Call them the invisible victims of the housing collapse: The millions of homeowners who’ve spent nearly a decade dutifully making mortgage payments on homes worth less than the balance of their loans. Known as “being under water,” many in this crowd were never in danger of losing their home. But [Keep reading]
Middle-class struggles — the kind I am covering in my Restless Project — are now front and center in this year’s presidential election . And whatever you think about his ideas, Bernie Sanders deserves credit for sharpening the spotlight on those struggles. Whether his ideas — which are unquestionably radical [Keep reading]
U.S. consumers have finally been liberated from archaic technology that used to protect them and their credit cards from identity theft. Millions of Americans now have chip-enabled credit cards. And now the results of this sweeping change are in. Just as many consumers were hit by ID theft last year [Keep reading]
When you think Ohio, you probably think Cleveland, and you might think Cincinnati. Almost certainly, you don’t think Columbus, but here’s a secret: Ohio’s capital city is larger than its more famous neighbors to the north and south. In fact, it’s the largest U.S. city to make Credit.com’s top 10 [Keep reading]
What do the presidential candidates think of domestic intelligence collection — or spying on Americans, depending on your point of view? What do they think of Ed Snowden? We haven’t heard a lot about the NSA or Snowden during the noisy campaigns so far, and that’s a shame. That’s because all [Keep reading]
Breaking news: Big event ticket sales are a broken marketplace that hurts both consumers and entertainers. Just kidding, everybody knows that. It’s remarkable that both the industry and regulators remain seemingly helpless to fix the problem. With Bruce Springsteen songs still hanging in the air above Madison Square Garden, New York [Keep reading]
Tonight is the last Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses — the last time voters can hear from candidates before votes that actually count are … counted. And what are we talking about? Donald Trump vs. Fox News. That’s sad, because if you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot wrong with [Keep reading]
Half of Americans pay for help doing their taxes, but most wish tax preparers had better credentials, a new survey has found. Only four states currently have rules surrounding who can charge a fee to do someone else’s taxes — about 1.2 million tax preparers do so annually, according to [Keep reading]
Is buying a first home becoming more a privilege than an American birthright? That’s the provocative question posed recently by Issi Romem, chief economist of BuildZoom.com. And he answers it, cautiously, with data suggesting it’s true. Romem’s most concerning assertion: Young buyers have nearly 10% higher incomes than they did [Keep reading]
Where should I live? Where should I raise a family? Where can I get a decent job and afford a decent home near decent schools for my kids? There are the questions that keep many 20- and 30-somethings up late at night. Well, they keep most of us up at [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan