Many of us get a little emotional high when we're out spending money. Now take that idea, and apply it to broader financial decisions. If you are a worrier are you more or less likely to invest money? Neuroeconomist Camelia Kuhnen knows the answer to that. She studies what goes on inside our heads when we make such decisions. Here's what she told WBEZ earlier this year: 'We get to ask questions that have never been asked before. And you know what? We can even answer them sometimes. For example: Why do some people take a lot of risks and others don’t? Or: Why are some people confident in their beliefs, and others aren’t?' In some experiments, Kuhnen puts people inside fMRI machines, gives them investments to choose from, and sees which areas of the brain light up. She also looks at their genes, their personalities, and their credit reports. Camelia Kuhnen’s research shows that some people are just like this – they’re born risk takers. She points to a gene called DRD4 that regulates
It's True: Our Emotions Can Make Us Rich (Or Poor)
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Fracking Commission Seeks To Cut Water Contamination Liability For Drilling Companies
The head of the commission appointed to write North Carolina’s rules for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas asked lawmakers Tuesday to halve the area for which drilling companies would be responsible in case of water contamination. James Womack, chairman of the state’s Energy and Mining Commission, asked that drilling companies be held liable for contamination up to 2,500 feet from excavation sites. Under Senate Law 143, which was signed in 2012, mining companies are liable up to 5,000 ft. Womack told members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Energy Policy that cutting the distance for contamination liability would be more supportive of the energy industry but still be practical for protecting air and water. The commission cannot formally write a rule about companies’ water contamination liability area because it is part of an existing law. “We leave that to the General Assembly to determine,” Womack said. For environmental groups, the proposal is too lenient. Methane
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County And State Workers Processing Food Stamp Applications Before Monday Deadline
Officials with the state Department of Health and Human Services say they've made great strides in reducing a backlog of food stamp recipients who weren't receiving their benefits. The USDA had issued the state a warning that unless it reduced the backlog of claims before a Monday deadline, North Carolina could lose 88 million dollars' worth of funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Julie Henry is a spokeswoman for DHHS. "As of January 23rd there were a large number of cases that had yet to be processed in our counties. And over the last two weeks, through a very focused effort on the part of the counties and by our state staff supporting counties, we've been able to reduce that number by more than 92 percent," says Henry. Henry says state and county workers are set to work this weekend to process the remaining applications in order to meet Monday's deadline.
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Republican Leaders Raise Starting Teacher Pay
After ongoing controversy about educator pay, Governor Pat McCrory announced a plan to increase salaries for new teachers yesterday. Under this plan, the base pay for the state’s beginning teachers will increase to $35,000 over the next two years, bringing North Carolina starting teacher pay in line with that of border states like Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina.
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Raising The Minimum Wage
President Barack Obama signed an executive order last week to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10 per hour. He is pushing for Congress to pass a bill that will do the same for all Americans.
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North Carolina Lawmakers Look At How To Tax Fracking Companies
North Carolina lawmakers are beginning to look at how they would tax the shale gas drilling companies for extracting gas from the ground in the state. Members of the legislative commission that handles laws on energy heard Tuesday afternoon about how states that allow fracking charge companies for removing gas from the ground. Taxes on shale gas drilling vary widely across the country. Some states, such as Texas, charge companies a percentage of the market value of the gas extracted while others, including Colorado, charge a portion of gross income. Those examples were shown in a presentation given to lawmakers Tuesday . One reason taxing changes sharply between states is the irregular price of gas, said Heather Fennell, an attorney in the General Assembly’s research division. In the last 10 years, it peaked in June 2008 at $10.79 per 1,000 cubic feet and was at its lowest in April 2012 at $1.89. “A lot of people like to say it’s comparing apples and oranges, but the way I talk about
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Plaque Honors Historic Significance of High Point Market
The state Department of Cultural Resources has installed a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker at High Point Market. Gov. Pat McCrory is scheduled to attend the unveiling ceremony there today. The original market building was constructed in 1921 with 249,000 square feet of show space. Now the market offers 11.5 million square feet, and contributes more than $5 billion dollars to the state economy every year. Tom Conley is president and CEO of the High Point Market Authority. He said the plaque is an honor, but the Market is unlike many other historical sites. “Sometimes we go to a place and say, 'gosh, something really important happened here way back when.' And that's really true. Something very important happened way back when, but it's grown and it has really blossomed into something that we celebrate today twice a year. So it's a unique opportunity to see history unfold.” The twice annual furniture trade show there is now the largest in the world.
