Happy Tuesday, MarketWatchers! Hope you had a great long weekend. Don’t forget to check out today’s top personal finance content. New York City just banned discrimination based on hairstyles Now employers, schools and clubs that discriminate against natural hair and styles like afros, cornrows and dreadlocks can get a $250,000 fine. How old are you? → Read More

Dear Moneyist, My girlfriend and I make about the same income monthly of approximately $19,000. I have gone through a divorce and several downturns in the economy as an entrepreneur so I have $55,000 in credit-card debt and $34,000 in IRS debt, plus a car and mortgage. My gross income is approximately $225,000, so well → Read More

Economist Burton Malkeil has called the index fund “the most important financial innovation that has been created for the individual investor.” And one look at index-fund pioneer Vanguard’s performance over the past decade shows that many individual investors agree. For the past 12 years, Vanguard has taken in more money on a net basis than → Read More

Dangers may lurk in index funds, a popular area of the stock market known for their recent and consistent record of outperformance against actively managed funds, according to experts. A recent op-ed in the New York Times cautions that passive index funds may be vulnerable to bias, and possibly manipulation, as interest in those funds → Read More

Mattel Inc. showcased its biggest names and partnerships at Toy Fair 2019 in New York City, hoping to capitalize on big names like Barbie and Hot Wheels, but is only forecasting flat gross sales for 2019, after factoring currency fluctuations. Mattel’s MAT, +1.37%   portfolio of superstar names in the toy space includes Barbie, which → Read More

MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE Dangers are lurking in index funds, an area of the stock market is known for its history of outperformance against actively managed funds and ironically, it is stock picking that may be at the heart of concern in so-called passively managed index funds. See full story. A shocking number of Americans flunk → Read More

France’s “yellow vest” movement is making itself heard from Paris to Provence, but its rallying cry is reverberating in an unexpected place: Britain. Holiday Inn owner Intercontinental Hotels Group IHG, -0.54% IHG, +0.81% has seen a rise in company-meeting relocations across the Channel among executives fearing the protests in France. The “gilets jaunes” protesters, who → Read More

‘That seems to be what the socialists are working for now — to have everyone cared for from cradle to grave… The average college kid idealistically wishes everybody could have ice cream and cake for every meal. But as he gets older and gives more thought to his and his fellow man’s responsibilities, he finds → Read More

New Yorkers can no longer be forced to have “professional” hair — whatever that means. They now have the legal right to wear their locks in locs — or au naturale, or styled in afros, cornrows, dreadlocks, twists, braids, Bantu knots and other ‘dos at work, in school, as well as in fitness clubs and → Read More

Getty Images President Donald Trump speaks to the media before signing the Space Policy Directive 4, during a ceremony in the Oval Office on Tuesday. President Donald Trump on Tuesday again suggested he could extend a trade-deal deadline with China, as he denied interfering in an investigation involving hush-money payments. CHINA DEADLINE, REPORT DENIAL Trump → Read More