It’s hard to underestimate how radically the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the societal, cultural, and economic norms of the planet. Almost 42 million Americans have been forcibly unemployed in just weeks. Almost overnight, almost every country in the world began encouraging its citizens to wear face masks. What many people may not appreciate is how […]
Many Americans lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the newly unemployed don’t seem too concerned about it. A whopping 78% of them, about 4 in 5, believe their job will be there for them when the economy is allowed to reopen. Yet growing research indicates that these people are wrong. “The current […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only created health challenges but also serious economic disruption and job losses. The lack of adequate actionable scientific information and the element of surprise has people, companies and the government reeling. Once normal existence has become intensely difficult for people in all walks of life. In the wake of the […]
Congress recently passed the SECURE Act, which made substantial changes to many of the existing regulations governing qualified retirement savings plans. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has offered several proposals to change the manner in which current worker retirement plans, including Social Security, are structured. Specifically, the Biden plan would implement changes to the […]
The Razzies are the tongue-in-cheek counterpart to the Academy Awards. As the Oscars rewards creative achievements in filmmaking, the Razzies honors underachieving and badly acted films. It turns out that 2020 might be a big year for the next Razzie nominations. That’s because even renowned Hollywood superstars like Robert Downey Jr., Harrison Ford, and Blake […]
Universal basic income (UBI) is the idea of a government granting a no-strings-attached monthly payment, perhaps $1,000, to people to help with everyday expenses. Pope Francis recently called for some type of UBI. Former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang made UBI the policy focus of his failed campaign. Even billionaires like it. Tesla founder Elon […]
The holiday season, while wonderful, is also a time of acute stress. One of the principal causes of this stress is the fear of going into financial debt over holiday spending. Nobody wants to be the person who spread themselves so thin that they can’t pay the bills come January. With that in mind, here […]
John Rainey, the chief financial officer of payment processor PayPal, recently gave an interview where he heralded the death of cash. “We’ve been talking about this phenomenon or trend for years now, and it’s here,” he said. “We experience it today.” Rainey lists two considerations that back up his argument. The first is that many payments […]
Wayne Johnson is resigning from his position as the chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid. Reporting suggests Johnson plans to campaign for one of Georgia’s two senate seats. Before he got out the door, though, Johnson had a few choice parting words regarding the student loan crisis. He called the student […]
Amid trade tensions with China and some signs that business activity may be slowing, consumer spending is the driving force that has propped up the economy for the past year. Low gas prices have played a substantial role in maintaining hardy U.S. consumer spending — and that has kept the whole world from tipping into […]
