
How Financial Technology Can Help Lift People Out of Poverty
As my taxi meandered out of the Kolkata International Airport parking lot and into the dimly lit streets, I was suddenly overcome by emotion of a new reality I have never endured.

Trained in the Trades
Area companies and educators are developing much-needed middle-skill workers, but will low wages make it impossible to fill the void?
Industries around the Capital Region are feeling the pinch of trying to find qualified, skilled workers needed to fill various positions. Some companies are starting to reach out to trade programs to help fill those gaps.

Back and Forward: Virginia Varela
Golden Pacific Bank CEO on community banking in the Capital Region
Virginia Varela, Golden Pacific Bank president and CEO, offers her insight into the region’s community banks.

Taxing California: Highest in the Nation And Unstable too
California’s major revenue sources have shifted over time. Until 1995, the biggest was property taxes. Today, it’s personal income taxes.
And California ranks fairly high in overall taxation: 10th highest both per capita and as a percentage of personal income, based on the latest available data from the U.S. Census.

CalPERS Weighs Push for Sexual-Harassment Corporate Disclosure
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund, is weighing a policy to urge companies in which it invests to disclose sexual-harassment settlements.

Mad Math
Borrowing another home's price per square foot is a risky equation
If the math proved easy when pricing your home, perhaps you’ve made this critical mistake.

Healthy, Wealthy & Wise
When you really think about it, what are the two pieces of finance that can impact someone the hardest? The answer, we think, is budgeting and credit.
So why is it that we don’t learn about these topics in school?

Funding Your Future
With the rising cost of college, experts educate students on applying for financial aid and scholarships
Getting into college is only half the challenge; paying for it is quite another. According to research conducted by two assistant professors of economics, in a paper titled “Accounting for the Rising in College Tuition,” the cost of college tuition more than doubled from 1987 to 2010, and outpaced inflation by 2-4 percent.

Smart Succession Planning Unlocks Your Retirement Funds
As it stands today, roughly 12 million Baby Boomers own some type of small business, the combined value of which is roughly equal to $10 trillion. This comes at a time when the oldest of them have just crossed into their seventies.

PayPal Debuts Credit Card Targeting Brick-and-Mortar Stores
PayPal is turning to its old nemesis, plastic, to help it expand beyond the digital realm.