Worklife
Learn about how you can achieve a better work-life balance, and check out the latest news about the world of work, including advancements on ideas like the four-day work week and universal basic income.
This Harvard professor is really, really serious about fighting corruption
What’s left of democracy if it’s something you can buy when you have the wealth of someone like, say, Donald Trump? To make citizens the central pillar of the political system in the U.S., campaign finance reform is essential. Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig has been addressing this issue for Read More...
Dutch bank ING launches sound-activated payments to make banking safer
No two voices in the world are the same, even identical twins have different voice patterns. This is why a voice is a very safe password. The Dutch bank ING is using this knowledge to make banking safer and has introduced sound-activated payments. Customers can now log-in and make payments Read More...
Ikea raises pay for workers, encouraging wide campaign for better pay
Ikea has announced it will pay its UK staff the living wage. The decision by the Swedish home furnishing retailer is a big boon for a nationwide campaign to raise low wages. Ikea will pay its staff a minimum of £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 across the rest of the UK. More than 4,500 employees Read More...
Norway to go ahead with biggest coal divestment yet
The fossil fuel divestment movement, which has been taking off since the beginning of this year, just received its biggest boost yet. Norway’s Parliament agreed to sell off all coal investments from its $900-billion sovereign wealth fund. The move will affect some 122 companies to the tune of Read More...
Bitcoin to facilitate money transfers from developed to developing countries
Money transfers from developed countries to developing ones dominate the $582-billion global remittance market. In 2014 only 5 percent of transactions were digital, but the trend is shifting rapidly as mobile phones are becoming ubiquitous in developing countries. Digital transactions offer Read More...
Divestment from coal is good business for French insurance giant Axa
The international fossil fuel divestment movement has been growing steadily, ahead of the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris later this year. The most recent announcement comes from French insurance giant Axa, who is slated to sell $559 million of its coal investments, while having committed over $3 Read More...
NASDAQ marketplace experiments with Bitcoin technology
The digital currency Bitcoin is revolutionary because it operates as a decentralized system where transactions take place directly. No intermediaries require. “Blockchain” is the technology underlying the system, by which each transaction is recorded in a public ledger. A recent, fascinating Read More...
Bitcoin’s new competitor to be backed by gold
Digital currency Bitcoin has blazed a new trail away from the established monetary system. In its wake, metals and technology company Anthem Vault is to launch the Hayek on May 25. The new cryptocurrency will be valued at 1 gram of gold at the day's market price, serving “as a more secure store Read More...
Home loans in India help families excluded from formal banking system escape poverty
Informal workers make up more than four fifth of India’s labor force. Many struggle to make ends meet. For them, poverty typically perpetuates since banks don’t invest in poor people living off an informal income. Exclusion from home loans means being forever at the mercy of landowners in the Read More...
Small-business lending: local community's involvement makes banks obsolete
Community Sourced Capital, a startup based in Seattle, WA, connects small businesses with members of the community who are eager to support their local economy. Loans are repaid with no interest, while CSC takes fees. The goal is to step into the space that banks have left vacant since the Read More...