August 14, 2024

The stock market is known for its rapid rises and unpredictable falls, but last week’s brief meltdown was extreme even by those standards. When the markets opened last Monday, numbers were falling and traders were selling off their stocks in panic. Japan’s stock exchange fell more than 12 percent, the biggest plunge in 37 years. The S&P 500 — which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the largest U.S. companies — lost $1.3 trillion in value, or 3 percent, Continue reading

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March 24, 2023

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) does not get much attention unless something goes drastically wrong in the financial world, such as the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). This video explains how the organization covers customers’ deposits in order to prevent bank runs, and how the fall of SVB presented the FDIC with some unique challenges.

Questions:

  1. Why was the FDIC formed, and how does it protect customers’ deposits?
  2. How did the FDIC’s handling of the SVB collapse Continue reading
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March 1, 2023

Last Friday, the stock market tumbled to its lowest point so far this year, with the S&P 500 falling for three weeks straight while the Dow Jones similarly slumped due to disappointing economic data. Investors expected inflation to decline more at the start of 2023, but experts say that it has actually re-accelerated in recent months. As a result, the Federal Reserve may continue to raise interest rates, a measure used to combat inflation that reduces the amount of Continue reading

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June 24, 2022

Last week, we looked at how declining stock prices are signaling to analysts that an economic recession could be on the horizon. This video looks at how the recent downturn has been especially grim for tech companies, whose shares are down significantly due to rising interest rates and global instability. 

Questions:

  1. What are some factors that have caused tech stocks to fall sharply in recent months?
  2. How have hiring decisions by companies like Facebook contributed to the tech stock downturn
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June 17, 2022

Yesterday, the S&P 500 dropped more than 3 percent, continuing a long decline for stocks despite investors’ hopes for a rally. This places the index down 24 percent from its previous highs in January, further pushing stocks into bear market territory. Stock markets turn from bulls to bears once they drop more than 20 percent from recent peaks, potentially indicating that the economy is headed towards a recession. In fact, if losses continue at this rate, the S&P could experience Continue reading

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iPhone with downward sloping stock graphShare prices plummeted across all three major stock indexes last Friday, wrapping up a terrible month that brought markets to their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. On that single day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 939 points while the S&P 500 dropped 155 points, amounting to respective contractions of 2.8 percent and 3.6 percent. Worst of all was the Nasdaq, which shrank by 4.2 percent after dropping 536 points. 

The numbers look even worse when Continue reading

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November 2, 2021

As debates in Washington about raising the debt ceiling once again make the news, this video provides a comprehensive and straightforward explanation of the U.S. national debt. Along with examining the sale of government bonds, the video also considers whether or not the country should retain the debt limit. 

Questions:

  1. How does the sale of bonds benefit both investors and the government? 
  2. Do you think the U.S. should continue to maintain a debt limit? Why or why not?
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