eating out.

Travel and Transportation Costs Keep Climbing

Businesses that send employees on the road face steadily higher costs. Airline fares rose 1.2% in September and are up 22.4% year over year, one of the largest annual increases among the major categories. Transportation services rose 0.6% for the month. Combined with higher gasoline and hotel prices, travel budgets set earlier in the year are likely too low.

The practical step for owners is to review fuel surcharges, delivery fees, and travel policies now, before fourth-quarter contracts and holiday shipping costs are locked in. Delivery, logistics, field-service, and trade businesses carry the largest fuel exposure and have the most reason to revisit pricing.

Higher Yields Raise the Stakes for the October 28 Fed Meeting

Bond markets reacted quickly. The 2-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks expected Fed policy, rose more than 10 basis points to 4.89%. The 10-year yield rose to about 5.3%. According to Schwab’s market update, citing Bloomberg data, market-implied odds of a Fed rate hike this month rose to about 46% from roughly 20% before the report.

For small businesses, the effect shows up in borrowing costs. Variable-rate credit lines, SBA loans tied to the prime rate, and equipment financing all follow Fed policy. MarketDaily has previously examined how a Fed rate hike would flow through to prime-based business loans. That analysis matters again ahead of the October 28 decision.

The same report also feeds directly into household budgets. CPI-W, the measure used for Social Security adjustments, rose 3.9% over 12 months. On the same day, the Social Security Administration announced a 3.6% cost-of-living increase for 2027, which will add about $75 a month to the average retiree’s benefit starting in January.

FAQs

What was the September 2026 CPI inflation rate?

The Consumer Price Index rose 3.7% over the 12 months ending September 2026, up from 3.4% in August. Prices rose 0.6% for the month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

What caused inflation to rise in September 2026?

Gasoline rose 9.1% for the month and accounted for more than half of the increase. Shelter, airline fares, and recreation also contributed.

What was core CPI in September 2026?

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3% for the month and 2.6% for the year. Economists had expected 0.2% and 2.5%.

How does September CPI affect small businesses?

Higher fuel, travel, and heating oil prices raise operating costs, especially for delivery and field-service businesses. Higher Treasury yields also put upward pressure on variable-rate business borrowing.

When is the next CPI report?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release October 2026 CPI data on November 10, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The Diversified Investor, the Concentrated Founder and the Gap Between Them

Market Daily Staff on October 15, 2026

By Dr. Tamara Patzer

In brief: Investors are taught not to put everything in one stock, yet many founders in the top 1% hold most of their net worth in a single private company. This market-minded feature looks at that concentration, what Americans say wealth takes, and what a New Orleans tax attorney says disciplined owners do before a liquidity event.

Every investor has heard the advice: do not put everything in one stock. Most founders have heard it too, and then gone home to a balance sheet that is built on exactly that mistake. New Orleans tax and estate attorney Todd M. Villarrubia makes the contrast a theme in his book, Entrepreneurial B.E.A.S.T. Mode™. His view is that the same owners who would never concentrate a brokerage account concentrate their entire net worth in one private company and call it conviction.

How Concentrated Is A Typical Founder’s Wealth?

Heavily. Villarrubia notes that most of a founder’s balance sheet is illiquid and sits in one asset, the company. The U.S. Small Business Administration counts 36,207,130 small businesses in the country, and for a great many of them the owner and the asset are the same thing⁴.

A stock investor can sell part of a position in seconds. A founder generally cannot sell part of a company without a buyer, a valuation, a negotiation, and often a tax bill. That is why the book distinguishes sharply between income and wealth: “Income is a flow; net worth is a stock.” The founder may have a strong flow and a large stock, but neither can easily be moved when the market changes.

Does A High Income Protect Against That Risk?

No, and the book says so in plain words. In Villarrubia’s words, “having a high income and high net worth in no way secures your future”. For tax year 2023, about $676,000 of adjusted gross income was enough to reach the top 1% of filers, and that group paid about 38.4 percent of all federal individual income tax, according to the Tax Foundation. Those households are not short of earnings. The question is whether the balance sheet behind the earnings can survive a bad year.

The Fed’s distributional accounts put the top 1% near $60.3 trillion in net worth in the second quarter of 2026³. A founder’s share of the total sits in an asset that is much less flexible than a market position.

Why Do Founders Feel Poor When They Are Not?

Because the yardstick keeps moving. Charles Schwab’s 2025 Modern Wealth Survey found that Americans, on average, say it takes $2.3 million in net worth to be wealthy and $839,000 to be financially comfortable. A founder with a company valued at many multiples of that figure may still describe the situation as tight, since the cash on hand is small and every new dollar goes back into the business.

The market lesson is familiar. Paper wealth and spendable wealth are different things. Villarrubia’s book lists the events that convert one into the other: a public offering, a sale, a recapitalization, and a secondary sale. His advice is to decide how the owner wants those events to go before one arrives.

What Separates Owners Who Adapt From Owners Who Do Not?

Willingness to change the plan when conditions change. The book says it in one line: “Rigidity can destroy generational wealth; you must be able to adapt and react quickly.” It adds that the families who hold on to wealth share one trait: “The common thread among them all isn’t greed but discipline.”

In a market setting, the comparison is natural. An owner who writes down a target mix of risk and checks it on a schedule is acting like a disciplined investor. An owner who treats the company as untouchable is making a very large bet.

Who Should Be Advising The Owner?

A team, and not a collection of strangers. Villarrubia holds that the quality of the advisers sets the limit on the result: “the quality of your advisors determines the ceiling on your legacy”. His book describes the ideal as a group in which tax, law, investments, insurance, and business strategy are each covered by a specialist, and the specialists talk to each other.

The reason is practical. A tax adviser who does not know about a planned sale and an investment manager who does not know about the estate plan can each give sound advice that undoes the other’s. In markets, this is called a hidden correlation. In a family balance sheet, it is simply a missed phone call.

