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explainers

Blame The Subprime Meltdown On The Repeal Of Glass-Steagall

A lot of blame has sloshed around for the sub-prime meltdown, from greedy borrowers to greedy mortgage brokers to Alan Greenspan, but if you want the real culprit, it was the repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act. On November 12, 1999, the champagne must have been shooting from the walls at Citigroup, which had worked behind the scenes for over 30 years to get the act overturned. After recovering from their hangover, they and their banking buddies went on a sub-prime lending orgy. But what was Glass-Steagall and how did it use to protect us? More »

Feature

2:47 PM on Thu Apr 17 2008
By Ben Popken
19,055 views, 89 comments

Latest by mookiemookie: CRA had very little to do with why we're in the mess we're in. Robert Gordon goes into it all here: [www.prospect.org] more »

explainers

Stimulus Checks Will Not Cut Into Your Rebate

False reports have circulated that the stimulus checks are an advance on your tax rebate and were going to cut into your tax rebate. That's not the whole story. Yes, it's an advance, but it's an advance on an additional credit Congress passed for your 2008 earned income. It's too late to do that for 2007, seeing as it's already over. "So the government is making me borrow from myself?!?!?" No. Congress is giving your 2009 self a $600 credit, and is sending that $600 back in time by one year.

The Skinny on the Stimulus Plan [WSJ]
PREVIOUSLY: $600 Rebates Are A Tax Credit Advance
(Photo: Getty)

10:30 AM on Wed Feb 13 2008
By Ben Popken
10,050 views, 42 comments

Latest by n/a: The explanation focuses on how, if you your tax calculation next year hows you're entitled to a bigger payment, you'll get the additional money with next year's rebate. An example is if you get another child. What it doesn't say is more »

explainers

What Is Minimum Advertised Price?

Minimum Advertised Price is an agreement between suppliers and retailers stipulating the lowest price an item is allowed to be advertised at. If you've ever tried to shop around and keep nosing up against the same number, you may have just discovered that good's MAP. This is why sometimes you see signs that say "price too low to advertise!" Or why when shopping online, sometimes the price doesn't show up until further in the transaction process. Retailers can incur sizable fines and/or penalties from their suppliers for violating MAP contracts.

MAPs skirt closely to price-fixing, which was, up until recently, illegal.

Minimum Advertised Price [About]
(Photo: Ben Popken)

8:23 AM on Wed Sep 26 2007
By Ben Popken
2,445 views, 21 comments

Latest by Rectilinear Propagation: That photo is actually kinda creepy. A good photo but still creepy. It's like those shots of a doctor hovering over you while you're lying on a table. more »

insiders

Why Stores Love To Force You To Show Your Receipts

A former Best Buy employee and Consumerist tipster in good standing shared some insider insights about why store employees are so zealous in checking your receipt, and so zealously underinformed as to how they have no legal right to make you show it.

1. Store managers purposely keep employees unaware receipt check's voluntary nature, ensuring that a manager has to be called each and every time. The last thing they want is somebody with 16 CDs in their pants yelling about his civil rights and cowing a $7.50/hr teenager.

2. Major retail store locations get an estimated yearly "shrinkage" budget, is the dollar value of the amount of merchandise they expect to lose to theft. In the our former BBY employee's store's case,the difference between the actual and estimated shrinkage is then distributed evenly to each and every worker in that store.

PREVIOUSLY:
Adventures In Receipt Check Refusals Continue
Circuit City Customer Arrested After Refusing To Show Receipt
TigerDirect Apologizes For Unlawfully Detaining Customer For Refusing To Show Receipt
TigerDirect Unlawfully Restrains And Verbally Abuses Customer For Not Submitting To Receipt-Showing Demands

8:27 AM on Tue Sep 18 2007
By Ben Popken
11,165 views, 79 comments

explainers

Where Does IKEA Get Its Funny Names?

We've always wondered where IKEA gets its crazy product names, like the Kramfors sofa and BEST J GRA TV unit with casters. It turns out IKEA actually has funky a system based on names of stuff from its native lands, says ahundredmonkeys.com. More »

8:56 PM on Mon Jul 9 2007
By Ben Popken
5,242 views, 14 comments

explainers

How ESCos Are Supposed To Work

While we're talking about IDT Energy and Con Ed and Midtown Promotions and DS-MAX, let's learn about another acronym, ESCos, which stands for "energy service companies" (the kind of company IDT Energy is). More »

11:07 PM on Fri Jun 1 2007
By Ben Popken
2,088 views, 9 comments

weights and measures

What Is "Tare," And How Does It Impact Everything In The Supermarket?

"Tare" or "tare weight" is the weight of an empty container. Tare is not included in a goods' net weight. So, for instance, 32-oz jar of mayo on the supermarket shelf should actually weight more than two pounds. More »

10:49 PM on Wed May 30 2007
By Ben Popken
1,401 views, 28 comments

features

Why Is Gas So Freakin' Expensive?

Did you know that gas price gouging almost never occurs as prices rise? Rather, it's most often when dealers keep prices artificially high even as their costs fall. More »

Feature

2:46 PM on Tue May 29 2007
By Carey
49,231 views, 80 comments

public relations

How Companies Collude With Reporters To Control When Stories Get Published: Embargoed Press Releases

Have you ever noticed how a new product comes out and a well-developed article with multiple quotes and sources appears in all the major papers? Are reporters just so Olympian in their competitiveness, performing at levels differing only by a few milliseconds? If only. Often, this shows an "embargoed" story, a technique corporations use to control the media and public perception. Here's how it works. More »

11:50 AM on Tue May 29 2007
By Ben Popken
3,517 views, 34 comments

stocks

What Is Dollar-Cost Averaging And Why Is It Bunk?

Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is a method of investing whereby you spend a fixed amount on a stock per month, regardless of price. More »

12:10 PM on Tue May 22 2007
By Ben Popken
1,596 views, 23 comments

tjmaxx

How TJMaxx Hackers Stole 45.7 Million Credit Cards

TJMaxx computer system intruders who stole 45.7 million credit cards siphoned off customer data using a program they implanted on the company's servers, recent regulatory filings reveal. More »

5:49 PM on Fri Mar 30 2007
By Ben Popken
2,643 views, 3 comments