Business: Latest Financial Topics from The Washington Post

Labor Department rule sets new standards for retirement advice
The Labor Department released more details about a long-awaited rule expected to be released Wednesday that would set limits on the advice that brokers can offer to retirement savers.Under the “fiduciary rule,” which has been in the works since 2010, brokers selling investments to retirement savers would be required to put the client’s interest ahead of their own. The sweeping rule change would create a higher standard than the current regulations, which only require that brokers recommend investments that are “suitable,” even if it may not be the client’s best option.Read full article >>

The Vive virtual reality headset is clunky, pricey and completely amazing
After a little less than a week with the HTC Vive, I have to say that the new virtual-reality headset from HTC and Valve can be disorienting. It’s hard to set up. It can be a little wonky.It’s completely amazing.Read full article >>

On Leadership: The ‘tremendously complex’ decision facing Disney’s board
Last February, The Walt Disney Co.’s board was hailed for an orderly succession process, free of the drama that had filled its last CEO transition. But just over a year later, the decision on whom to hand the keys to the Magic Kingdom is suddenly a script without an obvious ending. Read full article >>

Here’s how some people justify reserving Tesla’s Model 3, in their own words
Tesla’s Model 3 is generating tremendous discussion about whether to reserve a spot in line, even with the knowledge that Elon Musk’s new electric car may not arrive for years. For many company loyalists, it’s a no-brainer for your budget and the environment. To skeptics, the Model 3 represents a dangerously risky bet that’s been amplified by a ceaseless hype train. The arguments are flying back and forth on Quora. In their own words, here’s why some people are dropping $1,000 on a car they haven’t even seen yet, and others are holding back.Read full article >>

PayPal abandons plans to open facility in Charlotte because of LGBT law
The backlash against a North Carolina law that bars local governments from extending civil rights protections to gay and transgender people continued Tuesday, with PayPal saying it is abandoning plans to expand into Charlotte in response to the legislation.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: How the U.S. became one of the world’s biggest tax havens
The single-story brick building at 1209 North Orange St. in downtown Wilmington, Del., looks bland and innocuous. But the building, home to the Corporation Trust Company, has an intriguing claim to fame. In the last few years, it has served as the registered address for more than 250,000 businesses, giving companies around the world access to Delaware’s business-friendly laws.Read full article >>

Obama criticizes companies that leave U.S. for lower taxes
President Obama made a forceful case Tuesday for stopping corporations from moving their headquarters overseas in order to avoid U.S. taxes, saying they are taking advantage of the American economic system and saddling the middle class with the bill.Read full article >>

The little-known auction that could change the course of technology, explained
Billions of people around the world rely on invisible airwaves to carry their cellphone calls, surf the mobile Internet and watch over-the-air TV. But thanks to a never-before-tried auction launched by the federal government last week, we’re about to witness a wholesale transfer of these airwaves that could transform the way we interact with our technology.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Senators held a hearing to remind you that ‘good people don’t smoke marijuana’ (yes, really)
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Tuesday convened a hearing of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control to investigate whether the Justice Department has been derelict in its enforcement duties on marijuana.Read full article >>

Innovations: The car industry has never witnessed what Tesla is about to go through
Most of the best selling cars in America, such as the Honda Accord or Nissan Altima, generally hit around 300,000 in sales every year.Tesla saw 276,000 people sign-up to buy its newest all-electric Model 3 sedan — in two days.Read full article >>

There really are too many stores. Just ask the retailers.
On your most recent shopping trip, there’s a good chance you noticed that one of your favorite stores is shuttering its doors. Walmart has said it will close 154 U.S. stores this year. Macy’s is in the process of axing 40 locations. By June, department store Kohl’s will shutter 18 stores.Read full article >>

Twitter lands NFL rights to stream Thursday night games
The NFL is coming to Twitter, big time.The league has reached an agreement with the social media company to live-stream Thursday night games this season. The agreement, first reported by Bloomberg, will cover entire games and not just short clips. Twitter, with its 800 million users, has been a second-screen destination for NFL fans virtually since its inception and now will become a single-screen source for games as well as commentary, video highlights and fan chatter.Read full article >>