How Can An Owner Reduce Concentration Without Selling Out?

The point is not that an owner must sell. There are several ways to reduce the damage a single event can do, and they work best when started early:

Hold different assets in different legal entities, so that a problem in one does not automatically reach another.
Build liquidity outside the company over time, through distributions, a partial sale or a planned recapitalization.
Write down the succession plan, including who decides if the owner cannot.
Check the whole arrangement against current law on a schedule.

Each step has a tax and legal side that depends on the facts, so each needs a licensed professional.

What Is The First Diversification Step For An Owner?

Often it is not buying anything. It is building a second pillar of value outside the company, whether that is a portfolio, property held in a separate entity, or a reserve that can be reached quickly. Start with a number that feels small and add to it on a schedule. Over time the family’s fortunes depend less on any single customer, product or year, and a bad stretch at the company becomes a problem to manage and not a threat to everything.

Common Questions

Is Concentration Always Bad?

No. Many fortunes were built by concentrating in one business. The risk lies in staying concentrated without a plan for what happens if the business falters or the owner cannot continue.

Does Diversifying Mean Selling The Company?

Not necessarily. It can mean building cash and other assets alongside the company.

What Is The First Practical Step?

Many owners start by listing everything they own and noting how quickly each item could be turned into cash. The gap between the two columns shows how concentrated the position is.

Are The Figures Above Current?

They are the latest the cited sources provide, and they will change.

Sources

About the author. Dr. Tamara Patzer is a publisher and former newspaper editor. She was on the staff of The Charlotte Sun when it was named a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its Hurricane Charley coverage.

About the source. Todd M. Villarrubia is an attorney with an LL.M. in Taxation and a Juris Doctorate. He is an Accredited Estate Planner, a Board Certified Expert in Estate Planning and Administration, and a Fiduciary Investment Advisor Representative. He is the author of Entrepreneurial B.E.A.S.T. Mode™. Wealth Planning Law Group, 101 W. Robert E. Lee Blvd., Ste 404, New Orleans, LA 70124. Phone: 504-982-8207; email: todd@lawealthplan.com; website: Wealth Planning Law Group

Disclaimer: Attorney advertising. Sponsored feature written on behalf of Todd M. Villarrubia. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Results vary.

The Balloon Guy on the Real Cost Behind a Corporate Balloon Installation

Market Daily Staff on October 14, 2026

A corporate event can feature a balloon installation that looks deceptively simple: a coordinated arch, a branded backdrop, or a sculptural arrangement framing a stage. The visible materials may appear to tell most of the story. They do not. The corporate balloon decor cost reflects a wider production process that can include creative development, customization, materials, labor, transportation, venue coordination, installation, and teardown.

That is why two installations that look similar can receive very different quotes. The number of balloons matters, but so do the demands placed on them and the team responsible for turning a concept into a finished installation.

What Actually Goes Into the Price of a Corporate Balloon Installation

A corporate balloon installation is closer to a production project than a simple materials purchase.

The design itself can affect the work involved. A straightforward arrangement may require a different process from a custom installation designed around a stage, entrance, product display, or branded environment. Scale can also affect materials, crew, and time onsite.

Cvent’s guidance encourages organizers to account for multiple event budget line items rather than viewing each supplier in isolation. For decor, that means understanding what the quoted scope covers.

Design and Customization Can Change the Scope

Corporate event balloon decor often starts with a creative direction rather than a standard template. Color palettes may need to align with a brand, while the composition has to work with the architecture, event layout, photography needs, and desired visual impact.

Custom work can involve unusual forms, sculptural elements, branded details, or combinations of materials. Each addition can require more design development and production planning.

“With corporate work, the balloons are only part of the design. The space, the colors, the proportions, and what the client needs the installation to communicate all shape how the piece comes together,” said Sean Edwards, Founder of The Balloon Guy.

Edwards has described each installation as a problem-solving exercise because the environment, client, colors, materials, and scale can change from one project to the next. In Los Angeles, that approach can be applied to corporate-events work developed around the setting and client objective.

Materials Are Only One Part of the Calculation

Materials are an obvious part of any installation quote, but they are not necessarily the most useful way to compare proposals. Balloons may be accompanied by frames, supports, adhesives, fasteners, printed elements, or other production materials depending on the concept.

Just as important is the work required to turn those materials into a finished piece. Preparation can take place before the event, while installation requires a team to assemble and secure the design. A quote that lists materials without explaining production and installation work may not provide a complete picture.

Installation Labor and Venue Logistics Matter

The physical conditions of the venue can change the scope considerably. Crew size, setup time, load-in procedures, installation height, access points, transportation requirements, teardown, and the event schedule can all affect execution.

A venue with straightforward access presents different conditions from one with restricted load-in windows or limited working space. An installation completed within a narrow window may require more coordinated labor than one that can be assembled gradually.

The broader event industry reflects this reality. The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes meeting and event planners as professionals who coordinate event scope and costs, venues, transportation, service providers, and onsite activities.

“The logistics can be just as important as the design. You have to understand how the installation gets into the space, where the team can work, how much time is available, and what has to happen when the event is over,” Edwards said.

Why Corporate Installations Can Have Different Price Points

Photo Courtesy: The Balloon Guy (A decorative wall made of white and gold balloons features a cutout silhouette of a woman’s face and hair in the center, showcasing elegant balloon decor.)

Balloon installation pricing is easier to understand when you consider the variables together. Scale, customization, design complexity, labor, transportation, venue access, installation conditions, timing, and teardown can all change the scope.

This explains why a visual comparison can be misleading. Two installations may use a similar number of balloons but require different structures, preparation, crew requirements, access arrangements, or installation windows.

