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Charitable
contributions to higher education grew 9.4% to a record $28 billion in the
last academic year, according
to a report by the Council for Aid to Education. Contributions to
Stanford University rose 50% to top $911.6 million, the largest amount
ever raised by a U.S. university in a year, according to the report.
The population of affluent and
wealthy individuals in North America will grow 24% to 37.7 million by 2010
from from 30.4 million in 2006, according to Celent. The report expects
this affluent group to control over $19 trillion in assets by 2010.
Americans lost about $49.3 billion in 2006 to
identity theft criminals, a 11.5% decline from $55.7 billion identity
theft loss in 2005, on increased vigilance among consumers and businesses,
according to
The 2007 Identity Fraud Survey Report by Javelin Strategy &
Research.
Continue reading... "Identity Theft Loss Falls 12% to $49 billion in 2006" »
Personal
savings rate for
all of 2006 declined to a negative 1%, lower than
a negative 0.4% in 2005 and was the lowest since a
negative 1.5% savings rate in 1933 during the Depression, according to data
from the Commerce Department.
Continue reading... "2006 Personal Savings Rate Was at a 74-Year Low" »
More banks are
allowing customers to overdraw with debit card purchases and at ATMs, then
hitting them with fees of up to $35, according to the Center for
Responsible Lending.
American
consumers spent an average of
$164.81 on gift cards, up from the $146.20 they expected to spend, driving
the total gift card spending during the 2006 holiday season to $27.8 billion,
according
to an NRF survey, conducted by BIGresearch.
Just 27% of the richest Americans, with household net
worth of $25 million or more, owned hedge funds in 2006, down from 38% in
2005, according to a new Spectrem Group report, “What’s in Your
Portfolio?” That represents a decline of 29% in one year.
The
world's financial assets reached a record $140 trillion worth of stocks,
bonds and other financial assets as of 2005, more than three times as
large as the total worldwide GDP, according to a study by McKinsey &
Co., the Wall Street Journal reported.
Most
Americans are moderately upbeat about their family's financial prospects
in 2007, with 57% expecting some improvement in their financial situation
and another 10% expecting a lot of improvement, according to a new Pew
Research Center survey.
Continue reading... "67% Americans Upbeat About Family Financial Prospects in 2007: Pew Research" »