A newly found Apple bug lets anyone look at your photos and contacts by using Siri
A video of a newly discovered bug in Apple’s iOS 9.3.1 operating system is making the rounds, showing that it’s possible to access an iPhone user’s contacts and photos without entering a passcode or scanning a fingerprint.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The campaign to end fetal ‘dismemberment’ is spreading
Pennsylvania lawmakers are pushing to outlaw the most common abortion method used in second-trimester procedures, embracing a new strategy from anti-abortion groups seeking to suppress the technique nationwide. Read full article >>

Global economic uncertainty drags down stocks
Global stocks fell in the Asian and European markets Tuesday while crude oil remained weak amid worries about global economic growth. Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, warned in a speech in Frankfurt on Tuesday that the global economy’s recovery “remains too slow” and “too fragile.” Although Lagarde cited “much progress since the great financial crisis,” her comments added to concern that the IMF may revise down its forecasts for global growth.Read full article >>

Ford just took another step toward a traffic-free future
Commuters, this is for you. Ford is rolling out a new, semi-autonomous feature that promises to help cope with the tedium and stress of bumper-to-bumper traffic. It’s an upgrade to its adaptive cruise control technology that supports stop-and-go traffic.Read full article >>

We drove cars that can drive themselves — and cost only $20,000
Good news: You can buy a car today that will stop itself from crashing, keep itself in lane and even speed up and slow down to match the traffic ahead. Even better news: You don’t have to go broke paying for it. Cars with this type of sort-of-self-driving technology now start at about $20,000. Read full article >>

How Facebook is helping the blind ‘see’ pictures their friends share online
Matt King sat down one Saturday morning six years ago with what seemed like a simple mission: He wanted to add a few friends on Facebook.“I eventually accomplished my goal,” he said. “But I have to say, it took me an entire morning — at least 4 hours — to do what somebody else probably could have done in a few minutes.”Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Donald Trump is just Paul Ryan on steroids
Donald Trump has come up with the most mathematically impossible plan, well, possible.That’s not hyperbole. Trump wants to cut taxes by $7 trillion the next eight years, doesn’t want to cut Social Security, Medicare, or Defense one penny, and still wants to pay off the $19 trillion national debt by the end of his hypothetical second term. About the only thing he hasn’t promised is that he’ll try to top Oprah by giving everyone a car and a pony.Read full article >>

On Leadership: Corporate America’s embrace of gay rights has reached a stunning tipping point
The news releases rolled in last week, one after another, the numbers swelling with each one. More than 80 companies were demanding that North Carolina repeal a law that limits bathroom options for transgender people and blocks local anti-discrimination rules. A day later, it was more than 90. Then more than 100. Then more than 120.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The most interesting states in America
What is America’s most obscure state? Economist Tyler Cowen posed this question on the Marginal Revolution blog not too long ago.Cowen initially proposed Nebraska, but after running through a list of notable Nebraskans and their contributions to society, he seems to have settled on Idaho instead.Read full article >>

Main Street Morning: Why you soon can rent out office space inside a Staples store.
Welcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government.Here’s what’s affecting my small business, my clients and other entrepreneurs today. Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Larry Summers: If we really valued excellence, we would single it out
Lawrence H. Summers, the Charles W. Eliot university professor at Harvard, is a former treasury secretary and director of the National Economic Council in the White House. He is writing occasional posts on Wonkblog about issues of national and international economics and policymaking.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The pending crackdown on payday lending is causing the exact Washington argument you’d expect
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is about to release sweeping new rules that take aim at the payday lending industry, a controversial attempt to rein in loans that offer lifelines to lower-income borrowers but come with staggeringly high fees.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The world has too many workers. Government spending to the rescue.
Maybe everyone is overcomplicating America’s economic challenges today. Maybe there are no deep mysteries behind slow growth, stagnating incomes and the widespread economic anxieties that have given rise to populist movements on the left and the right.Read full article >>

