For the millions of Americans who struggle with debt, paying back the money they owe can become a life-consuming ordeal. These overstretched individuals either take years to settle with creditors or end up defaulting entirely. Since most lenders want to avoid the latter option, they sometimes opt to sell off delinquent debt to a third party for pennies on the dollar. For instance, a bank might sell off $100,000 of debt to another institution for just $1,000. While the lender Continue reading
For more than a century millions of visitors have marveled at the staggering beauty contained in America’s national parks. According to the writer Wallace Stegner, “National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Still, even these sublime sanctuaries face the same kind of bureaucratic headaches that afflict other government agencies. In fact, years of flat funding have left the National Park Service with an $11 Continue reading
American movie theaters have endured a rough couple of years as more consumers turn to the comfort of their living rooms as venues for entertainment. That’s far from the case in China, however. The Asian nation has become an increasingly important source of revenue for U.S. movie studios that have seen domestic receipts start to dwindle. In February Chinese theaters earned $1.05 billion at the box office, beating the American tally by nearly $250 million.
Still, China isn’t exactly an Continue reading
In our previous post, we explored the new crop of startups that are applying Uber’s on-demand business model to other markets. Although these spinoff services aren’t nearly as successful as the original, a number of entrepreneurs remain convinced that they can develop an Uber for everything. We already took a look at the parking service Luxe and grocery delivery app Instacart, both fairly straightforward and simple adaptations of the concept. But startups like Filld and WeFuel take the idea Continue reading
Last week’s revelations surrounding the Panama Papers scandal set off a firestorm of debate about offshore tax avoidance. Media outlets across the globe exposed the names of many high profile clients of the offending law firm Mossack Fonseca, including soccer superstar Lionel Messi and several heads of state. As many in the U.S. pointed out, however, the Panamanian firm’s roster of shell company-seeking clients had a noticeable lack of Americans. According to some experts, this is due to lenient incorporation Continue reading
For decades some wealthy people and businesses have avoided paying taxes in their home countries by setting up “shell companies” in tropical locales like the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas. The lax tax rates of these nations allow individuals and organizations to quietly keep their money out of government coffers. In today’s digital age, however, it’s a lot harder to keep a secret than it used to be. Just ask the clients of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, the Continue reading
Last month, the FBI and Apple became entangled in a legal battle that many assumed would rage for months. The conflict centered on an iPhone owned by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino mass shooting. While the FBI accessed most of the device’s data through the cloud, the government claimed a security system installed on the phone prevented them for obtaining the rest of its information. Apple refused to help the feds bypass the security feature, however, claiming Continue reading
For years crowdfunding websites have given regular people a platform to finance their personal causes. GoFundMe, for instance, adds 100,000 campaigns to its site each month. Most people are looking to raise money to combat a crisis, such as paying for medical bills or funeral expenses. Together these campaigns have raised more than $2 billion on GoFundMe alone, with more than half of that amount coming in the last 9 months. In fact, analysts expect that crowdfunding donations will grow Continue reading
In today’s age of targeted advertising, billboards may seem like a holdover from another era. However, these seemingly obsolete roadside ads could bring about one of the latest advancements in mobile marketing. This week the media giant Clear Channel announced a plan to make their tens of thousands of billboards more effective by analyzing location data from smartphones. The idea is to aggregate demographic information about the people who travel by a particular billboard and where they go afterwards. For Continue reading