Current Events in March 2016

Amazon.com's foray into video streaming will take another turn tonight when the online giant premiers its first live show. The program is not just entertainment, but is designed to sell product.

Unlike other streaming offerings that are provided on-demand, Style Code Live will stream live weeknights at 9 ET/6PT. It will cover fashion and beauty, featuring interviews with style experts.

It will also show products that viewers can purchase and make it easy to buy them at Amazon.com. Unlike Amazon's other video offerings, Style Code Live will be free to all viewers. You can access it here.

Three hosts

The program will feature three hosts – Lyndsey Rodrigues, Rachel Smith, and Frankie Grande. Rodrigues has hosted shows including MTV’s Total Request Live and has interviewed a range of film and music stars. Smith is a correspondent at ABC News for Good Morning America and Nightline. Grande is a television personality and theatre actor who has appeared on CBS’s Big Brother 16.

Amazon says the show will have interactive features such as live chat, allowing audience members to join the conversation or pose questions. It will also prominently display products available through Amazon.

A “Style Carousel” directly under the Style Code Live player constantly updates to highlight products available on Amazon as they are featured in the show.

Natural evolution

The program is perhaps the natural evolution for a company that is firmly embedded in both the media and retail worlds.

“Our customers love fashion, and have wanted a place to keep up with new trends and get expert tips. We created Style Code Live for them, and we are just getting started with this show,” executive producer Munira Rahemtulla, said in a statement. “The team can't wait for tonight’s premiere.”

Amazon hopes to compete with HSN, QVC, and ShopNBC, three of the major shop at home television networks. According to Racked.com, HSN sold $2.5 billion in merchandise in 2014.

The wearin' o' the green may not boost the spendin' o' the green.

The National Retail Federation's (NRF) annual St. Patrick’s Day Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insight and Analytics, finds that more than 125 million consumers who plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day will spend an average of $35.37 per person – compared with last year’s $36.52.

Total spending for the Irish holiday is expected to reach $4.4 billion based on the U.S. population of those 18 and older.

“Retailers expect to see a nice boost in sales as consumers head to stores looking for apparel, decorations, food and beverages to help make their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations special,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “With the winter holidays behind us and spring flowers starting to bloom, St. Patrick’s Day provides a perfect opportunity for Americans to get together to celebrate with friends and family.”

Celebration plans

According to the survey, 82.1% of St. Patrick’s Day revelers will wear green to show their Irish pride, 31.3% plan to make a special dinner, 28.7% will head to a party at a bar or restaurant, and 21.1% will attend a private party. In addition, 22.8 % plan to decorate their homes or offices in an Irish theme.

According to the survey, 56.5% of those celebrating will purchase food and beverages, 28% will buy apparel or accessories, 23.3% will buy decorations, and 17.2% will buy candy.

The survey asked for the first time where consumers will make their St. Patrick’s Day purchases. More than a third -- 36.2% -- plan to do so at a grocery store, 30.4% at discount stores, and 20.8% at bars and restaurants.

“St. Patrick’s Day isn’t a holiday for giving gifts, but it is a time for inexpensive and fun celebrations that make it easy for consumers of any age and on any budget to take part in the festivities,” Prosper’s Pam Goodfellow said. “Whether they’re heading to a parade, cooking an Irish meal or joining friends at a bar or restaurant, consumers will take the opportunity to get festive and celebrate.”

The holiday is most popular among individuals 18-24 years old with 70.1% celebrating. However, those 25-34 years old will be the biggest spenders at an average $42.58.

The survey of 7,108 consumers was conducted February 2-9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.

After posting two drops in as many weeks, mortgage applications have turned higher.

The Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) shows mortgage applications were up 0.2% in the week ending March 4.

The Refinance Index, meanwhile, fell 2%, sending the refinance share of mortgage activity down to 56.7% of total applications from 58.6% the week before.

The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity dipped to 5.2 percent of total applications, the FHA share was unchanged at 12.0%, the VA share rose to 12.6% from 12.1%, and the USDA share increased to 0.8% from 0.7% the week prior.