Disney heir-apparent steps down
Walt Disney said Tom Staggs is stepping down as chief operating officer, a move that muddies succession plans at the world’s largest entertainment company.Staggs will remain employed by the company in the role of special adviser to chief executive Robert A. Iger through the current fiscal year, Burbank, Calif.-based Disney said Monday in a statement. No reason was given for Staggs’s departure.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: There is math, there is fantasy math, and then there’s Donald Trump’s economic math
For a moment, let’s take Donald Trump’s economic promises seriously.Trump says he can pay off a $19 trillion national debt within eight years as president. He says he can do this while cutting taxes. He has not detailed any substantial cuts he would make to federal spending, so what he is really making is a growth argument — that he could supercharge the economy, creating sufficient budget surpluses to retire the debt. “The power is trade,” he told the Post in an interview last week. “Our deals are so bad.”Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Even D.C. workers who already make $15 want a raise
Washington D.C. took another step closer to raising its minimum wage to $15 on Monday when a Superior Court judge reversed an earlier ruling to allow a ballot initiative to go forward, all but ensuring D.C. residents will vote on the measure this November.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The surprising disappearance of flakka, the synthetic drug that pushed South Florida to the brink
POMPANO BEACH, FLA. —Lt. Ozzy Tianga jumped in his unmarked cruiser and headed out for his favorite place to find flakka addicts. He hadn’t visited in a while. But as he drove down Dixie Highway one recent weekday, Tianga turned to fishing to explain the spot’s reliability:Read full article >>

Why the NFL on Facebook wasn’t going to work
Facebook reportedly withdrew a bid to carry Thursday NFL games, apparently because the way it would have had to handle commercials didn’t work for the social media network, according to Bloomberg News. The company declined to comment.Read full article >>

Treasury Dept. tries again to stop companies from giving up U.S. citizenship for lower taxes
The Treasury Department on Monday took aim at U.S. companies moving their headquarters overseas to lower their tax bills, issuing aggressive new rules intended to make such moves less profitable and throwing a potential wrench into Pfizer’s recent merger plans.Read full article >>

These labels let you compare Internet plans like you do with cereal or deli meats
When you pick up two different kinds of cereal, how do you know which one is healthier? One way is to look at the nutrition labeling, which tells you a lot about the presence of sugars, carbohydrates and other ingredients.Read full article >>

Texting-while-walking bans are missing the point about smartphone use
Walking and using your phone could be bad for your physical safety. It’s a concern that inspired a bill recently introduced by a New Jersey lawmaker that would fine people who walk and use their electronic devices at the same time. It’s one in a slew of similar measures that have been introduced in other states (none have passed at this point) in an attempt to show how distracted walking has become a problem in today’s society.Read full article >>

Just one iPhone, you say? FBI tells local police it will help unlock others.
Now that the FBI has managed to crack its way into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters, the floodgates may be opening — despite the agency’s previous statement that its legal battle with Apple was about just one phone.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Calif. and N.Y. are getting a $15 minimum wage. Here’s how much that buys everywhere else.
California and New York are about to get a raise.California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a measure Monday that will hike the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2023 — making the Golden State the second in the nation to raise its wage floor that high. The first came minutes earlier in New York, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) signed a similar piece of legislation, implementing staggered wage hikes throughout the state over the next several years.Read full article >>

Alaska Air buys Virgin America in $4 billion deal
Alaska Air Group said Monday it plans to buy Virgin America in a deal worth about $4 billion, marking another significant consolidation in the U.S. airline industry.Alaska Air is currently the sixth-largest U.S. carrier by traffic. Acquiring Virgin America would make it the fifth largest airline, leapfrogging Jet Blue, and expand its presence in key markets, including California.Read full article >>

Main Street Morning: Most business leaders actually like a higher minimum wage
Welcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government.Here’s what’s affecting my small business, my clients and other entrepreneurs today. Read full article >>

Wonkblog: White resentment is fueling opposition to gun control, researchers say
Racial prejudice could play a significant role in white Americans’ opposition to gun control, according to new research from political scientists at the University of Illinois.In their paper, published in the journal Political Behavior in November, Alexandra Filindra and Noah J. Kaplan found that whites were significantly less likely to support gun control measures when they had recently looked at pictures of black people, than when they had looked at pictures of white people. The study, which surveyed 1,000 white respondents, also found that the higher they scored on a common measure of racial prejudice, the stronger negative effect the photos of black people had on the respondents’ support for gun control.Read full article >>

