Investing

• This week’s (year’s) big investment story was the dramatic fall of Archegos Capital. After a brief recap of the GameStop story to tee it up, this article takes a pretty deep dive into how this was allowed to happen. (Slate)
• Last week’s hot topic, NFTs, warranted a skit on SNL this week, but is now projected to become a bubble. (Medium)

Economics

• While new unemployment claims ticked up a bit last week to 719,000 (Yahoo Finance), the March jobs report surpassed all forecasts at a whopping 916,000 (CNBC).

Cryptocurrency

• PayPal will add cryptocurrency to its payment options when checking out. Debit, credit or crypto? (Coindesk)

Pandemic Related

• Food banks supplied 50% more food to those in need in 2020 than in 2019. How did they do it? This NYT Upshot article takes a deep dive into this by focusing on the Chicago area.
• A Debt.Com survey revealed how people changed their usage of credit cards (for the better) during the pandemic. Have people learned an important lesson? Will the change become permanent? (PRNewswire)
• About 7 of the 29 million uninsured (health) Americans qualify for coverage under the ACA with no premiums thanks to the American Rescue Plan. (Vox)
• Social security and others who receive federal benefits but do not file income taxes should get their stimulus payments by April 7. WaPo
• Vaccine efficacy and why you really can’t compare the numbers you see for each vaccine with any other is clearly explained. (Vox-YouTube Video)

Careers

• Will emergency savings accounts be the next benefit to be offered to employees? (Investment News)

Taxes

• Unemployment benefits fraud is a now a huge issue. It hit someone in my family. But luckily, we found out about it before anything was paid out. What if you don’t know a fraudulent claim has been made in your name until you receive a 1099-G form and now owe taxes on funds you didn’t ask for or receive? WSJ

Retirement

• What is you are late to the retirement savings game? What should you do? A Wealth of Common Sense has some suggestions.
• The deadline to contribute to an IRA for 2020 has also been moved back to May 17. (CNBC)

About the Author

Beth Tallman

Beth Tallman entered the working world armed with an MBA in finance and thoroughly enjoyed her first career working in manufacturing and telecommunications, including a stint overseas. She took advantage of an involuntary separation to try teaching high school math, something she had always dreamed of doing. When fate stepped in once again, Beth jumped on the opportunity to combine her passion for numbers, money, and education to develop curriculum and teach personal finance at Oberlin College. Beth now spends her time writing on personal finance and financial education, conducts student workshops, and develops finance curricula and educational content. She is also the Treasurer of Ohio Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.