Contract interest rates

• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) was up six basis points -- from 3.83% to 3.89%, with points decreasing to 0.38 from 0.39 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) rose to 3.81% from 3.75%%, with points remaining unchanged at 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA jumped six basis points to 3.71%, with points decreasing to 0.37 from 0.40 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages inched up to 3.14% from 3.13%, with points increasing to 0.41 from 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs soared 18 basis points to 3.20%, with points increasing to 0.32 from 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

The inventory of foreclosed houses continued to shrink in January.

Property information, analytics, and data-enabled services provider CoreLogic reports the number of foreclosed homes was down 21.7% in January, while completed foreclosures declined by 16.2% from the same period a year earlier.

The number of completed foreclosures in January was down 67.6% from the peak of 117,743 in September 2010.

The foreclosure inventory represents the number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process and completed foreclosures reflect the total number of homes lost to foreclosure.

Since the financial meltdown began in September 2008, there have been approximately 6.1 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since home ownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 8.2 million homes lost to foreclosure.

As of this past January, the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 456,000, or 1.2%, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 583,000 homes, or 1.5% a year earlier. The January foreclosure inventory rate has been steady at 1.2% since last October and is the lowest for any month since November 2007.

CoreLogic also reports that the number of mortgages in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure or REO) declined by 22.5% from January 2015 to January 2016, with 1.2 million mortgages, or 3.2%, in this category. The January 2016 serious delinquency rate is the lowest since November 2007.

"In January, the national foreclosure rate was 1.2%, down to one-third the peak from exactly five years earlier in January 2011, a remarkable improvement," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The months' supply of foreclosure fell to 12 months, which is modestly above the nine-month rate seen 10 years earlier and indicates the market's ability to clear the stock of foreclosures is close to normal."

Report highlights

• On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased by 16.4% to 38,000 in January 2016 from the 33,000 reported in December 2015. As a basis of comparison, before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.
• On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down 1.6% in January.
• The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in January 2016 were Florida (74,000), Michigan (49,000), Texas (29,000), California (25,000), and Ohio (24,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
• Four states and the District of Columbia had the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in January 2016: the District of Columbia (97), North Dakota (298), Wyoming (551), West Virginia (589), and Alaska (707).
• Four states and the District of Columbia had the highest foreclosure inventory rates in January 2016: New Jersey (4.3%), New York (3.5%), Hawaii (2.4%), Florida (2.3%), and the District of Columbia (2.3%).
• The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate in January 2016 were Alaska (0.3%), Minnesota (0.4%), Colorado (0.4%), Arizona (0.4%), and Utah (0.4%).

Virginia has become the first state to formally establish the legality of daily fantasy sports (DFS), which many other states have declared to be illegal gambling.

Virginia Governor Terry McAullife signed a measure passed by the Virginia General Assembly in late February.

For those who watched no television during the late summer and early fall, and thus missed the thousands of TV commercials for DraftKings and FanDuel, DFS is, in fact, a lot like gambling.

Instead of betting on teams to win or beat the spread, DFS players assemble fantasy teams of actual players who compete in an actual league. They are assigned points for how well each player performs in a given game and the DFS league player with the most points wins money. Those who don't win forfeit the money they paid to play.

See, a lot like gambling. So much so that a handful of states declared the games illegal from the get-go. Nevada later declared them to be gambling, followed by New York, where Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has gone to court seeking restitution for players and civil penalties.

The Virginia legislation, in effect, says the games are legal, whether they are gambling or not. DFS enterprises like FanDuel and DraftKings, that allow players from Virginia to participate, must pay a $50,000 fee to the state.

Provisions

Other provisions of the new law include:

• Requiring fantasy sports sites to implement policies intended to verify that all participants are 18 years or older

• Preventing the sharing of confidential information that could affect fantasy contest play with third parties until the information is made publicly available

• Requiring player funds to be segregated from a company’s operational funds

• Banning employees of fantasy sports sites (as well as relatives living in the same household) from competing in public fantasy sports contests for cash prizes on any site, and

• Requiring fantasy sports companies to undergo two independent yearly audits of their operations to ensure compliance with all regulations.