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How The World Cup Moves Stock Prices
As the 2014 World Cup draws to a close, all eyes are on Brazil. Historical data shows the effects of this tournament may go far beyond the walls of the stadium.
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How To Sell A Home? Let Someone Else Live There
About a year ago, Cora Blinsman’s mom passed away. Needless to say, it was a really hard on her. She started taking stock of her own life. Cora had been a full-time, stay-at-home mom for 20 years, and she was feeling burnt out. She needed space. So … she got a lot of it. Blinsman applied to be a home manager with Showhomes , a nationwide home staging company. Basically, she pays a monthly fee to live in a really nice house for sale in one of Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s nicest, upscale communities. This one is currently going for $430,000. It's got four bedrooms, two baths. The kitchen has two cooking surfaces; gas and electric. And the backyard has three descending layers of gardens. The idea behind Showhomes is that when someone lives in a home, it just feels warmer. More attractive to buyers. "You’ve got your slippers by the bed," said Blinsman. "I mean I kept it very neat, but you could tell somebody lived there." Fred Pierson is the franchise manager for Showhomes in the Chapel
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The Most Common Jobs For The Rich, Middle Class And Poor
We've written a lot about how income has changed (or not) for the rich, middle class and poor in the U.S . We've written much less about what the rich, middle class and poor actually do for work. To remedy that, we made this graph. It shows the 10 most popular jobs in each income bracket. Click on each job to see where it appears in different income brackets. The jobs here look shockingly familiar. It's like a Richard Scarry model of the labor market, with people working jobs ripped right out of a storybook. This is the kind of work that needs to get done in every city in America. It shows that, at least nationally, the conventional idea of what people do for a living still holds. Looking across incomes and rankings there are a couple of interesting things to note: It's good to be the boss: Being a manager is the most common job from the 70th percentile up to the 99th. Doctors and lawyers are only found in the top two brackets. (There's a reason our grandmothers wanted us to go to med
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How Will North Carolina Tax And Regulate Airbnb And Uber?
North Carolina lawmakers are taking their first look at how to regulate networks of individuals who buy and sell services between each other, a billion-dollar global industry that already operates in dozens of cities across the state. One of the peer-to-peer economy’s biggest exponents, Airbnb, accounts for about 2,700 residential rental listings across North Carolina, and drivers who pick up passengers with their personal cars using the application Uber operate in ten cities here. At a hearing on Tuesday, a legislative panel began discussing how the state could tax and regulate such businesses, issues that other states have been grappling with for years. “I think we’re hearing a lot of new terms and a lot of new proposals,” Rep. Julia Howard (R-Davie) said Tuesday. “I would anticipate that a member might eventually want to file a bill, at which time it will go through all 12 committees and get scrubbed real good.” At the joint Revenue Laws Study Committee, new web-based service
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Dan Ariely Exposes The Flaws In Our Decisions
Dan Ariely works in contradictions. He studies behavioral economics and points out that humans are logical but irrational beings. How do we assign monetary value to a thought or an idea? How do we decide when a lie is more valuable than the truth? Are we really in control of the decisions we make on a daily basis? At the crossroads of psychology and economics, Ariely has made it his life’s work to study the idea that some of our best intentions can lead to our most irrational behavior.
