Your Credit Rating Might Predict How Likely It Is You'll Have A Heart Attack

A new study has found that your credit rating may be able to predict how likely you are to have a heart attack or stroke.

The multi-decade study, which was published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was performed by Duke University psychologists who looked at the cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes status and smoking habits of over 1,000 New Zealanders -- and then compared their findings to those people’s credit ratings.

The study found that people with lower credit scores were more likely to be at risk for cardiovascular disease. That, the study said, is because the same factors that account for better credit scores -- the researchers focused on self-control, educational attainment and cognitive abilities -- also account for better health.

“For example, being able to regulate your impulses lets you say no to that second helping of dessert as well as to buying something you can’t afford,” said Salomon Israel, one of the study’s authors and a postdoctoral fellow in psychology and neuroscience at Duke.

The study also found that those traits begin to develop in the first ten years of a person’s life. The researchers have been following the study participants' development since birth. "Despite the passage of nearly three decades, childhood factors were all significantly correlated with their corresponding adult measures," the study concluded.

In order to measure self-control, researchers relied on reports from study members’ teachers and parents, as well as self-reports from the members themselves, about qualities such as hyperactivity, inattention and lack of persistence. Educational attainment was defined by the level of schooling each participant had completed, while cognitive ability was measured by evaluating participants' IQs at various points throughout their lives.

Of course, the association between poor credit and poor heart health could be due to other factors, too. The study acknowledged, for example, that losing a job after getting sick could cause a person’s health to deteriorate and their credit score to drop. On the flip side, someone with more money might be both healthier and more financially stable because they can afford to pay their bills on time and access quality health care.

But the study concluded that self-restraint, educational level and cognitive ability were nonetheless more important than these other factors in explaining the link between a sound credit rating and a strong heart.

In the U.S., credit ratings are determined by a complex algorithm used by credit bureaus, which receive information about how punctually people pay their bills from places like utility companies, banks and mortgage providers. Then, the bureaus plug that information into an algorithm and come up with a three-digit number that lenders, landlords and others use to assess your financial reliability.

Having a less-than-perfect credit rating can have a host of consequences. Just a few dings on your score can mean you’ll be paying higher interest rates on mortgages, car loans and credit cards. Having a few more dings means you could be denied a job or a place to live.

But people shouldn’t be so quick to assume that a bad credit score is only because a person was impulsive, says Paul Bland, a consumer lawyer and the executive director of Public Justice, a public interest law firm that brings litigation against corporations on behalf of consumers.

“In the U.S., there are so many mistakes on credit reports that it seems dubious to make a strong association between these personality traits and your credit reports,” Bland told The Huffington Post.

Mistakes on credit reports affect millions of Americans: One out of every five people with a credit report on file had an error on their report, the Federal Trade Commission found in 2013.

Bland pointed out that even if a person is scrupulous and has a history of always paying bills on time, something like medical debt could still quickly ruin their credit. Because unexpected illnesses or accidents don’t discriminate in who they afflict, research has shown that unpaid medical debt is an imperfect predictor of creditworthiness. Partly as a result of such research, major credit score provider FICO said in August that it would start giving less weight to unpaid medical bills in determining credit ratings when that is the only negative in a person’s credit history.

So what does this all mean? For those who make indulgent purchases even when your paycheck doesn’t allow it, it can't hurt to get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked. But at the same time, just because you have a few dents on your credit report doesn’t mean you’re going to keel over the next time you have to shovel the driveway.

H/T Consumer Reports

Walmart Workers Launch Black Friday Strike

WASHINGTON -- Kicking off the third consecutive year of protests, Walmart workers in six states have formally submitted strike notices to their bosses ahead of the Black Friday shopping frenzy, calling for higher wages and better hours, according to OUR Walmart, the group representing the workers.

