The one joy of WSJ’s otherwise mirthless interactive graph showing bank failures across the country from Jan ’08 to present is that when you slide the time scroller back and forth, it looks like, as Marketplace’s Paddy Hirsch just tweeted, looks like a series of nuclear impact zones. [More]
recession
Do We Need A Little Inflation To Get The Economy Moving?
By 9.28.10
Inflation is good, at the right time, and in moderate amounts. Like adding just a smidge during a recession when there’s a lot of people in debt. Knowing that prices will rise, some consumers and businesses are prodded to crack open their pocketbooks. The value of debts drop, easing the burden on strapped borrowers. Having used up a lot of options already, the Fed could slightly raise its inflation target and let prices slowly rise over the next few years, but they’re unlikely to announce anything remotely close to that in their meeting this week. Namely because people really really really hate inflation. Why is that? [More]
Woman And Her 30,000 Lbs Of Stuff Get Evicted
By 9.24.10
30,000 pounds of belongings stretched up and down the DC sidewalk. They all belonged to one woman who was evicted after she couldn’t make rent. [More]
"Economical" Are The New "Astronomical" Numbers
By 9.21.10
“There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.” – Richard Feynman, 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics winner. [More]
Recession Officially Over. Yipee.
By 9.20.10
The official declarer of such things has announced that the Great Recession is over, and it ended in Jun 2009. So why doesn’t it feel that way? [More]
China To Exceed US Credit Card Use By 2020
By 9.17.10
We don’t need to worry about China getting ahead, Mastercard said today that China is set to surpass the US by 2020 in America’s favorite pastime: using credit cards. It will only be a matter of time after that they implode on a consumer credit bubble, muahaha, exactly as we planned. See, you’re not the only ones that can export poison! [More]
Massachusetts Regulators Rarely Acted Against Subprime Brokers And Lenders
By 9.15.10
An investigative report finds that Massachusetts regulators only acted against 3% of its licensees during the sub-prime peak, the lowest among fellow New England states, while publicly preening that it was being “aggressive.” In fact, as foreclosures rose during ’06-’08, enforcement actually dropped. Forget who watches the watchdogs, who watches? [More]
CEOs Who Fire More Workers Earn More
By 9.2.10
An analysis of executive pay found that CEOs of the 50 firms that laid off the most workers since the beginning of the economic meltdown earned 42% more than the average pay for an S&P 500 company. Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it’s food for thought, especially for those in the bread line. [More]
Burger King Agrees To Private Investor Buyout
By 9.2.10
Burger King, (financially) depressed after grappling with the economic downturn and constant scrapping with McDonald’s, is going private. The Home of The Whopper loudly sighed today and agreed to an offer by private-investment firm 3G Capital Management for $24 a share. What went wrong? [More]
New Trailer For "Inside Job" Financial Crisis Documentary
By 8.31.10
Get ready to slake your thirst for populist rage. Inside Job is a new documentary coming out in October that aims to expose the truth about the true architects of the financial implosion of 2008. You can probably guess from the title whom they’re fingering. Matt Damon is the narrator and it’s released by Sony Pictures Classics. Here’s the trailer: [More]
Schools Asking Kids To Bring Basic Cleaning Supplies
By 8.16.10
New items on the back-to-school lists this year include cleaning spray, baby wipes, and cotton balls. It’s not for making a diorama or some kind of cheap puppet. Rather, with budgets slashed all over, schools have had to resort to asking the kids to pick up basic cleaning supplies for the school along with their usual TrapperKeepers and notebooks. [More]
30,000 Storm Atlanta Parking Lot To Get Public Housing Apps
By 8.16.10
The last time public housing rosters were opened up, the city got 2,400 apps. This time, they thought maybe 10,000 would show up. Instead, an estimated 30,000 people descended on an Atlanta parking lot last week so they could pick up an application for public housing. 60 had to be taken to the hospital after fights or just from heat exhaustion. It was 90-100 degrees. And this is just to get on a waiting list. To get an actual voucher can take 8-10 more years. [More]
US Bailout Money Wound Up In Foreign Banks
By 8.13.10
Because of there being no data on where the money was going and a general attitude of pumping as much money into the banks as quickly as possible, billions of US bailout money wound up in the coffers of foreign financial firms, a watchdog panel chaired by Elizabeth Warren – Warren for CFPA head! – found. 43 of the 87 banks that benefited as a result of the of the AIG bailout were foreign. [More]
48% Of Those Planning To Quit Once The Economy Improves Say It's Because They No Longer Trust Their Bosses
By 8.12.10
1/3 of working Americans say they’re going to try to find a new job once the recession is over, and 48% of that group cited losing trust in their employer as being the primary factory, according to a new study. [More]
Fed Votes To Buy Up Treasuries, Keep Mortgage Rates Low
By 8.10.10
The Fed voted Tuesday to reinvest expiring mortgage-backed securities by putting the money into longer-term Treasuries. That, and the decision to keep rates at 0 to 1/4 percent, should keep mortgage rates low. Here’s the full statement following their coffee klatsch: [More]
Before I Strategically Default, Can I Get A New House? Pwease?
By 8.10.10
Old news: homeowners strategically defaulting on their loans. New news: They first want to get financing for a new house. [More]
Stocks Rise, Betting Feds Will Vote To Buy More Mortgages And Treasuries
By 8.9.10
Markets edged upwards Monday, betting that the Federal Reserve will vote tomorrow to inject more money into the system by buying up more mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries. [More]
