Economy & Policy
10 articles
A 2019 study by Northwestern Mutual revealed some sobering statistics on consumer debt in America. It found that the average American adult has nearly $30,000 in debt, and that figure doesn’t even include mortgage debt. More shockingly, the study found that Americans spend over one-third of their income on debt repayment, on average. News stories about studies like
Investors rely heavily on what publicly traded companies tell us about their businesses — but who’s making sure they’re telling us the truth? The answer is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Learn more about the SEC and how it protects investors.
It’s official: Our planet is hotter than humans have ever seen it before. In August 2019, The New York Times reported the previous July was the hottest month on record, and the hottest five years in history had all occurred since 2014. And this growing heat is bringing a host of other extreme weather along with
The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, increasingly affects Americans of all ages, incomes, and location. Yet few citizens understand how it’s calculated, how it’s used, or its strengths and shortcomings. The CPI is one of the most important figures calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It reflects the rate of inflation that has
Immigration has long been a controversial subject for Americans, despite the country’s reputation as the world’s melting pot. In times of economic uncertainty, emotions run especially high, and partisans on both sides of the political divide use immigration controversy for their own gain. Knowing what’s fact and what’s fiction is particularly tricky in the unregulated, anonymous world
The news is full of stories about how tough times are for the middle class. Story after story talks about how jobs are disappearing, prices are rising, and many essentials, such as healthcare and education, are growing steadily more expensive and harder to afford. Politicians fall over each other to offer solutions, promising everything from
Sometimes it appears that everything just keeps getting more and more expensive. That’s certainly the impression you’d get from reading the news – every time you open the paper, it seems, there’s another story about how to cope with the rising costs of food, education, or healthcare. But if you dig deeper, you can actually
Recently, the term Libor – short for London Interbank Offered Rate – has been brought to the foreground of world news, with a scandal unfolding through an admission of fraudulent banking practices by one of the United Kingdom’s most popular banking institutions. On June 27, 2012, Barclays Bank was fined $200 million by the Commodity
Standard and Poor’s (commonly known as S&P) is one of the most prominent financial intelligence companies in the world. S&P is a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies and has more than 150 years of experience providing financial services to investors worldwide. Though the firm provides a number of financial research services, they are most widely known for
Millions of securities transactions of all types and sizes take place every day in the United States. You may invest in mutual funds through your 401k at work, or engage in derivatives trading through your online brokerage account. Fortunately, a plethora of information is available to you regarding your transactions and investments. The financial firms with whom you