OUR Walmart did not provide an estimate on how many workers planned to take part in the strikes this year. It did, however, say that workers in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Florida, California, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., have already delivered notices, and it anticipates workers in Illinois, Minnesota, Texas and Pennsylvania will do so as well.

Charles Brown, an OUR Walmart member who unloads trucks at a Walmart in Newport News, Virginia, said he plans to miss three shifts this week to take part in the demonstrations. Brown said he joined the group in September to demand a greater say in scheduling as well as "more respect" from management.

"Some [other workers] may want to do a strike as well but are hesitant," said Brown, 27. "They need to know they don't have anything to be afraid of. If we don't stand up, no one else is going to stand up for us."

Black Friday has become an annual rallying cry for the anti-Walmart crowd, with labor activists and other progressives pillorying the world's largest retailer over its wages and scheduling practices for store employees. It also marks the most contentious week of the year between the Arkansas-based retail giant and OUR Walmart, which is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union that's been working to organize Walmart employees for years.

Walmart has downplayed the significance of the strikes in years past, noting that they involve just a tiny fraction of the retailer's one-million-plus U.S. workforce, and painted them as union-orchestrated stunts. OUR Walmart tends to put the number of strikers in the hundreds each year, while Walmart puts it more in the dozens.

"Perception is not reality in this case," said Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman. "Year after year we see the labor union and paid organizers promising they'll be out in force. And every year, we see a handful of people at a handful of stores."

Noting that Walmart workers get a holiday bonus, Buchanan also threw this barb at OUR Walmart and UFCW: "Are they going to pay their workers double time for working the holiday?" A union spokeswoman said all employees are salaried and work "as needed," meaning there is no bonus.

The sight of Walmart workers going on strike in the past two years has provided a shot in the arm to the labor movement, even if the numbers aren't large enough to impact sales. Like the fast-food walkouts that have popped up in cities across the country, the Walmart strikes aren't necessarily meant to disrupt the company's operations, but instead to draw attention to the participants' grievances.

This year, the group's members are making a specific demand in the protests: a wage of $15 and "consistent, full-time hours." Not coincidentally, $15 per hour is the same demand being put forth by the fast food strikers, whose movement is billed as Fight for $15 and who are backed by the Service Employees International Union.

OUR Walmart members have also been calling for an end to what they describe as retaliation from management for speaking out.

Since the strikes began in 2012, UFCW has filed a host of unfair labor practice charges against Walmart with the National Labor Relations Board, some of which the board's general counsel found merit in, some of which it did not. The general counsel issued a complaint in January alleging that Walmart had illegally punished workers in several states surrounding the strikes. That case has not yet been resolved.

OUR Walmart, in turn, has faced a number of court injunctions barring its members from protesting on Walmart property in certain states due to trespassing.

Many of the protests have focused on a lack of stable hours for workers, who say they don't get enough time on the schedule in order to make ends meet. Walmart says that a majority of its workforce is full-time, though it doesn't provide an exact percentage. The company recently launched a program aimed at giving more hours to the workers who need them, though it insisted the program was not a response to the protests.

Glova Scott, an employee at a Walmart in Washington, D.C., said she has already called in to her store and told them she won't be coming in this week. Scott said she's been working for Walmart for a little over a year but just joined OUR Walmart a week and a half ago. Fifty-nine years old, she earns $10.90 an hour stocking shelves on the night shift.

"It's hard. We work in an atmosphere where the pay doesn't make ends meet, and a lot of my co-workers think the solution is to look for another job rather than try to improve conditions," said Scott. "I joined because I wanted to be part of a movement. I'm looking forward to going back to work and encouraging my co-workers to join me."

Thanksgiving Day Deals Trump Black Friday This Year

NEW YORK (AP) — Thanksgiving could be the best day to shop all year.

An analysis of sales data and store circulars by two research firms contradicts conventional wisdom that Black Friday is when shoppers can get the most and biggest sales of the year.

