Jul 02 The new new thing: Negative interest rates -- but will they work? By Benn Steil, Dinah Walker Last month, the European Central Bank became the first central bank to charge banks for depositing their extra reserves with them. The idea is to encourage banks to lend privately instead. But as the Council on Foreign Relations' Benn Steil… Continue reading
Jun 30 How your lifetime Social Security benefits could be higher By Laurence Kotlikoff Social Security expert Larry Kotlikoff shows two couples who are facing disabilities how to increase their lifetime benefits. First of all, they have to scrap their current collection strategies and realize that what they want to do and what they… Continue reading
Jun 30 Interest rates on new student loans will increase Tuesday By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press The change stems from a high-profile, bipartisan deal brokered last year by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama that ties the rates to the financial markets. Interest rates go from 3.86 to 4.66 percent on undergraduate Stafford loans. Graduate… Continue reading
Jun 27 Louis XIV's accounting shenanigans and the threat they pose today By Jacob Soll Leaders have known how to do good accounting for nearly a millennium, but many financial institutions and regimes have just chosen not to do it. Historian Jacob Soll traces the origins of capitalism and representative government to basic accounting, and… Continue reading
Jun 26 Ikea to boost average minimum wage in U.S. By Talia Mindich Swedish furniture retailer Ikea will boost average minimum wage for its U.S. retail employees by 17 percent to $10.76 per hour, the company announced Thursday. Continue reading
Jun 26 Why brokerage account insurance is a bigger scam than Madoff By Laurence Kotlikoff Responding to the president and CEO of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, Larry Kotiloff stands by his call for readers to close their brokerage accounts because the SIPC, he argues, doesn't exist to protect them; it exists to penalize them. Continue reading
Jun 26 Your brokerage account is safe with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation By Stephen Harbeck Do you really need to close your brokerage account, as Larry Kotlikoff warns? Stephen Harbeck, president and CEO of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, argues that the SIPC has recovered lost investments for victims of investor fraud, such as Bernie… Continue reading
Jun 25 Watch 9:28 Former treasury secretary urges business world to heed climate change risks By PBS News Hour If you are an American investor, the risks of climate change should matter to you. That's the message from the Risky Business Project, led by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, billionaire financier Tom Steyer and former Treasury Secretary Henry… Continue watching
Jun 25 U.S. economy shrinks to a 5-year low By Sarah Corapi Since the recession ended in 2009, the U.S. economy has experienced mainly positive growth. But new data from the Commerce Department on Wednesday reveals that in the first quarter of 2014, the economy contracted -- suffering its sharpest pullback in… Continue reading