For businesses planning events in Los Angeles, The Balloon Guy is one example of a studio that approaches corporate installations as custom design and production work rather than a standardized decor purchase. The relevant question is not simply how many balloons are included, but what work is required to deliver the finished installation.

What to Look for When Comparing a Corporate Balloon Quote

A useful quote should make the scope understandable. Businesses can check whether the proposal explains the design and customization, materials, labor, delivery or transportation, installation, teardown, and venue-specific requirements.

It is also worth asking what assumptions the quote depends on. Does it account for the setup window? Is the installation height known? Are venue access requirements clear? What happens if the event schedule changes or the installation needs to be adjusted?

Cvent’s guidance on corporate venue planning similarly recommends looking beyond headline figures and requesting an all-in quote that makes additional requirements and fees clear. The same principle can help with decor: compare the scope being purchased, not just the number at the bottom of the page.

There is no single universal price for a corporate balloon installation. The final cost depends on design, customization, materials, labor, logistics, venue conditions, installation complexity, and timing. Professional corporate decor is both a design product and an execution service, so a meaningful comparison requires looking at the work behind the finished image.

Sean Edwards’ training at the California Institute of the Arts reflects the design side of that equation. For a business approving an event decor quote, understanding the full scope can make the pricing conversation more useful than comparing headline numbers alone.

Shared-Use Vertiports Could Solve the Economics Problem Facing Rural Air Mobility

Market Daily Staff on October 14, 2026

A vertiport built for a single purpose is hard to pay for. An emergency services landing pad might see only occasional flights. A drone delivery hub may run on thin margins. In major cities, frequent passenger flights can carry the cost of infrastructure on their own. In rural areas, the numbers start to work only when one site serves many users at once.

Lisa Wright, founder and CEO of Landings, sees that difference as central to how advanced air mobility will reach communities outside major metros. Her company plans sites around a bundle of uses rather than a single aircraft type.

“Vertiport sites that have multiple uses are going to be built out first, especially in rural communities,” she said.

The Single-Use Problem

Many communities can picture one clear use: an ambulance base, a fire department, or a hospital. Wright says that is often where conversations begin. The trouble is that a site built for occasional emergency flights sits idle much of the time while still carrying the full cost of construction, power, and maintenance.

Cities face a different equation. “In the cities, you can build a vertiport, you could just carry passengers all day long, and that’s fine,” Wright said. “That should support that vertiport.” Rural markets rarely have that volume of passenger demand, at least in the early years.

How Bundling Works

The alternative is to design each site for several kinds of traffic from the start. “You can charge your ground infrastructure. You can transfer your packaging. You can launch your drones. You can do a VTOL,” Wright said.

The early users might be a combination of logistics companies, medical providers, agricultural inspection services, and first responders.

Each additional user spreads fixed costs, particularly energy infrastructure, across more activity. Ground fleet charging can provide steady daily use, while aircraft and drone operations add value without the need for separate facilities.

The groundwork is local. Wright’s approach starts by identifying the businesses that could run on a regional network. “Are they farmers? Is it auto parts distribution? Is it our emergency services?” she said. The next step is understanding how those users could share the same infrastructure.

A Signal From the Port Authority

A recent meeting of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey offered a view of where regional demand may emerge. The authority is a bi-state agency, and Wright noticed the two sides approached the topic differently. New York participants focused on JFK, LaGuardia, and the downtown heliport. New Jersey participants noted that only part of their state is dense and urban, and described rural testing areas, drone programs, and coordination with Pennsylvania on more rural locations.

Wright left with a sense of “an eagerness to test things rural in New Jersey.” She sees the same core need across rural regions of the Northeast, from the Poconos to the Adirondacks: reliable emergency services.

What It Means for Rural Landowners

For owners of rural land, the question is shifting. It is no longer only whether an air taxi operator will someday arrive. It is whether a site can serve several local users at once. Wright believes the wait may be shorter than many assume, because others in the industry are reaching the same conclusion. “There are people realizing the use cases are better and probably easier in these rural locations,” she said. “If they were thinking they’ve got to wait 10 years, they probably don’t have to wait 10 years.”

Landowners evaluating whether a parcel could host shared-use aviation infrastructure are looking at factors beyond size and zoning: nearby fleets, local businesses, and emergency service needs.

Shared use does not remove the uncertainty facing the sector. Aircraft certification timelines continue to shift, and demand from individual users still has to be proven site by site. What bundling changes is the core question, from whether one market will materialize to whether several can share the cost.

About Landings

Landings is building vertiport landing and charging infrastructure for electric aircraft, with a planned network of 2,000+ rural locations. Founded by architect and energy management expert Lisa Wright, the company takes an infrastructure-first, asset-light approach through revenue-sharing partnerships with commercial property owners.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed herein reflect those of the individuals quoted and do not represent an endorsement of any company, product, or service mentioned. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult qualified professionals before making any investment decisions.

The Five Risks a Family Office Watches That a Brokerage Statement Does Not Show

Market Daily Staff on October 14, 2026

By: Dr. Tamara Patzer

October 12, 2026

In brief: Investors track prices. Family offices track risks that prices do not show. A New Orleans tax attorney outlines five that a business-owning family should watch each quarter: concentration, liquidity, liability, tax timing and succession, using current Federal Reserve data and IRS thresholds.

A brokerage statement tells an investor what an account is worth. It says nothing about whether the family is exposed to a single company, whether the cash is where it needs to be, whether a lawsuit could reach the assets or whether anyone could step in if the owner became ill. Those are the questions a family office asks. Todd M. Villarrubia, a New Orleans attorney who focuses on tax and estate planning, describes them in Entrepreneurial B.E.A.S.T. Mode™. A business-owning family can run the same checks on a single page, each quarter.

Why Look Beyond the Portfolio?

