With unemployment rates high and the economy still struggling, many Americans have moved in with relatives, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. The result: the largest increase in the number of Americans living in multi-generational households in modern history. [More]
recession watch
Friendly's Files For Bankruptcy Protection, Closes 63 Restaurants
By 10.5.11
As we reported last week, the financial outlook at ice cream and burger chain Friendly’s is bleak. Earlier today, the company confirmed rumors it would be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced it has closed 63 shops around the country. [More]
Wells Fargo Ignores Homeowners Trying To Make Good On Missed Loan Payments
By 10.4.11
While it might make sense for lenders would go after homeowners who can pay their mortgage but choose not to, what about those people who missed payments because they were out of work but are now trying to make good on their debt? [More]
U.S. Hoping Chinese People Will Travel Here To Buy Products Made There
By 10.3.11
With a large number of Americans still feeling the sting of the economic doldrums, the U.S. is banking on a hope that tourists from China will come to this country and spend money on products that were probably made in China. [More]
More Banks Going After Strategic Defaulters To Get Back Balance Of Unpaid Mortgages
By 10.3.11
Since the housing market went smash-bang-crash into a deep ravine a few years back, we’ve written numerous stories of homeowners with mortgages they couldn’t pay — and some who could pay and chose not to — who opted to walk away and let the bank sell the house at a foreclosure auction. But if these people thought that they could abandon the home and have only a damaged credit rating to show for it, there’s a chance they could be very, very wrong. [More]
Report: Friendly's To File For Bankruptcy Protection
By 9.30.11
Friendly’s, the ice cream and burger chain that has more recently been in the news for pushing the limits of cheese tolerance by slapping a burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches, is reportedly considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and possible sale. [More]
Poll: 28% Of Americans Who Take Prescription Meds Resort To Risky Behavior To Save Money
By 9.27.11
With the economy and job market still stuck in “blargh,” more people are making potentially dangerous decisions about their health care, all in the name of stretching their dollar just a little bit farther. [More]
More People Spending More Of Their Income On Rent
By 9.22.11
New data on U.S. housing costs shows that more than half of the nation’s renters are writing rent checks that are at least 30% of their household income, and one in four renters are paying out half their income for shelter. [More]
Protesters Take Trash From Foreclosed House To Bank Of America Branch
By 9.20.11
Protesters chanting, “Bank of America, bad for America” tried to dump ten plump black garbage bags of trash in a BofA branch in Malden, Massachusetts. The bags contained refuse collected from the yard of a house the bank foreclosed on and let fall into disrepair, becoming a blight in the neighborhood and threatening to drag down property values. [More]
Which Generation Has The Recession Hurt The Most?
By 9.15.11
The Great Recession has done terrible things to people of all ages and walks of life, but which generation of Americans have had their futures the more irreparably damaged? The Atlantic lays out the evidence. [More]
Slew Of Foreclosed Homes To Hit The Market In Early 2012
By 9.15.11
Last year, several of the country’s largest mortgage servicers — Bank of America, GMAC/Ally, JPMorgan Chase, among others — were forced to hit the pause button on foreclosure procedures after it was revealed that many foreclosure documents were being rubber stamped by untrained, ill-informed “robo-signers.” This delay caused a bottleneck of foreclosure-worthy properties waiting to be reviewed. But now it looks like those homes are starting to trickle out into what could be a flood in early 2012. [More]
46 Million Americans Now Living In Poverty, Highest Level In 18 Years
By 9.13.11
The Office of Management and Budget released its latest census data report today and it doesn’t paint a terribly rosy picture of the current economic situation. [More]
Recession Horror Stories: AMC Theater Stops Giving Out ICEE Straws
By 9.13.11
In a sad sign of the times, reader “Strawless” says that his local AMC Theater isn’t giving out spoon straws with ICEEs anymore. They say they’re too expensive and you’ll have to make do with a regular straw. The theater is still happy to sell you a popcorn, coke and ICEE for $20, but that’s no longer enough to subsidize shipments of the specialized straws. [More]
More College Grads Defaulting On Student Loans
By 9.12.11
According to the latest numbers from the Dept. of Education, there was a sizable increase in the percentage of college students who defaulted on their student loans in 2009. [More]
Bank Of America Confirms 30,000 Jobs To Be Cut In Coming Years
By 9.12.11
Only a few days after a report that Bank of America could be looking to axe upward of 40,000 employees in the next few years, the bank has released a statement today that gives the actual number of positions to be eliminated as 30,000. [More]
Bank Of America Could Cut Upward Of 40,000 Jobs
By 9.9.11
Remember Bank of America’s recent estimate that it would have to eliminate at least 3,500 jobs? Well, it looks like that number may have been just the tip of a very large iceberg. [More]
Are Cost-Conscious Parents Being Less Generous With Diaper Changing?
By 9.6.11
The recent tough times have forced many parents to pay closer attention to the bottom line. But are they doing so at the expense of their babies’ bottoms? [More]
Consumer Confidence At Lowest Level Since 2009
By 8.30.11
Jitters over this summer’s debt-ceiling showdown helped push consumer confidence to its lowest level in more than two years. With unemployment levels still high and housing prices remaining low, “there is basically nothing for consumers to be confident about,” analyst Gennadiy Goldberg told Reuters. [More]
