I, too, make all my best financial decisions in my jammies – Shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online on Black Friday this year, up more than 9% from last year’s numbers. AI-driven traffic rose 805% as price-conscious shoppers used AI tools to not only bypass the crowds, but also find better deals as higher prices and rising unemployment weighed on sentiment. (Source: Reuters)

Haves and have nots – Households earning more than $250,000 a year own about 68% of the stock market, despite comprising only 9% of the overall American population. Americans that earn under $100,000 own about 10% of the stock market yet make up 66% of the population. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

Ohhhh Robin Hood, are you listening? – UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves announced a tax-raising budget, pushing the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio to its highest level since World War II. The move aims to stabilize public finances amid slow growth and rising debt, with measures such as frozen tax thresholds and higher levies on wealth and income to help fund Reeves’ deficit-reduction targets. (Source: Reuters)

Someone's got to do all the heavy lifting – The International Monetary Fund raised its global growth forecast in October to 3.2%, up from 2.8% following President Donald Trump's tariff announcement in the spring. The upward revisions are partly the result of high spending from US tech firms: Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft alone had capital expenditures of nearly $400 billion this year. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

A little something for your trouble – Michael and Susan Dell are donating $6.25 billion to kickstart savings for the roughly 25 million American children who aren't eligible for the $1,000 in so-called Trump accounts—seed money the government plans to provide for new investment accounts for US citizens born from 2025 to 2028. The Dells' gift will provide $250 for children 10 and under who were born before January 1, 2025. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

All smartphone and no play is making Jack a sad boy – A new study found that owning a smartphone during early adolescence is associated with increased risks of mental-health issues and obesity. Specifically, it pinpointed higher incidences of depression and insufficient sleep among children who owned smartphones by age 12 vs. kids without devices. (Source: CBS News)

Another way to pay for the privilege of standing in a line at the airport – Traveling without a Real ID-compliant form of identification is now going to cost travelers. In February 2026, passengers without one will be required to pay a $45 fee in order to fly from US airports. Travelers will be able to pay the fee, valid for a 10-day period, before they arrive at the airport. (Source: The New York Times)

This stuff is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s – Google's latest AI image generation tool, Nano Banana Pro, is so capable it's causing concern that humans will no longer be able to tell whether an image is AI-generated. Testers have been able to generate images based on copyrighted material or celebrity likenesses that are highly realistic and lack obvious AI tells from earlier models, which raises concerns about the guardrails on AI tech. (Source: CNet)

Santa, will this fit down the chimney? – The American dream now costs more than $5 million to achieve (defined as meeting an eight-point ideal of buying a home, getting married, raising two kids, saving for retirement, buying cars, paying for vacations and healthcare, and owning pets). Yet the median lifetime earnings of an American with a bachelor’s degree is just $2.8 million, making achieving the American dream that much harder. (Source: Investopedia)

Prepping for the Olympics in 2028 – New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation are donating $1 million to help launch the largest women's college flag-football league in the US. The league, which will hold its inaugural season in 2026, will include 15 schools competing in 7-on-7 flag football. In 2020, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics sanctioned flag football as a varsity sport. (Source: The Athletic)