Because for an owner, the portfolio is rarely the largest asset. The Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released October 9, 2026, puts median family net worth at $215,900 and the mean at $1.24 million¹. The distance between the two figures reflects how much value sits in a minority of households, and often in businesses and property whose worth does not appear on any statement.

An owner whose company makes up most of the family’s wealth has a risk profile that the portfolio cannot reveal. The register below is a way to see it.

Risk One: How Concentrated Is the Family?

Concentration means a large share of wealth in one place. For an owner, that place is usually the company. Villarrubia’s view is blunt: “Concentration without protection is not strength; it’s exposure.” The company may be a fine investment and still be too big a part of the picture.

The practical question is what happens to the family if the business has a bad year, loses a key customer or faces a claim. A family office tracks that share and asks whether any of the value should be held elsewhere, in a different entity or a different form.

Risk Two: How Liquid Is the Wealth?

Liquidity is the ability to turn value into cash without a loss. The book is direct about what paper value means: “It isn’t until a liquidity event that their wealth is fully realized; until then, it’s largely paper value.” A family with a valuable company and little cash may be unable to pay a tax bill, buy out a partner or weather a slow period without selling something it would rather keep.

The register records how much of the family’s wealth can be reached in days, months or years, and compares that with what the family may need. Estate rules sharpen the question. The IRS lists $15,000,000 per person as the federal basic exclusion amount for 2026⁴, and an estate close to that figure that holds mostly illiquid assets can face hard choices.

Risk Three: What Could Reach the Assets?

Liability. The book connects it to ownership: “Each property you own increases not only your cash flow but also your overall exposure to potential legal liabilities.” The same logic applies to a company, a vehicle fleet, a rental or a professional practice. The more a family owns, the more occasions exist for a claim.

A family office asks which assets sit in which entity, whether the insurance matches the exposure and whether any asset is held in a personal name that should be elsewhere. The author adds a warning that applies to timing: protection has to be in place before trouble arrives, because it offers no shield against claims that already exist.

Risk Four: How Will the Tax Calendar Land?

Tax rules turn on thresholds and dates. The IRS says long-term capital gains rates of 0, 15 or 20 percent apply to assets held more than a year². It also says the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax applies when modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for joint filers³.

A family office does not predict the law. It keeps a calendar of expected income, sales and transfers and asks, well ahead of the year-end, which thresholds might come into play. The point is to avoid surprises and to give the tax professional time to work.

Risk Five: Who Steps In?

Succession. The book is blunt: “Here’s the truth few want to admit: without a clear succession or exit plan, that wealth can disappear faster than it was built.” The register lists who would run the company, who would manage the finances and who would make decisions for the family if the owner could not.

This is the risk that families discuss least and regret most. It does not require a complicated plan. It requires a name for each role, a document that records it and a conversation with the people involved.

How Does a Family Use the Register?

Make a table with five rows. For each, write what the exposure is, how it is measured, who is responsible and when it was last checked. Fill it in with the advisers present. Update it quarterly.

The first pass often reveals that nobody is responsible for one or two of the rows. That is the value of the exercise. A risk that has a name and an owner is much easier to manage than one that is simply felt.

Can a Family Do This Without an Office?

Yes. The book recognizes that not every family needs a full-service office, and a one-page register with a quarterly meeting captures much of the benefit. As the family’s affairs grow, the register can become a staff function. The discipline comes first.

Which Risk Should Come First?

Whichever row has no owner. If nobody can say who tracks liquidity, start there. If succession is the blank, name a person today, even provisionally. A register is a living page, and the first pass is meant to be rough. Over a few quarters the entries sharpen, the dates fill in and the family sees which risks are shrinking and which are growing.

Common Questions

Is the register a financial plan? No. It is a list of risks, and it feeds into planning that a licensed attorney, a tax professional and a financial adviser carry out.

How often should it be updated? Quarterly is a sound habit, with extra updates after any large event.

Can I do it myself? You can start. Bring the result to your advisers, who can correct and extend it.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. Consult a qualified financial advisor for advice specific to your situation.

Sources

• Federal Reserve Board, press release on the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances

• Internal Revenue Service, Topic no. 409, Capital Gains and Losses

• Internal Revenue Service, Topic no. 559, Net Investment Income Tax

• Internal Revenue Service, What’s New: Estate and Gift Tax

Disclaimer: Attorney advertising. Sponsored feature written on behalf of Todd M. Villarrubia. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Results vary.

The Software Development Partner Test, The Engineering Decision That Separates Ownership From Staffing

Market Daily Staff on October 14, 2026

By: Audrey Denise B. Cachuela

A software project rarely collapses on day one. It cruises through the first few sprints looking healthy: the standups run on time, the backlog gets groomed, the demos look sharp. Then around month four, a requirement gets misread, a deadline gets missed, and everyone in the room discovers they had two different ideas of who was supposed to catch that problem before it happened.

That moment shows where a software vendor and a software development partner split apart. At the pitch stage, two firms can look almost identical: each brings experienced engineers who can estimate a backlog and promise regular releases. The difference only becomes visible once something goes wrong and someone has to decide who owns the fix.

Redwerk, a software development and QA agency built around a managed-services model, folds project management, business analysis, engineering, and QA into a single accountable unit instead of handing a client a list of developer names and calling it a delivery team. Seeing why that structure matters means looking at what actually goes wrong in software projects, and the research backs up the pattern.

Software Development Partner vs Vendor: Where the Line Actually Sits

Software project management has a reputation problem, and the numbers explain why. Nearly half of global C-suite executives report that more than 30 percent of their organization’s technology development projects run late or over budget, and the three most common causes are goals that technology and business teams never agreed on, timelines set without input from the people building the product, and budgets too thin to support the plan (Source: BCG, 2024). That research looked at internal development specifically, yet the pattern holds across outsourced engagements too: a team can look busy and technically sharp while drifting away from the business result that justified the project.

