The Investopedia Team

What Are Pork Barrel Politics? Pork barrel politics is the practice of an elected official leveraging their vote to gain valuable concessions in exchange for political support, such as securing valuable government contracts or infrastructure projects for their constituents. Although […]

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the U.S. are at the front of the pack in producing electronics globally. Maintaining its reputation for producing inexpensive consumer goods in large quantities, China contributes heavily to the electronics sector, as this is one

Credit Rating Agency vs. Credit Bureau: An Overview It is easy to confuse credit bureaus and credit rating agencies, especially since credit bureaus are sometimes called “credit reporting agencies.” The basic difference is whose creditworthiness they rate. Credit rating agencies

When it comes to the lottery, no matter which game you play, your odds of winning are vanishingly small. For example, the odds of claiming the jackpot in a Powerball drawing are 1 in 292.2 million. To put this in

What Is Zero-Based Budgeting? Zero-based budgeting is an accounting practice that forces managers to think about how every dollar is spent in every budgeting period. It can have both benefits and drawbacks. Pete Pyhrr developed the idea of zero-based budgeting

Once your work with an employer ends, you can do a few things with your 401(k) plan. You could cash it out, roll it over to your new employer’s 401(k), or transfer it into an individual retirement account (IRA). But

What Is a No Down Payment Mortgage? Zero-down or no-money-down mortgages were readily available before the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2008 when home values were rapidly rising and credit guidelines were more lax. Today, unfortunately, no-down-payment mortgages from commercial lenders