In the article, "Enhancing links between research and practice to improve consumer financial education and well-being" Billy J. Hensley, Director of Education at National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®), outlines his perspective on the current relation between financial education and financial outcome (downstream financial…

America's moral compass guiding student aid policy is being co-opted by short-sighted, budget-cutting and deficit-reduction policies. This moral compass was threatened, but had "not altogether disappeared" by 1996, according to an article written that year by Thomas A. Flint, then-vice president for financial services at Robert Morris…

TIAA-CREF, the financial services company that manages retirement portfolios for professionals in academia and other select fields, avoided the heavy losses other financial firms incurred during last fall's financial meltdown. Thus far, the indicators reflect TIAA-CREF's prudent, disciplined investment strategies. From Sept. 30 to Dec. 31, 2008,…

While savings rates among low-income families vary greatly, a 2008 National Poverty Center report finds that over 40 percent of low-income families fail to save any money. For decades policy makers and social scientists have sought to explain this phenomenon. Even after accounting for the fact that low-income families have less money to save, why…

The author traces the history of the campaign to stop Islington Green School being closed and turned into an academy specialising in business and financial services. Although the campaign, after a number of successes now looks as if it might fail in its immediate objective, the author argues that the battle was still worth fighting because of the…

Over the three decades between the urban crisis and the credit crisis, New York City revived its economy by making itself the preeminent center for global finance. Manhattan's streetscape and public places rose with the fortunes of the banks and their employees. Wall Street's mood came to define New York City's outlook. In the 1990s and early…

Recent accounting scandals challenge academics to refocus the educational process on the theoretical underpinnings of accounting. This is the first in a series of articles designed to facilitate this realignment. Intended as a supplement for the introductory accounting course, the essay series connects each of the primary accounting elements to…

The New York state attorney general's office is close to announcing a settlement with the 525,000-member New York State United Teachers over a relationship between the union and ING Group, a large financial-services company based in the Netherlands. In that arrangement, the union's Member Benefits division--a separate trust that provides…

Discusses how banks brave enough to go against conventional wisdom, which says that customers should pay for everything, could end up with greater profits and more customer satisfaction by exchanging free minimum services for minimum reasonable balances. (RM)

In the deregulatory fervor of the 1980's, the distinction between banks, nonbank depositories, and nondepository firms is becoming less clear as each tries to expand its activities in the emerging financial services industry. (RM)

Describes the alternative financial sector, which provides low-income consumers with a range of services such as rental-purchase agreements, pawn shops, refund anticipation loans, postdated checks, money orders, and check cashing outlets. (JOW)

Enrollment trends suggest a decline in interest in consumer studies. New curricular approaches include movement toward a root discipline such as economics or toward professional degree programs, such as consumer affairs in business or financial counseling and planning. (JOW)

Deregulation has had much to do with the competitive drive and vitality of financial services within the United States. The risks and rewards of deregulation for financial institutions are discussed, and principles which should serve as a guide in building any new regulatory structure are examined. (RM)

The authors argue that financial counseling and financial planning are significantly different professional fields when examined from both a theoretical and an applied perspective. The authors distinguish between these two professions with respect to the types of client problems presented, the criteria clients use for self-evaluation, and the…

Describes some of the problems for the individual inherent in the rapidly expanding computerized field of credit and banking. Proposes that electronic fund transfer systems could virtually replace the use of cash. Warns that while such systems offer wide advantages to business, they threaten the individual's privacy. (JMF)