The distinction between a vendor and a partner comes down to where responsibility sits once work is underway. A staffing engagement transfers capacity and stops there: the client gets engineers, and the internal team keeps the job of setting priorities, planning workloads, catching delivery risk, and deciding when a technical choice is creating a business problem. Delivery ownership works differently, because the client explains what it needs and stays involved in key decisions, while the provider handles day-to-day planning, progress tracking, risk flagging, and coordination across the team. A staffing engagement bills for hours. With delivery ownership, the provider answers for whether the release works, and that decides which problems eventually land back on the client’s desk.

The broader market is moving toward outcome-based relationships too. More than 500 executives surveyed worldwide said they plan to maintain or increase investment in third-party outsourcing, and the same research found outcome-based delivery models gaining ground on straight time-and-materials billing (Source: Deloitte, 2024). Buyers are getting sharper about what they expect for their spend, and software development outsourcing now gets judged on whether the provider actually owns what it delivers.

Staff augmentation is often exactly the right choice on its own. A company that needs three backend developers for six months, working inside an engineering organization that already owns architecture, prioritization, and QA, needs people to cover a shortfall. Paying for delivery ownership it already has in-house would waste the budget.

Trouble starts when a company buys the staffing model and expects the provider to own delivery anyway. A founder might think they hired a product team, while the provider believes its job ended once five capable engineers showed up. A CTO hits the same wall after expecting risks flagged before release day, only to learn the vendor always saw risk as the client’s problem. Both sides are acting reasonably based on different definitions of what they signed up for, and that mismatch tends to surface at the worst possible moment.

A managed-services structure changes what gets purchased, and the price reflects it. Project managers track realistic milestones and surface blockers, business analysis feeds directly into how requirements become working code, and engineers operate as part of an accountable team. That structure takes more effort to run, which is why it costs more to buy: the client pays for judgment and coordination layered on top of engineering time. Where that judgment comes from, and how early it shows up, starts becoming visible before a single line of code gets written.

Where Judgment Shows Up: Onboarding and Business Acumen

One of the clearest early signals of delivery ownership shows up before any code gets written at all. A staffing vendor needs just enough information to match technical profiles to a role. A software development partner needs enough information to understand what success actually looks like for that specific client, which typically means digging into a client’s history, goals, and working style before assembling a team.

For products still taking shape, that groundwork extends into a proper discovery phase: business analysis, technical architecture planning, user stories, and early design work aimed at turning a business idea into an actual plan before serious budget gets committed to implementation. Skipping this step moves the cost of figuring things out from the cheapest phase of the project to one of the most expensive.

This matters most for non-technical founders, who should be expected to understand their market and their customers without needing to arrive with a finished architecture diagram. Translating a business idea into a technical plan is exactly the work a partner is being paid to do, and a provider that skips straight to writing code puts that translation work back on the client without saying so.

The payoff for taking discovery seriously is measurable. Technology projects where leaders were involved directly from the start of strategy development had a success rate 154 percent higher than projects where that communication channel did not exist (Source: BCG, 2024). Business thinking and technical thinking need to meet early, before implementation decisions get expensive to unwind later in the build.

That meeting point stays open long after onboarding wraps up, because a technically sound decision can still be a bad product decision at any later stage. An engineer might push for cleaner architecture while a founder chases a feature one big prospect requested. Add a project manager guarding the deadline and a finance lead watching costs, and someone still has to turn four reasonable positions into one call.

That connective work depends on business acumen, and the PMI data shows how uncommon it is. Only 18 percent of project professionals surveyed demonstrated high business-acumen proficiency, and those who did achieved a lower project failure rate, 8 percent, against 11 percent for professionals who scored lower on that measure (Source: PMI, 2025). That shortfall in proficiency is where a lot of otherwise well-run projects lose value without anyone noticing until later.

Software project management that stops at maintaining a board and reporting sprint velocity misses the part of the job that actually moves outcomes. A delivery-owning partner should be able to translate technical tradeoffs into language a business leader can act on, and that translation skill gets tested hardest the moment something in the plan actually breaks.

The Stress Test: Scope Changes and Hard Conversations

A partner’s competence becomes visible the moment the initial scope shifts. That is when a provider has to choose how it responds, and the choice reveals what the relationship will look like under pressure.

Picture a feature that was estimated at two weeks and turns into four because a third-party API behaves nothing like the documentation promised. A transactional vendor’s answer is simple: report the extra hours, push the deadline, get a signature. The change gets absorbed into the invoice, and the underlying question of whether the feature is still worth the cost never gets asked out loud.

A delivery-owning partner asks that harder question first: what does this change actually mean for the business goal behind the feature? Maybe the integration is essential enough to bump something else from the release. A simpler build could capture most of the value, the deadline may outrank full feature completeness, and the workaround might create technical debt that costs more than the shortcut saves. Surfacing that question, regardless of which answer follows, separates the two models.

That pattern matches what research on IT outsourcing relationships keeps finding: the factors that most influence whether an outsourcing relationship actually works are contract clarity, commitment, communication, collaboration, and trust. The review flagged trust, contract terms, and communication as the areas most worth improving (Source: Procedia Computer Science, 2024). Those terms get set at signing, and the relationship’s survival usually comes down to how both sides behave when something breaks midway through.

That same dynamic gets tested even harder once the news is bad. Transparency shows up as a habit of surfacing problems early, along with the consequences and realistic options for handling them, before they harden into a crisis that takes far more time and money to unwind.

The cost of delay is the reason this matters. A misunderstood requirement caught in planning costs a conversation. The same misunderstanding discovered three development cycles later can mean rewritten code, a redesigned interface, another full QA pass, and a release date that has to move regardless of what anyone wanted.

