In The Headlines A Gray Tsunami May Swamp China’s Plans for Long Term Growth The world’s most populous country is turning gray at an accelerating pace. That aging has big implications for China’s economic growth, which could be undermined as the labor force declines sharply from 2021 to 2030. It also [...]

In The Headlines Did Navient Cheat Student Loan Borrowers Out of Billions? Federal regulators at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are suing Navient, the nation’s biggest student loan company, claiming that it cheated borrowers out of billions of dollars by giving them bad information, processing payments incorrectly, and failing to [...]

In The Headlines Hospitals Struggle to Survive in an Era of Hyper Cost-cutting The two gleaming operating rooms in this Kingston, New York, hospital still look brand-new seven years after being built for $5 million: They’ve never seen one patient, and never will. With an occupancy rate of just over 50%, [...]

In The Headlines A Not so Happy Holiday Selling Season for Most Retailers? Despite several early reads that the season came in better than expected, most of the department stores and specialty chains that have announced their results said sales at their established stores continued to slide in November and December. [...]

In The Headlines Foreign Selling of US Treasuries Could Pressure Rates Further The biggest foreign buyers of U.S. government bonds are quickly retreating after years of absorbing record amounts of the securities. This is an important dynamic to understand when looking at the potential fate of the $13.6 trillion Treasury market [...]

In The Headlines Phased Retirement and “Boomerangs” Extend the Work Life Expectancy With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, businesses are scrambling to find ways to slow an exodus of the most experienced employees and ensure that they pass along their knowledge before they leave. Some companies are offering employees [...]

In The Headlines Are U.S. Stocks Dangerously Overvalued? While the S&P 500 is reaching all-time highs on optimism over the newly elected administration’s economic agenda, some Wall Street strategists are increasingly worried about a widely followed valuation measure that has reached levels that preceded most of the major market crashes of [...]

In The Headlines The U.S. Emerges as an Energy Superpower For decades, America depended on the world for energy. Today, the U.S. is becoming a global supplier of oil and natural gas in its own right. This year, for the first time ever, the U.S. started turning gas from prolific shale [...]

In The Headlines Sluggish Growth Ignites Trade Restrictions Around the World President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to scrap the Trans-Pacific Partnership, renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, and penalize Chinese imports when he takes office. But protectionism is already rising around the world, and global trade is slowing. Responding to [...]

In The Headlines Is China Headed for Japanese Style Economic Stagnation? China and Japan may seem to inhabit alternative economic universes. After more than two decades of stagnation, Japan is a fading global power that cannot seem to revive its fortunes no matter what unorthodox gimmicks it tries. By contrast, China’s [...]