Short term retail loans known as buy now, pay later loans have exploded in popularity over the past five years, offering consumers a quick and easy way to stretch out payment on a multitude of purchases. Until now, these loans were not reported to the credit bureaus and therefore did not generally figure into a consumer's credit score (unless the buyer missed a payment -- then whammo).
We first wrote in this column about the impending crisis in the Social Security trust fund in 2012.
Americans fell victim to $12.5 billion in fraud losses last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a major tax and spending bill primarily intended to extend the income tax cuts originally embodied in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Completing a degree is supposed to be a ticket to higher income and greater job stability.
There has long been broad bipartisan agreement that the penny has outlived its usefulness. Yet multiple efforts by both Democrats and Republicans have died in committee, basically for lack of interest since the stakes are so low.
Rocketeers are natural risk-takers who expect some of their launches to blow up on the pad.
The U.S. national debt held by the public is closing in on $29 trillion.
For most individual investors in 1975, access to the markets came typically through mutual funds, pooled accounts holding stocks and bonds in which investors own a share proportionate to their investment.
Extended warranties in the U.S. comprise a $40 billion industry issuing 250 million policies per year according to the Service Contract Industry Council (yes, Virginia, there is a trade association).
