By Batia Segal, Business Editor Breaking Records, Going To Space,And Getting Out Of Bed

Which means that either we need to adjust our moral code or we need to acknowledge the error and fix it. Guilt catapults us to change and evolve as human beings. It is important to note that guilt is different from shame. Shame is the feeling that a person’s entire self is immoral and there is little they can do to change. On the other hand, guilt is the understanding that a certain behavior does not match the person and therefore the behavior should be corrected. A simple example of this is if a student fails an exam and immediately believes that he or she is dumb, causing him or her to drop the class and find a new major. On the flip side, a different student fails the exam and instead of saying that he or she is dumb, he or she recognizes that neglecting daily studying is not going to result in high scores. The difference is the latter leaves room for the student to change, the former leaves the student feeling incapable. This is how guilt and shame differ. With that being said, guilt is useful, shame is not.

Ultimately, every emotion is a piece of information that allows us to get to know ourselves a little bit better. The common denominator between anger, fear and guilt is that each of them inspire us to change and evolve. Without them there is high likelihood that we would end up in a state of stagnation. Although positivity, happiness and gratitude have been continuously shown to increase longevity, they are only one part of becoming whole. Overall, the suppression of the feelings mentioned previously serves as a barrier to feeling true joy.

Breaking Records, Going To Space, And Getting Out Of Bed By Jake Sheckter, Business Editor

These days, it seems like we can barely go a few weeks without breaking some type of record. We hear it in the constant barrage of news each day, from the world’s richest humans and their record-breaking divorce settlements to the “Once in a Century” storms and wildfires we seem to have been getting much too often lately. While the media may often portray the news in a negative or dramatized light, we must remind ourselves that there is good when we look for it. In many instances, world records and drastic changes are exciting, beneficial, and even commendable.

In this year’s 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, during a time when hot and humid conditions and COVID-19 restrictions threatened to hinder the performance of Earth’s athletes, contenders not only persevered but rather flourished to break over 20 world records. Team USA brought home the largest number of medals with 113, and Israel broke their own record by bringing home two gold medals in one year. Away from the global stage and a little closer to home, animal shelters are now more empty than ever. Shelters, non-profit rescues, and private breeders have reported that consumer demand for a furry quarantine companion has been through the roof. In a Nielsen survey, 20% of respondents said they had adopted one or more dogs or cats between March and June last year, an increase from less than only 5% the same time the year before. Additionally, a report from the non-profit ‘Shelter Animals Count’ stated that shelter intake was down 24% compared to the previous year.

Over this last year or two, the financial world has been no stranger to the effects of breaking records, increased inflation, and general volatility. Whether it was the cost of lumber literally tripling in 7 months before crashing back down to its original price 3 months later, the prices of houses increasing 15% over a year, or the stock market’s IPOs (Initial Public Offering) and SPACS (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or “Blank-Check Companies”) hitting records left and right, volatility has remained the name of the game for pandemic investors. Recently, Goldman Sachs reported its revenue for the second quarter for this year, coming in at $15.4 billion. This is the second highest quarterly revenue report ever for Goldman Sachs, second only to… the first quarter of this year. This means that the 152-year-old investment bank managed to rake in more than $33 billion in the first half of this year alone (which is more than it brought in for all of 2017). Goldman, however, doesn’t flaunt their recent successes alone, with JP Morgan also reporting profits that nearly doubled. If you were to go back in time to the start of 2020 and tell someone walking down the street that US stocks would soar nearly 35% over the following 18 months, they would potentially believe you. But if you told them that somewhere squished in the middle of those 18 months was a global pandemic, record unemployment claims, and the shortest recession in history, they might begin to doubt your sanity.