Easy promotion

Tracking changes in net wealth is one of the best ways to see who benefited from economic growth. Chris Rogers/Photodisc via Getty Images D. Brian Blank , Mississippi State University The U.S. economy unexpectedly shrank in the first quarter, according to gross domestic product data released on April 28, 2022. While the reasons were technical and weren’t seen as signs of weakness, they add to worries that the U.S. might be headed for another recession as the Federal Reserve seeks to fight inflation by raising interest rates. But before we fret too much about what 2022 will bring, I believe, as a financial economist who studies the decisions people and companies make with money and the resulting impacts, it’s worth reflecting on 2021, which saw the strongest economic growth in almost four decades. GDP , which provides a snapshot of the economy by measuring the total value of all goods and services consumers produce and exchange, surged 5.7% in 202...

Financial bubbles are frequently depicted as manias. Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Gayle Rogers , University of Pittsburgh In the late 1990s, America experienced a dot-com mania . In the 2000s, the housing market went wild. Today, there are manias in everything from bitcoin and nonfungible tokens to SPACs and meme stocks – obscure corners of the market that are getting increased attention. Whether these are the next bubbles to burst remains to be seen. The sudden rise of all these relatively new asset classes – or the astronomical heights they’ve reached – may seem irrational or even enchanted. Describing them as speculative manias implies that individuals are lost in forces beyond their control and needn’t take responsibility for the actions of the crowd. But, as I learned while researching my book “ Speculation: A Cultural History from Aristotle to AI ,” which will be published in June 2021, financial speculation hasn’t al...

Examples of ‘bad ads’ found on the web: clickbait articles, potentially unwanted programs, miracle weight loss supplements, gross-out images, and investment pitches. Screenshot by Eric Zeng Eric Zeng , University of Washington Sketchy ads, like those for miracle weight loss pills and suspicious-looking software, sometimes appear on legitimate, well-regarded websites. It turns out that most websites don’t actually decide who gets to show ads to their viewers. Instead, most sites outsource this task to a complex network of advertising tech companies that do the work of figuring out which ads are shown to each particular person. The online ad ecosystem is largely built around “ programmatic advertising ,” a system for placing advertisements from millions of advertisers on millions of websites. The system uses computers to automate bidding by advertisers on available ad spaces, often with transactions occurring faster than would be possible manually. Prog...

Poison pills usually work, but Elon Musk appears undeterred. AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu Tuugi Chuluun , Loyola University Maryland Takeovers are usually friendly affairs . Corporate executives engage in top-secret talks, with one company or group of investors making a bid for another business. After some negotiating, the companies engaged in the merger or acquisition announce a deal has been struck. But other takeovers are more hostile in nature. Not every company wants to be taken over. This is the case with Elon Musk’s US$43 billion bid to buy Twitter. Companies have various measures in their arsenal to ward off such unwanted advances. One of the most effective anti-takeover measures is the shareholder rights plan, also more aptly known as a “poison pill.” It is designed to block an investor from accumulating a majority stake in a company. Twitter adopted a poison pill plan on April 15, 2022, shortly after Musk unveiled his takeover offer ...

A smiling woman hands a dress to a clothing store cashier. Tom Werner/Getty Images Joya Misra , UMass Amherst and Kyla Walters , Sonoma State University Clothing retailers sell their shoppers more than jeans and sweaters. Major apparel companies also sell credit, often with very high fees, like The Gap’s 21.7% starting interest rate, and US$27 to $37 late payment charge. In 2019, Macy’s store credit card revenue of $771 million accounted for more than half of Macy’s operating income . As researchers studying retail clothing workers , we never expected to learn about credit cards. When we asked the workers about the worst part of their jobs, we expected to hear about low wages , inconsistent schedules and rude shoppers . Those things matter, but many workers identified mandates to push credit card applications on customers as the worst part of their jobs. None of the retailers mentioned in this story responded to requests to explain their corporat...

More governments and aid organizations are giving poor people cash. Mayur Kakade/Moment via Getty Images Heath Henderson , Drake University The concept is simple and seductive: Give people cash, lift them out of poverty. It’s a strategy increasingly being used in both lower- and higher-income countries to help poor people. International organizations such as the World Bank , USAID and the United Nations are funding more projects that focus on giving people cash, while charities like GiveDirectly have been set up to do only that. Mexico , Brazil and Kenya are leading examples of countries that have already implemented ambitious guaranteed income programs of their own. The U.S. is also experimenting more with cash payments. The US$1.9 trillion relief package , for example, will give recurring payments to most families with children. Stockton, California – the first U.S. city to give low-income people cash with no strings attached – just com...

Casinos can make gambling away next month’s rent feel like playing a game. mbbirdy/E+ via Getty Images James "Pigeon" Fielder , Colorado State University Wall Street has long been likened to a casino . Robinhood, an investment app that just filed plans for an initial public offering , makes the comparison more apt than ever . That’s because the power of the casino is the way it makes people feel like gambling their money away is a game. Casinos are full of mood lighting , fun noises and other sensory details that reward gamblers when they place coins in slots. Similarly, Robinhood’s slick and easy-to-use app resembles a thrill-inducing video game rather than a sober investment tool. The color palette of red and green is associated with mood, with green having a calming effect and red increasing arousal, anger and negative emotions . Picking stocks can seem like a fun lottery of scratching off the winning ticket; celebratory confetti dr...