How LG’s G5 compares to its closest competitors
LG’s G5 hit store shelves last week, bringing the company’s latest efforts to stand out from the smartphone pack against mega-competitors such as Apple and Samsung. LG’s tactic with this new phone is to offer top-of-the-line specs in a (slightly cheaper) phone than its premium competitors. The G5 also boasts an unusual and experimental look — a modular design that lets you pull the whole bottom of the phone off to accommodate a new battery or other accessories.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Larry Summers: Data collection is the ultimate public good
On Wednesday, I spoke at a World Bank conference on price statistics. While price statistics are not usually thought of as a scintillating subject, I got a great deal of satisfaction out of preparing and presenting my remarks. In part this was because my late father, Robert Summers, focused his economic research on international price comparisons. It was also because I am convinced that data is the ultimate public good and that we will soon have much more data than we do today.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Leaked documents show strong business support for raising the minimum wage
Whenever minimum wage increases are proposed on the state or federal level, business groups tend to fight them tooth and nail. But actual opposition may not be as united as the groups’ rhetoric might make it appear, according to internal research conducted by a leading consultant for state chambers of commerce.Read full article >>

Five ways millennials can fatten their tax refunds
Still haven’t filed your tax return?Filing taxes in April — with less than two weeks to go until the deadline — can be business as usual for some millennials. But in the rush to file at the last minute, some 20-somethings and 30-somethings may make some costly mistakes.Read full article >>

RFK Stadium site offered as home for Redskins or maybe Wizards and Capitals
D.C. officials plan to unveil an array of possibilities for the future of the RFK Stadium property Monday night, among them a new 65,000-seat Redskins stadium and a basketball and hockey venue capable of replacing Verizon Center.Read full article >>

Value Added: Value Added: On way to restaurant business, a diversion to a food truck factory
After lots of guys I know have accumulated piles of money, they often get the itch to chase a dream. It might be making a movie, owning a restaurant, buying a sports team or whatever. Eduardo Bocock didn’t make a fortune, but the entrepreneur figured he had earned enough — $1.5 million trading options — to pursue his passion of becoming a restaurateur. Lucky for him, given all that goes into creating a successful eatery, the 44-year-old native of Costa Rica found a far less risky business along the way.Read full article >>

On Leadership: Should we teach obscure presidents like Millard Fillmore?
Should we teach the presidency of Millard Fillmore? What do we lose if we don’t?According to research by human memory expert Henry Roediger at Washington University in St. Louis, only 8 percent of college students can list Fillmore when asked to write down the names of U.S. presidents.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The bizarre optimism in Donald Trump’s theory of the economy
There is a theory on the fringes of economics and finance that the United States is riding another bubble, which is about to burst and plunge the economy into a deep recession. It is not a housing bubble, like the one that triggered the last recession, but a stock bubble, puffed up by years of monetary easing from the Federal Reserve. Few professional economic forecasters subscribe to that theory, but a few finance pundits do, and so, too, does Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.Read full article >>

Jeff Bezos just live-tweeted his space company’s latest rocket launch
Opening the doors to his space company to the media for the first time last month, Jeff Bezos said he had kept the company so quiet and secretive for a simple reason: “We’ll talk about Blue Origin when we have something to talk about.”Read full article >>

Wonkblog: How to tell if other people think you’re hot, according to science
One of the most pressing and mysterious questions for humans, the self-centered beings that we are, is what other people think about us. We expend a huge amount of time and mental energy wondering if our date finds us attractive, or if our co-workers noticed that stupid thing we said in the meeting last week. We agonize over our public speaking skills, our waistlines and our hair.Read full article >>

Marriott CEO says company has ‘zero buyer’s remorse’ after winning bidding war
The chief executive of Marriott International said the Bethesda hotel giant had no regrets about finalizing its deal to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts, despite being forced into a bidding war that forced it to offer more than $1 billion than it originally agreed to in November.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The biggest reason to be optimistic about the economy
The nation’s workforce is growing again, an encouraging turnaround following years of decline that reflects Americans’ renewed faith in their ability to land a job.Employers have been on a hiring spree for the past two years, and government data released Friday shows it has not abated despite financial turmoil overseas. The U.S. economy added 215,000 jobs last month, extending the longest streak of gains on record.Read full article >>

