March is historically a poor month for gold, which is bad sign for the commodity, since it's already down 1.6 percent year-to-date, writes Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg View. The reasons for gold's decline are many, including the fact that the expected hyperinflation that was supposed to send gold soaring never happened. Instead, with robust job growth and low inflation, the Fed has been in the business of strengthening the dollar, lessening gold's appeal. All in all, if the economic trends of the past few years are any indicator, favor stocks, not gold, Ritholtz writes.
Despite the shenanigans being disclosed in a high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit currently ongoing at top venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, women are actually making progress on the corporate ladder of VC firms; almost 15 percent of senior positions are held by women, up from 11.2 percent at the start of 2014, according to Preqin, the highest level of year-over-year growth seen among all the areas covered by the survey. A year ago, VC firms had fewer women at the top than infrastructure and real estate firms, but more than at buyout firms.
Despite the headlines and attention the Federal Reserve receives, it seems its market moving capabilities do not resonate with the broader American public. Or at least they’re not familiar with the name of the Fed’s current chairwoman. Almost 70 percent of Americans didn’t recognize Janet Yellen’s name when they heard it, according to a Wall Street Journal and NBC News poll of 1,000 U.S. respondents released Monday. People were also generally ambivalent about the Federal Reserve as well—42 percent had a neutral view on the agency; 30 percent have a positive or slightly positive view; and 20 percent having a negative or slightly negative view. About 8 percent said they were undecided.
It appears that rigorous financial education for high school students is having a positive impact on their adult lives, according to results from a study conducted by a Montana State University professor. The goal of the research was to examine the effectiveness of state mandates on financial literacy at the high school level. Results found “notable improvements in credit outcomes" for those who took the programs, including the improvement of credit scores and reduced probability of credit delinquency. The three states that mandated financial education in high school after 2000, Georgia, Idaho and Texas, were used in the study, along with control states with no requirements on the books.
