We’ve been hearing a lot about a double-dip recession lately, and for good reason. So is anyone doing anything to prepare? Here's how to start.
Qwikster Split: The Real Reason Netflix Broke in Two
It’s not hard to understand why Netflix decided to change its subscription plans over the summer, breaking apart the popular DVD-and-streaming combo into two services paid for separately by members. Streaming content via the web …
Will Post Office Cuts Cost You Credit Card Late Fees?
The cash-strapped United States Postal Service has proposed a number of cost-cutting moves in the face of a $9 billion deficit. Two big ideas suggested by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe are eliminating Saturday mail delivery and closing 252 mail processing facilities, which would lead to first-class mail taking longer to reach its …
Why Many Banks Don’t Want Your Money
It’s been well-documented that consumer spending is down. Some consumers are spending less, quite simply, because they’re among the many members of the middle-class who suddenly find themselves with less money to spend. Others …
Daily Deal Disappearing Act: One-Third of Deal Sites Sold or Closed This Year
As the daily deal craze took off over the past two years, hundreds of upstart flash deal sites jumped into the marketplace to try to get a piece of the action dominated by Groupon and LivingSocial. Almost from the start, though, …
Online Eyeglass Company Offers Much-Needed Alternative
Consumers spend a lot of time worrying — or at least complaining — about those prices that seem to keep climbing ever-higher: gasoline, health insurance, college tuition. So it’s a pleasure to stumble, every once in a …
Netflix Admits It ‘Messed Up,’ Will Split DVD and Streaming Into Two Businesses
Over the summer, Netflix angered customers by splitting its popular DVD-by-mail and unlimited-streaming package into two separate services—and by charging what amounts to a 60% price hike for customers who wanted to keep the …
The Easiest Way to Grow Your Investment A Hundred-Fold? Home Maintenance
Just as daily exercise and a sensible diet keep your body healthy and help you avoid costly medical bills, regular home maintenance keeps normal wear-and-tear from developing into emergency repairs.
Don’t Let the Stock Market Rally Fool You: The Euro Hasn’t Been Fixed
Last week’s attempt to prop up the European common currency probably won’t work for long – and when it goes, U.S. stocks will feel the pain.
The Worse the Economy, the Better Business Is at Auto Repair Shops
The “new normal” among consumers is to make due with automobiles long after they’ve lost that new car smell. Plenty of drivers plan on sticking with their aging cars well past the six-figure mileage marker, until they can’t be …
State Budget Cutbacks: A Job Market Drag?
One of the reasons you hear regularly thrown out to explain why unemployment has remained persistently high this recession and whatever you would call the period we are going through now (recovery, not quite) is state budgets. Government is typically the most reliable employer during a recession. But strapped states are having to …
Why Financial Reform Hasn’t Stopped Rogue Traders
After the financial crisis, regulators and politicians said they were going to rewrite the rules to ensure that big banks don’t end up with huge losses that put a country’s and indeed the world’s financial system at risk. Allowing the big banks to make big bets was out. And yet, here we go again. On Friday, U.K. authorities charged …
