Money Talk: Fed Hires Barbie To Teach Economic, Personal Finance

Editor’s note: Each Monday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Money Talk,” a wrap-up of banking and financial news in our email newsletter, which you can sign up to receive daily for free here.

FED HIRES BARBIE TO TEACH ECONOMICS & PERSONAL FINANCE
As part of its curriculum to help educators teach economics, personal finance, the Fed, and money and banking to all grade levels, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is offering a wide array of classroom materials from its FRASER digital collections of economic and financial history. The free classroom resources for K-16 educators also meet national organization and Common Core Standards.

The St. Louis Fed branch also has a program where schools or school districts can become a Community Education Partner by taking these three steps: allowing faculty to participate in a professional development programs either at the bank or as in-service at school; including St. Louis branch materials in the school’s curricula; and placing a link to the St. Louis Fed web site on the school or district’s web site.

One of the more interesting lesson plans offered by the St. Louis branch is called “Barbie in the Labor Force,” where high school students use primary documents to review historical trends in women’s share of the workforce and chosen occupations. Using Barbie careers as a timeline, they speculate as to why Barbie represented certain careers for girls at different points in time since 1959. They choose which career Barbie might represent next year and explain that choice in a one-page essay. This lesson includes primary source documents obtained from FRASER.

To learn more about the St. Louis Fed’s FRASER program or the Barbie curriculum, click here and here.

Q&A WITH DALE COLE OF BATESVILLE’S FIRST COMMUNITY BANK
After being laid off during a bank merger, Dale Cole founded First Community Bank of Batesville in 1997 and has grown it to 18 locations in Arkansas and Missouri, 278 employees and almost $1 billion in assets. Talk Business & Politics guest contributor Scott McClymonds, founder of strategic consulting firm CEO Velocity, recently interviewed Cole on his bank’s growth and the leadership needed to advance it. Click here to read more.

IRS RELEASES 2014 DATA BOOK
If you have a hard time sleeping at night, love reading financial statements and balance sheets, or maybe you’re just a fan of tax collectors, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released its annual Data Book that contains all types of statistical information about – well, uhhhhh – taxes.

The 88-page annual report not only describes activities conducted by the IRS during fiscal 2014 (Oct. 1, 2013 through Sept. 30, 2014), but it provides information on returns filed and taxes collected, enforcement activity, taxpayer assistance, the IRS budget and workforce, and other selected goings-on. If you’re looking for information that really gets people excited, then there is also a section on how refunds are issued.

And still yet, on the back cover of the report, the IRS Data Book has a list of the federal tax agency’s principal officers and the IRS organization chart. To get your online copy, click here.

PAYDAY ‘DEBT TRAPS’ ON OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S RADAR
One of President Obama’s favorite and newest federal agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), announced last week that it will consider proposing rules to end so-called “payday debt traps” by requiring lenders to take steps to make sure consumers can repay their loans.

The proposals under consideration would also restrict lenders from attempting to collect payment from consumers’ bank accounts in ways that tend to rack up excessive fees. The strong consumer protections being considered would apply to payday loans, vehicle title loans, deposit advance products, and certain high-cost installment loans and open-end loans.

“Today we are taking an important step toward ending the debt traps that plague millions of consumers across the country,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said on March 26. “Too many short-term and longer-term loans are made based on a lender’s ability to collect and not on a borrower’s ability to repay. The proposals we are considering would require lenders to take steps to make sure consumers can pay back their loans. These common sense protections are aimed at ensuring that consumers have access to credit that helps, not harms them.”

To view an outline of the new rules under consideration, click here.