Casey Hynes

Sustainability and eco-consciousness are — as you have probably heard by now — becoming a bigger issue not just in the political arena, but as a result, in the business world. Carbon footprints of businesses are being examined across industries, and in the commercial real estate (CRE) world, developers should heed this trend not only when considering the environmental impact, but also the financial benefits of funding sustainable buildings.

Manufacturing has historically been ahead of the curve with automation — at least in terms of production. But when it comes to business process automation, the industry has generally been slower to adapt. The combination of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and automation is transforming production lines, making for smarter, more efficient supply chains around the world.

The new ASC 815: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) made a number of changes to the types of hedging allowed under the new guidelines. The amendment greenlights the use of the Security Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Municipal Swap Rate and contractually specified rates in hedges against interest rate changes.

Coming up with a traditional 20% down payment for a house can be a tall order. That’s particularly true if you live in an area with a hot property market. Look at Los Angeles, where as of October 2018, the median price for a single-family home is $614,500 — that means a down payment of a whopping $122,900. Saving that kind of money can be daunting, especially when you factor in other home buying costs, like closing fees, appraisals, taxes and other expenses.

Women make up half the population of the U.S., are more likely to earn college degrees, and are directly responsible for raising the country’s median family income. Yet they still face deep economic disadvantages.
While women generally live longer than men, they only have half the retirement savings. They are also vulnerable to financial volatility—less likely than men to have a robust savings account, women suffer almost double the financial damage following a divorce. A recent analysis by t...

More than two-thirds of college students leave school in debt. Loans taken out to finance higher education—long considered a necessity for most well-paying jobs—are eating up an average 18 percent of income for millennial graduates, with most expecting to still be paying in their 40s. This is a relatively new phenomenon—in the last 20 years, the cost of attending an in-state public university has increased 237 percent, while private universities have increased tuition by 157 percent.

Your local bank isn’t your only option anymore when shopping for a mortgage. Online-only lenders such as SoFi, Better, Guaranteed Rate and Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans are now competing for borrowers looking for more flexibility in their homebuying journeys.
They join an industry inexorably moving online. Last year, 43% of customers began their mortgage application process online, according to J.D. Power.

Student loans have become a collective burden for Americans. Across the country, 44 million people carry student loan debt, with an average balance of roughly $40,000. The burden is shared among generations as well. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), student debt quadrupled among people 60 and older between 2007 and 2017.

Though the future of digital currencies remains opaque in many ways, blockchain is now seen as a potential major disruptor in many industries, not just in financial services. Indonesia's blockchain leaders are eager to take advantage of the opportunities the technology presents.

The hackathon provided participants a chance to stretch their skills and develop a product outside their usual domains. The API Showdown (API stands for application programming interface), held in Chicago from October 14-15, aimed to spark innovation in the digital payments space.

When consumers need to transfer money urgently, whether that’s to pay bills, cover emergency expenses or loan money to a loved one, they don’t want to wait three days for the money to be available. Emergencies happen, and when they do, people need money now – not three days from now.

It’s mid-November, and that means Cyber Monday is around the corner. In 2016, one outlet dubbed Cyber Monday 2016 as the biggest day for e-commerce sales in U.S. history.1 Cyber Monday 2017 could be another landmark for online retail sales. Here are six ways to take advantage of this holiday sales opportunity.

Bitcoin has taken its investors on a wild ride in recent months. Just this week, prices soared to more than $11,300, then fell back to around $9,000. Some experts speculate that the Bitcoin boom is a bubble, while others predict that its value could continue to rise. Whatever happens, there are those in the Southeast Asian tech scene who predict that cryptocurrency startups will be winners either way.

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba wracked up $25.3 billion in sales during its Singles Day extravaganza, beating last year's numbers by 40%. The online shopping frenzy was a bigger financial success than Black Friday, America's day of blatant consumerism. But the company is no doubt especially celebrating its performance in Southeast Asia, where it's been making a strong push in recent years.