In true Pavlovian form, humans are accustomed to getting excited at the sweet sound of an ATM dispensing cash. But is that sound artificially generated? If so, why?
Economics & Policy
Lawmakers Take Aim at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
If you can’t beat ’em, starve ’em. It’s become a go-to tactic of the GOP-dominated House of Representatives, and it’s not just for Planned Parenthood anymore. Today, the House Appropriations Committee is expected to advance bank-friendly legislation created and approved by its financial services subcommittee that effectively hamstrings …
Profitable Nonviolence
How the surprising effects of violent movies can help us to make smarter money decisions.
Bernanke and the Fed: Reading Between the Lines
Today we were treated to the second installment of the Federal Reserve’s new policy of openness with Chairman Ben Bernanke’s press conference. That followed on the heels of the statement by the Fed Open Market Committee about …
Federal Agency Sues Banks For Credit Union Failures
One of the most frustrating things about the 2008 financial crisis was the sense that the people who got us into this mess weren’t going to face any kind of repercussions. For ordinary Americans watching their nest eggs tank while reading about bailouts and golden parachutes, there was a widespread feeling that somebody needed to be held …
Guest Column: Staying Quiet About China is a Dangerous Approach
Zachary Karabell’s June 9 article, “How Can Americans Get China to Do What They Want? For Starters, Shut Up,” promotes a dangerous approach that allows China to freely continue its mercantilist economic policies without …
Economic Doom, By the Numbers
Unemployment, misery, workplace dissatisfaction, the disappearing American Dream, forecasts of another Great Depression … Yikes!
Banks Are Hurting? It’s All Relative
The latest out of Wall Street-land is a warning by analysts at Citibank that profits at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (and to a lesser degree at other banks as well) will show a sharp contraction for the second quarter of …
Tips on Controlling Your Impulse Buys
A lot of people believe they're immune to advertising and marketing. A lot of people are wrong.
How Miserable Are You?
The Misery Index has just reached a 28-year high. But some Americans are a lot more miserable than others.
Hard or Soft Landing for China? How About No Landing
The past few weeks in financial-land have been dominated by two combustible fears: 1.) that this time Greece really will default on its debts and plunge the Eurozone into chaos; and 2.) that this time China really will hit the …
10 Companies That Radically Transformed Their Businesses
IBM turned 100 today, the rare company to thrive a century after it was founded. But in the 1980s and 1990s, many people had written the company off. So IBM pivoted. The company that was synonymous with computer hardware mostly …