Turns out, shoppers will find more discounted items in stores that are open on Thanksgiving. For example, there are a total of 86 laptops and tablets deeply discounted as door buster deals at Best Buy, Wal-Mart and others on the holiday compared with just nine on Black Friday, according to an analysis of promotions for The Associated Press by researcher MarketTrack.

And on the Web, discounts will be deeper on the holiday. Online prices on Thanksgiving are expected to be about 24 percent cheaper compared with 23 percent on Black Friday and 20 percent on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe, which tracks data on 4,500 retail web sites.

The data is the latest proof that retailers are slowly redefining the Black Friday tradition. It's been the biggest shopping day of the year for years, mostly because it's traditionally when retailers pull out their best sales events. But in the last few years, retailers like the Gap, Target and Toys R Us have started opening their stores and offering holiday discounts on Thanksgiving to better compete with online rivals.

"I was surprised, but it really shifted one day," said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst at Adobe, which is based in San Jose, California.

Shoppers already are noticing the deals on Thanksgiving. Corey Grassell, 34, of Appleton, Wisconsin, said he plans to shop for deals on Thanksgiving and bypass Black Friday. That's after he grabbed bargains last year on the holiday, including a washer-dryer combination at Sears for about $800, a 50 percent discount.

"I feel guilty for going out on Thanksgiving, but the deals are so much more attractive to me than on Black Friday," he says.

But some industry watchers fear others won't shop on Thanksgiving, choosing to keep the day sacred. Those who wait instead to shop on Black Friday could wind up being disappointed with the leftover deals, they say. In fact, according to Deloitte Research's recent survey of shoppers, about two-thirds say they're not motivated to go out to stores Thanksgiving because it's important to be with family and friends.

"Shoppers could be disappointed and find that the hot items on their list are not in stock on Black Friday because of the early push by retailers," says Traci Gregorski, MarketTrack's vice president of marketing.

She says she's conducting a survey of shoppers after the holiday shopping weekend to see how retailers fared. "We want to get shoppers' perception of these deals," she says.

Most big retailers acknowledge that they're starting to offer deals on Thanksgiving that previously were reserved for Black Friday.

Jeff Haydock, a spokesman at Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics chain, said the best deals become available Thanksgiving when its doors open at 5 p.m. For example, one of Best Buy's Thanksgiving specials is a $899 55-inch LED Smart TV, the lowest price it has ever offered on a Samsung ultra-high definition TV of this size. That will be available on Friday —if supplies last.

"Naturally, more of the deals are being pulled into Thursday because our stores are open," says Haydock.

Brian Hanover, a spokesman at Sears, which is opening at 6 p.m. Thursday, also says Thanksgiving specials spill into Black Friday. But the quantities for the 1,000 door busters are limited. They include Nordic Track treadmills for $699.99, or an $800 discount, and a 36 percent savings on a Whirlpool laundry machine, regularly priced at $549.99.

"It probably behooves the customer to shop earlier on Thanksgiving," he says.

For its part, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, says it's spreading out discounts online and in the store. But Gregorski, of MarketTrack's says its "evident" in Wal-Mart's circular that "the best deals are on Thanksgiving."

To be sure, for its two sales events on Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart devotes 36 pages of its circular to discounted TVs, computers and other items. On Black Friday? Wal-Mart has four pages of deals.

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Follow Anne D'Innocenzio at — https://twitter.com/adinnocenzio

Six Years Later, Walmart Still Hasn't Paid A $7,000 Fine For Black Friday Worker's Death

WASHINGTON -- This coming Black Friday will mark six years since a worker died beneath a throng of shoppers at a Walmart on Long Island. Although federal regulators faulted the retail giant in the tragedy, Walmart still hasn’t been compelled to pay the modest $7,000 fine that was levied against it.

The case, Department of Labor v. Walmart Stores, has not moved forward since HuffPost reported on it a year ago -- on appeal with a federal review commission that handles workplace safety fines. As of this writing, the commission lists the status of the case as “pending review.”

