The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported Wednesday that one-quarter of American households—approximately 60 million Americans—have little or no access to banks or other financial institutions. Almost 22 percent of black households and 71 percent of families making less than $30,000 don’t use banks. Without access to banks, families are vulnerable to theft, having to resort to non-traditional financial services like check cashers, and are unable to establish credit histories. (Washington Post)

Sarah Palin and Robert Pattinson: What do they have in common, besides the letter P? Hair. Lots of gorgeous, flowing hair, styled to perfection, writes Vanessa Friedman in the Financial Times. Big hair is making a big comeback, she says. Usually, short skirts and tall hair are signs of economic boom times, as so gloriously evident in the 1980s. It could be that this holiday season will mark an economic recovery, Friedman writes, or maybe we’ll feel nostalgia for those easier times. But this era’s big hair is different from the styles of shoulder-pad times—this hair moves. It’s seductive. It’s subversively touchable. It advertises a “Samsonian symbolism” that says, “I can grow this—imagine what else I can do.” And yet, Palin and Pattinson don’t hide all the work that goes into their manes’ artistic swoops and flips. It “speaks to our current desire for transparency, fiscal and otherwise.” (Financial Times)