Main Street Morning: California and New York are moving towards a $15 minimum wage
Welcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government.Here’s what’s affecting my small business, my clients and other entrepreneurs today.Read full article >>

How to find your messages if you fell for Google’s ‘Mic Drop’ prank
It’s April Fools’ Day, so Google decided to have a little fun with its users by adding a new function to Gmail: the “Mic Drop.”Using one of the Internet’s favorite mascots, minions from “Despicable Me,” Google replaced its normal “Send and Archive” button with a bright-orange one that guaranteed you’d have the last word by blocking any replies that may come after that message. It also appended a sassy little GIF of a minion dropping a mic.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The recovery is better than it’s ever been
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the economy added around 200,000 jobs, wages grew a little more than 2 percent, and unemployment slowly receded.That’s been the story of the economy the last five years, and it was the story last month too. Specifically, the economy added 215,000 jobs, wages rose 2.3 percent from a year ago, and the only wrinkle was that the unemployment rate actually increased ever-so-slightly from 4.9 to 5 percent instead of staying flat. Although at this point it feels like I don’t even need to tell you this. You can almost fill in the blanks for yourself.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: What Obama gets wrong about the media echo chamber
President Obama has had strong words for the press over the past few weeks, most recently at a dinner with journalists Monday night in Washington. He’s blamed the news media for political polarization, arguing that journalists don’t enough to challenge Americans’ preconceptions.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Chipotle’s new burger chain
A look through U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records revealed an interesting detail that slipped through the cracks early last month. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., which runs the popular Mexican-inspired fast-food chain, has been mulling a new concept. The company filed an application to trademark the name “Better Burger,” a sign that Five Guys, Shake Shack, and the rest of the upper echelon of fast-food burger chains may soon have a new competitor. Read full article >>

Can coal companies afford to clean up coal country?
A worsening financial crisis for the nation’s biggest coal companies is sparking concerns that U.S. taxpayers could be stuck with hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in cleanup costs across a landscape of shuttered mines stretching from Appalachia to the northern Plains.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The $15 minimum wage sweeping the nation might kill jobs — and that’s okay
This has been, it’s fair to say, an absolutely bonkers week for minimum wage hikes.California decided to raise the state’s floor to $15 an hour statewide by 2022. The biggest employer in Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, announced it was raising its minimum wage to $15 by 2021. Last night, New York State leaders cut a deal to get to $15 within three years in New York City and six years in Long Island and Westchester, and $12.50 within five years in the rest of the state. After a Montgomery County Council member announced a new $15 wage proposal Thursday as well, there are now about a dozen live $15 campaigns around the country.Read full article >>

Why Silicon Valley’s ‘unicorns’ have regulators worried
Wall Street’s top regulator went to the heart of Silicon Valley this week to defend the public markets and warn tech startups of the perils of staying private too long.Mary Jo White, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, took particular note of the world’s 150 so-called unicorns, tech companies valued at $1 billion or more, but still in private hands. “Beyond the hype and the headlines, our collective challenge is to look past the eye-popping valuations and carefully examine the implications of this trend for investors,” White said in a speech at Stanford Law School late Thursday.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Why tens of thousands of America’s poorest people just lost their food stamps
As many as 1 million Americans will stop receiving food stamps over the course of this year beginning on Friday, the consequence of a controversial work mandate that has been reinstated in 22 states as the economy improves.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: This juice is bananas
In 1992, the Los Angeles Times noticed a trend in its infancy. Instead of eating their fruits and vegetables, people were beginning to mix them up and drink them. “No longer an activity limited to health nuts and aging hippies, juicing is a full-blown trend. ‘Juice’ is even a reflexive verb, as in, ‘Do you juice?,'” the paper wrote.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Under pressure to digitize everything, hospitals are hackers’ biggest new target
As MedStar Health continued to restore its systems this week, Internet security experts and hospital officials said the cyberattack on the massive health care provider is a foreboding sign that an industry racing to digitize patient records and services faces a new kind of security threat that it is ill-prepared to handle.Read full article >>