A spokesman for FanDuel said the company hopes other states that have questioned DFS' legality will pass similar legislation.  

After years of appeals and court proceedings, the U.S. Supreme Court has closed the book on a suit against Apple. On Monday, the court ruled that the company will be forced to pay a $450 million settlement for its role in fixing prices on e-books on the Apple iBooks platform. Consumers of those inflated e-books will receive $400 million in the settlement and $50 million will go towards plaintiff lawyer fees.

“Apple’s liability for knowingly conspiring with book publishers to raise the prices of e-books is settled once and for all,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

Fixing prices

The case goes back to 2012, when Apple and five book publishers – Macmillan, HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster – were sued by the Justice Department and the attorney generals of 33 states. The charges were that the companies conspired to raise e-book prices, working together to take undue money from consumers.

While all of the book publishers eventually settled the case, Apple continued to fight the decision. The company made an appeal to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that it was simply raising prices to encourage competition and that it was not in violation of any antitrust laws.

With an appeal pending, Apple agreed to pay $450 million if they lost the case in court. However, if it won a retrial, then it would only pay out $70 million. If it won that retrial, then the company would not be on the hook for any payment.

Plea denied

Unfortunately for Apple, the court determined that the company had engaged in price-fixing. In one last-ditch effort, Apple tried to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court – but its plea was denied on Monday.

“The outstanding work of the Department of Justice team – working with our steadfast state attorney general partners – exposed this cynical misconduct by Apple and its book publisher co-conspirators and ensured that justice was done,” said Baer.

The price of oil may be down but you'd never know it from looking at airline surcharges. And Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) doesn't think that's right.

Blumenthal has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to look into why airlines are continuing to hit travelers with surcharges that can add hundreds of dollars in fees to tickets, especially on international flights.

“It is an unfair and deceptive practice when airlines convince consumers they are earning thousands of miles to use with award programs only to be surprised by hundreds of dollars in hidden fees at the checkout page,” Blumenthal wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

The DOT regulations state that airline surcharges must be baed on a "reasonable estimate" of the per-passenger fuel expense above a baseline fuel cost. Blumenthal says carriers are getting around that by using such vague descriptions as "carrier-imposed charges" or "international/domestic surcharges."

Also calling on the DOT to act is the Business Travel Coalition, which said the "continued, widespread imposition of these substantial, add-on fuel surcharges in the face of plummeting jet fuel prices cannot be justified."

"Massive overcharges"

In its letter to Foxx, the coalition -- which represents business travelers -- said the continued imposition of surcharges "constitutes an unfair and deceptive act or practice and an unfair method of competition" which "inflict massive overcharges on consumers.”

Both Blumenthal and the business travelers group note that the surcharges have continued despite the price of oil plummeting from a high of $147 per barrel in 2008 to approximately $30 per barrel today. 

Blumenthal said the surcharges have had an especially devastating impact on the value of frequent-flyer programs.

“That carrier-imposed surcharges sometimes only surface when a consumer attempts to redeem an award ticket through an airline loyalty program seems to further confirm the deceptive nature of these surcharges,” he wrote.

Keeping a child’s life consistent is the name of the game for divorced parents. But even the most organized parents can find it difficult to orchestrate three (or more) busy schedules.

In the face of after school pickups, weekend activities, and other scheduling hurdles, it can be a challenge to keep a kid’s life running smoothly.

But a few handy apps are here to help divorced parents manage it all.

Apps for co-parents

These apps can help parents maintain their sanity as they triumph over the challenge of keeping everyone on the same page. 

