President-elect Barack Obama said in his address on Friday that this week's news points to the severity of the nation's economic crisis, citing that new home purchases for October were at the lowest level in fifty years, while 540,000 claims for unemployment were filed last week - the highest in eighteen years. He also said that "we now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further." He said he was...
On Friday, President Bush signed into law H.R. 6867, the "Unemployment Compensation Extention Act of 2008", to help individuals who have not been able to find work in this difficult economy.The new law extends Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) an additional 7 weeks for a total of 20 weeks. It also provides for an additional 13 weeks of EUC for those who live in states with a particularly high unemployment rate of over 6%, such as Rhode...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced yesterday that they have suspended foreclosure and eviction proceedings through the holiday season for owner-occupied single family homes, in an effort to help more troubled homeowners work out a solution with their lenders to keep their homes. Freddie Mac announced they would also delay foreclosure and eviction proceedings on owner-occupied 2-4 unit residences.The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have instructed their foreclosure attorneys to contact troubled homeowners as soon as possible...
Last night President Bush welcomed almost two dozen leaders from around the world, of both developed economies and emerging markets, to the White House State Dining Room for a working dinner to discuss the global financial crisis. For most of today, they will continue to meet at the first Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy. Leaders of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and the Financial Stability Forum are also...
In the Democratic weekly address to the nation today, President-elect Barack Obama expressed that he was glad that President Bush is meeting with world leaders this weekend to coordinate a quick response to the global financial crisis.He also said that while it was important to address the global crisis, that it was important to immediately address the economic problems here at home. Among his concerns are the nearly 1.2 million jobs lost over the past ten...
The Federal Trade Commission, the nation's consumer fraud protection agency, reported on Thursday that they and the State of Nevada are charging an internet payday loan company and its principals with violating federal and state laws by failing to disclose loan terms and by using abusive and deceptive loan collection tactics.The payday loans didn't comply with payday lending laws in most states and the "lending company" wasn't licensed to make payday loans in those states.The corporate...
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced on Wednesday that the original plan to buy up toxic mortgage debt from banks with up to $700 billion of taxpayer money has changed. Just over a month ago Paulson said that the rescue money was absolutely necessary to relieve struggling lenders of their bad mortgages. Yesterday Paulson said, "Over these past weeks we have continued to examine the relative benefits of purchasing illiquid mortgage-related assets. Our assessment at this time...
Opportunity in a Bear MarketThe stock market's volatility sure does reflect a lot of uncertainty and fear out there. While there's good reason to be cautious, there's also good reason to start researching some possible buying opportunities. As the dominoes continue to fall, it can mean the strong companies that are still standing once the dust settles will be poised to eventually become even stronger with some of their competitors out of the picture. And the...
This article is the third in a three-part series, the previous article discusses events leading up to the stock market crash of 1929. This article is a short history refresher on some of the major events that contributed to the crash, as well as how the government's past actions or lack of actions may have contributed to the severity and longevity of the Great Depression. I would also like to point out that many economic historians...
Last night, we experienced a historic event in the election of our new president. President-elect Barack Obama will be the 44th American President to lead our great nation. Though nearly half of American voters are likely to be extremely disappointed in the victory of the Democratic candidate, all Americans should be proud that we have reached a symbolic new era that proves that greatness isn't dictated by the color of our skin or the nation of...
