With a Federal Open Market Committee decision to increase interest rates this week (as expected), the focus this week is on Economics, Investing, and some interesting credit statistics for the US.

Economics

• The FOMC met this week and raised interest rates 50 basis points. (CNBC)
• Here is more on the topic from RealEconomy.
• This is a fascinating look at 700 years of interest rates from the Bank of England.
• The April’s job report showed a gain of 428,000. (Yahoo Finance)
• Fitch Ratings released a report claiming that America will recover all jobs lost during Covid by this summer. (It took 6 years and 5 months for the US to recover jobs lost in the Great Recession.) CNN

Investing

• It looks like the stock market believed in Fed Chair Powell’s “soft landing” goals as the market rose after his press conference Wednesday. (CNBC) But was followed by the worst day of the year on Thursday. (CNBC2)
• Do your students ever wonder how the stock market keeps going up (in general) over time? The A Wealth of Common Sense post explains it.
• If you are interested in ESG investing and have time for a 30 minute podcast (or 20 minutes to read the transcript), this Dollars and Change podcast featuring two Wharton professors was posted in Knowledge@Wharton this week.
• Bitcoin dropped a lot yesterday too. Read what Buffett and Munger had to say on the subject of bitcoin at their first in-person annual meeting since 2019. (Motley Fool)
• If you fly the “budget” airlines, this may be of interest: Spirit will continue with its merger with Frontier, rejecting JetBlue takeover offer. (Fortune)

Budgeting/Managing Credit

• Lending Club and Pymnts.com released the findings from the ninth edition of the Reality Check: Paycheck-To-Paycheck research series.
  • One top-line finding: 2/3 of the US now lives paycheck to paycheck. (PRNewswire)
  • Another finding: those living paycheck to paycheck are three times more likely to use credit card debt. (PYMNTS.com)
• Speaking of credit and debt, check out this picture of US Consumer debt from Visual Capitalist.
• TikTok influencers are apparently driving up the use of buy-now-pay-later financing, particularly among Gen Z. This SFGate article includes some pretty startling statistics.

About the Author

Beth Tallman

Beth Tallman entered the working world armed with an MBA in finance and thoroughly enjoyed her first career working in manufacturing and telecommunications, including a stint overseas. She took advantage of an involuntary separation to try teaching high school math, something she had always dreamed of doing. When fate stepped in once again, Beth jumped on the opportunity to combine her passion for numbers, money, and education to develop curriculum and teach personal finance at Oberlin College. Beth now spends her time writing on personal finance and financial education, conducts student workshops, and develops finance curricula and educational content. She is also the Treasurer of Ohio Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.