The case was first referred to the commission three and a half years ago. A spokeswoman for the commission said it does not comment on the timeline for pending cases.

It’s common for employers to appeal whatever penalties the Labor Department’s safety inspectors issue against them, including when workers are killed on the job. But the case of 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour, who had worked at Walmart for only a week when he was asphyxiated beneath the Black Friday crowd, underscores just how long those appeals can drag on, even in cases where the fines are comparably small.

Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman, said the retailer has made significant changes in recent years to minimize the frenzy among shoppers and make for a safer atmosphere, including spreading out merchandise that's on special and staggering sales times.

"After this horrible incident that happened six years ago, we took major steps working with crowd experts, law enforcement and people who do this for a living to see and help set up our stores," Buchanan said.

As HuffPost previously reported, Walmart, which had net sales of $473 billion last fiscal year, probably isn’t disputing the penalty in order to save $7,000, the maximum amount the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can fine a company for serious violations. Indeed, the company has already spent millions of dollars in legal costs just to fight the case. For Walmart, more significant than the nominal fine itself would be the ramifications if the fine were upheld.

OSHA used what’s known as the general duty clause as the foundation for its fine against Walmart. The clause holds that employers have a basic responsibility to provide a workplace that’s “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to [their] employees.”

In essence, the agency argues that Walmart should have foreseen the dangers presented by a mass of excited shoppers waiting at the store’s doors. An administrative law judge agreed back in 2011, though Walmart appealed that decision to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, where cases often wait years for review.

OSHA regulations tend to be very specific, and the agency doesn’t often reach for the general duty clause because it isn’t so easy to prove what should be a “recognizable” hazard. Employers, unsurprisingly, often criticize citations using the general duty clause as too vague. That's what happened when OSHA cited a poultry processor recently for violating the clause and putting workers in danger of ergonomic hazards. Before that, OSHA hadn’t tried to wield the clause in such a case in more than a decade.

In the Black Friday case, Walmart would be more eager to defeat OSHA's arguments than to avoid the $7,000 penalty. The company has argued that the dangers on Black Friday could not have been predicted. If regulators ultimately succeed in their case, OSHA would theoretically have an easier time putting Walmart and other retailers on the hook for Black Friday disasters in the future.

In a deal to avoid prosecution, Walmart agreed to develop a new crowd control plan the year after Damour's death. For its part, OSHA has started issuing guidance each year on how stores can handle their sales events safely. The agency recently sent letters to the major retailers urging them to adopt their own plans ahead of Black Friday.

“Retail workers should not be put at risk,” David Michaels, the head of OSHA, said last week.

You're More Likely To Inherit Your Dad's Social Status Than His Height

Social mobility is a myth.

That is the depressing conclusion -- or, if you're already part of the social elite, the great news -- of a new study by economists Gregory Clark of the University of California, Davis, and Neil Cummins of the London School of Economics. The hope that we can claw our way up from our low station to someplace fancier is a delusion for most of us, according to this study. We inherit social status from our parents just as much as, if not more than, our physical traits.

And this social status often persists across many, many generations. The title of the study -- "Surnames and Social Mobility in England, 1170–2012" -- gives you some idea of just how many generations we're talking about here: 28 generations of 30 years each. The study looked at centuries of data on the social statuses of English families. It found that many of the families who were socially elite landowners in 1170 -- your Montgomerys, Nevilles, and Percys -- were still socially elite in 2012.

"Strong forces of familial culture, social connections, and genetics must connect the generations," the authors wrote. "There really are quasi-physical 'Laws of Inheritance.'"

The study used attendance at Oxford and Cambridge Universities ("Oxbridge") as a proxy for high social status; typically only elite students go to those schools. Across generations, the "correlation coefficient" -- a number that shows the strength of the correlation between two things, with a 0 meaning not correlated at all and 1 meaning perfect positive correlation -- was between 0.7 and 0.9 for generations of the same family going to Oxbridge. In comparison, the correlation coefficient for height between generations is just 0.64, according to one study cited by the researchers.

