Retailers and restaurants love gift cards—so much so that they load them with bonus cash in order to sell more cards. This makes total sense once you realize how often gift cards aren’t used at all, and how all those cards add …
6 Fun Facts About Downton Abbey’s Highclere Castle
If you like really big houses, then watching the popular British soap opera Downton Abbey — and drinking in its setting, Highclere Castle — is sheer delight. For American viewers of the show’s second season, which debuted in …
After Bleak Year on Wall Street, Bonuses on the Chopping Block
As Wall Street’s biggest banks prepare to report fourth quarter earnings for 2011, many analysts expect the results to cap off a horrible year — at least by their formerly high-flying pre-recession standards. As a result, …
Money Milestones: What Kids Should Know About Money and When
President Obama and his top financial advisers in November were handed a blueprint for what kids at certain ages should be expected to know about money. The document is still a work in progress. But it’s far enough along to …
For-Profit Schools: ‘Agile Predators’ or Just Business Savvy?
Adding weight to the mounting pile of evidence against for-profit institutions, a new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds a grim future for students who attend for-profit schools.
4 Tricks to Ditch That Holiday Debt
Are you stashing the credit card bills under the junk mail because you’re afraid to see how much you spent over the holidays? Surveys from USA Today and Consumer Reports reveal that we were on track to charge roughly 7% more on …
Why Monday Is E-Retailers’ Favorite Day of the Week
For most employees, Monday means time to get back to the workaday grind. And it looks like retail therapy is often the prescription consumers use to cope with a “case of the Mondays.” The first day of the workweek is also almost …
The Wait Time for Movies from Redbox and Netflix Just Doubled
It’s fairly standard practice today for movies to become available for sale on one day, and only become available for rent after several more weeks have passed. For four or so weeks, the only way fans can see the movie is to buy …
A Long To-Do List Awaits the CFPB and Its New Director
Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a director (albeit one whose appointment could be challenged in court), it has quite the to-do list. At the top, according to newly installed bureau head Richard Cordray, is …
200,000 New Jobs Is a Good Start, But Good Times May Still Be a Decade Away
Companies are hiring again. That’s the good news. The bad news is those hires might not be coming fast enough.
Employment Reality Check: 200,000 New Jobs Is a Good Start, but Good Times May Still Be a Decade Away
Companies are hiring again. That’s the good news. The bad news is those hires might not be coming fast enough.
In December, corporate America added 200,000 employees to their payrolls. That hit the magic number economists have …