Banking on the Poor

Banking on the Poor

What’s a fair interest rate to pay on a loan? If you think a 300 percent annual percentage rate (APR) is no big deal, you can stop reading. But if you’d be outraged to learn that some of the country’s biggest banks — like Wells Fargo, Regions , US...
Flying Over an Act of Monumental Stupidity

Flying Over an Act of Monumental Stupidity

I knew that Congress would come to its senses eventually, that it would realize that the ham-handed budget cuts ordered by the so-called “sequester” weren’t going to work, that some government functions were too important to be cut. And I was right,...
Austerity Will Leave Us Crying ’96 Tears’

Austerity Will Leave Us Crying ’96 Tears’

Aging baby boomers may remember a 1960s rock band that sported an all-time great name. That band — Question Mark and the Mysterians — may now have a worthy rival on the name front. Make way for Reinhart-Rogoff and the Austerians. Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and...