Hang on, you might be saying, isn't England notorious for low social mobility? Isn't it the land of Downton Abbey-style snooty inherited wealth? Sure. But guess what? The United States is really not much better. A 2013 study by Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa found that the U.K. and U.S. were two of the least socially mobile countries in the developed world. Here's a chart that puts this in perspective:

Note that, according to Corak's study, low levels of social mobility -- meaning it's hard to move from one social level to a higher one -- are also associated with high levels of income inequality.

This is the kind of world that French economist Thomas Piketty warns could become increasingly common -- one in which inherited wealth just keeps growing while incomes stagnate. It's the sort of the world we're living in today, come to think of it.

Most worryingly, the Clark-Cummins study found that social mobility hasn't really improved significantly in recent decades, despite social programs aimed at boosting it, such as higher tax rates on wealth and programs to help lower-class students get into Oxbridge.

Maybe we just haven't given such programs enough time to work, though. And given the many economic risks created by widening inequality, we shouldn't stop trying to boost social mobility.

Used Car Dealership Hit With $8 Million Fine For Allegedly Harassing Customers

Elizabeth Warren's brainchild watchdog agency is cracking down for the first time on a used car dealer that also acted as an auto lender for allegedly harassing customers who were late on their payments.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, conceived by Sen. Warren (D. Mass.) during the financial crisis, fined Phoenix-based DriveTime Automotive Group, Inc., the country's largest "buy here, pay here" lender, $8 million on Wednesday. As part of a settlement agreement, DriveTime and its finance company, DT Acceptance Corporation, said they would change debt collection practices.

"Buy here, pay here" auto companies sell used cars, but consumer advocates say they operate more like subprime lenders. The companies offer low-income customers with poor credit ratings auto loans with interest rates that can top 30 percent, according to a 2011 Los Angeles Times investigation.

DriveTime’s average customer has an annual income of between $37,000 and $50,000, a FICO credit score between 461 and 554 and paid an average of 19 percent in interest on their loan, according to the CFPB. (According to FICO, a credit score of 660 or higher is typically considered "good.")

People who buy cars at these types of dealerships usually return to the lot to make payments, often in cash -- hence the term “buy here, pay here.” The companies also expect some of these buyers to fall behind on their payments, consumer attorneys say, which can benefit the dealer.

“When a customer defaults, the company can repossess the car and resell it again, often numerous times,” said John Van Alst, the director of the National Consumer Law Center’s “Working Cars For Working Families” project, which advocates for policy reform and transparency in used car and car finance markets.

DriveTime would repeatedly call customers who fell behind for payments, according to the CFPB settlement. Where the company fell afoul of the law, CFPB alleged, is when it called people at work, risking them getting fired. One DriveTime customer was called 30 times at work by the company’s collectors, even after the customer had asked them to stop, according to court documents. The CFPB charged that DriveTime management actually encouraged this tactic.

“Consumers who purchase a car at a buy-here, pay-here dealer deserve to be treated fairly,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “DriveTime harassed and harmed countless consumers, many of whom were economically vulnerable.”

“DriveTime strives to comply with all applicable laws and provide exemplary service to our customers,” said company general counsel and Executive Vice President Jon Ehlinger in a prepared statement. “DriveTime had taken and has continued to take steps to enhance its customer experience, and loan servicing activities, including the handling of do not call requests.”

According to the settlement, DriveTime employes 290 collectors in order to secure its owed payments.

The DriveTime agreement marks the CFPB's first action against a “buy here, pay here” company, and signals that the growing federal agency -- newly minted in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law -- is watching the industry, which has ballooned in size in recent years.