Ownership means surfacing uncertainty early, while the client still has real options to choose between, because software always carries some amount of unpredictability that no process fully removes. Those choices, made and remade across the life of a project, are exactly what a working relationship gets built from.

How Long-Term Partnerships Form, and How to Choose One

Long-term client relationships in software development get built through small decisions: a team flags a feature that will be expensive to maintain later, a project manager pushes back on a requirement that conflicts with the business goal, QA gets involved early enough to shape the build.

Trust gets earned over time, and many partnerships start with a limited engagement, a single project or a defined scope, before expanding as confidence builds. Nobody has to bet everything on day one, which makes this model lower risk.

The length of a contract says little about the quality of the relationship. A five-year vendor relationship can stay purely transactional if neither side pushes past the default, while a new provider can start acting like a partner in its first week by flagging risks and questioning scope.

Given how much depends on structure inside the relationship, the next step is figuring out how to evaluate it before signing anything. The most useful questions focus on how responsibility gets structured once work begins.

Ask what happens when an estimate turns out wrong. Find out who decides whether a feature gets cut from a release, who owns QA, how technical risk gets explained to someone without an engineering background, and what the provider needs during onboarding to define success before writing code. The answers show where responsibility lives.

If every answer circles back to you managing engineers, rewriting priorities, or catching risks yourself, you are buying staffing capacity, and that might be the right fit. The mistake is buying that model while expecting managed software development services layered on top of it for free. A software development partner should also be willing to push back. Telling a client that a feature costs too much, a deadline carries unnecessary risk, or a simpler build gets the same commercial result takes technical confidence and enough business context to say it convincingly.

Most software failures trace back to accountability for decisions around the build. Providers built around a managed-services model, such as Redwerk and QAwerk, show this structure in practice: discovery before code, project management that tracks business outcomes, and QA folded into delivery from day one. Companies vetting a software development partner can put these questions to Redwerk’s team and see how a discovery-first model handles them before a developer gets assigned.

IMF Releases World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report Tonight as Bangkok Meetings Open

Market Daily Staff 2 on October 13, 2026

The International Monetary Fund publishes its October 2026 World Economic Outlook at 10:00 p.m. ET on Monday, October 12, followed by Chapter 1 of the Global Financial Stability Report at 11:15 p.m. ET. Both reports launch from the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, which run through October 18.

Key Takeaways

The full October 2026 World Economic Outlook releases at 9:00 a.m. Bangkok time on October 13, which is 10:00 p.m. ET on October 12.
Chapter 1 of the Global Financial Stability Report launches at 10:15 a.m. Bangkok time on October 13, which is 11:15 p.m. ET on October 12.
The IMF’s most recent published forecast, from July 2026, projected global growth of 3.0% in 2026 and 3.4% in 2027.
Global hedge fund assets total about $13 trillion, more than three times their 2013 level, according to the GFSR’s Chapter 2.
A new WEO chapter finds anti-avoidance rules have weakened incentives for multinationals to shift profits across borders.
The reports arrive two days before the September Consumer Price Index and about two weeks before the Federal Reserve’s October 28 rate decision.

Two Flagship Reports Land Overnight for U.S. Markets

The IMF’s October releases come in an unusual order this year. The World Economic Outlook publishes in full at 10:00 p.m. ET, and the Global Financial Stability Report’s lead chapter follows at 11:15 p.m. ET. Both timestamps fall after the U.S. close, which means futures and Asian trading will absorb the headlines first, and U.S. cash markets will respond Tuesday morning.

The baseline going in is modest growth. In its July 2026 update, the IMF projected global growth of 3.0% this year and 3.4% in 2027, down from an average of 3.5% across 2024 and 2025. That forecast assumed an energy price shock would weigh on 2026 activity before easing, with policy uncertainty staying high through 2027. In September, IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said the global economy remained on track for growth of around 3%, while warning that uncertainty remains elevated.

For U.S. business owners and investors, the key question is the direction of any revision. A downgrade would reinforce the soft spots in recent U.S. data, including weak September hiring and depressed consumer sentiment. A hold would suggest the IMF sees enough resilience in services and business investment to offset those pressures.

The Rate Backdrop Raises the Stakes

The IMF’s outlook arrives during a tightening cycle. The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by a quarter point to 3.75%–4% in September, and minutes released last week showed that all 19 officials backed the September rate hike, with most expecting another increase before year end. The Fed’s next decision is scheduled for October 28.

That context gives the IMF’s inflation projections added weight this week. The September CPI report lands Wednesday, followed by producer prices Thursday. If the IMF signals that inflation pressures in advanced economies are lasting longer than it expected in July, the case for further U.S. tightening grows stronger.

For small businesses, this shows up directly in borrowing costs. Lines of credit, SBA loans and equipment financing all reprice as rate expectations move, so a hawkish read on global inflation can affect financing terms well before the Fed acts.

Hedge Fund Growth Becomes a Financial Stability Focus

The Global Financial Stability Report released its analytical chapters ahead of the Bangkok launch, and Chapter 2 centers on hedge funds. The IMF finds that global hedge fund assets now total about $13 trillion, more than three times their 2013 level. Hedge funds face relatively few limits on strategy and borrowing, which lets them shift exposures across markets quickly.

The IMF sees two sides to that flexibility. In calm periods, hedge funds can support market liquidity, improve price discovery and spread risk. Under stress, leverage, crowded positions and correlated investor redemptions can trigger synchronized selling, raising volatility and straining liquidity. Those pressures can also spill over to prime brokers and amplify global shocks, especially in thinly traded markets.

The IMF recommends better data collection on hedge fund footprints, prudential measures matched to the specific sources of risk, and credible central bank backstops for severe dysfunction in core markets. For investors, the chapter gives context for the sharp, fast moves in long-dated Treasury yields seen in recent weeks.

