A slightly longer list for your holiday weekend reading.

Economics

• Today’s jobs report was disappointing. Only 235,000 jobs added in August (700k+ expected). (Yahoo Finance)
  • Previous months revised upward
  • Unemployment rate drops from 5.4% to 5.2%
  • Wages up, particularly for leisure and hospitality
  • Delta variant seems to be the cause of decline in leisure and hospitality jobs 
• Listen to the Indicator podcast from Planet Money as Mike Konczal, Director of Macroeconomic Analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, discusses "Jeromonomics"—how Jerome Powell thinks differently about the economy.
• Home prices in the US rose at a record rate in June. (AP)
• The pandemic recession is bad news for Social Security, moving up its insolvency by a year to 2034. (NPR)
• Cutting extra unemployment benefits did not lead to increase hiring. Here is why. (Ritholz.com)
• The pandemic certainly exacerbated the childcare crisis in the US. This Fortune article reviews how this impacted (women in) the workforce, and what future support from the government might mean for “Big” childcare (corporate, for-profit chains.) 

Investing

• Robinhood stock is being hard hit as the SEC/Gary Gensler talk about banning payment for order flow. (CNBC)
• Read more about the SEC inquiry into online brokers and their use of “digital Engagement Practices.” (Investment News)
• Cathie Woods of ARK Investment Management plans to create an ETF that takes ESG investing to a new level-NO VICE (no oil and gas, alcohol, bank or gambling stocks.) (MarketWatch)

Cryptocurrency

• This article describes how a brother and sister are now making thousands per month mining crypto. It took lots of financial support from dad. (CNBC)
• Billionaire John Paulson warms investors to stay away from asset bubbles and predicts crypto will eventually be worthless. (MarketWatch)
• Bitcoin uses more energy than the country of Finland! (NYT)

Relationships

• This one is a great read on the importance of achieving financial equality in relationships and how to get there. (The New York Times)

Career/Higher Ed

• College may not be right for everyone. It may not be that hard to get in, but statistics prove it is hard to succeed there. The Humble Dollar explains the need for parents to form (and be satisfied with) a ‘Plan B’ for their children.
• Millennials, burnt out but with some savings, quit jobs during the pandemic to pursue other goals. (WSJ-subscription required)

Insurance

• INCYI – here is a follow-up article on insurance and covid medical bills. (NYT) (For more on insurance, check out NGPF What’s New With Insurance for 2021.)

Retirement

• Commonly, when talking about saving for retirement, the target has been $1,000,000.   Not any more. Want to guess the current suggested target? (Yahoo Finance)
• Questions about Social Security? The NYT Your Money tries to answer them.

Schools and Covid

• Read beyond the story of the Marin County outbreak and check out the simulations. Masks and regular testing will be critical. (WAPO-subscription may be required)

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.