• HopSkipDrive. Divorced parents with busy children will love this rideshare app. HopSkipDrive is a safe, reliable solution for getting kids where they need to go, no matter whose week it is. Each member of its staff of drivers is fingerprinted and armed with the highest safety standards, so parents can breathe easy knowing their kids are in good hands. Drivers will even arrive early to sign kids out and make sure they’re in safe hands at their destinations.
• Our Family Wizard. “Less confusion, more collaboration” is the motto of this website and app. Divorced or separated parents will find a wealth of tools to make co-parenting more efficient. Our Family Wizard streamlines the co-parenting experience by helping exes schedule child custody, track parenting time, share important family information, manage expenses, and create a clear log of divorce communication. Subscriptions start at $99 per year, per parent.
• ChoreMonster. It’s important for parents to be on the same page when it comes to a child’s daily chores. Preventing inconsistency week to week is key, but can be a challenge when busy lives and multiple homes are involved. With ChoreMonster, parents can create scheduled chores with assigned point values and rewards, turning chores into a game. Points can be redeemed for “anything from cash to a camping trip,” says the app’s website.
• Venmo. Avoid the hassle of passing cash back and forth by going mobile. This “digital wallet” allows parents to make and share payments quickly and easily. Whether you need to split co-pays or soccer registration, the Venmo app can be your middle man. The app is free to use when linked with a debit card, but credit card users will be charged a 3% fee.

After opening its first bookstore in Seattle this past November, Amazon is staging to open another literary location in San Diego this summer. Original rumors of the store opening started circulating in February when job listings for the store were posted, but it was recently confirmed by an Amazon representative in a report by The San Diego Union- Tribune.

If the Seattle location is any indicator, the new bookstore will be offering an array of best-selling books and electronic equipment; these include Amazon products like Kindles, Fire TVs and tablets, and the Echo. The San Diego Union- Tribune also reports that the new store will have an “upscale” style, one that matches its location at the University Towne Center Mall.

While the induction of these physical bookstores has been slow to start, there has been some speculation that as many as 400 stores may be planned to open across the nation. The quote was provided by General Growth Properties (GGP) after analyzing an earning’s call.

"You’ve got Amazon opening brick-and-mortar bookstores and their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400,” said a GGP executive at the time. However, the company quickly stepped back from this statement, saying that its suggestion was “not intended to represent Amazon’s plans.”

Whatever their eventual plans may be for the chain, Amazon states that it is happy to be moving forward with its second location. “We are excited to be bringing Amazon Books to the University Towne Center Mall in San Diego and we are currently hiring store managers and associates,” said Amazon spokesperson Sarah Gelman. “Stay tuned for additional details down the road.”

Doctors aren't sure what causes Alzheimer's disease, a cognitive degeneration that is ultimately fatal. There may be a number of contributing factors. That may be why it has been so difficult to find a cure.

However, intriguing research is exploring the link between a Western diet and sedentary lifestyle and the risk of developing the disease.

Tufts University researchers experimented with mice and found that prolonged consumption of the Western diet led to a dramatic increase in immune response activity in the brains of all mice, including those that don’t model Alzheimer’s disease.

The diet greatly increased the activity of microglia, which function as the brain’s immune cells. It also stimulates monocytes, circulating white blood cells that may cross into the brain in response to immune signaling.

The researchers were following up on previous findings that suggest some elements of the western diet have been associated with the development of peripheral inflammation over time.

Immune activity link

The researchers conclude that it is becoming more likely that immune activity in the brain increases Alzheimer’s disease risk.

The Alzheimer's Association has long stressed diet as one way to help reduce the risk of developing the disease.

It recommends eating a heart-healthy diet, saying it will benefit not just your body, but your brain.

“In general, this is a diet that is lower in fat and higher in vegetables and fruit,” the group says on its website. “Research in the area of the relationship between diet and cognitive functioning is somewhat limited, but it does point to the benefits of two diets in particular: the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet and the Mediterranean diet. These diets can help reduce heart disease and may also be able to reduce risk of dementia.”

Physical activity

The association has also been an advocate for physical activity, calling it a valuable part of any overall body wellness plan that is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline.

Regular exercise will increase the blood flow to your brain and body, providing additional nourishment while reducing potential dementia risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

It's also important to start these habits at a young age, but always clear any new exercise program with your doctor.