Corporate Tax Research Carries a Message for Founders

The World Economic Outlook’s Chapter 3 examines corporate taxation in an economy increasingly built on intangible assets such as software, intellectual property and brands. The IMF finds that anti-avoidance rules have weakened incentives for profit shifting, bringing reported profits and real economic activity back into closer alignment. Real investment has also become more sensitive to differences in tax rates across countries.

The chapter’s central trade-off matters for growth-stage companies weighing where to build. Debt-financed corporate tax cuts can support domestic activity but may create negative spillovers abroad in the short term. Lower revenues can also limit public investment, particularly in emerging and developing economies. The IMF concludes that stronger anti-avoidance frameworks help manage those trade-offs.

For founders with cross-border operations, the takeaway is practical. Tax location strategies built on profit shifting are losing value, while tax-rate differences increasingly shape where real investment, hiring and facilities go.

What Investors and Business Owners Should Track This Week

The IMF reports open a dense stretch of data. Tuesday morning will show how U.S. markets price the WEO forecasts and the GFSR risk assessment. Wednesday brings CPI and the Fed’s Beige Book, and Thursday brings the Producer Price Index. The Annual Meetings continue through October 18, with the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee meeting October 17.

Together, these releases will set the tone for the Fed’s October 28 decision and for borrowing costs heading into the fourth quarter.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or tax advice. Readers should consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

FAQs

When does the IMF release the October 2026 World Economic Outlook?

The full report releases at 9:00 a.m. Bangkok time on Tuesday, October 13, which is 10:00 p.m. ET on Monday, October 12.

When is the IMF Global Financial Stability Report released?

Chapter 1 launches at 10:15 a.m. Bangkok time on October 13, which is 11:15 p.m. ET on October 12. Its analytical chapters were released earlier in October.

What was the IMF’s last global growth forecast?

In July 2026, the IMF projected global growth of 3.0% in 2026 and 3.4% in 2027. That was down from an average of 3.5% in 2024 and 2025.

How large is the global hedge fund industry, according to the IMF?

The IMF estimates global hedge fund assets at about $13 trillion, more than three times their 2013 level.

When is the Federal Reserve’s next rate decision?

The Federal Reserve’s next scheduled rate decision is October 28, 2026, with a final 2026 meeting on December 9.

Daniel Kaufman Says 7.4% Mortgage Rates Are Moving Real Estate Demand From Buying to Renting, and Builders Should Follow It

Market Daily Staff on October 13, 2026

By: KeyCrew Media

As mortgage rates rise for a seventh straight week and rents climb at their fastest pace since April 2025, the Kaufman & Company founder says the housing to build now is rental and workforce housing

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 9, 2026). Daniel Kaufman, founder and CEO of the real estate and permanent capital holding company Kaufman & Company, said this week’s climb in mortgage rates to their highest level in nearly three years confirms a shift showing up across the housing market: demand is not disappearing; it is moving from ownership to rental.

Freddie Mac reported Oct. 8 that the average 30 year fixed mortgage rate rose to 7.40% from 7.28% the week before, its seventh straight weekly increase and the highest reading since November 2023. Two days earlier, Zillow’s September Market Report found newly pending home sales down 8.5% from a year earlier, while the typical U.S. rent rose 2.7% year over year to $1,932, the biggest annual gain since April 2025. Zillow estimated that a median income household would now spend 34.3% of its income on a typical mortgage payment, compared with 26.3% on rent.

“A household that was ready to buy in the spring is signing a lease this fall, and that does not reduce the need for homes; it changes which homes are needed,” Kaufman said. “The rate tells you who can buy. It does not tell you whether a town has enough places for nurses, teachers and lift operators to live, and in most of the markets we study, it does not.”

Kaufman said builders and owners should keep building, with product matched to where demand is going.

“Waiting for rates to come back down only works as a strategy if you need cheap debt to make a project pencil,” Kaufman said. “We invest our own capital, so we can keep buying land and moving entitlements while others pause, and have rental and workforce homes ready when that demand shows up in the rent roll. This is the part of the cycle when patient owners should be building, not watching.”

Kaufman & Company invests only its own capital and does not raise outside funds. Its housing businesses include DEK Builds, DK Homes, Design Build Affordable and LoneStar Kaufman, and it works alongside Oldivai, an aligned, independently led workforce housing partner focused on employer anchored communities. LandBriefing, a Kaufman Ventures platform, tracks land and housing fundamentals across U.S. markets.

About Kaufman & Company

Kaufman & Company (thekaufmanco.com) is a permanent capital holding company founded by Daniel Kaufman and the trade name of Kaufman Family Office LLC and Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting LLC. Its 10 operating companies are Convivium Living, DanReDev, DEK Builds, Design Build Affordable, DK Homes, Forge Development Partners, Kaufman Development, Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, LoneStar Kaufman and Kaufman Ventures, whose portfolio includes BridgeStar, Meridian, LandBriefing, SpreadSight, FoundCheck, ServerDomes and Mr Good Container Homes. Oldivai is an aligned, independently led workforce housing partner. The platform represents more than $2 billion in project value and more than 10,000 housing units across more than 25 years of building, lending and investing.

Media Contact
Janine Rodrigues
KeyCrew Media
janine@keycrew.co

How Global Author Publishing Children Book Illustration Services Bring Stories to Life

Market Daily Staff on October 11, 2026

There are the murals of Wynwood, the pastel Art Deco facades along Ocean Drive, and the international art fair that fills the city every December. That visual energy is a natural fit for picture books, where the pictures tell as much of the story as the words. Children’s book illustration services help parents, teachers, and storytellers turn a simple idea into a book that children want to open again and again.

Why Pictures Do Half the Storytelling

Young children read pictures long before they read words. A good illustration does more than show what the text says. It adds humor, hidden details, and emotions the words leave unspoken, like a cat sneaking toward the birthday cake while the family looks the other way. The best picture books let text and art each carry part of the story, so that neither simply repeats the other.

