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]
If you live on the east coast, you probably (hopefully) were tempted to telecommute today, and you might have to work from home on Monday, too. Staying off the roads when weather is bad is one of the great luxuries that the digital age has brought. It’s also the [Keep reading]
I remember reading research many years ago explaining that it’s easier for agencies to raise tolls once drivers convert to EZ-Pass or another electronic tolling method. Why? Because people don’t notice the increases. Blissfully driving through toll booths without stopping, drivers feel no financial pain as they do. But also, [Keep reading]
Great hipster places to live. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Rio De Janeiro. Toronto. And … Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh? Get used to seeing the Steel City on a lot of best-places-to-live lists. Pittsburgh neighborhood Lawrenceville, until recently dulled by empty industrial buildings, made that surprise entry into a Business Insider list of the best [Keep reading]
Using plastic that automatically deducts payments from a checking account has apparently fallen out of favor with the kids. Debit card usage is at a seven-year low among young adults, according to a new report published by Mercator Advisory Group. Debit card usage is flat for most of the general [Keep reading]
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Verizon managed to ground an airline on Thursday. But it’s important to ask: Who’s really to blame? Discount airliner JetBlue appears to have cut some serious corners with its disaster recovery planning. The airline suffered nationwide delays on Thursday when many of its computer systems went down, preventing fliers from [Keep reading]
ARCHIVE, March 18, 2011 — Engineers used to talk about guarding against the “single point of failure” when designing critical systems like aircraft control systems or nuclear power plants. But rarely does one mistake or event cause a catastrophe. As we’ve seen in Japan, disaster is usually as function of [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan