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    Lauren Lyster

    Lauren Lyster

  • Paralyzed man walks again with bionic suit

    A bionic suit is allowing paralyzed New York man Robert Woo to walk again. FDA approval for use of this robotic device at home, along with growing acceptance from insurance companies, means this technology will become more broadly available to the disabled, according to CEO of ReWalk, the product's maker.

  • How to get your own butler for $25 a week

    The New York startup Hello Alfred offers a personal butler service, allowing customers to outsource chores like dry cleaning and grocery shopping for $25 a week. We tried it out for a week.

  • $100 million listings?! Pros explain why this real estate market is hot, but not a bubble

    For a city that never sleeps, home buyers are willing to fork out a lot of money for a place to rest their heads. In Manhattan, the average sales price for apartments set a new record of $1.87 million in the second quarter this year, according to the Elliman Report from real estate firms Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. In markets like New York and San Francisco, rising prices of these levels have lead to questions of bubbles. We talk to a number of real estate pros about why they say it's not.

  • How 1980s toys make modern day billions

    When Jurassic World debuted this month, it didn’t just shatter box office records. It introduced or reintroduced viewers to the Jurassic Park franchise, last seen in theaters 14 years ago. That means a whole new reason for toysellers to market velociraptor claws and Indominus Rexes. Those dinosaurs aren't the only ones making a comeback. Nowadays, a trip to the toy store is more like a trip down memory lane for adults. My Little Pony, Transformers and more, each reimagined for a new generation of kids.

  • Why one man defaulted on his student loans and suggests you should too

    We talk to Lee Siegel, an writer who penned a New York Times op-ed describing why he defaulted on his student loans. He explains his position and answers to criticism.

  • Why prescription drugs cost so much

    From a $94,500 hepatitis C treatment to a melanoma drug running $12,500 a month, how are prescription drugs priced? And why can they cost $50,000 or $100,00, or more? We explain.

  • Disrupting psychology: Text a shrink for $25/week. Does it work?

    Therapy is known as the talking cure. But if the New York-based tech startup Talkspace has its way, therapy will also become known as the texting cure. The company scored a round of $9.5 million in funding earlier this month from investors who have backed companies like Twitter (TWTR) and Tumblr (YHOO). We sit down with the co-founders and talk to other psychology professionals to talk about the business and the concept.

  • Gen. McChrystal: What companies face today is like war

    “I think companies need [help from] anyone who has experienced working in a fast-moving, complex environment, which most of them are experiencing right now,” McChrystal tells Yahoo Finance in the accompanying video interview.

  • Gen. McChrystal: Americans should be very concerned about ISIS

    From the fighting in Yemen to the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, battlefields across the globe make daily headlines in the U.S. But how concerned should average Americans be about these global flashpoints? Very concerned, says retired four-star general Stanley McChrystal, who was commander of U.S. and the international security forces in Afghanistan, in a video interview with Yahoo Finance.

  • $100 million worth of U.S. energy revolution going up in smoke

    In North Dakota, technology has unlocked the oil and gas of the U.S. shale revolution, but it’s not without growing pains. In the Bakken region near Williston, North Dakota, we found farmers who can’t get their product to market while more than one quarter of the natural gas being produced is going, not to gas plants, but to waste. Also, oil shipped out to refineries on trains has been involved in a string of fiery accidents.

  • Financial crisis delays 'adulthood' for millennials

    Consider it one one of the latest indications that conventional notions of adulthood (i.e. getting married, buying a house and having children) are on the decline: Singles now make up more than half of the adult population for the first time since the government began tracking these stats more than 35 years ago. Heidi Moore, The Guardian's U.S. finance and economics editor, says the financial benchmarks of adulthood have changed for millennials.

  • The future of the mall looks more like Minority Report

    What will the future of the mall look like? Either very convenient or very intrusive, depending on your point-of-view.

  • Crude oil for all? U.S. Under pressure to lift export ban

    The U.S. is producing 8.5 million barrels of oil a day -- amounting to the highest production in July since April of 1987 -- and other countries are eager to get in on the fruits of the domestic energy evolution. According to a Reuters exclusive, pressure is mounting on Washington from countries including South Korea, Mexico and the European Union to relax the U.S. ban on crude oil exports. We discuss what that would mean for the domestic economy and oil prices.

  • The Fed should ‘give money directly to the people’: Economist

    For those who want the central bank to do more to try to boost the economy or think its current policies haven't been effective enough, here's a novel idea: The Federal Reserve could print money and give it to consumers directly. That's the provocative suggestion made in a new essay in Foreign Affairs magazine. We talk to one of the authors.

  • 11 stocks to buy now at bargain-basement prices

    With the S&P 500 hanging out right around that psychologically meaningful 2,000 mark, investors may be wondering if they can you still find some bargains. According to Matt Krantz, markets reporter for USA Today, the answer is yes. You can find 11 to be exact.

  • Retailers like Target and Nordstrom are turning Instagram into a mall

    Target, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Charlotte Russe are making it possible to more directly shop on Instagram, using a new platform that allows users to buy items they see on the brands' feeds.

  • U.S. manufacturing 'renaissance': Pipe dream or future reality?

    Despite the hope for a "manufacturing renaissance" in the U.S., a Wall Street Journal article reports U.S. factories continue to lose ground to rivals abroad.

  • Ditch Harvard for a state school: Fmr. Ivy League professor

    Want to be successful in life? Don't go to Harvard, Yale or another Ivy League, says former Yale Professor William Deresiewicz. We talk to the author of "Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite."

  • Why Janet Yellen's Jackson Hole speech could give the stock market a boost

    We talk to Wall Street Journal reporter Pedro da Costa about what to expect from Fed Chair Janet Yellen's Jackson Hole keynote speech, which investors will be watching closely.

  • New signs the housing market is approaching normal?

    More fresh reads on housing this week as an industry group reported applications for home mortgages rose last week -- driven by refinancing demand -- and home improvement retailer Lowe's came out with second quarter earnings, lowering its outlook on sales for the year.