money-matters

Hamilton Nolan · 06/08/16 10:38AM

A recent survey of investors in hedge funds found that 94% of them expected their hedge funds to return at least 9% profits last year. The actual returns of hedge funds last year: -2%.

How Scared Should You Be of a Chinese Financial Meltdown? 

Hamilton Nolan · 06/06/16 03:55PM

You may be a busy person, but it is important to keep up-to-date on the most current threats to the stability of the global economy, which could plunge us all into poverty and despair. Speaking of that, is China poised for a disaster of hideous proportions?

Weird Little Human Error Costs Company $190 Million

Hamilton Nolan · 06/03/16 09:10AM

Most of us have a vague sense that huge, multibillion-dollar companies have, like, systems in place to prevent them from making the sort of idiot mistakes that we, normal people, make. Not necessarily true!

Payday Loans to Be Marginally Less Terrible

Hamilton Nolan · 06/02/16 08:45AM

A new proposed rule that would ever so slightly curb the excesses of the payday loan industry is an exciting thing: the government, which represents us, acting against awful exploitative money vampires. The system works, a little bit!

Two Problems With Universal Basic Income

Hamilton Nolan · 05/31/16 02:25PM

The idea of a universal basic income—money given to everyone each month to cover minimal living expenses—is having something of a utopian intellectual moment across the political spectrum. But the idea does have two obvious potential pitfalls.

Big Money Guy: Bad Shit Coming 

Hamilton Nolan · 05/26/16 02:35PM

The longer we go without a major financial crisis, the more tempting it becomes for the billionaire investors to jump in with their wager that the next crisis is coming soon. Another master of the universe has officially jumped onto the “doom is at hand” train.

Overtime Pay Is Real Again

Hamilton Nolan · 05/18/16 09:08AM

Today marks the official beginning of what may go down as the most underappreciated action of Obama’s presidency: the new overtime rule, which will force more money into the pocket of the middle class.

Hamilton Nolan · 05/06/16 12:35PM

“People derive more happiness from pay when they know they’re earning more than co-workers, research shows. In a famous 1998 study...half of 257 people surveyed said they would rather make $50,000 a year when others around them earned $25,000 than earn $100,000 while peers earned $200,000.”