News From the Control Tower - 2/2/2022

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances.

This week’s reads include:

1.       Consumers Are Pivoting Spending to Services Like Dining and Travel

With many consumers tapped out on buying physical goods, economists hope warmer weather and waning infections will kick-start service purchases

2.       Despite Decades of Hacking Attacks, Companies Leave Vast Amounts of Sensitive Data Unprotected

A surge in identity theft during the pandemic underscores how easy it has become to obtain people’s private data. As hackers are all too happy to explain, many of them are cashing in on it.

3.       The moral calculations of a billionaire

After the best year in history to be among the super-rich, one of America’s 745 billionaires wonders: ‘What’s enough? What’s the answer?’

4.       How the Fall of NC Mutual Hurt Black America

The last remaining Black insurance firm in the U.S., which is based in downtown Durham, will disappear this year. Its demise reflects the decline of an era of Black capitalism that supported African-American upward mobility.

5.       What the Conversation Around the "Great Resignation" Leaves Out

You can't talk about labor without talking about care work.

Bonus: ‘I’m really just high on life and beauty’: the woman who can see 100 million colours

Antico is a tetrachromat, which means she has a fourth colour receptor in her retina compared with the standard three which most people have.