Right as summer driving season starts — beware fake unpaid toll text messages. The messages prey on drivers’ (realistic) fears of getting hit by an onerous late fee after traveling through an unfamiliar toll authority’s territory. The fraudulent text messages look like this, according to the FBI. “We’ve noticed an [Keep reading]
Imagine getting a flurry of emails and calls from angry people claiming you’ve stolen their money — by promising them a job that doesn’t exist. And you have no idea who they are, or why they are calling. Work-from-home scams aren’t new, but I’ve seen enough data points lately that [Keep reading]
Just when you think Congress isn’t going to be able to do anything constructive for the rest of this presidential election year, out comes a bipartisan proposal called The Americans Privacy Rights Act of 2024. Its name is delightfully simple; it arrives after decades of failed attempts to create federal [Keep reading]
It’s rockets and feathers. All over the economy. As economists and politicians keep wringing their hands about inflation, I sure wish they would read up on asymmetric price adjustment — a phenomenon dubbed “rockets and feathers” in this 2009 paper. Prices rise faster than they fall. Inflation always “sticks” longer [Keep reading]
Maybe you heard recently about a personal finance reporter, Charlotte Cowles, who was the victim of a scam and wrote about it for her employer, The Cut. The headline for the story was dramatic: “The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger.” In [Keep reading]
Housing costs are rising fastest in — Montana, Utah, and South Carolina? That must be some kind of joke, right? Sorry, there is no punchline. Only American families, getting punched in the gut. The economy is doing so well, why are Americans so pessimistic? I keep reading variations of this [Keep reading]
In the age where the U.S. House of Representatives can’t really do anything, it has voted to ban TikTok in its current ownership structure. Color me unimpressed, and more than a bit concerned. I’d say the fact that Congress’ lower house was able to pass the legislation should give everyone [Keep reading]
Imagine spending years driving a Humvee around a war zone at 5 mph, using only your eyes in a valiant attempt to spot homemade roadside bombs…risking your life minute by agonizing minute to save the lives of your fellow soldiers…only to come home and find you are targeted by criminals [Keep reading]
The $15 minimum wage battle cry always rang hollow to me. I know, $15 sounds like a lot to people who grew up in the 1970s or 80s (the minimum wage was $3.35 when I got my first job. Come to think of it, this would be a fun first [Keep reading]
Think about the last time you lost your smartphone … even for a few minutes, or worse, for a whole day. You were probably cut off from your digital life…let’s face it, cut off from much of life…unable to log in to your bank, maybe even your work computer, you’ve [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan