published Feb 13th 2017, 5:00 am, by Mark Whitehouse (Bloomberg View) —Over the past few decades, black Americans have gained on whites in a lot of areas, including education, two-parent families and employment. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to have helped them erase what may be the most important disparity: wealth.

 published Feb 13th 2017, 3:23 pm, by Oliver Renick (Bloomberg) —U.S. stocks climbed, following fresh record highs for benchmark indexes on Friday, as banks rallied and investors continued to assess corporate earnings that are posting the best growth since 2014. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to 2,328.25, the

published Feb 10th 2017, 11:11 am, by Wei Lu and Vincent Del Giudice (Bloomberg) — If you’re looking to retire, you may want to avoid these countries. With the world’s working-age population shrinking faster than expected, fewer people are left to support a growing number of seniors, according to the

published Feb 7th 2017, 10:00 am, by Suzanne Woolley (Bloomberg) — Financial services companies go into overdrive around Valentine’s Day, along with florists, chocolate makers, and jewelers. Usually, it’s surveys about love and money, with advice on avoiding financial conflict with a partner. Student loan company SoFi has thrown its

published Feb 12th 2017, 2:00 pm, by Yumi Teso and Lilian Karunungan (Bloomberg) — Combine the prospects for interest-rate cuts with their higher carry-trade returns and two countries stand out as the best bets this year in emerging markets: Brazil and Russia. In a survey of 16 investors and analysts

published Feb 9th 2017, 3:22 pm, by Oliver Renick (Bloomberg) —U.S. stocks advanced to new highs after weekly applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly declined and investors assessed earnings from Coca-Cola Co. and Kellogg Co. to Twitter Inc. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.6 percent to 2,307.87 at 4 p.m., while

published Feb 8th 2017, 2:53 pm, by Megan McArdle (Bloomberg View) —Well-adjusted children and functional marriages go together. But are the kids thriving because the parents’ marriage works, or does the marriage work for the same reasons that the kids are thriving? This is what social scientists call “selection effect,”

published Feb 9th 2017, 4:38 pm, by Kim Bhasin and Lindsey Rupp (Bloomberg) —Before her father became president, Ivanka Trump built a successful fashion label selling clothing, shoes, and handbags in hundreds of department stores and boutiques across the country. But this winter, following an acrimonious election and protests against

published Feb 9th 2017, 7:19 pm, by Yuko Takeo and Toshiro Hasegawa (Bloomberg) —Donald Trump is moving Japanese stocks again; this time in a good way. And exporters are reaping the benefits. The U.S. president’s comment Thursday that a “phenomenal” reconstruction of business taxes will come within weeks sent the

published Feb 8th 2017, 10:30 am, by Rebecca Greenfield (Bloomberg) —Companies like Facebook have spent the last few years beefing up their parental-leave policies to attract and retain the most sought-after workers. Now they’re looking at new ways to help them balance work and life. Up next in the benefits arms race: helping workers