If the students graduating from Alfred University on May 18 are expecting a world-is-your-oyster type speech from speaker, AIG CEO and Alfred alumnus Robert Benmosche, then they may want to put on headphones during his portion of the ceremony. Or they may want to listen to the tough love speech he’s got planned. [More]
Mortgages Slightly Easier To Get For Prime Borrowers, Still Tough For Subprime Applicants
By May 6, 2013
Ten years ago, a potential home buyer could walk into a Countrywide office and get pre-approved for a half-million dollar home loan based on a bank statement written in crayon on a restaurant place mat and a pinky swear that the loan could be paid back. We all know too well the results of those lax standards, which is why regulators and banks ramped up restrictions on lending to the point where applying for a home loan is like auditioning for American Idol, without the washed-up celebrity appearances. But a new survey says that lenders are easing up… a bit. [More]
Dow Cracks 15,000 Threshold For First Time In History
By May 3, 2013
Earlier this year, it was big news when the Dow Jones Industrial Average cracked 14,000 for the first time since 2007. But earlier this morning, promising employment numbers sent the DJIA soaring, up more than 160 points until it surpassed the 15,000 mark, a new high. [More]
Are Wall Street Investors Pumping Up The Next Housing Bubble?
By April 22, 2013
Areas like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Miami — all hit pretty hard by the collapse of the last housing bubble — are now seeing home prices rise at rates above the national average. But rather than this being an indicator that these areas are finally recovering, some worry that it’s just a lot of hot air being pumped into another bubble by Wall Street investors. [More]
Number Of Teens Expecting To Depend On Parents Into Adulthood Has Doubled Since 2011
By March 28, 2013
In what could be an indicator of either a massive drop in teens’ financial prospects or the fact that teens today are getting more realistic about their financial futures, a new survey shows that the percentage of teenagers who expect to remain dependent on mom and/or dad until at least age 27 has doubled in just the last two years. [More]
what we talk about when we talk about zombiesThink our current cultural fixation on zombies is just part of the zeitgeist? A Clemson University literature professor says that it’s not that simple. Focusing on the zombie walks occurring in many cities, she points out that people have become more interested in playing zombie over the last decade as we feel powerless, peniless, and disenfranchised. [CBS Charlotte]
Feds Now Letting Big Banks Review Their Own Foreclosures For Errors
By February 13, 2013
Pre-recession banks turned a blind eye to problems with the mortgages they handed out, bundled, sold and securitized. When that bubble burst, these same banks put the foreclosure process on auto-pilot, allowing anyone with a pulse to sign legal documents. So who better to review all those foreclosures for errors than the institutions that didn’t care in the first place? [More]
Pipe-Pilfering Has Doubled Number Of U.S. Homes Without Complete Plumbing
By February 12, 2013
According to the 1990 census, only around 1% of all homes in the U.S. lacked a complete set of plumbing facilities, down from 45% in 1950. But a new report claims that recent rashes of thievery have resulted in significantly more homes without proper plumbing. [More]
Is Virginia Really Trying To Mint Its Own Money?
By February 6, 2013
Earlier this week, the Virginia legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill that would fund a study to investigate “whether the Commonwealth should adopt an alternate medium of commerce or currency to serve as an alternative” to the dollar “in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.” [More]
Dow Peeks Its Head Above 14,000 For First Time Since 2007
By February 1, 2013
Following a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 14,000 threshold for the first time since October of 2007, when the world was a care-free place where you could get a $500,000 mortgage just by pinky-swearing you’d pay the money back. [More]
Senators Call Out Attorney General For Treating Banks Like They Are “Too Big To Jail”
By January 29, 2013
Like many Americans, Senators Charles Grassley (Iowa) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) think federal investigators have given banks a mere slap on the wrists for their part in the economic collapse and other misdeeds. So in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the pair wonder if banks are being viewed by the DOJ as “too big to jail.” [More]
Interview: Frontline’s Martin Smith Talks About The DOJ’s Failure To Prosecute Wall Street
By January 29, 2013
Last week, PBS’ Frontline dedicated an entire hour to the Justice Dept.’s failure to prosecute a single high-ranking bank executive involved in the financial crisis of 2008. Consumerist recently got the chance to discuss the topic with the show’s producer/writer Martin Smith. [More]
‘Nuclear Holocaust’ & ‘Sh!tBag’ Among Clever Names Morgan Stanley Bankers Gave To Toxic Mortgage-Backed Security
By January 23, 2013
Federal prosecutor Lanny Breuer insists he has yet to find enough evidence to bring an indictment against a single Wall Street executive over the 2008 mortgage meltdown, yet lawyers in private lawsuits against the banks continue to turn up some gems — like this one from the Morgan Stanley e-mail vault. [More]
10 Highlights From Frontline Report On Why No Wall Street Execs Are In Jail Over Mortgage Mess
By January 23, 2013
Last night, PBS’ Frontline looked at a question many Americans have asked — Why have no top Wall Street executives been prosecuted for their part in the 2008 financial crisis? — and took it right to man at the Justice Dept. who isn’t bringing those charges. [More]
Kentucky Sues For-Profit College Over Misleading Job-Placement Stats
By January 16, 2013
If you’re comparing college programs and see job-placement rates of anywhere from 80% to 100%, that might sound pretty appealing. But what if the real numbers are not so rosy? [More]
Report: U.S. Home Prices Up 7.4% Over A Year Ago
By January 15, 2013
If the price of your home took a beating when the housing bubble burst, or if you bought a home in recent years and have been waiting for prices to trend upward, the data on one new report should be good news. [More]
Here’s A Bunch Of Stuff That Might Actually Be Cheaper In The Months To Come
By January 2, 2013
For lots of things you buy, the general trend is for prices to increase over time. But there are some things that forward-looking folks claim will drop in price — at least for a bit — in this, the year 2013 CE. [More]
Downsizing Your Home Might Not Make Retirement Any Easier
By December 10, 2012
If you’re at or nearing retirement age and living in a house with rooms you don’t use, it would seem to make sense that you could save by downsizing to a smaller abode. But unless you have significant equity on your home and are willing to make big changes, that might not be the case. [More]
