Personal Finance

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is widely regarded as the start of the winter holiday shopping season in the United States. Each November, newsrooms gear up to cover this annual rite of retail, dispatching journalists in the early morning to shopping malls and discount stores to help report on the frenzied — and sometimes violent — competition for the best deals of the day.

Death and taxes: They’re not only unavoidable; for the very rich, they’re also inseparable. The estate tax — the “death tax” to critics — is a levy on your property when you expire. But the threshold is high and few are required to pay.

Videos of white nationalists chanting “Jews will not replace us” surely startled anyone who thought anti-Semitism long dead in the America of 2017. But for others it simply confirmed that old prejudices die hard.

A new study suggests taxing sugar instead of soda is a more effective way to help people cut calories.

A new study suggests that paying teachers based on student test scores may hurt student performance in some subject areas.

Let’s say your city needs cash to build a new school or sewer system. The budget lacks funds and the state government is only willing to pay a small share. What does your city do? Most likely, it issues a municipal bond.

Raising the minimum wage results in lower teen birth rates, especially among white and Hispanic adolescents, a new study suggests.

Elected leaders nationwide are continually debating the benefits and consequences of raising the minimum wage in cities, states and at the federal level. Arguments often focus on how local business could be impacted and whether workers really would earn more money, considering companies might cut employees’ hours to control costs.