Republican President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he wanted former National Security official and loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI, signaling an intent to drive out the bureau's current director, Christopher Wray.
FORMER FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, PROSECUTOR
Despite being the land of opportunity, the American Dream remains frustratingly out of reach for most Americans, with a mere 31% believing they’ve financially “made it” in life. The surprising twist? Millennials are leading the pack in financial confidence, with 34% claiming they’ve achieved financial success – the highest percentage among all generations.
The comprehensive survey of 2,000 employed Americans, conducted by Talker Research for BOK Financial, reveals a complex landscape where traditional markers of success are evolving, and external factors weigh heavily on financial aspirations. For those still climbing the corporate ladder, there’s hope: 54% believe they’re well on their way to financial success in their lifetime.
However, the picture becomes less optimistic with age. Only 27% of baby boomers feel they’ve reached financial success, and among those who haven’t, just one-third believe they ever will. The survey found that Americans consider their path to financial success threatened by various external factors, including presidential elections (46%), interest rate changes (45%), and the job market (42%).
What exactly does it mean to ‘make it’ financially in today’s America?
The goalposts have shifted significantly, with 79% of respondents saying their definition has evolved over time. The magic number appears to be around $234,000 in net worth – though reaching that milestone faces modern obstacles like the high cost of living (42%) and inflation (26%), with some citing their own spending habits (7%) as a barrier.
“The uncertainty around the economy, politics, and other external factors can weigh heavily on people — and are right now,” says Jessica Jones with BOK Financial Advisors, an affiliate of BOK Financial, in a statement. “And financial headwinds like high inflation and interest rates can make it feel like it’s harder to get ahead, but baby steps are key. If someone is struggling to see success in their financial future, it’s important to just get started, even with a small savings account.”
Nearly half of baby boomers (48%) and Gen X respondents (47%) point to higher cost of living as a major obstacle, compared to just 34% of Gen Z. Meanwhile, younger generations – Gen Z (28%) and millennials (30%) – are more likely to cite inflation as their primary concern.
The markers of financial success have also undergone a dramatic shift. Today’s Americans consider owning a home (78%) and a vehicle (64%) as necessary indicators of financial success, while traditional milestones like having children (40%) or getting married (34%) – which were crucial for their parents’ generation – have become less significant. Modern indicators now include having an established long-standing career (48%) and earning a college degree (30%).
When it comes to spending, Gen Z (27%) and millennials (31%) direct the largest portion of their money toward family expenses, while Gen X (43%) and baby boomers (50%) prioritize retirement savings. Younger generations are planning ahead too, with Gen Z expecting to start retirement planning at around age 41, and millennials at age 46.
Interestingly, Gen Z shows both practical and personal financial priorities. While they’re the most confident about planning their financial future without professional help (70%), they also lead in prioritizing purchases that make them happy (20%). In contrast, baby boomers express the least confidence in their financial future during retirement (33%) and their ability to plan without professional assistance (49%).
“While people may feel confident that they can manage money on their own, I’d really advocate for being educated,” Jones notes. “Young people, especially, are showing an interest in understanding financial concepts, which is encouraging, but there is a lot of information out there, so I encourage people to double-check their sources.”
The study also revealed interesting trends in how Americans seek financial advice. Most prefer guidance from older individuals over peers (64% vs 56%). While social media’s influence on financial perceptions remains significant at 45%, only 41% actively seek financial advice from these platforms. However, Gen Z bucks this trend, showing the highest interest in social media financial advice (64%) and being most influenced by these platforms in defining financial success.
Southwest Airlines says it is ending its cabin service earlier on its flights starting next month.
Beginning on Dec. 4, a company spokesperson said, flight attendants will begin preparing the cabin for landing at an altitude of 18,000 feet (5,486 meters) instead of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters). The change in procedure is designed to “reduce the risk of in-flight turbulence injuries” for crew members and passengers, the company said.
For passengers, that means they will need to do the usual pre-landing procedures — such as ensuring their seatbelts are fastened and returning their seats to an upright position — earlier than before.
While turbulence-related fatalities are quite rare, injuries have piled up over the years. More than one-third of all airline incidents in the United States from 2009 through 2018 were related to turbulence, and most of them resulted in one or more serious injuries but no damage to the plane, the National Transportation Safety Board reported.
In May, a 73-year-old man died on board a Singapore Airlines flight when the plane hit severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean.
The airline had also previously announced other changes.
Starting next year, Southwest will toss out a half-century tradition of “open seating” — passengers picking their own seats after boarding the plane.
Honey, they shrunk the catalogs.
While retailers hope to go big this holiday season, customers may notice that the printed gift guides arriving in their mailboxes are smaller.
Many of the millions of catalogs getting sent to U.S. homes were indeed scaled down to save on postage and paper, resulting in pint-sized editions. Lands’ End, Duluth Trading Company, and Hammacher Schlemmer are among gift purveyors using smaller editions. Some retailers are saving even more money with postcards.
Lisa Ayoob, a tech-savvy, online shopper in Portland, Maine, was surprised by the size of a recent catalog she received from outdoor apparel company Carbon2Cobalt.
“It almost felt like it was a pamphlet compared to a catalog,” she said.
Catalogs have undergone a steady recalibration over the years in response to technological changes and consumer behavior. The thick, heavy Sears and J.C. Penney catalogs that brought store displays to American living rooms slimmed down and gave way to targeted mailings once websites could do the same thing. Recent postal rate increases accelerated the latest shift to compact formats.
