What’s Happening in the World of Higher Education?
A 2023 survey revealed a notable shift in public opinion over the past decade about the value of a college degree: 56% of Americans think a four-year college degree isn’t worth the cost due to students graduating with significant debt and a lack of specific job skills vs. 42% who believe college is worth it. […]
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Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, signed into law on June 3, 2023, suspends the federal debt ceiling until January 2025. The legislation also includes a number of spending cuts. It is estimated to reduce federal budget deficits by about $1.5 trillion over the 2023-2033 period relative to the May 2023 baseline projections, according to […]
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Transformative Tech: Will AI Upend the American Workforce?
A chatbot with uncanny human-like writing abilities has become the poster child for artificial intelligence (AI) since it was released in late 2022, inspiring new levels of attention, excitement, and concern about recent advances in this life-changing technology. As the race among tech companies to monetize AI picks up speed, it’s worth considering how widespread […]
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Congress Tells Treasury to Expect SECURE 2.0 Technical Fixes
In late May 2023, Congress sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel saying that it will introduce legislation to correct several technical errors in the SECURE 2.0 Act. The letter, signed by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mike Crapo (R-ID), chair and ranking member of the Senate Finance […]
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Is This Bull Timid or Ready to Charge?
On June 8, 2023, the S&P 500 index closed at 4,293.93, just over 20% higher than its lowest recent closing value of 3,577.03 reached on October 12, 2022. According to a standard definition of market cycles, this indicated that the benchmark index was officially in a bull market after a bear market that began in […]
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Rescuing America’s Safety Net
A March 2023 survey found that more than 90% of Americans worry about the Social Security program, and about half of those said they worry a great deal. A separate survey the same month found that more than 80% of Americans worry Medicare will not be able to provide the same level of benefits in […]
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What You Should Know About the Federal Reserve’s NewInstant Payments System
The use of mobile payment apps and person-to-person (P2P) payments are more popular than ever, giving businesses and consumers the ability to send and receive money instantly. According to a recent study, the share of P2P payments made with mobile apps nearly doubled in one year, increasing from 15% in 2020 to 29% in 2021. […]
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SECURE 2.0 Helps Small Employers Help Their Employees
Approximately 78% of people who work for companies with fewer than 10 employees and about 65% of those who work for companies with 10 to 24 employees do not have access to a retirement plan at work. That’s unfortunate because workers with a retirement plan are far more likely to save for retirement than those […]
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Tax Form 1099-K: What you need to know
Form 1099-K is an IRS information return used to report certain payment transactions for goods and services. It is not a new form, but legislation changes in March 2021 significantly decreased the filing threshold that was scheduled to be implemented for the tax year 2022. The IRS has delayed the change in the filing threshold […]
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Bank Failures Shine Light on Interest Rate Risks
Financial markets reacted turbulently to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10, 2023, followed two days later by the failure of Signature Bank of New York. With $209 billion in assets and $175 billion in deposits, SVB was the nation’s 16th-largest bank and the second-largest to fail in U.S. history. This news […]
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