Economics and Investing:

Frequent content contributor B.B. suggested this: More Than 30 Blocks of Fiscal Irresponsibility

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45% of Americans pay no federal income tax. (Thanks to RBS for the link.)

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

Excerpt: “This idea of high tuition with low wages isn’t some made up propaganda to distract you.  This is reality.”

Student Debt and Retirement Saving Don’t Add Up(CBS Money Watch)

Study: Millennials’ Lack of Financial Knowledge Could Be a Big Problem for US Economy (Clark Howard)
Excerpt: “The study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and George Washington University, found that millennials in particular have a shockingly low level of financial literacy. In addition, the survey found that due to this lack of financial literacy, millennials could potentially wreck havoc on the U.S. economy.”

Excerpt: “Total U.S. household debt continued to climb in the fourth quarter of 2015. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, households added $51 billion of debt in the final three months of the year, pushing total indebtedness to $12.12 trillion at the end of the quarter. Mortgage debt remains the leading contributor by far, but student loan debt also continued its ascent.”

International News

Premier Oil Pans Calls for North Sea Tax Breaks as Losses Deepen (The Telegraph)

Excerpt: “The oil price collapse has renewed concern over the future of the North Sea, but Premier Oil boss Tony Durrant said a tax break would make little difference to firms already in the red and would fail to drive forward much-needed new investment.”

Excerpt: “There is a crisis on the west coast of Norway,” Gerd Kristiansen, the head of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, said Tuesday in a speech in Oslo. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t hear from a petroleum-related business on how dire the situation in the nation’s oil centers has become, she said.”

Excerpt: “Startling stats… Most of it makes grim reading for those people (more than 350,000, it is claimed) whose livelihoods depend on the sector. And it does so without compensating upsides.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

Your Student Loan Questions: Spousal Debt, Default, Co-Signers (US News & World Report)

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