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If you’ve ever been startled while watching a show on a streaming service that was interrupted by an unreasonably loud commercial and thought to yourself, that should be illegal, soon it will be. At least in California. California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a bipartisan bill into law that bans video streaming services that serve customers in the state from airing audio of commercial advertisements that are louder than the video content it accompanies. It goes into effect July 1, 2026. “We heard Californians loud and clear, and whats clear is that they dont want commercials at a volume any louder than the level at which they were previously enjoying a program,” Newsom said in a statement about the legislation, SB 576. The bill was introduced because of a baby. California state Sen. Thomas Umberg, an Orange County Democrat, said he sponsored the bill because of the daughter of his legislative director, a baby named Samantha who was finally put to bed one night only to be woken up by a much louder commercial. “This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent whos finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work,” Umberg said in a statement. The California law is patterned after federal law, extending the rules of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act to streamers in the state. The 2010 CALM Act was passed by Congress and mandates commercials have the same average volume as the programs they accompany, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The CALM Act was also meeting a real demand. A 2010 Harris poll found 86% of respondents believed commercials were louder than shows. The law only applies to TV commercials, though, not commercials on streaming platforms, radio, or internet. The CALM Modernization Act, which would have extended the rules to streamers, was introduced in 2023 by a pair of Senate Democrats, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, but it never got a vote. Even if your state passes similar legislation, be warned: the commercials may still sound louder, and there’s a reason why. That’s because even if commercials can’t be louder on average than the programs they accompany, they are trying to be as loud as they legally can to capture your attention in the 30 short seconds or less they have you. In other words, while a TV show might have its loud moments for effect here and there throughout a program, it’s not yelling at you the whole time like a commercial might. “Most TV commercials are created to be loud simply so you can hear the advertisement and get your attention,” Sony says on a support page for handling loud commercials. “[I]f you are watching a program with soft dialog, when the program cuts to a commercial you will most likely hear a boost or fluctuation in the volume.” California’s new law will be welcome news to parents across the Golden State, but if you’re really worried about waking your baby during commercial breaks in a Hulu binge session, subtitles could be your best bet.
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When the federal government shutdown on October 1, it started a chain reaction of income problems for federal workers. Roughly 900,000 government employees are now on furlough. Another 700,000 are working without pay because their jobs are too critical for them to stay home. To add insult to entirely preventable injury, the current administration has indicated that it may not provide the legally mandated back pay to these workers once the shutdown is over. Considering the fact that getting another job during the furlough may require the government employees agency approval (and wouldnt help critical employees working without a paycheck), the shutdown could be a personal financial disaster for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Only 1.8% of all American workers have Uncle Sam for a bossbut that doesnt mean the other 98.2% of us are exempt from furloughs, sudden income loss, or bizarre grandstanding from unrelated departments that lead to you coming in to work for no pay for weeks on end. (Well, maybe not that last one.) Thats why its so important for all workers to know these financial strategies that can help you safely get to the other side of income loss: Calculate your bare minimum budget If you havent done so before your income loss, sit down and figure out your baseline monthly expenses. These are the expenditures that are essential for maintaining your life, such as rent or mortgage payment, utility bills, groceries, transportation, and childcare. Generally, this is a relatively easy number to calculate. Start with your fixed expenses, like your rent and childcare, and estimate your fluctuating expenses like groceries and utility bills, by calculating the average cost over the past six to 12 months. The number you come up with is your bare minimum monthly budget, and it gives you a framework for figuring out how to live sustainably while your income is paused. Contact your creditors If you are carrying credit card debt, student loans, or other debts, contact your creditors to find out if there are ways to pause payments or reduce your monthly payment requirements during the period of income loss. While this will generally increase the amount you owe over time, it can give you the breathing room you need in the moment, and reduce your bare-minimum monthly budget number. Determine if youre eligible for unemployment Furloughed government employees (as well as furloughed private sector workers) may be eligible for unemployment benefits, depending on local and state regulations. Unemployment benefits are generally based on your past earning history and most benefits are limited to 26 weeks. Each state has a minimum and maximum weekly benefit amount for unemployment benefits. For example, in Wisconsin, the minimum weekly unemployment benefit a Cheesehead could receive is $54 and the maximum is $370. These amounts vary