Hoping for a big tax credit on the Tesla Model 3? Act now, or forever hold your keys
Tesla’s newly unveiled Model 3 has people lining up around the block for pre-orders. The latest electric car from Elon Musk is generating tons of excitement, in no small part because of the car’s intended audience: Price-conscious, average drivers like you and me.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The cunning trick in North Carolina’s radical new anti-LGBT law
When the city of Charlotte outlawed LGBT discrimination in February, civil rights groups knew that political retaliation was coming.The blow landed last week. In a single day, the governor and legislature of North Carolina unveiled, deliberated, passed, and signed into law a bill that activists have described as the most extreme anti-LGBT measure in the country — forcing transgender people into bathrooms that differ from their gender identity and disabling cities from creating laws protecting LGBT people.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: US economy adds 215,000 jobs in March, jobless rate ticks up to 5 percent
The nation’s hiring boom continued its momentum in March, with government data released Friday morning showing the economy added 215,000 jobs last month. Employers have been bringing on workers at a rapid clip for the past two years, and the strengthening job market is encouraging many people who had been on the sidelines to start looking for work. That pushed the unemployment rate up slightly to 5 percent in March, according to the data from the Labor Department . Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The surprisingly narrow reality of America’s urban revival
Census population data show that suburban America is, once again, outgrowing central cities. Even exurban counties, those beyond suburban areas, are gaining population faster than urban ones, for the second year in a row. And the growth that the densest places in the country have enjoyed since the housing bust is actually slowing down.Read full article >>

The top 7 design features of the Tesla Model 3
Intense interest surrounds Tesla’s new Model 3, which chief executive Elon Musk unveiled to the public last night. If you missed the event, you can watch it above. But for a quick rundown of the key highlights, here are the top seven features of the Model 3.Read full article >>

Meet the new Model 3 from Tesla
At an event in Los Angeles — near midnight East Coast time — Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk unveiled his new creation, the Model 3. Starting at $35,000, the car represents Tesla’s first effort to bring an electric car to the masses.Read full article >>

Apple’s new iPad Pro made me rethink how I use tablets
When Apple first introduced the iPad, the company pitched it as a creation device. The iPad was supposed to be a sort of super-powered digital notebook perfect for the moments when creativity strikes. Then-Apple chief executive Steve Jobs saw it as a post-PC device, and many thought it could take us away from our desks and prompt us to find inspiration in the real world.Read full article >>

On Leadership: Why these soccer stars are the right leaders to fight sports’ gender pay gap
In what they called a “historic” moment, five key players for the U.S. women’s soccer team — stars Carli Lloyd, Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Becky Sauerbrunn — have filed a federal complaint against U.S. Soccer over wage discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Despite producing higher revenues for U.S. Soccer, the women and their lawyer argue, they were paid nearly four times less what their male counterparts earned.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Everyone benefits when women’s soccer players earn more
In the 2016 fiscal year, the U.S. women’s national soccer team earned $23.5 million in revenues for games it played in America. That was triple the revenue the U.S. Soccer Federation predicted in its budget for the year, and it was more than the men’s national soccer team earned from games in the same time period.Read full article >>

America’s poor can now get cheaper Internet access
Federal regulators have approved a historic expansion of subsidies for the poor, fleshing out for the first time a set of Reagan-era discounts on phone service to include home Internet access.The 3-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission Thursday will let roughly 40 million Americans on food stamps, Medicaid or other federal assistance register for and use an existing benefit worth $9.25 a month to purchase broadband service, either as part of a voice bundle on cellular or fixed networks, or on a standalone basis with no voice plan attached. Of those eligible for Lifeline, more than 13 million have no Internet service, according to federal officials.Read full article >>

American Airlines will no longer let travelers hold flight reservations for 24 hours
Starting Friday, American Airlines will get rid of a feature that let customers lock in airfare for 24 hours without having to put any money down. Instead, it will switch to the model most other airlines follow: Travelers will now have the ability to cancel a flight and receive a full refund as long as they cancel within 24 hours of booking.Read full article >>

