Dec 26 Holiday sales rose in U.S. during despite some financial anxiety and higher costs By Anne D'Innocenzio, Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press Mastercard SpendingPulse said Tuesday that holiday sales rose this year. The indicator, which tracks all kinds of payments including cash and debit cards, found sales from the beginning of November through Christmas Eve climbed 3.1%, a slower pace than the… Continue reading
Dec 25 Forget to spend an old gift card? Here’s what happens to that money By Dee-Ann Durbin, Associated Press In a July survey, Bankrate found that 47% of U.S. adults had at least one unused gift card worth an average of $187. That's a total of $23 billion in unspent money. Continue reading
Dec 24 Watch 5:53 The business of Christmas music and why some songs become classics By John Yang, Claire Mufson Christmas music is a big part of the music industry. John Yang speaks with Nate Sloan, an assistant professor of musicology at the USC Thornton School of Music and co-host of the podcast Switched On Pop, about what makes Christmas… Continue watching
Dec 23 Watch 7:21 As communities test basic income programs, here’s how one California city fared By John Yang, Kaisha Young, Lana Green Guaranteed basic income, the concept of no-strings-attached payments to provide people with a financial floor, is being tested in dozens of pilot programs across the country. Stockton, California was one of the first cities to launch a pilot program in… Continue watching
Dec 21 Homebuilders step up construction of single-family homes as 30-year mortgage rate eases below 7 percent By Alex Veiga, Associated Press Homebuilders are stepping up construction of single-family homes following a steady decline in mortgage rates and broad expectation among economists that home loan borrowing costs will ease further next year. Continue reading
Dec 20 Right-wing social media platform Parler plans to relaunch early 2024 By Associated Press The right-wing friendly app, which was temporarily booted offline following the Jan. 6 insurrection, has been offline since April after it was purchased by the digital media conglomerate Starboard. Continue reading
Dec 20 Study shows AI image-generators are being trained on explicit photos of children By Matt O'Brien, Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press The Stanford Internet Observatory found more than 3,200 images of suspected child sexual abuse in a database used to train leading AI image-makers. Continue reading
Dec 20 Thousands take to the streets to protest austerity measures of Argentina’s new president By Debora Rey, Almudena Calatrava, Associated Press Protests have kicked off in Argentina against the austerity and deregulation measures announced by newly elected President Javier Milei, whose government has also warned against blocking streets. Continue reading
Dec 20 U.S. animal shelters are overcrowded with pets from families facing economic woes By Michael Hill, Associated Press Operators believe the influx of more animals is due largely to higher pet care costs and housing issues. And they're in crisis mode as they try to reduce the kennel crush. Continue reading
Dec 15 Congressional Budget Office projects lower inflation and higher unemployment into 2025 By Fatima Hussein, Associated Press The office's Current View of the Economy from 2023 to 2025 report, released Friday, estimates that the unemployment rate will hit 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024 and remain close to that level through 2025. Continue reading