greatly from state to state, with Massachusetts boasting the highest weekly maximum at $1,033 and Puerto Rico having the lowest maximum benefit at $190 per week. Unemployment benefits are not available for all types of income loss. Going on strike, having to work without pay (as current excepted government workers are doing), or getting fired for cause would make you ineligible for unemployment benefits. But if you can collect unemployment, these benefits can help keep you afloat until your income resumes. Compare your savings (or unemployment benefits) to your needs Assuming you have savings set aside, you can compare it to your monthly minimum number to determine how many months you can afford to go without your income. In an ideal world, you will have an emergency fund equal to three- to six-months worth of living expenses. That should help you feel more confident about your income loss, since you know you can weather quite a long period without it. Unfortunately, only 46% of Americans have enough savings set aside to cover three months worth of expenses according to a 2025 Bankrate report. If you dont have a robust savings account (or any at all), and youre eligible for unemployment benefits, you can alternatively make the same type of comparison between your monthly minimum number and your potential unemployment checks. Figure out alternative income sources Depending on which agency they work forand if theyre still clocking into a job theyre not getting paid forfederal employees may not be able to take on alternative employment while waiting out the shutdown. But that doesnt mean theyre out of luck for finding other sources of income. For example, a furloughed employee might make a list of things theyre willing to sell and create a schedule for selling them. Having a schedule gives them more time to get the best prices for those items and also provide a sense of security about where next months money will come from because theres a plan in place. Other options include renting out a room in your house or selling your services as a freelancer. Any options for keeping some money coming in while waiting for your primary income to resume can help relieve your financial stress during the shutdown. Dont let the shutdown keep you down Losing your income through no fault of your own feels infuriating and demoralizing, especially if you have no idea when to expect its return. But calculating the minimum you need to maintain your lifestyle can help you feel more in control. From there, you can ask for some breathing room from your creditors and determine if youre eligible for unemployment. Then look at how long your savings and unemployment benefits can sustain you. To make sure the process can last as long as the current political temper tantrum, make a plan for alternative sources of income that you can implement as needed. All this together creates a blueprint for surviving and thriving through income loss, even if it stretches on for a long time.
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E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Most of Americas largest homebuilders have publicly stated that the peak 2025 housing market saw softer-than-expected conditions, particularly in many parts of the Sun Belt. This softer housing market environment caused unsold inventory to tick up. Indeed, since the pandemic housing boom fizzled out, the number of unsold completed U.S. new single-family homes has been rising: August 2016 > 61,000 August 2017 > 63,000 August 2018 > 69,000 August 2019 > 79,000 August 2020 > 52,000 August 2021 > 34,000 August 2022 > 45,000 August 2023 > 72,000 August 2024 > 105,000 August 2025 > 124,000 The August figure (124,000 unsold completed new homes) published last week is the highest level since July 2009 (126,000). Lets take a closer look at the data to better understand what this could mean. To put the number of unsold completed new single-family homes into historic context, we have ResiClubs Finished Homes Supply Index. The index is one simple calculation: the number of unsold completed U.S. new single-family homes divided by the annualized rate of U.S. single-family housing starts. A higher index score indicates a softer national new-construction market with greater supply slack, while a lower index score signifies a tighter new-construction market with less supply slack. If you look at unsold completed single-family new builds as a share of single-family housing starts (see chart below), it still shows we’ve gained slack (and have more now than in pre-pandemic 2019); however, this slack, nationally speaking, isnt anything close to the 2007-2008 weakening. While the U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t give us a great market-by-market breakdown on these unsold new builds, we have a good idea where they are, based on total active inventory homes for sale (including existing). Much of it is likely in the Mountain West and Sun Belt, particularly around the Gulf area. Indeed, some builders are experiencing pricing pressure, particularly in pockets of Florida and Texas, where resale inventory is well above pre-pandemic 2019 levels. See the screenshot from the ResiClub Terminal below. To offer larger incentives and move some of these homes, many major homebuilders in the Sun Belt are compressing their margins. While homebuilder margins have compressed from the highs of the pandemic housing boom, some look alright compared with pre-pandemic 2019 levels. However, if resale inventory and unsold completed new-build inventory continue to rise next yearand further margin compression becomes necessarywe could reach a point where both single-family permit activity and housing starts activity pull back more. Well keep a close eye on it. Big picture: Theres greater slack in the new construction market now than a few years ago, giving buyers and investors some leverage in certain markets to negotiate better deals with homebuilders.
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