The number of cars sold by “buy here, pay here” lots in the U.S. grew from 1.3 million in 2001 to 2.4 million in 2010, according to the 2011 Los Angeles Times investigation. More recent data is hard to come by. “BHPH [buy here, pay here] is a fractured industry with few large or publicly traded participants, making it difficult to estimate transaction volume,” says the website of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

“Buy here, pay here” dealers represent around 10 percent of the overall auto finance market, said Chris Kuklas of the Center For Responsible Lending, research group that fights predatory lending practices. The overall auto finance market is worth $940.9 billion, according to the Federal Reserve.

At DriveTime, where at any given moment about 45 percent of customers were delinquent on their payments, calling people at work wasn’t the only law the company broke, regulators charged.

The settlement also alleges that the company inaccurately reported its customers to credit bureaus, even when DriveTime had “reasonable cause to believe” the information it was reporting was wrong. Regulators charged that when DriveTime repossessed its customers’ cars, it told the three biggest credit bureaus in the country that the repossessions had happened more recently than they actually had.

Having a car repossession listed on your credit report dings your credit score, and can make it more difficult to find a job or be approved for a credit card or mortgage.

DriveTime took steps to improve the way it reported customers to credit bureaus both before and during the CFPB investigation, Ehlinger said. The company is “look[ing] forward” to “improving its customer service and compliance practices” in coming years, he added.

Federal authorities have recently been cracking down on the way lenders sometimes unfairly harm consumers’ credit reports. Over the summer, the CFPB fined an auto lender in Texas $2.75 million for allegedly providing inaccurate information about borrowers to credit agencies for years.

“We’re focusing on accuracy with credit reporting because credit ratings have such an impact on people’s financial well-being,” CFPB spokesman Sam Gilford told The Huffington Post on Wednesday.

Kuklas said that "buy here, pay here" companies fall under the CFPB’s authority because they are more like debt collectors than car dealers. The agency has recently tried to clamp down on the tactics debt collectors use to get people to make payments on delinquent bills.

In August, the CFPB took action against a Georgia debt collection firm that it alleged operated like a “factory” in suing hundreds of thousands of people for old debts, while spending less than a minute reviewing each lawsuit for accuracy.

One out of every three Americans has an unpaid bill “in collections,” according to a July study by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Debts in collections can harm your credit score and even lead to your savings and wages getting seized.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that the number of "buy here, pay here" lots grew from 1.3 million in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2009. In reality, the number of cars sold by "buy here, pay here" lots grew from 1.3 million in 2001 to 2.4 million in 2010, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.

Legal Pot In Washington Bringing In Even More Tax Revenue Than Predicted

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington's legal recreational marijuana market is bringing in more tax revenue to the state than originally predicted, state officials said Wednesday.

The most recent revenue forecast released by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council shows that the industry is expected to bring in more than $694 million in state revenue through the middle of 2019. A previous forecast in September had that projection at about $636 million.

The latest report shows that nearly $43 million from a variety of marijuana-related taxes — including excise, sales, and business taxes — is expected to be collected through the middle of next year.

About $237 million is expected for the next two-year budget that ends mid-2017, and $415 million more is expected for the 2017-19 budget biennium.

The passage of Initiative 502 in 2012 allowed the sale of marijuana to adults for recreational use at licensed stores, which started opening this summer. Under the initiative, some of the tax money from the new system can be dedicated to the state general fund, while other portions are supposed to be devoted to health care, education and substance-abuse prevention.

So far, the state has issued 86 retail marijuana licenses, and 70 stores have opened. As of this week, revenue from total sales of recreational marijuana — including between producers, processers and product sold by retailers — totaled more than $40 million, with the state receiving more than $10 million in excise taxes, according to the state Liquor Control Board.

Steve Lerch, the revenue council's executive director, noted that because the industry is still new and developing, the numbers will continue to change.

"We continue to see growth in the number of producers, of processers and of retailers," Lerch said. With increasingly more access to retail marijuana, "we would expect to see some growth in those revenues," he said.