Money and Computing
Social Isolation and New Technology
When the internet is used as a medium for neighborhood social contact, such as a neighborhood email list or community forum (e.g., i-neighbors.org), participants tend to have very high levels of local engagement. more »
Why Do Married Men Claim Social Security Benefits So Early? Ignorance or Caddishness?
Most married men claim Social Security benefits at age 62 or 63, well short of both Social Security’s Full Retirement Age and the age that maximizes the household’s expected present value of benefits (EPVB). This results in a loss of less than 4 percent in household EPBV. But essentially the entire loss is borne by the survivor benefit, falls nearly 20 percent. As many elderly widows have very low incomes, early claiming by married men is a major social problem. more »
Investor Alert: Just What Are Dark Pools?
When dark pools share information about their trading interest with other dark pools, they can function like private networks that exclude the public investor. more »
Woman of Note: Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC
Robert Frost liked to say that a banker is someone who gives you an umbrella when the sun is shining and takes it away when it starts to rain. Well, we set out to prove that adage wrong at IndyMac bank. During the time we were conservator, we restructured loans for over 13,000 families to keep them in their homes. more »