Investing

• Michael Batnick provides a well thought out answer to the question “is Robinhood (any zero commission/fraction share platform) good for investors?” (The Irrelevant Investor)

Economics

• Why economists support more stimulus, and what will happen come January 1 if there is no further stimulus. (NYTimes – subscription)
• The number of Americans using credit cards to pay rent has risen 70% over last year. NPR
  
• Mortgage rates hit yet another record low: the 30-year rate dropped to 2.71% (APNews)
• Unemployment claims last week totaled 712,000 (DOL).
• The November jobs report came in at about half the projection (245,000 vs. 460,000) and unemployment ticked down slightly to 6.7%. The unemployment rate is an incomplete statistic: the labor force participation rate dropped too. (CNBC,NYTimes)
• Researchers at the Fed take a closer look at what is going on with Millennial spending and it may be eye-opening for some who stereotype them (although probably not news to Millennials themselves). (NPR)

Retail

• What is going on with retail stores? These charts tell the story. (VOX)
• Cyber Monday hit a new record high of $10.8 billion volume of sales. ((MarketWatch)

Student Loans

• The Department of Education’s “Next Gen” initiative is aimed at simplifying student loan management and repayment, and drops the number of loan servicers to five. (Forbes)

Higher Education

• Inside Higher Education had a few interesting articles related to the pandemic. The first article shares results from a survey that suggests students do better if they are on campus, even if most of their classes are online.
• The second article suggests that more prospective college students are reconsidering higher education altogether than before.

Digital Currencies

• Read what the PayPal CEO has to say on the topic of the future of digital currencies (and cash.) (Bloomberg)
• Bitcoin hit another new high this week. Coindesk gives you five reasons why this happened.

Entrepreneurship

• Junior Achievement and Janus Henderson announce a new online simulation to help teens learn how to run a business. (PRNewswire)

Covid

The New York Times has an interactive model that predicts where you "stand" in the line for the Covid-19 Vaccine.

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