When the financial crisis hit, Washington chose to rescue America's biggest banks, lest their failure crush the economy. Now, "too big to fail" has morphed into "too big to jail," and letting them remain that way isn't good for the economy -- or the banking industry.
As we prepare to celebrate our nation's independence, let's take a moment to think about our individual declarations of financial independence. If you're still ruled by debt, fiscal confusion, and reliance on others, here are a few tips for breaking free.
Your bank, that's who: Despite payday lenders' well-deserved reputations for charging insanely high rates for the short-term loans, if you overdraft your plain-vanilla bank account, you'll get zapped by an even more usurious system.
These days, 20-somethings aren't just the young and the restless -- they're the young and the anxious. According to The PNC Financial Services Group's Financial Independence Survey, that demographic is full of financial fears.