Innovations: Tesla fans are waiting in line to buy a car that they haven’t even seen yet
Would you put down a $1,000 deposit to buy something you haven’t even seen? For fans of Tesla Motors, the answer isn’t only yes, but also that they will happily camp out for hours to ensure a favorable position on the company’s waiting list.Read full article >>

An accidental invasion of Costa Rica and other errors made by relying on Google Maps
A Google Maps error has been sending tourists seeking “Mt. Rushmore, SD” to the wrong location for nearly five years now. Storm Mountain Center, a retreat center located some 13 miles from the real Mt. Rushmore, has repeatedly asked Google Maps to update the Mt. Rushmore address. But whatever fixes proved temporary for unknown reasons — and as of this writing, the address is still wrong.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: This story has been removed
This story was removed because it was based on a press release that Pfizer confirmed was false and not sent by the company.Read full article >>

GE says its lending unit is no longer ‘too big to fail,’ shouldn’t face strict federal oversight
General Electric on Thursday asked federal regulators to lift the company’s “too big to fail” label on its lending unit, allowing the firm to escape the tougher government oversight put in place following the 2008 financial crisis.Read full article >>

Mortgage rates flat this week but may be headed lower
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen indicated earlier this week that the central bank should move cautiously in raising rates. The news spurred investors to purchase government bonds, sending yields lower.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: What’s straight across the ocean when you’re at the beach
If you jumped in the ocean at Atlantic City, N.J., and started swimming in a straight line, where in the world do you think you would end up?The answer, surprisingly, is South America, according to a new map project by cartographer Andy Woodruff. If you start swimming now, you just might end up in Rio in time for the summer Olympics.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Larry Summers: Colleges have become hypersensitive to racial prejudice. Why not anti-Semitism?
Lawrence H. Summers, the Charles W. Eliot university professor at Harvard, is a former treasury secretary and director of the National Economic Council in the White House. He is writing occasional posts on Wonkblog about issues of national and international economics and policymaking.Read full article >>

Who should (and should not) buy the iPhone SE
I’ve spent a week now with a review iPhone SE provided by Apple, and I’m happy to recommend it to anyone who’s interested in getting the company’s latest four-inch device.I just won’t count myself among them.Read full article >>

Main Street Morning: A task management app reaches a $600 million valuation
Welcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government.Here’s what’s affecting my small business, my clients and other entrepreneurs today.Read full article >>

This couple has six retirement accounts. Is it time to simplify?
With retirement still two decades away, Amanda Hunt and Mark Bellinger have time to boost savings and fine-tune their plan.But getting a total snapshot of where they stand in terms of savings can be tricky. Between the two of them, they have six retirement accounts: two individual retirement accounts, one managed account, one Roth IRA and two thrift savings plans.Read full article >>

Instagram takes on Snapchat and YouTube with 60-second videos
Have a lot more to say on Instagram? You’re in luck. The company announced Tuesday that it’s going to extend the time limit on videos on its network to 60 seconds — up from 15 seconds — starting immediately. The company said in an official blog post that the new feature would hit some users’ accounts this week and roll out to everyone in the coming days.Read full article >>

Lululemon has fixed many problems, including its pants — but it’s not out of the woods yet
As athletic apparel retailer Lululemon looked to bounce back from a rough patch, it announced last fall plans to revamp and expand the assortment of its signature product, women’s leggings. The new pants would be categorized by how snug they felt on the body, and they came with some head-scratching names, such as “held-in” and “naked.”Read full article >>

How to check your Uber passenger rating, without embarrassment
Asking for your Uber passenger rating used to be an exercise in awkwardness. You’d have to find some excuse to bring it up with your driver, maybe, and convince him or her to pull up your score on their device.Read full article >>

Metlife’s escape of ‘too big to fail’ label is defeat for Obama administration
A federal judge on Wednesday delivered a significant setback to the Obama administration’s efforts to rein in the financial sector and prevent a repeat of the conditions that caused the 2008 financial crisis. Read full article >>

