Defenders of the flag: As many of the nation’s largest retailers—including Walmart, Sears/Kmart, eBay, Amazon, Etsy and Google Shopping—abruptly decided this week to stop selling merchandise tied to the Confederate battle flag, The New York Times reports some buyers are scooping up as much merchandise featuring the controversial flag as they can. On Tuesday, Confederate flags jumped to the top of Amazon’s Patio, Lawn & Garden category, with purchases of some items spiking by more than 5,000%. By midafternoon Tuesday, the Dixie Flag Company in San Antonio had sold 25 Confederate flags in 24 hours, according to the company’s president, Pete Van de Putte. Usually, the company has no more than three orders a week for the flags and sometimes only three in a month, he says. Read the full story.
Calling it home: The majority of American households still own their homes, a fact that will remain true as far into the future as demographers and economists can see. But as The Washington Post reports, the balance of homeowners and renters has been shifting in the U.S. in ways that have already altered the demographics of renting, the affordability of rental housing and the kind of new housing being built. This shift, underway since the housing bust, is flipping conventional images of what it means to rent: Renters are now living, by the millions, in single-family homes that were once owned. Wealthy households far from the stereotype of struggling twentysomethings are renting, too. So are the parents of those twentysomethings. Read the full story.
Money talks: When it comes to communicating about finances, many American couples have some catching up to do. A new study by Fidelity Investments being released today found 72% of the couples surveyed believed they communicate very—even exceptionally—well. But four in 10 of the pairs didn’t know how much their partner earned. The miscommunication didn’t stop there. Among the 1,051 pairs questioned, 36% had different ideas about the amount in their family’s savings accounts, 401(k)s, and other investable assets. Almost half of the couples had no clue how much they would need to put away to continue their current lifestyle once they retired, and 47% couldn’t agree on how much savings they would need. USA Today has the full story.