Coffee drinkers, especially those who load up on the beverage each day, may be less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS).

That's the conclusion of research published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. The researchers say it has neuroprotective properties and can suppress the production of chemicals involved in the inflammatory response, which may explain their findings.

They say consuming a lot of coffee every day – around six cups--is linked to a reduced risk of MS. An accompanying editorial cautions that the link remains to be conclusively proven. However, the research is just the latest to suggest that coffee has some beneficial health effects.

Based on two studies

The research is based on two studies, one in the U.S. and the other in Sweden. The results showed that the risk of MS was consistently higher among people who drank fewer cups of coffee every day, and the results were virtually the same in both studies.

The more coffee that was consumed, the lower the risk of MS, the results showed.

It's just the latest study to find health benefits in coffee, which was thought to be a heart risk in 1970s research.

Coffee's health properties

Among the more recent research is the suggestion that coffee and cranberries help fight colon cancer; that coffee grounds contain 500 times the antioxidant properties of vitamin C; and that green coffee might even help you lose weight.

There was even a study released last year that was part of this latest finding.

Caffeine has only recently come to be viewed as potentially beneficial. In the past health experts were skeptical of the drug because of its tendency to temporarily increase the heart rate and elevate blood pressure.

Might not be the caffeine

But coffee's health benefits apparently extend beyond caffeine to the properties in the bean itself. A 2014 study by the National Cancer Institute found that even decaffeinated coffee may be good for the liver.

That's because coffee's health inducing qualities might not come from caffeine, but from something else. Researchers say some other chemical component of coffee, rather than caffeine, may be responsible for the fact that heavy coffee drinkers are less likely to suffer from MS.

They say more research will be necessary to answer that question once and for all.

American Honda Motor Co. is recalling 1,984 model year 2014 NSS300 and NSS300A scooters manufactured June 18, 2013, to September 12, 2013.

The rear brake line connection on the recalled vehicles may have been improperly tightened, allowing brake fluid to leak.

If the rear brake line leaks, there would be a reduction in rear brake pressure and therefore rear braking function, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

Honda will notify owners, and dealers will tighten the rear brake line connection to specification, and fill the rear brake fluid reservoir, as necessary, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-800-999-1009. Honda's number for this recall is JY3.

Hyundai Motor America is recalling 18,700 model year 2012 Genesis vehicles manufactured August 1, 2011, to April 30, 2012, and 2011-2013 Equus vehicles manufactured July 10, 2011, to June 12, 2012.

The windshield wiper motor cover seal on the recalled vehicles may degrade allowing corrosion on the wiper motor's circuit board. The corrosion can cause intermittent or total loss of wiper function.

Inoperative wipers during bad weather can decrease driver visibility, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

Hyundai will notify owners, and dealers will replace the wiper motor cover and seal, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin April 22, 2016.

Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-800-633-5151. Hyundai's number for this recall is 140.

As long as your cell phone and your wallet are in the same place, a new security effort by banks should improve your protection against credit card fraud.

U.S. Bancorp is one of the first banks planning to use a new service that tracks the locations of customers' cell phones to ensure that credit card charges are legit, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The service will be offered on an opt-in basis.

The tracking will help banks detect when a card is not in the customers' possession, a prime indicator of potential fraud. That saves money for banks, which typically cover the costs of fraudulent transactions, and could also be a big convenience for clients whose charges might be declined when they're away from home.

Discover and USAA are also planning to adopt the program, according to the Journal, which says Visa has estimated the tracking could reduce unnecessary declines by 30%.

While the tracking raises privacy concerns, the banks say they will use the location information only for security, not for marketing purposes. Nevertheless, while both Visa and MasterCard are offering the tracking program, most banks are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

Researchers from around the world have been working tirelessly towards understanding, and hopefully one day curing, Alzheimer’s disease. While experts still do not understand every facet of the cognitive ailment, a team from Lund University in Sweden may have taken a crucial step towards that goal.

