❗Let's close the gap: We still need your help to raise $40,000 by April 1. Donate now
Marketplace Money for Friday, July 20, 2012
Jul 20, 2012

Marketplace Money for Friday, July 20, 2012

HTML EMBED:
COPY

More than 30 credit reporting companies have access to and track your financial information. Who tracks them? Up 'til now... nobody. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on the scene and we'll hear from its director Richard Cordray. Making an Olympic team takes more than talent and athleticism; it's also an investment. The financial sacrifice of going for the Gold. Plus, the dollar bill grows wings and takes flight.

Segments From this episode

To convert to gas or electric?

Jul 20, 2012
A faster-cooking kitchen range is the incentive for one family to switch to natural gas. But if you hope to save money, that's just the start.

Americans getting risky with their 401(k)s

Jul 20, 2012
Americans are trying to recoup losses from the recession by gambling with their retirement accounts.
More Americans are taking on high risks on their 401(k)s to recoup losses from the recession.
iStockphoto

Father knows best

Jul 20, 2012
Piggy will be headed to paradise, to the home of one listener who took the financially sound advice of a TV dad.
Donald Miralle /Allsport

Germans and their frugal, saving ways

Jul 20, 2012
Many European economies are begging for Germany to share its wealth with them. Where did the German culture of frugality come from?

Bark or bite: Credit reporting agencies get watchdog

Jul 20, 2012
Around 40 percent of credit reports have mistakes on them -- and it is a pain to get them fixed. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it will start scrutinizing credit reporting agencies.
Richard Cordray, seen here swearing in at the beginning of his confirmation hearing in Sept. 2011, as director of the CFPB.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Olympian priorities: Gold or green?

Jul 20, 2012
Thirty-five-year-old Olympic high jumper Jamie Nieto talks about struggling in the pursuit of gold.
Jamie Nieto competes in the men's high jump final during the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Marketing Olympians

Jul 20, 2012
There's glory in the winning gold, but possibly even better is for an athlete to land a well-paying sponsorship in the years leading up to and after the Olympics. But gold doesn't always mean green for athletes.
United States' Nastia Liukin, here at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, is one of the lucky athletes to have about nine sponsors over the last four years, a rare feat.
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

Downsizing a life

Jul 20, 2012
Sifting through years of stuff is one of the most difficult parts of moving. A new start-up will empty your house of all its clutter for a minor fee.

Redefining 'billfold'

Jul 20, 2012
A Los Angeles origami exhibit features an installation made completely out of sheets of uncut U.S. dollar bills.
Artist Sipho Mabona used the "wet folding" technique to twist and shape the locusts to make sure George Washington's faces and the words "In God We Trust" show prominently on the locusts' bodies.
Tess Vigeland

Why are people attacking lemonade stands?

Jul 20, 2012
One parent wonders why many adults disapprove of where her son is putting his hard-earned lemonade stand money towards.

More than 30 credit reporting companies have access to and track your financial information. Who tracks them? Up ’til now… nobody. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on the scene and we’ll hear from its director Richard Cordray. Making an Olympic team takes more than talent and athleticism; it’s also an investment. The financial sacrifice of going for the Gold. Plus, the dollar bill grows wings and takes flight.