Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, and for many teens and young adults, it also means the conclusion of the worst summer for finding seasonal employment in decades. Our affiliate, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), has released an analysis of new Census Bureau data showing unemployment among people ages 16 to 19 at or [...]
The New York Times yesterday published a review of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of health-insurance premiums across the nation on its Prescriptions blog, which covers health-care issues. However, there is an economic fallacy lurking in its analysis worth pointing out. The blog says: If you live in Massachusetts or Vermont, the average monthly premium [...]
Last weekend, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray granted an audience to high-school and college students in the Nation’s Capital to discuss the high teen-unemployment rate. At the beginning of the summer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that teen unemployment had skyrocketed, with half the states showing unemployment rates above 25 percent. Even more depressing, the jobless rate [...]
The New York Times had an article Thursday about the Obama administration’s proposal to cap health-insurance rate increases at 10 percent to begin in September. On its face, this may sound like a great plan: Who wouldn’t want to put a cap on prices to keep consumers from paying more? But the trouble with capping [...]
We’ve written before about unintended consequences and banking restrictions or consumer credit. But there are plenty of other places where they show up. What if the new health-care law — meant by lawmakers to reduce medical costs for Americans — actually increased them for the average family’s household budget? An article in the Wall Street Journal [...]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k[/youtube] You may have heard the words “quantitative easing” or “QE II” thrown around on the news (and even here at Econ4U). But if you don’t fully understand the economic ramifications of this concept — involving the Federal Reserve’s plans to print an additional $600 billion to buy government bonds back from banks and other [...]
Welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, Econ4U’s weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps. Gossip Girl and Animal House notwithstanding, college students are usually a lot smarter than their parents give them credit for. But with personal finance education so woefully lacking at the high-school and [...]
A new set of Federal Reserve rules went into effect yesterday that now require banks to get your permission before you’re enrolled in overdraft protection. Before, your bank could enroll you without notice in an overdraft plan that would process the transaction but hit you with a fee for every ATM, check, and debit card [...]
The Wall Street Journal took a fascinating look this week at how new banking regulations that were designed to protect consumers may instead lead to more fees: Bank of America Corp. and other banks are preparing new fees on basic banking services as they try to replace revenue lost to regulatory rules, in a push that [...]
Housing lottery winners have been announced in the past week from New Orleans to New York, meaning a small number of lucky people are snagging sweet apartments at below-market rates. What’s a housing lottery? In major cities that have large income disparities and limited desirable neighborhoods, the government has set aside a small number of affordable [...]
