Happy New Year! The biggest news item of the week was the jobs report that was released this morning. And the New Year brings higher minimum wages in 23 states and marks the unofficial start of tax season. Read on for this week’s top stories.

Economics

• The December Jobs Report is a good news/bad news situation. Growth in hospitality, health care and construction fueled the 223,000 increase, wage growth slowed, and unemployment dropped to 2.5%. Will we achieve a soft landing, or is the labor market still too hot for the Fed to cut back on interest rate increases? (AP) (BLS release with data)
• Amazon announced it will layoff thousands of corporate employees. (CNN)
• The minutes from the last Federal Open Market Committee Meeting were released this week, and markets react to indications there will be no rate cuts in 2023. (CNBC)(Forbes)
• MUST READ! Alan Blinder breaks down inflation numbers in a different way in his opinion piece in the WSJ (subscription may be required.) The title is “What if Inflation Suddenly Dropped and No One Noticed?” This is an extremely valuable read and demonstrates how tricky it is to truly understand statistics. All the talking heads on TV were referring to this article this morning.

Investing

• A Wealth of Common Sense explains what happened in the stock market in 2022.
• What should we expect for the housing market in 2023? (CNN)

Career

• Minimum wages increased in 23 states on January 1. (Axios)
• The Federal Trade Commission has proposed banning non-compete agreements, and moving more power back onto the employees’ side from employers. These agreements keep people trapped in jobs (at lower incomes). The proposed changes are now open for public comment. (NPR)

Taxes

• Data on distributions of wealthy people by state reveal where these folks are moving to catch better tax breaks. (VOX)
• The end of a year reminds us all that income tax season is about to be upon us. And the ads will start for RALs (refund advance loans.) Here is some good advice if you are considering this path. (Don’t Mess with Taxes)

Crypto

• Crypto exchange COINBASE settled with New York Regulators for $100 million for compliance issues.   This and other Crypto News are covered in this week’s CNBC Crypto World video report. (CNBC)

Other News of Interest

• You may be indifferent about billionaires, but many lost record amounts of wealth this year. The numbers are mind-boggling. (Forbes)
• Also mind-boggling is the cost of new drugs designed to treat certain cancers and several rare diseases. (Reuters)
• Watch this fascinating interactive chart showing the value of top brands annually from 2000-2022. (Visual Capitalist)

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.