When a teen-aged girl we know only as A.L. confided in Christopher Dekruif that her grandfather had molested her, he probably felt he had hit the jackpot. Abuse victims make easy targets. He had already persuaded A.L. to send him naked photos. Now, he had the leverage to force a [Keep reading]
Confidence has a lot to do with the economy, as does trust. After all, you wouldn’t buy a home if you didn’t believe you’d have a decent income for the next 30 or so years. And there’s short-term effects, too: You are probably planning your summer vacation right now. How confident [Keep reading]
If we sat watching the squiggly, scrambled TV signal long enough, occasionally images would snap into place. It seemed crazy, but it wasn’t. Without watching the scrambled signal, I would have no idea what Mike Bossy looked like in his white sweater. The tiny glimpses helped fill in the pictures [Keep reading]
Those who work in the housing sales industry are putting a lot of effort into creating positive vibes around home buying right now. For example: last week’s murky “boomerang buyers” claim from from the National Association of Realtors that roughly 1 million Americans who lost their homes during the recession [Keep reading]
Many coffee drinkers across North America are rejoicing tonight as Starbucks has been handing out free drinks, but whatever the reason, it’s probably not good news for the coffee giant or its consumers. Confirmed by a mountain of celebretory Tweets, Starbucks locations around the U.S. and in Canada suffered a crippling [Keep reading]
Roughly 7 million Americans lost their homes during the Great Recession. Now, seven years on, the first wave of those consumers might be ready to dip their toes back into the housing market, as their credit reports are finally clean of that negative entry. The group has been dubbed “boomerang [Keep reading]
A tracking firm that quietly captured information about 9 million consumers wandering in, out, and nearby retail stores, largely without consumers’ knowledge, was slapped on the wrist by the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday. The commission vote on the order was 3-2, meaning the slap was given reluctantly, with two of five commissioners [Keep reading]
It’s already hard enough to find an affordable home or apartment to rent (especially if you live in one of these cities). Rental prices are rising fast around the country, even in unexpected places like Kansas City and Portland. But as more people turn to online help to find a [Keep reading]
There’s something about computers that brings out the worst in us. And there’s something about retaliatory violence against these boxes of frustration that makes (many of) us cheer from a place deep inside. Computer rage is a real thing; there’s a whole section on it in my book proposal about [Keep reading]
Was talking to a very smart friend recently about the latest expensive solution looking for a problem, the Apple Watch. He convinced me that there actually is a problem, it’s just not *your* problem. It’s every company’s problem. The real market for the $400-$17,000 watch is the industrial market. Human [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan