Summary List Placement A uniform corporate tax that spans different countries is coming closer to reality, according to a new report from the Financial Times. Per the report, the Group of 7 countries could reach their own agreement by as soon as Friday. While the G7 does not have formal power over the final agreement, […]
Stavvy, a Boston-based fintech, announced Monday that it landed a $40 million Series A funding round led by Morningside Technology Ventures. The company says the round is the largest Series A for a New England fintech and it plans to use the capital to double or even triple its staff by the first quarter of […]
Summary List Placement China is cracking down on cryptocurrencies because it’s worried crypto could threaten national security and economic and financial stability, top economist Mohamed El-Erian said in a Sunday Bloomberg op-ed. Several countries, including China and the UK, are considering issuing central bank digital currencies, showing that they’re leaning towards the adoption of centralized […]
Summary List Placement The pandemic caused a surge in home-improvement projects at the worst possible time and many companies are still struggling to keep up with backlogs of projects. Over 44% of home improvement plans in the US have been delayed due to supply shortages and skyrocketing material costs, according to data from market research […]
Summary List Placement On April 29, new data showed that a key measure of inflation monitored by the Fed — core PCE (personal consumption expenditures) — rose to 3.5% from 1.7% in the first quarter, marking its second-fastest pace of growth since 2011. Then, on May 12, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new Consumer […]
Summary List Placement If I asked you to name the job title of a worker who would be required to sign a noncompete agreement, you’d probably think of high-paying jobs — designers of new Apple products, for instance, or CEOs with access to corporate secrets. Noncompetes were designed for just that purpose: to protect a […]
Summary List Placement For almost a year, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been calling on the IRS to make it easier for domestic violence survivors to collect stimulus checks and tax returns. Experts say almost all domestic violence survivors experience some form of financial or economic abuse, and lawmakers and IRS representatives continue to hold […]
Summary List Placement COVID-19 and a year of staying at home may have saved some brick-and-mortar stores from the retail apocalypse, or at least slowed its advances. Some of the country’s biggest retailers, including Walmart, Macy’s, Target, and Home Depot, said sales are strong and shoppers are returning to stores as pandemic restrictions ease and […]
As the mortgage market swings back to purchase, lenders are looking at ways to welcome new customers, clients and colleagues as they expand their reach. That’s why we’ve invited Movement Mortgage‘s vice president of marketing Jake Fehling to speak about marketing to reach a diverse audience at engage.marketing on June 17. Prior to his career in the financial services […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden has offered to cut down the cost of his infrastructure plan — the so-called American Jobs Plan. — from $2.25 trillion to $1.7 trillion, presenting a counteroffer to Republicans on Friday. The offer did not address the $1.7 trillion American Families Plan, which is largely focused on care-economy measures, […]
Summary List Placement When he was campaigning for president, President Joe Biden said he would support $10,000 in student debt cancelation per person. It looks like he’s not planning on following through on that promise anytime soon. The Washington Post reported on Friday that in Biden’s upcoming budget proposal, many of the health care promises […]
Summary List Placement There’s a major housing shortage in the US, with housing starts falling 9.5% in April as demand for new homes continue to surge. It’s so bad that nearly half the houses on the market are being snatched up in less than a week. Treh Manhertz of Zillow’s research team reported on Friday that […]
Summary List Placement Staffers who work for members of the House of Representatives are known for having low pay and high turnover rates, given that their jobs are reliant on their bosses being reelected. Three Democrats want to give those staffers more financial security, including through access to full student-loan forgiveness. On Thursday, House Majority […]
Summary List Placement The housing market unexpectedly slowed — again — in April as a lack of adequate inventory and soaring prices hindered buying activity. Sales of existing homes in the US dropped 2.7% last month to an annualized pace of 5.85 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. The median estimate from […]
Summary List Placement A primary focus of President Joe Biden’s agenda is addressing the climate crisis, and on Thursday, he signed an executive order aimed at mitigating the financial risks the crisis brings onto American families and businesses. The White House released Biden’s executive order on climate-related financial risk, dedicated to analyzing and mitigating the […]
Summary List Placement The Department of Labor likely won’t be able to step in and pay out unemployment benefits to the millions who will get cut off early. An administration official told Insider on Thursday that the department has been trying to figure out any possibility for what they can do — if at all […]
Summary List Placement What is a labor shortage, after all? Maybe it’s just a shortage of labor at a low wage. As the American economy reopened, numerous businesses that found it difficult to hire are raising their minimum wages to attract talent. For the better part of five decades, that was not the norm. While […]
Summary List Placement The successful development of COVID-19 vaccines has created at least nine new billionaires since the start of the pandemic, according to a new report by the People’s Vaccine Alliance. These include a range of scientists and executives at vaccine makers including Moderna, CanSino Biologics, and BioNTech, the report said. It said soaring […]
Keeping up with the rapidly evolving algorithms and best practices of social channels is no easy feat for marketers. That’s why we’ve invited Chelsea Peitz, national director of social sales for Fidelity National Financial, to explain how she is leveraging Instagram and social platforms at engage.marketing on June 17. With thousands of followers on Instagram, Peitz […]
Summary List Placement As US employers struggle to find workers, some corporate leaders and politicians have blamed the federal expansion of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for a “labor shortage” and over 20 Republican governors have moved for its early cancelation. But new research suggests that enhanced UI may not be the reason jobs are going […]
Summary List Placement The Treasury Department has proposed at least a 15% global minimum tax rate for corporations in recent negotiations, The New York Times reports. Treasury officials told the Times that their proposal was met “enthusiastically;” it’s a lower rate than anticipated, but they told the paper that it marks a “pivotal moment” in […]
April’s 7.08% decline in mortgage delinquencies wasn’t even half of the drop March posted, but it did manage to push the national delinquency rate to below 5% for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, Black Knight revealed in a new report. Overall, the number of past-due mortgages fell to 4.66% in April […]
Summary List Placement Prospective buyers waiting for the housing market to cool down shouldn’t hold their breath. Home-price inflation will slow from last year’s peak of 11.4% but remain elevated as the market boom charges forward, according to economists surveyed by the Urban Land Institute in May. The estimates for average price growth in 2021 […]
Summary List Placement To ensure that taxes are not going uncollected, the Treasury Department announced on Thursday new measures to strengthen Internal Revenue Service enforcement. It estimated that its new plans will generate $700 billion over the next decade and help close the tax gap between what taxpayers owe and what they actually pay. Treasury […]
Summary List Placement The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance on Thursday: Vaccinated people can go without face masks in nearly every situation, marking a huge step in returning to pre-pandemic ways. But some states have more vaccinated residents than others, and they’re not quite ready to lift mask mandates until vaccination […]
Summary List Placement The chaos of COVID-19 has upended the global economy and although the road back to normality is opening up, it’s much like a middle-aged patient that has survived a heart attack – that road to recovery is going to be a long one. That’s the take of markets veteran Kit Juckes, who […]
After hovering below 3% for a month, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate popped back up six basis points to exactly 3% last week, according to Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. Mortgage rates climbed north of 3% over the first few months of 2021, but crested at 3.2% in March before descending again. Despite such a favorable rate […]
Summary List Placement The problem is that the US just doesn’t have enough homes. The solution might be too expensive for homebuilders’ liking. Home prices are growing at their fastest rate on record, and economists are attributing the tightness to simple economics: Where the rally that famously went bust in 2008 was fueled by risky […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance fell again last week as reopening spurred more hiring. New jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 444,000 last week, the Labor Department announced Thursday morning. The median estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a modest jump to 450,000 claims. The reading marked a […]
Summary List Placement It was the winter of 2010 and Mark Zuckerberg was in a hurry. A few months earlier, 40 of America’s richest families had signed the Giving Pledge, a public promise initiated by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to give at least half of their wealth to charitable causes. Death was […]
Summary List Placement Students of color bear a significant burden of the country’s $1.7 trillion student debt crisis, and today, a major technology company announced an investment to help lift the burden off of those students. The Student Freedom Initiative — a nonprofit dedicated to helping students at minority serving institutions (MSIs) — announced a […]
Summary List Placement Gun and ammunition sales are surging as the country begins to reopen from the pandemic. In 2020, the FBI processed a record 39.7 million firearm background checks — the most of any year since the agency started recording the data. This year, data indicates there could be another record set, with firearm […]
A full month of sub-3% mortgage rates, ongoing housing market supply constraints, and a 300% increase in lumber prices over the past 15 months has prompted Fannie Mae‘s Economic and Strategic Group to revise several of its 2021 forecasts. March’s existing home sales report perfectly illustrated the country’s core housing market issues – a decade […]
Summary List Placement Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia suggested redirecting federal funds from President Joe Biden’s stimulus law to finance an infrastructure package. “I think there’s all kinds of different ways that we’re looking at. Certainly repurposing some of those covid dollars,” she told Bloomberg. “I’ve been looking at those 21 states […]
Summary List Placement Supply for homes can’t keep up with demand. At a point when the country badly needs more houses, housing starts fell 9.5% in April, and Goldman Sachs doesn’t see the cavalry arriving soon. A May 2 note from Goldman’s Ronnie Walker found that new home sales and housing starts have reached their […]
Social media is constantly evolving, with new platforms and algorithms challenging models and strategies just when businesses have gotten into a rhythm. That’s why we’ve asked LinkedIn Business Coach Judi Fox to speak at engage.marketing on June 17. Fox, who led a highly rated social session at last year’s engage event, will update attendees on […]
Summary List Placement The nationwide shortage of new homes lifted selling prices at their fastest-ever rate earlier this year. Now rent prices are following suit. The cost of renting a single-family home in the US rose 4.3% year-over-year in March, CoreLogic said in a Tuesday release. That’s up from 3% in March 2020 and places […]
“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” — Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, 1789. Thankfully, after more than a year with innumerable challenges, it appears that the pandemic will end. From an […]
Summary List Placement After a group of Republican senators met with President Joe Biden last week to discuss their $568 billion counter-proposal to the president’s infrastructure plan, he gave them a Tuesday deadline to bring forth a new offer. That never happened. Republican senators, led by West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, introduced the $568 […]
Mortgage applications increased for the second straight week, this time jumping 1.2% for the week ending May 14, 2021, according to the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. All loan types hit their highest levels in two weeks. Mortgage rates were still lower than levels reported in late March and early April, providing additional […]
Summary List Placement UK inflation rose 1.5% in April compared to a year earlier as economy reopened and energy and clothing prices climbed, official figures showed Wednesday, an increase that was in line with economists’ expectations. The rise in the headline consumer price index inflation rate was up sharply up from 0.7% in March. When […]
As uncharted and bizarre as an app with dancing teenagers seems, TikTok has staked its claim on the home screen of millions. An app where trends live and die within a mere 24 hours is also teaching a younger generation how to change their oil, effectively bake a cake, and now, buy a home. While […]
Summary List Placement The assignment was a gimme. With house supply near record lows, demand strong, and prices surging to record highs, contractors simply needed to build more. Data out Tuesday suggests they aren’t rising to the occasion. That risks closing off the housing market to millennials just as they reach peak homebuying age. US […]
Summary List Placement As more GOP governors withdraw their states from federal unemployment benefits, millions of workers are poised to feel the blow of government aid ending early. Following April’s dismal jobs report — and anecdotes that workers were opting to remain on UI benefits rather than return to work — at least 22 states have […]
Summary List Placement Colonial Pipeline is having network issues preventing shippers from planning upcoming shipments of fuel, the company said on Tuesday, just after the system reopened after a week-long ransomware attack. Last week’s closure of the 5,500-mile (8,900-km) system was the most disruptive cyberattack on record, preventing millions of barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet […]