Personal Finance

Impulse buying is alive and well in the United States.

On Tuesday, President Obama delivered his seventh and final State of the Union address to the Congress. Unlike the previous six, this was not a long list of policy agenda items he would like to see the Congress address in the coming year. It was, instead, a broader conversation regarding the state of American democracy.

Carl Nottberg, a veteran retail facilities executive, is battling cancer.

Nottberg, senior VP of business development at USM, is suffering from multiple myeloma, a relatively uncommon form of cancer that attacks the plasma cells in the bone marrow. He has been in and out of treatment while his immune system is attacked, and hospitalized for weeks at a time.

Good news for retailers: Banks are flush with money and eager to lend.

“Credit is more available than at any time since the great recession,” said Walter Simson, principal of Chatham, New Jersey, -based Ventor Consulting (ventorllc.com). “A more liberal lending environment has opened a window of opportunity for retailers to get more capital with less risk.”

Consumer confidence rose in December amid lower gas prices and a stronger job market.

The index of consumer confidence rose to 96.5 in December from a revised 92.6 in November, the Conference Board said Tuesday. (The November reading originally was put at 90.4, the lowest level in more than a year.) Economists expected a rise to 93.6, according to Bloomberg.

Staples is limiting the severance pay of top executives as the resolution of a deal with Office Depot draws near.

Staples announced that its board of directors has adopted a new policy stipulating that the company will not pay any severance benefits that exceed three times the sum of an executive’s base salary plus target annual cash incentive award, without seeking shareholder approval.

In addition, CEO Ron Sargent has elected to amend his severance agreement to align with the terms of the new policy.

Physical credit cards may be going the way of DVDs and floppy disks.

According to new analysis from Bankrate.com cited by PayPal, 63% of millennials do not have a credit card. However, that does not mean they are abandoning credit-based purchases.

Millennials are now the fastest growing segment of PayPal Credit shoppers, rising to 33% of the total in 2015 up from 28% in 2013. Rather than shunning credit altogether, this influential group is turning to alternative credit services to help manage their finances.

Lower gas prices are not significantly altering consumer behavior, according to the latest Consumer Fuels Survey results released by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).

Although drivers report that the national median gas price fell 25 cents per gallon in the past month and 60 cents per gallon since July, only 22% of consumers say that they will drive more over the coming month and only 15% say that they will spend more on other non-fuels items in the coming month.