Being unemployed is rough enough, but it makes the annual ordeal of paying taxes even more challenging. The biggest problem is that many people who were unemployed in the previous year simply neglect their taxes. “Many taxpayers …
Why Do Consumers Avoid One Car and Buy Another? Often, for No Good Reason at All
A new study shows that when many drivers are shopping for cars, they don’t winnow their searches by researching vehicle quality and reliability reports. Instead, they often make their decisions based on preconceived notions and …
My Top Five Takeaways from Davos
One of the challenges of covering the World Economic Forum at Davos as a journalist is making sense of the whole thing. The forum is days and days of wandering conversations and endless debates on just about every subject you can …
Income Taxes On Frequent Flyer Miles?!
We’ve written before about how taxes and fees can turn a “free” flight into one that costs several hundred dollars, but there’s another way your frequent flier miles could cost you: You might have to pay federal income taxes on them.
Why the Eurozone Can’t Just Muddle Through
There’s a growing optimism that the common European currency can be saved, but the numbers argue that this is unrealistic.
Eight Reasons Last Week Rocked for American Companies
How Your Food Spending Compares With the Rest of the U.S.
What do you spend on groceries every week? How often do you go out to eat? What about booze? All that money on sustenance is probably adding up to more than you think.
The Neverending Bailout: The U.S. Is Still Owed $133 Billion from Crisis Fund
If you thought the bank bailout that started in late 2008 was long gone, you would be far from wrong. The special investigator for TARP, the government fund that was created in the wake of the financial crisis, released a report …
Why Aren’t Patriots Fans Paying Up to Go to the Super Bowl?
It’s the game that everyone wanted. (Well, everyone not rooting for the Ravens or 49ers, that is.) The New England Patriots will play the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, a “Super Rematch” of the epic Tom Brady vs. Eli Manning …
My Brief (but Valuable) Visit with the 1% at Davos
As my train pulled into the station at a snow-covered Davos a few days ago, I was prepared to be cynical. I’d had dinner the night before with an old friend, a former chairman of a major American company, who was usually a …
Open All Night: 10 Surprising Businesses You Can Patronize at 3 a.m.
At Davos, Why Is No One Talking About the Poor?
I first learned about the World Economic Forum at Davos as a greenhorn in college. At the time, I was knee-deep in coursework on economic development, a field that extols the social and economic virtues of tending to the world’s …