News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: (1) Here’s why the Evergrande crisis is not China’s ‘Lehman moment’, (2) A Pandemic Space Race: Self-Storage Roars Back, (3) The Unconventional Weapon Against Future Wildfires: Goats, (4) Ben Dugan Works for CVS. His Job Is Battling a $45 Billion Crime Spree, (5) Scientists created the world's whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning, (6) The pandemic has created a nation of insomniacs, and a Bonus article - The Gravity-Defying Mail Jumpers of Lake Geneva.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: (1) Companies Need More Workers. Why Do They Reject Millions of Résumés?, (2) Poverty Declined In 2020, The Result Of Government Aid, Census Bureau Reports, (3) ‘Black Capitalism’ Promised a Better City for Everyone. What Happened?, (4) A new platform lets you buy shares of blue-chip paintings – but is art a wise investment?, (5) Senators demand cryptocurrency regulation guidance from SEC Chair Gary Gensler, and a Bonus article - How Japanese Artist Chiura Obata Came to Be an American Great

As financial advisors we spend a lot of time talking about retirement planning, but we can also help you navigate a college savings plan that’s best for your family’s situation. Those who make a plan save, on average, twice as much as those who don’t. First, I want to stress that your priority should always be your own retirement savings. There are no loans available for retirement like there are for college. Being a financial burden on your future children is not a legacy you want to leave.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: (1) The Tragedy of America’s Rural Schools, (2) A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’, (3) Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?, (4) "The Sustainability Propaganda Got Completely Out of Control", (5) Nike’s ‘super shoes’ spark race with Brooks Running and others to outfit the world’s elite runners, and a Bonus article - Researchers Accidentally Discover World's Northernmost Island Due to GPS Error.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: (1) States That Cut Unemployment Benefits Saw Limited Impact on Job Growth, (2) Flight Attendants’ Hellish Summer: ‘I Don’t Even Feel Like a Human’, (3) The staggering, exhausting, invisible costs of caring for America’s elderly, (4) Top toymakers say their products will be harder to find and more expensive this holiday season, (5) Why Intelligent Minds Like Jeff Bezos Embrace the 'Rule of Writing', and a Bonus article - A Shocking Tale of Love, Loss, and Survival in the Deep Blue Sea.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: (1) Fed officials will seek to avoid a tantrum as they keep ‘taper talk’ going at key summit, (2) As Biden considers his pick to run the Fed, a major role overseeing Wall Street slips under the radar, (3) God, Money, YOLO: How Cathie Wood Found Her Flock, (4) Here’s how much money each generation has saved for retirement, (5) What Happens When All of Your Co-workers Quit?, and a Bonus article - Monday, a poem by Alex Dimitrov.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: (1) No bus driver? Schools are paying parents to drive their own kids as economic disruptions hit classrooms, (2) The Lithium Gold Rush: Inside the Race to Power Electric Vehicles, (3) These People Who Work From Home Have a Secret: They Have Two Jobs, (4) What Has Driven the Recent Increase in Retirements?, (5) Inflation wiped out America's pay raises, and a Bonus article - Speaking in whistles.

Since the Covid lockdowns have ended, unemployment has remained stubbornly high. Multiple factors affect employment, and getting people back to work is likely not as simple as eliminating the federal unemployment subsidy. Our current labor market may have long-term impacts on our national economy. We last published a blog article about the U.S. Labor Market in late 2019: The November 2019 Jobs Report – Can We Trust It? — Propel Financial Advisors. At that time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had just released its November 2019 jobs numbers reporting a 50-year low in unemployment at 3.5%. Also, at that time, food service was one of the largest growing areas of employment. What a difference a pandemic makes!

The Federal Reserve Bank is a key player in our country’s economy. Price stability and changes in the labor market relate to major aspects of the Fed’s mandate. In 1977, Congress amended the Federal Reserve Act, directing the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee to “maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.”

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: (1) A Banking App Has Been Suddenly Closing Accounts, Sometimes Not Returning Customers’ Money, (2) Coins, the Overlooked Keys to History, (3) Growth Is Strong, but the Obstacles to Full Recovery Are Big, (4) The Time Tax, (5) Home Prices Are Soaring. Is That the Fed’s Problem?, and a Bonus article - Society still benefiting from 15th century infrastructure.