The researchers have found that amyloid plaque, the build-up of which is a marker for Alzheimer’s, is much more versatile than previously suspected. Before now, many believed that the build-up of amyloid plaque was hereditary; in short, if you possessed the gene that caused your body to overproduce amyloid plaque, then you were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

However, researchers have found that having this hereditary trait is not necessary for developing the disease. In fact, one does not need any such gene in order to develop Alzheimer’s.

“In our study, we show that accumulation of amyloid in the brain is associated with high levels of specific amyloid peptides in the cerebrospinal fluid,” said Niklas Mattsson, a researcher at Lund University. “This means that overproduction of amyloid beta may contribute to development of Alzheimer’s disease in some people, even if they do not carry the hereditary risk gene for Alzheimer’s.”

Increasing understanding

The researchers made their discovery after examining patients without the hereditary gene for amyloid plaque build-up. Over 330 people participated in the study – they included people with mild cognitive disorders (which can be an indicator for Alzheimer’s) and a control group who had no impairment.

Cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected from each participant and then examined. Results showed that there were increased levels of amyloid beta in some patients in the experimental group, even though they did not have the hereditary gene.

“We were surprised by the results. Our study emphasizes that Alzheimer’s is probably a more heterogeneous disease than we previously believed,” said Mattsson. “The results are important because they increase the understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease arises,” added Oskar Hansson, a reader at Lund University and consultant at Skåne University Hospital.

Possible medical benefits

While future studies will be necessary in order to verify the results, the researchers are hopeful that their work will help in the development of new medications.

“Our hope is that this and other similar studies can increase the possibilities of personalizing treatments that slow down the disease in the future,” said Hansson.

The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature Communications. 

For weeks now, the chatter in the oil industry has been that OPEC would finally get its act together and agree to limit production. That, the reasoning went, would boost oil prices.

While the oil glut is still a reality, oil prices have been rising over the last couple of weeks, hitting a three month high in Monday's trading. On the futures market, Brent crude broke $40 for the first time in months. West Texas crude was not far behind.

There is still a fierce debate over whether oil has bottomed, or if this rally is just a head fake, with lower prices still to come. However, more and more analysts are saying prices could top out at $50 a barrel by the end of the year.

On one hand, $50 a barrel oil would be helpful to the U.S. economy and very helpful to people who live in Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and North Dakota. Those states' economies have been crushed by the collapse in oil prices.

Boost in gasoline prices

But what about consumers who have been enjoying cheap gasoline for a year and a half? Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, tells ConsumerAffairs that consumers would definitely see higher prices at the pump, but nothing like 2010 to 2014.

“I’d say $50 oil during the summer could potentially equate to a national average gas price of $2.40 a gallon, while during the winter, it’d mean $2.20 to $2.30,” DeHaan said.

In other words, $50 a barrel for oil might be a sweet spot, allowing the U.S. oil industry to recover but not causing undue pain to consumers.

Of course, it's still an open question as to whether oil prices can climb back to $50, or how soon that would happen.

Reuters reports oil stockpiles increased by 670,000 barrels last week at Cushing, Okla., where reserves now total almost 69 million barrels.

Once upon a time the average American consumer worked at the same place for 30 or 40 years and retired with a modest pension and Social Security, enough to live out their days in relative comfort.

That was before escalating medical costs, longer lifespans, and the wholesale replacement of defined pensions with individual retirement savings plans.

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) finds that an increasing number of Americans have saved little or nothing for retirement, and has focused on characteristics of savers.

The study found that retirement wealth more than kept pace with incomes over the past 25 years. It nearly doubled as a share of personal disposable income between 1989 and 2013, with retirement account savings exceeding pension fund assets after 2012. While that seems to be a positive, the study notes that there is a distinct disparity among those who are saving and those who are not.

Widening retirement gaps

It suggests the shift from traditional pensions to individual savings has widened retirement gaps. High-income, white, college-educated, and married workers participate in defined-benefit pensions at a higher rate than other workers, but participation gaps are much larger under defined-contribution plans.

