Uncategorized

Unemployment hits 10.2%, the highest in more than 26 years. Job losses are now approaching a two-year stretch of back-to-back quarterly losses. So are government officials right to believe that a weak-dollar can stop rising unemployment? This is an issue that is as vital as oxygen to the future of the US economy, to your jobs, and to your money. The debate is picking up speed as the ... read more

Americans now own Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the combined $5.2 trillion, heavily politicized housing finance companies nationalized in the fall of 2008, bringing to taxpayers large sums of subprime, no doc, alt-A loans and securitizations that no one wants, backed by abandoned houses. U.S. taxpayers also own their cousin, the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), the ... read more

Former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker says do it. So does former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. Two big banks in England are doing it now. But the U.S. still won’t. To stop the ‘too big to fail psychosis,’ break up the banks. Break them up. Now. As the U.S. still struggles with its own too-big-to-fail issues, banks are once again a sore spot in Europe. The ... read more

CIT Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy Sunday afternoon, after getting approval on most of the details from its creditors. At risk, though, is $2.3 B in taxpayer bailout money, much of which is unlikely to ever be recovered, thus making it the single biggest loss for TARP. CIT is the fifth-largest bankruptcy in the history of the country, in terms of assets, and the company has posted more than ... read more

The House of Representative’s version of health-care reform will cost more than the $894 bn 10-year price tag cited by the Congressional Budget Office. That’s because the CBO and Congress do not address human responses to legislation. Tax something more, you ultimately take in less in taxes. Penalize a company, and it finds ways to dodge the penalty. And lawmakers have put in this ... read more