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Month: June 2021
Ally Bank ends overdraft fees, a first for large US banks
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By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Ally Financial said Wednesday that it is ending overdraft fees entirely on all of its bank products, becoming the first large U.S. bank to end overdraft fees across its entire business.
It’s a major move by Ally, one of the nation’s largest banks, and for the industry, which has been reliant on overdraft fees for decades to boost profits, often at the expense of poorer Americans who can’t afford to pay such fees in the first place.
Critics of the practice often cite what they call the $38 cup of coffee, where a bank customer uses a debit card to buy a coffee, overdrafts, and ends up paying a $35 fee on top of the $3 drink.
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For Native Americans, college charters fall short
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Level : Advanced
G-7 back steps to deter tax dodging by multinational firms
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Level : Advanced
By KELVIN CHAN and DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writers
LONDON (AP) — The Group of Seven wealthy democracies agreed Saturday to support a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15% to deter multinational companies from avoiding taxes by stashing profits in low-rate countries.
G-7 finance ministers meeting in London also endorsed proposals to make the world’s biggest companies – including U.S.-based tech giants – pay taxes in countries where they have lots of sales but no physical headquarters.
British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the host, said the deal would “reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age and crucially to make sure that it’s fair, so that the right companies pay the right tax in the right places.”
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Harry Potter store set to open in NYC
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Can virtual reality help seniors? Study hopes to find out
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By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Terry Colli and three other residents of the John Knox Village senior community got a trip via computer to the International Space Station in the kickoff to a Stanford University study on whether virtual reality can improve the emotional well-being of older people.
Donning 1-pound (470-gram) headsets with video and sound, the four could imagine floating weightless with astronauts and get a 360-degree tour of the station. In other programs, residents can take virtual visits to Paris, Venice, Egypt or elsewhere around the globe; attend a car rally, skydive or go on a hike.
“I feel great. It is amazing. It is like you are really there,” said Colli, 73, and a former spokesman for the Canadian embassy in Washington.
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Could a post-pandemic Roaring ’20s be on its way?
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California giving $116 million to people who get virus shots
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By BRIAN MELLEY and KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California is giving away the country’s largest pot of vaccine prize money — $116.5 million — in an attempt to get millions more inoculated before the most populous state fully reopens next month.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced the prizes, which include $1.5 million each for 10 Californians, the largest single award offered in any state.
The goal is to motivate roughly 12 million people who are eligible but not yet vaccinated, though the more than 20 million Californians already partially or fully vaccinated also are in the running for the most valuable prizes.
“We’re putting aside more resources than any other state in America, and we’re making available the largest prizes of any state in America for those that seek to get vaccinated,” Newsom announced at an East Los Angeles high school where people were being vaccinated in the gymnasium.
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