Happy birthday! I’m one year old. Well, this site is one year old. After almost 20 years working in the NBC/MSNBC universe, I struck out on my own last year, with great trepidation. The Red Tape Chronicles became BobSullivan.net. Honestly, I was worried that nobody (outside my mom) would follow [Keep reading]
A new, brazen fraud begins with a twist: Instead of losing money, consumers get money, which is unexpectedly deposited into their checking account. But the surprise windfall turns into a big headache, and even bigger bills, the CFPB says in a lawsuit disclosed Wednesday. The cash comes from a payday lender owned [Keep reading]
The Samaritan Center in Jefferson City, Missouri cares for the poor by providing groceries, free medical and dental care, Christmas gifts and Halloween costumes for kids….and lawyers to fight off debt collectors. It might seem strange that what started as a food bank for that state’s capital city has turned into a [Keep reading]
Home Depot announced Thursday afternoon that hackers who stole data from the chain managed to steal 56 million credit and debit card account numbers before they were discovered. The criminals used never-before-seen, custom-made malware, the firm said in a statement. It’s now completed cleaning the malicious software from its systems, [Keep reading]
It’s the definition of Restless: Working well into the night, past midnight. Americans have strange work habits. Roughly 1 in 4 puts in at least a few hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on a regular basis, according to a paper titled “Long Workweeks and Strange Hours,” published this [Keep reading]
The U.S. isn’t the U.K. North Dakota is definitely not Scotland, though the oil fields of both create a certain parallel. Still, as world attention turns to its former ruling empire on Thursday, every American should perk up their ears and their imaginations. Could that be us? If the stories [Keep reading]
“What is making me ‘restless’ is that I ‘should’ be able to live on my own. I hate the idea of the very real possibility that I may be 30 and still living with a roommate because I cannot afford to rent by myself.” In The Restless Project, I am [Keep reading]
Here’s another reason you might feel a slight unease, or restlessness – the topic I am exploring in depth right now. People who live in the U.S. enjoy a standard of well-being that is below that of countries like Panama, Canada, Denmark, and Brazil, according to a new survey published [Keep reading]
(A version of this story first appeared on CNBC.com, where I am a contributor. See a collection of mys stories on CNBC) If you plan on splurging for a pricey handbag, watch, or pair of shoes this fall, prepare to be insulted. Marketing professor Morgan Ward is pretty sure about [Keep reading]
WASHINGTON D.C. — What if we treated data with the same scrutiny as people? When a consumer applies for a loan or a job, firms uses massive databases and can consider thousands of data points when they assess the integrity of that person. But what if consumers could, in equal [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan