journalist and author
Journalist Helaine Olen is the author of Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry and the co-author of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated.
PROFILE
Helaine Olen
Guest
FROM Helaine Olen
To the Point
Will airline service ever be great again? The "back of the bus" has turned into the back of the plane — with discrimination based on class, social status… and money. When airlines sell more seats than a plane will hold, they're allowed to force one paid passenger to give up a seat to another. Video of a doctor dragged screaming down the aisle or United Airlines plane is evidence of an increasingly common practice. And First Class isn't immune. With just four main carriers left because of consolidation, passenger service is a casualty of the drive for profit and America's increased wealth inequality.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Who's regulating amusement, water park rides? A 10-year-old boy was killed earlier this week on a waterslide in Kansas City. The accident is raising a lot of questions about amusement park safety. As it turns out, there is very little regulation of water slides and roller coasters. Six states have no amusement park regulations at all. So how do you know whether amusement or water park rides are safe enough to ride?
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
The Myth of Extreme Saving Despite an improving economy, Americans aren’t saving much money. According to one recent survey, as many as 40 percent of adults in the country are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Many personal finance gurus say the key to saving more is adopting more frugal habits. But we talk to one expert who says that advice misses the point.
To the Point
American Workers and the Retirement Squeeze For the first time since the New Deal, retiring Americans will be worse off than their parents, and it's not just because of the Great Recession. Guaranteed pensions have been replaced by 401(k)'s -- but they make more for the financial industry than they do for retirees. There's a growing consensus that more than half American workers over 30 will be unprepared for retirement. Can popular personal financial advisers help? Are wage earners at fault for spending instead of investing or are they just not making enough money?
Recommended
KCRW Features
The Asian American voter in OC In Orange County the population is changing. While the numbers of most ethnic groups have grown slowly over the past 10 years, the number of Asian Americans is up 41 percent since 2010. And don't think the politicos haven't noticed. What kind of impact will Asian American voters have on Orange County's representation in Congress? Will they help keep the county Republican, or could they turn Orange County blue?
KCRW Features
Inside the company helping LA County change its elections Big changes are coming to L.A. County elections starting in the year 2020. You’ll see 11 days of voting, not just one, ballots on high-tech touch screen terminals instead of paper and all new election software. Los Angeles County isn’t making the changes by itself. It has a partner in the effort, a private company that’s headquartered abroad and was once the focus of federal investigators. Is it a company that voters can trust with improving its elections?
The Mixer
Two California Senators, One Supreme Court Justice With key votes expected by Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins and West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, Brett Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed as the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Two Senators who don’t support Kavanaugh represent California: Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. And both have played pivotal, if limited, roles in the confirmation and hearing process up to this point.