The United States is home to more than 33 million businesses, the vast majority of which are small businesses, with millions being created (and others closing shop) every year. These businesses often rely on loans, provide the goods and services that keep the economy flowing, and sometimes even grow large enough to enter public markets or provide private investment opportunities. Explore key topics central to business and finance, from the role of the Federal Reserve to how initial public offerings work, how millions of American students finance higher education, and more.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
The company employed a disruptive strategy to transform the transportation market, but early struggles, including leadership shifts and near bankruptcy in 2008, threatened its efforts to bring electric vehicles to the mainstream.
Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning sought to design a high-end electric sports car for environmentally motivated, affluent buyers. The Tesla Roadster would be the first highway-legal car to use lithium-ion batteries.
A video breaks down the core forces behind economic bubbles, illustrating how forces including cheap credit, soaring optimism, and feedback loops push asset prices far beyond fundamentals—until a single shock triggers panic, selling and a rapid collapse.
A scene from "The Big Short" visualizes how Wall Street bundled shaky mortgages into complex housing bonds and sold credit default swaps on top of them—showing, step by step, how the structure of the 2008 housing bubble was vulnerable to collapse.
A video examines the massive surge in AI spending—forecast to hit $500B by 2026—and how this may be propping up a fragile US economy. Experts warn that if AI investment slows or under-delivers, the consequences could be felt in markets, jobs and growth.
This podcast revisits tulip mania, the 1630s Dutch craze where rare bulbs were briefly traded like luxury assets. It unpacks the myths surrounding the event and shows how its legend continues to shape modern perceptions of financial bubbles.
This video illustrates how the South Sea Company in Britain sparked a stock boom in 1720, with promises of huge trading profits, driving shares to unprecedented heights before a sudden crash wiped out the fortunes of investors—including Isaac Newton, who lost an estimated £20K.
Business History hosts Jacob Goldstein and Robert Smith explore how a carrier with just four airplanes shuttling across Texas revolutionized flying by offering free whisky, cheap late-night tickets and free-for-all seating allocation, despite how hard it is to make money running an airline. However, the success story didn't last forever.
Specifically, the "youth unemployment rate" here refers to those aged 16 to 24. Whether the culprit is AI, more people getting college degrees or something else, experts argue this could have a negative impact on the economy going forward.
Other frugal habits experts suggest might not be worth the squeeze include driving to multiple stores in one trip to hunt for deals, as well as buying everything in bulk.