Media

Portability, ownership and innovation are three key features of 401(k) plans that make them worth keeping. That was the case laid out by Paul Schott Stevens at a "town hall" meeting in Los Angeles this afternoon. The remarks lay out a defense of the mutual fund-heavy savings vehicle even as the plans have come under attack for the fees charged by mutual fund firms. 

The big stock market slide of the past month has been bad news for the over 50 million Americans with 401(k) plans. Many of these investors have yet to recover from the 2008 crash and have been counting on a market upswing to make up for lost ground.

I recently posted a piece about legislation pending in Congress that would restrict the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over the derivatives market. Chapter two of that story is the struggle of the CFTC Commissioners to provide formal guidance establishing the scope of its own jurisdiction under Dodd-Frank Act over activities taking place beyond the U.S. borders. The outcome is critically important.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts from their treasuries to influence elections, states have passed a variety of innovative measures to regulate corporate cash in elections, a new report by the Corporate Reform Coalition shows.

Do you know how much you’re paying in 401(k) fees?

Andrea Mulhearn Brobst wants a full-time job.

Gary Gensler, Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading CommissionThe massive and lavishly funded opposition to reasonable financial reform still wages a multi-front war to preserve the risk-oriented business model that produced the financial crisis of 2008.

But here's the fact that convinced me older Americans need more help managing their debt than new college grads: The age range of low- and middle-income Americans with the highest credit-card debt today is 65 and older — they owe an average of $9,283. By comparison, 18- to 24-year olds average just $2,982 in credit card debt; those aged 25 to 34 are about $5,156 in the red.

Tuesday's New York Times editorial on the Chamber of Commerce's clandestine intrusion into American politics didn't go far enough in explaining why hiding the identities of donors to political ads is harmful to our democracy.