The number of catalogs mailed each year dropped about 40% between 2006 to 2018, when an estimated 11.5 billion were mailed to homes, according to the trade group formerly known as the American Catalog Mailers Association. In a sign of the times, the group based in Washington rebranded itself in May as the American Commerce Marketing Association, reflecting a broadened focus.
But don’t expect catalogs to go the way of dinosaurs yet. Defying predictions of doom, they have managed to remain relevant in the e-commerce era. Retail companies found that could treat catalogs with fewer pages as a marketing tool and include QR and promo codes to entice customers to browse online and complete a purchase.
Despite no longer carrying an extended inventory of goods, catalogs are costly to produce and ship. But they hold their own in value because of growing digital advertising costs, helping retailers cut through the noise for consumers barraged by multi-format advertisements, industry officials say.
In an unlikely twist, notable e-commerce companies like Amazon and home goods supplier Wayfair started distributing catalogs in recent years. Amazon began mailing a toy catalog in 2018. That was the same year Sears, which produced an annual Christmas Wish Book Wish starting in 1933, filed for bankruptc y.
Fans of printed information may rejoice to hear that apparel retailer J.Crew relaunched its glossy catalog this year.
Research shows that the hands-on experience of thumbing through a catalog leaves a greater impression on consumers, said Jonathan Zhang, a professor of marketing at Colorado State University.
“The reason why these paper formats are so effective is that our human brains haven’t evolved as fast as technology and computers over the past 10 to 20 years. We retain more information when we read something on paper. That’s why paper books remain relevant,” Zhang said. “The psychology shows that three-dimensional, tactile experiences are more memorable.”
Pint-sized presentations still can work, though, because the purpose of catalogs these days is simply to get customers’ attention, Zhang said. Conserving paper also works better with younger consumers who are worried about the holiday shopping season’s impact on the planet, he said.
Postal increases are hastening changes. The latest round of postage hikes in July included the category with the 8.5-by-11-inch size that used to be ubiquitous for the catalog industry.
Many retailers responded by reducing the size of catalogs, putting them in a lower-cost letter category, said Paul Miller, executive vice president and managing director of the American Commerce Marketing Association. One size, called a “slim jim,” measures 10.5 by 5.5 inches. But there are other sizes. Some retailers have further reduced costs by mailing large postcards to consumers.
Lands’ End, for one, is testing new compact formats to supplement its traditional catalogs. This year, that included folded glossy brochures and postcards, along with other formats, Chief Transformation Officer Angie Rieger said.
Maine resident Ayoob said she understands why retailers still use catalogs even though she no longer is a fan of the format. These days, she prefers to browse for products on the internet, not by flipping through paper pages.
“Everybody wants eyeballs. There’s so much out there -- so many websites, so many brands,” said Ayoob, who spent 35 years working in department stores and in the wholesale industry.
Targeting customers at home is not a new concept. L.L. Bean was a pioneer of the mail-order catalog after its founder promoted his famous “Maine Hunting Shoe” to hunting license holders from out-of-state in 1912. The outdoor clothing and equipment company based in Freeport, Maine, is sticking to mailing out regular-sized catalogs for now.
“By showcasing our icons, the catalog became an icon itself,” L.L. Bean spokesperson Amanda Hannah said. “Even as we invest more in our digital and brand marketing channels, the catalog retains a strong association with our brand, and is therefore an important part of our omni-channel strategy, especially for our loyal customers.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after he met with Donald Trump without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.
After the leaders’ hastily arranged dinner Friday night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trudeau spoke of “an excellent conversation” and said in a post later Saturday on X, accompanied by a photo of the two men seated a table and smiling, that he looked forward to “the work we can do together, again.” Trump said earlier on Truth Social that they discussed “many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address.”
For issues in need of such cooperation, Trump cited fentanyl and the “Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration,” fair trade deals “that do not jeopardize American Workers” and the U.S. trade deficit with its ally to the north.
Trump asserted that the prime minister had made “a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation” of American families from fentanyl from China reaching the United States through its neighbors. The U.S., he said, “will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic.”
The Republican president-elect has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders when he takes office in January.
U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Canadian officials say they are ready to make new investments in border security.
Trudeau called Trump after the Republican’s social media posts about the tariffs last Monday and they agreed to meet, according to an official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the private talks. The official said other countries are calling Canadian officials to hear how about how the meeting was arranged and to ask for advice.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, after speaking with Trump on the telephone, said Thursday she was confident a tariff war with Washington would be averted.
At the dinner which was said to last three hours, Trump said he and Trudeau also discussed energy, trad,e, and the Arctic. A second official cited defense, Ukraine, NATO, China, the Mideast, pipeline,s and the Group of Seven meeting in Canada next year as other issues that arose.
Trudeau’s office said in a statement that the leaders “shared a productive wide-ranging discussion” centering on “collaboration and strengthening our relationship,” adding, “As Canada’s closest friend and ally, the United States is our key partner, and we are committed to working together in the interests of Canadians and Americans.”
Trump, during his first term as president, once called Trudeau “weak” and “dishonest,” but it was the prime minister who was the first G7 leader to visit Trump since the Nov. 5 election.
“Tariffs are a crucial issue for Canada and a bold move was in order. Perhaps it was a risk, but a risk worth taking,” Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
Trudeau had said before leaving Friday that Trump was elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but now was talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of products, including potatoes from Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.
“It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said.
“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for American citizens as well and hurting American industry and business,” he added.
The threatened tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s team negotiated during his first term. Trudeau noted they were able to successfully renegotiate the deal, which he calls a “win-win” for both countries.
When Trump imposed higher tariffs as president, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US $2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.
About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum, and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.
Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.