For many groups—lower-income, black, Hispanic, non-college-educated, and unmarried Americans—the typical working-age family or individual has no savings at all in retirement accounts.

“And for those who do have savings, the median balances in retirement accounts are very low,” the authors write.

The report also finds that economic turmoil takes a toll on retirement savings. Much of the 401(k) era coincided with rising stock and housing prices that propped up family wealth measures even as the savings rate declined.

This house of cards collapsed in 2000–2001 and again in 2007–2009. By 2013 most families were still feeling the impact from the financial crisis and Great Recession, reducing, if not eliminating, their ability to save for retirement.

Younger consumers not saving

At this point, the authors believe younger generations should be stepping up their retirement savings in defined-contribution plans. But while the retirement account savings of families approaching retirement grew before the financial crisis and Great Recession, those of younger families stayed flat.

At this point, the report notes the much discussed income inequality extends to retirement savings. The rich have gotten better prepared while the poor continue to lose ground.

“Participation in retirement savings plans is highly unequal across income groups,” the authors write. “In 2013, nearly nine in 10 families in the top income fifth had retirement account savings, compared with fewer than one in 10 families in the bottom income fifth.”

The report says the disparity has grown in the last decade as the share of working-age families with retirement account savings declined for all except the top income group. It concludes that it may be normal for higher-income families to have more savings, but it is not normal for most families in the bottom half of the income distribution to have no retirement account savings at all. That, the authors say, is a serious policy failure.

Maytag Blue Cheese has been recalled from 17 Schnucks Markets locations in the Midwest.

The products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes

No illnesses have been reported in connection with this recall to date.

The following products were purchased between February 4-29, 2016:

Maytag Blue Cheese, 4 oz. wedges, UPC 0085408900104

Maytag Blue Cheese, various sizes (approximately 3-4 oz) sold cut and packaged in clear plastic wrap with Maytag Blue Cheese Dairy Farms label and scale label from the cheese department, UPC 0021806200000

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products should discard it, and may bring their receipt to the store of purchase for a full refund.

Customers with questions may contact Maytag Dairy Farms Monday - Friday at 800-247-2458 or 641-791-2010 or the Schnucks consumer affairs department Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm (CST) at 800-264-4400 or 314-994-4400.

This recall affects the following 17 Schnucks stores:

When AT&T; bought DirecTV, it was seen as a rather traditional -- even backward -- move. After all, the common wisdom is that satellite TV is old hat, soon to be replaced by streaming TV.

Could be, but DirecTV has what in the retail world would be called inventory -- it has contracts with top content producers, everyone from ESPN to HBO, and AT&T; is now in the process of making much of that content availble as streaming video.

It will be making cable TV programming available without the cable or the satellite, much as Dish Network is doing with its Sling TV. It will also have a mobile version and a free, ad-supported version, the company said.

Few details

AT&T; announced its plans for the service earlier this week but released few pricing or content details. That's because it is still renegotiating its contracts with the program producers, some of whom may not be too eager to see their shows streaming on the Internet. 

Cable companies aren't thrilled with the prospect either. As we reported last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating whether cable companies are putting pressure on program producers to keep their shows off the Internet.

It's not pretty to watch but the cable and TV businesses as we know them are starting to crumble. Consumers are fed up with constantly rising cable rates, ridiculously dated proprietary set-top boxes and other absurdities of the now-fading cable monopoly era. 

Streaming pioneers like Netflix have a head start, but AT&T; and other big players bring a lot of heft to the game. AT&T; not only owns DirecTV but also has its own cable networks, as do Verizon, Comcast, and other big telecom and cable players. They may not be consumers' favorites, but they wield a lot of negotiating power with program providers.

Separately, AT&T; has said it is working on a system that will let advertisers buy ads through a digital interface similar to that used by advertisers who buy those ubiquitous Google ads. That system could presumably be used to buy ads on the streaming video channels as well.

Anyway you look at it, this is an adventure series that will last a lot longer than 13 weeks. Stay tuned.