Voracious spending and historically high inflation have helped drive credit card debt to a record high of almost $1 trillion — and credit card issuers are offering all sorts of incentives to lure new customers.
Why it matters: Travel points, cash back and other perks can be a siren songfor many Americans who are spending their way through rising prices, even amidst ambient concerns about an eventual recession.
Markets tremble at the Federal Reserve's every twitch. And yet, it doesn't seem to be able to have much effect on the actual economy.
Why it matters: The Fed's main policy tool — more important even than its ability to set interest rates or print money — is the trust that Americans have in its power. Increasingly, however, it seems to have power only over the relatively narrow realm of the financial and housing markets.
A former White House official was killed after an airplane fought to withstand severe turbulence over New England on Friday, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The big picture: The rare passenger death follows several other incidents in which turbulence caused injuries aboard flights in recent months.
A common refrain to venture capitalists contemplating raising new funds over the last year has been the so-called "denominator effect," which impacts limited partners' portfolio compositions.
Yes, but: Some VCs just aren't buying it. "The denominator effect is largely a mythical beast that was manufactured largely to kindly say, 'no, I don't want to invest in you,'" John Ruffolo, managing partner at Maverix Private Equity, said during a panel on Wednesday at this year's Upfront Summit.
The four-year undergraduate liberal-arts degreeis one of the last great bastions of inefficiency — even of dilettantism — left in America. For better or for worse, it is beginning to die, withering under the heel of the inescapable imperatives of capitalism.
Why it matters: The genteel ivory tower is unlikely to live much longer. Familiar capitalistic forces are shuttering some schools and reconfiguring many more, as students increasingly question the value of spending 4 years studying Philosophy and Art History.
Republicans in Congress haveteed up the first veto of the Biden presidency. Curiously, the vetoed bill has nothing to do with children's books, unisex bathrooms, or even fiscal policy. Instead, it focuses on stock-market asset allocation.
Why it matters: The environmentally conscious global consensus of institutional investors is highly unlikely to be derailed by U.S. political point-scoring. But no good can come from the way in which investment officers increasingly need to navigate a political gantlet.
The implosionof SilvergateBank has a lot to do with the fact that it was crypto's bank of choice. But it's also a prime example of the hidden insolvency that exists across much of the banking sector.
Why it matters: Silvergate had an unusually strong balance sheet — but that wasn't enough to save it because in today's high-rate environment, even strong balance sheets can tip into insolvency when they start to shrink.
