Category: Finance

Young women are the most underserved market for financial services. A gradual, structured approach to their financial inclusion, starting with savings and complemented by non-financial support – is key. Commercial financial service providers (FSPs) often have limited ability and interest to invest in these services, especially over the timespan required for the hardest-to-reach segments of […]

The cacophony and hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to grow with every month. Whether being heralded as the key to exponential economic gains and human efficiency or the potential downfall of the species, AI is never far from the headlines. Whatever a person might feel about this emerging technology, it is now omnipresent and […]

When U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sweeping new tariffs on imported goods on April 2, 2025 – upending global trade and sending markets into a tailspin – he presented the move as a response to a crisis. In an executive order released the same day, the White House said the move was necessary to address […]

A bold regulatory push led by Dr. Margarita Hernandez, former head of Ecuador’s cooperative financial market authority (Superintendencia de Economía Popular y Solidaria or SEPS), is transforming the financial inclusion landscape. Its 2021 Regulation for the protection of the rights of members, clients, and financial users through financial inclusion with a gender perspective establishes measures […]

What would the United States stand to lose economically if its current access to the Taiwanese market were upended or totally restricted? This seemingly theoretical question about the longtime U.S. trading partner has taken on more relevance in the past several weeks. First, longtime fears about a potential Chinese invasion of the island – which […]

Since the mid-2000s, the Medicare system has dramatically transformed. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage – the private alternative to the traditional Medicare program administered by the government – has more than quadrupled. It now accounts for the majority of Medicare enrollment. Employers, including state government agencies, are helping drive this growth in Medicare Advantage sign-ups. The […]

President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping new tariff plan on April 2, 2025, to reshape U.S. trade and boost domestic industry. Framing the announcement as “Liberation Day,” he proposed a 10% tariff on essentially all imports, with steeper rates for major trade partners, including 34% on Chinese goods and 20% on those from the European […]

The U.S. operates one of the largest and most punitive criminal justice systems in the world. On any given day, 1.9 million people are incarcerated in more than 6,000 federal, state and local facilities. Another 3.7 million remain under what scholars call “correctional control” through probation or parole supervision. That means one out of every […]

Are you prepared for when the power goes out? To prevent massive wildfires in drought-prone, high-wind areas, electrical companies have begun preemptively shutting off electricity. These planned shutdowns are called public safety power shutoffs, abbreviated to PSPS, and they’re increasingly common. So far this year, we’ve seen them in Texas, New Mexico and California. Unlike […]

Congress may soon consider whether to cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the main way the government helps low-income Americans put food on the table. The Conversation U.S. asked Tracy Roof, a political scientist who has researched the history of government nutrition programs, to explain what’s going on and why the effort to […]