How Children Book Illustration Services Work

Professional illustration follows a clear sequence:

Character design: the illustrator develops the main characters, often from several angles, so they look consistent on every page.
Thumbnails: small, rough sketches plan the layout of each spread and where the text will sit.
Sketches and feedback: the author reviews fuller drawings and requests changes before any color is added.
Final art: the approved sketches become finished, full-color illustrations.
Layout: text and art are combined into print-ready spreads.

Feedback early in the process is cheap; changes after final art are not. Authors get the best results by being specific during the sketch stage.

Choosing an Illustration Style

Style sets the mood before a single word is read. Soft watercolor suits bedtime stories. Bold digital art brings energy to adventures. Collage, whimsical line work, and bright flat color each have their own personality. The right choice depends on the reader’s age, the tone of the story, and the feeling the author wants to leave behind.

Stories in Two Languages

Many families move between English and Spanish, or Haitian Creole and Portuguese, every day. Bilingual picture books let children see their home language on the page. They also need careful planning, because the layout must leave room for two versions of the text. Book formatting services handle that balance so neither language feels squeezed. Illustrations can then reflect Caribbean and Latin American homes, food, music and family life with warmth and accuracy.

Words and Pictures Working Together

Illustration works best when the text is written with pictures in mind. Children’s book writing services craft stories with room for the art to speak, often including brief art notes for the illustrator. Professional book editing services then polish every line, because in a book of a few hundred words, each one is read aloud hundreds of times.

From Artwork to Bookshelf

The cover is the first illustration most people see. Professional book cover design services combine the art with a title design that pops from a shelf or screen. Online book printing services reproduce rich colors in sturdy paperbacks and hardcovers, ready for classrooms, libraries, and gifts.

Other formats extend the book’s life. Audiobook services can produce a lively read-along recording, even a bilingual one. Some authors also create a companion activity or coloring guide with professional eBook writing services for authors.

Sharing the Story

Picture books sell through parents, teachers, and librarians. Book marketing services help reach them, while book trailer services animate the illustrations into short videos that families love to share. Author website design services can showcase favorite spreads, and SEO content writing services help parents find the book when they search for bilingual or culturally rich stories.

Choosing a Creative Partner

Review a portfolio closely and look for consistent characters across many pages, not just one striking image. When comparing the book publishers, ask how writing, illustration, and design are coordinated. The book publishing company for a picture book treats the author, illustrator, and designer as one team.

Paint Your Story in Full Color

Miami’s children deserve books as vibrant as the city around them. Children’s book illustration services turn stories into worlds kids can step into, one colorful spread at a time. Global Author Publishing offers illustration design and children’s book publishing, with a free author consultation to explore styles for your story.

Paul Davis Restoration of the Delmarva Peninsula Backs Its Work With a Full Warranty and Weekend Availability

Market Daily Staff on October 10, 2026

By: Brandon Taylor

Not every restoration company will work around a homeowner’s own schedule, and few back every single project with the same level of coverage regardless of size. Paul Davis Restoration of the Delmarva Peninsula offers both, along with a scope of work that goes well beyond storm repair alone.

A Full Warranty on Every Completed Project

The company backs its work with a full warranty and a parts and labor guarantee, standing firmly behind both the materials used and the labor performed on a project regardless of whether the job is a small repair or a larger reconstruction effort. That coverage is paired with practical scheduling flexibility: weekend appointments are available by request for homeowners who can’t accommodate a weekday visit. In Salisbury, the company’s top target market on the peninsula, that combination of coverage and flexibility applies the same way to a small repair as it does to a larger reconstruction project.

Beyond Storm Repair: Additions and New Construction

The company’s remodeling division extends well past repairing storm damage, giving the franchise a foothold that outlasts any single storm season. In addition to deck installation and kitchen refacing, the team also handles home additions and new home construction, giving clients a path to expand or rebuild rather than simply restoring a property to its prior condition.

A Free Consultation Before Any Commitment

The company offers a free consultation before a homeowner commits to a project, along with additional discounts available on top of the guarantees already backing the work itself, giving budget-conscious clients more than one way to make a project more affordable. That combination of no-obligation consultation and flexible savings is meant to lower the barrier for a homeowner who isn’t yet sure whether a repair needs professional help, giving them room to ask questions before any work or cost is on the table, without any pressure to commit on the spot.

What Delmarva Peninsula Clients Are Saying

Recent client feedback continues to point to a specific technician, Raul, as a consistent standout across projects, alongside the broader team working alongside him on individual calls. John S. said he remembered the company from a local TV segment and saved the number for emergencies, crediting technicians Jon Klass and Raul Rivers with responding the same night a tree fell on his house and handling every punctured area of his roof despite the late hour and difficult conditions.

Does Paul Davis Restoration of the Delmarva Peninsula offer a warranty on completed work?

Yes. The company backs its work with a full warranty and a parts and labor guarantee on every completed project.

Are weekend appointments available?

Yes. Weekend appointments are available by request for homeowners who can’t accommodate a weekday visit.

Does the remodeling division only handle storm-related repairs?

No. Beyond deck installation and kitchen refacing tied to storm repair, the team also handles home additions and new home construction.

What areas does Paul Davis Restoration of the Delmarva Peninsula serve?

The franchise proudly serves Salisbury, Millsboro, Cambridge, Ocean City, Easton, Berlin, and communities throughout the Delmarva Peninsula across Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia’s Eastern Shore, covering a broad mix of coastal towns and inland communities alike.

Stay Connected With Paul Davis Restoration of the Delmarva Peninsula

For project updates and local news, homeowners can follow Paul Davis Restoration of the Delmarva Peninsula on Facebook and LinkedIn.