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Study: Higher Education Has $63.5 Billion Impact On N.C. Economy
The state’s higher education institutions had a $63.5 billion impact on the state’s economy in the 2012-13 fiscal year, according to a new study. Higher education leaders say the report shows that the North Carolina’s institutions of higher education are providing a strong return on investment for students and taxpayers. It notes that taxpayers invested $4.3 billion to support higher education in 2012-13, and received a $17 billion return. The report provides a first-time look at the economic impact of all higher education institutions, including community colleges, the UNC system and independent universities and colleges. UNC system president Tom Ross says the three sectors are working more closely together than ever before “to leverage our respective strengths and to pool our sacred and scarce resources.” Some key facts from the study: · The total economic impact of higher education institutions in FY 2012-13 is equivalent to 14.6 percent of the total Gross State Product of North
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The Changing Economy Of Western North Carolina
Rural communities in western North Carolina are in the midst of an economic shift. The rise and fall of the family farm means places like Madison County are looking for new ways to support themselves. The answer could be in the tech industry. But technology businesses rely on a steady stream of well-educated workers. A panel discussion tonight at Duke University, " Rethinking Appalachia ," examines ways to develop a high-tech workforce in rural Appalachia. Host Frank Stasio talks with Deborah Hicks-Rogoff, a panelist at the discussion and founding director of the Partnership for Appalachian Girls' Education .
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Human Stories From The Heart of Coal Country
Last weekend marked the fifth anniversary of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia—the nation’s worst coal mine disaster in decades. Massey Energy, one of the largest American coal companies, ran the mine, and its CEO Don Blankenship has since been indicted on charges that he deliberately concealed health and safety violations at the mining site. A new documentary explores the stories of the people living near the disaster site whose lives, economy and personal struggles are all deeply intertwined with the coal industry. Overburden reveals the tension between pro-coal activists and environmentalists, and complicates the narrative that many outside of coal country understand about mountaintop removal. Host Frank Stasio talks to filmmaker Chad Stevens and Lorelei Scarbro, one of the central characters in the film. Overburden premieres at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this Friday, April 10. Watch a trailer for the film here: Overburden | 2015 Trailer from Chad A.
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The Carolina Theatre of Durham Is More Than $1 Million In Debt
The Carolina Theatre of Durham has been celebrating record attendance and revenue — up 42% in the past two years — from $3.5 million to $5 million. But theater administrators revealed yesterday that because of accounting "errors and omissions," they are actually more than $1 million dollars in debt. The theater receives an annual $650,000 subsidy from the city of Durham, and City Manager Tom Bonfield is trying to understand the magnitude of the problem. “And then once we understand that, then we can evaluate the proposal that they put forth about how they can recover over a several year period to pay off creditors and improve the overall performance of the theater," said Bonfield. Bonfield says The Carolina Theatre is asking the city for a $600,000 cash advance. “We had been led to believe with that subsidy they were in the black and fairly close to the black and were doing pretty well," said Bonfield. "Now, all of a sudden, we find out what was a $40,000 profit is a million dollar
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Experts Bullish On North Carolina's 2016 Economic Forecast
At the annual Economic Forecast Forum Wednesday, executives and Governor Pat McCrory convened to share their opinions on the state’s economic climate. Many economists were optimistic, saying 2015 was a big year, but 2016 looks even better. Wages are up, the work force is growing, and even more job growth is projected for the coming year. Host Frank Stasio talks with WUNC’s Changing Economy Reporter Leoneda Inge .
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Greensboro Residents Work To Break Cycle Of Poverty
Nearly 20 percent of residents in Greensboro live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A new series by WUNC reporter Naomi Prioleau examines the specific barriers these individuals face as they try to change their economic future.
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The Truth About Millennials At Work
Millennials have a reputation for being overeducated and undermotivated when it comes to working and saving money. But a forthcoming report from the left-leaning North Carolina Justice Center explains that millennials face pressures previous generations were not subject to, and that state and national policies compound their difficulties in building wealth and finding good jobs.
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What Will North Carolina Look Like In 2050?
For years North Carolina has been one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. This growth has had a profound impact on the state’s environment, government and economy.
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