American Credit Scores Crash To New Lows
“Figures provided by FICO Inc. show that 25.5 percent of consumers — nearly 43.4 million people — now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It’s…
Economy
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Newest first · Page 369Chronic Unemployment Crushes Health
Chronic unemployment undermines a person’s sense of freedom in a free society. That is one of the reasons the extended economic downturn, in its third year and perhaps still in progress, has done such…
Are Unemployment Benefits a Blessing or a Curse?
When the US Congress left town for its Fourth of July recess, one of the last things the Senate did was to deny the Obama administration’s proposal to extend funding for both the Extended…
Commercial Real Estate Loan Restructurings Rise Dramatically
The second half of the real-estate debacle was supposed to come in the second of half of 2010. The first part came in 2008, when the value of residential mortgage-backed securities fell hard and…
Two-Year Treasury Yields Move Toward Zero, A Chance For More Stimulus
What is a safe haven investment worth? The yield on two-year notes has dropped to near .6%. The drop in global stock markets, and fear of a rise in the financial troubles of Europe,…
ISM Falls, Another Sign Of Economic Fall
“The NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) registered 53.8 percent in June, 1.6 percentage points lower than the 55.4 percent registered in May, indicating continued growth in the non-manufacturing sector, but at a slightly slower rate, ISM…
States And Cities Will Beg For Funds
It is old news that states and municipalities face deficits not only in their budgets but also in their pensions. The pension issue could become a crisis in a few years as these funds…
June Unemployment: A Spectre Of A New Recession
The ghost of recessions past returned as the US moved into the same funk that it experience in 1982 and 1983 when joblessness was above 9.5% for nearly a year and a half. Total…
Unemployment: Another Nail In The Coffin
The Labor Department announced the most recent statistics on jobless claims. The figures confirm information from ADP and Challenger Gray. They also foreshadow weak unemployment data for June “In the week ending June 26,…
The ADP Number And The Double-Dip Recession
The RealtyTrac numbers from this morning showed that improved housing activity in March and April was caused by federal tax breaks and low mortgage rates. Once those benefits disappeared, home sales and home starts…
Does Killing Unemployment Benefits Kill The Economy?
The House of Representatives failed to pass a bill to extend unemployment benefits until November. The number of people who would be covered is more than a 1.5 million and increases by at least…
Consumer Confidence Falls Off A Cliff
Consumer confidence plunged in June according to The Conference Board. “The Consumer Confidence Index, which had been on the rise for three consecutive months, declined sharply in June. The Index now stands at 52.9…
The Failure Of G-20 Meeting And The Trouble Financial Future
It will be harder to stabilize the global economy based on the principles which came out of the G-20 Toronto meeting than to put a camel through the eye of a needle. The G-2p’s…
Storm Threatens The Gulf (Update 6/24)
The National Hurricane Center and NOAA have updated the information on the storm that is moving into the Gulf: A TROPICAL WAVE OVER THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA CONTINUES TO PRODUCE SHOWERS AND A FEW…
Looking Back, The Fed Never Cut Enough
The housing market is in trouble, and perhaps enough trouble that it will be the one sector of the economy that will face a double-dip recession. The idea that housing is related to unemployment…