Wonkblog: What some men have against Hillary Clinton
Democrats could name the first female presidential nominee from either party in the summer, while the Republican nominee could be a man who can’t seem to stop offending women with public comments about how they look. Perhaps more than in any previous presidential election, a contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could turn into an extended national debate about women’s place in society.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Larry Summers: Corporate profits are near record highs. Here’s why that’s a problem.
Lawrence H. Summers, the Charles W. Eliot university professor at Harvard, is a former treasury secretary and director of the National Economic Council in the White House. He is writing occasional posts on Wonkblog about issues of national and international economics and policymaking.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Foxconn’s acquisition of Sharp reveals intense pressures in global electronics industry
The global electronics industry has shifted massively in the past decade, and it won’t stand still for long.Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturing behemoth whose massive scale and cheap costs have helped make the iPhone affordable for hundreds of millions of people worldwide, announced Wednesday that it would acquire Japanese consumer electronics company Sharp for $3.5 billion. The deal will give Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a 66 percent stake in the company, in what is the first foreign acquisition of a major firm in Japan’s insular technology industry.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: What life is like after police ransack your house and take ‘every belonging’ — then the charges are dropped
A self-described Michigan “soccer mom” who had “every belonging” taken from her family in a 2014 drug raid has been cleared of all criminal charges, 19 months after heavily armed drug task force members ransacked her home and her business. But in many ways, her ordeal is only beginning.Read full article >>

Watch out for phishing scams in the final weeks of the tax season
As we get closer to Tax Day, you may notice more emails in your inbox pretending to be from the Internal Revenue Service or from a tax preparation company.There are less than three weeks left in the filing season, but as of mid-March, only about half of the 150 million tax returns expected had been filed. Scam artists may up their efforts to fool last-minute filers over the next several weeks, tax pros say.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: It’s getting more expensive to be poor
Housing, as we’ve mentioned a couple of times, has been growing more expensive, particularly for the poor. This isn’t simply a phenomenon of the last few years, as former homeowners have crowded into the rental market and as new construction stalled thanks to the recession.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: The crazy logic behind an alliance of Trump-Sanders supporters
It’s rare for a populist candidate to go far in presidential politics. It’s almost unheard of for two of them to advance as far, in the same year, as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have. Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Sanders still has a shot at the Democratic one. Their successes share some common themes, which are fueling speculation that populist voters from the left and right might come together to back a single candidate come November, or even form their own political party in the years to come.Read full article >>

These smartphone photos can help shape national policy
Eggs for sale in #Kumasi, #GhanaA photo posted by Premise Data Corporation (@premisedata) on Nov 9, 2015 at 12:27pm PSTData may be one of the world’s most valuable modern currencies, but the information that you need can sometimes be surprisingly hard to come by.Read full article >>

The Model 3 will be Tesla’s make-or-break moment
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is poised to reveal his newest creation, the Model 3, at an event on Thursday. Starting at $35,000, the car represents Tesla’s first electric vehicle aimed at price-conscious, mainstream consumers. And how it fares is going to have a major impact on Tesla’s long-term future as a company — and the future of electric cars more broadly. That’s why this unveiling is an incredibly important moment.Read full article >>

Amtrak unveils $50 million solution to cramped conditions at Union Station
Amtrak plans to begin building a new $50 million Union Station concourse this summer that it said would double the space for passengers and improve circulation throughout the station by 2019.Union Station passengers have long complained that the waiting area for trains there, the second busiest in the country for the rail service, is dark, cramped and difficult to maneuver.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: Why women are more religious than men
What do Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Siddhartha Gautama and Moses all have in common? Besides being religious figures, they are all men. Yet looking around the world, the majority of their followers are actually women.Read full article >>

Lots of coders are self-taught, according to developer survey
More computer programmers are self-taught rather than graduates of coding “boot camps” or industry certification programs run by big tech companies, according to recent survey results by Stack Overflow, one of the largest coder communities on the Internet.Read full article >>

Main Street Morning: According to payroll processor, U.S. hiring was strong in March
AP Photo/Alan DiazWelcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government.Here’s what’s affecting my small business, my clients and other entrepreneurs today.Read full article >>

Wonkblog: 2015 was a terrible year for the common working man
Last year was not great for the common man.By at least one measure, inequality among working men has grown for decades. But, in 2015, it accelerated: The wage gap among men saw its largest single-year increase on record.Read full article >>