Author: Venus Dhanda, Graphics: Anna Szymoniak The BRB Bottomline: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), established in 2010, has worked to regulate U.S. markets for over a decade, protecting consumers from risky and predatory lending practices. The Community Financial Association (CFSA), fighting for forms of financial regulation, has taken issueContinue Reading
The Stripper Index, named for how it relates the revenue generated by strippers’ cash tips to the financial strain of consumers and the current economic cycle, though it encompasses all forms of sexual labor, has been mostly a joke to economists as they continue to explore different methods of predicting the economy. However, when X user and stripper @botticellibimbo correctly predicted the economic decline in 2022 based on her recent profits at work, economists began to examine the Stripper Index more closely.Continue Reading
When consumer behavior and sentiment dictate how the economy will turn out, it’s no surprise that the sales trends of certain goods on the market can predict economic health. Everything from the height of women’s skirts to the price of Big Mac burgers says something about people’s finances. Community Columnist Felicia Mo explores two unconventional economic indicators – lipstick and men’s underwear – that economists use to signal and prepare for incoming recessions.
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The credit card business has since been recovering since the Great Recession when banks drastically cut consumer lending as they scrambled to reduce risky loans. The number of people with credit cards has since increased, from 152 million in 2010 to 176 million in 2017. At the same time, the number of credit card accounts in the U.S increased from 386 million to 455 million in 2017. Alongside a modest increase in the average number of cards each person holds, more people are getting a credit card for the first time.Continue Reading