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The use of economic statecraft is at a high-water mark. The United States uses sanctions, tariffs, and import and export controls more than ever before. These tools have problems, though. They impose financial costs on domestic interests. They can induce retaliation by target states. And overuse of these tools could drive the United States from its central position in the global financial and economic system, undermining the effectiveness of U.S. economic statecraft in the long run. But there is an underappreciated tool that could perform valuable foreign policy work: tax law. We argue that tax law holds promise to advance U.S. foreign policy interests and that it is especially important to deploy tax tools now. Tax law has distinctive features that make it both a partial substitute and a partial complement to other tools of economic coercion, which means that it can extend the influence of U.S. economic power while reducing the risk of overusing other economic tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal financial planning is a set of activities required for defining objectives, setting action plans, and satisfying financial needs of individuals. Different authors represent the personal financial planning process through models, indicating disadvantages to apply them in the Colombian environment since they have been created in developed countries; they suppose the existence of a financial planning industry and there are no academic studies which adapt them to meet the inherent needs of the environment. In order to solve such disadvantages, this research proposes the definition of a unifying personal financial planning model which embraces different elements that are identified from studied models, applicable in the Colombian environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borrowing from Bourdieu's theory of practice, specifically, the relationship between forms of capital and discourse on the one hand and the nature of symbolic violence and thus control on the other (see Bourdieu 1998; 1991), this paper seeks to answer the following question: what discursive strategies do personal financial planners use to facilitate desirable client behaviour vis-à-vis market investment? On the basis of 32 semi-structured interviews with financial planners and textual analyses of relevant industry materials, I argue that planners use three essential discursive strategies: the naturalization of market volatility, the establishing of reasonable expectations, and the managing of external discourses. Together, these discursive strategies constitute the exercising of symbolic violence which, in turn, controls clients so as to cultivate a professional relationship amenable to long-term investment and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents ways for young scientists on how to make a financial plan. First, scientists should begin a new savings program. Second is to make plans to purchase a house. Third is to pay down their consumer debt if they have any. Fourth is to learn and use their institution's employee-benefit programs. The transition from student to professional is a long and busy time for a scientist. However, the effort they put into financial planning early in their career will save them money in the years to come.

This article presents information about Federal Reserve System's financial education activities. "Teaching Teens About Money," is a workshop for middle and high school. "Lunch and Learn" is an ongoing series of financial education seminars for employees offering information on various financial planning and consumer protection issues. Preparation and distribution of brochures is underway advising consumers of their rights and protections in connection with credit and deposit accounts and providing information on products that have generated numerous consumer complaints.