Archive for the 'credit' Category
Ideas on Geithner, China, Autos, Underemployment, and other economic chaos and Red Plague syndromes.
Ge, which had for all intents and purposes closed down GE Capital, its finance division, in November, has finally announced layoffs.
Jerry Flint of Forbes Magazine has covered the auto industry for more than 50 years! He has seen many changes over the years. His comments are on target and prophetic.
Do not believe every number you see or the “headline numbers”.
Amazingly, the US Department of labor reported only 524,000 jobs were lost in December. The market was almost overjoyed, as they had expected a number in the range of 650,000 to 750,000. The 524,000 did not include the “revision” to the prior months numbers downward by 154,000. Thus, adding the 154k to the 524k, one may come to a sum of 678,000, right in line with the nightmare expectations.
Citi yesterday agreed to “cramdowns” for resetting mortgage amounts and rates for troubled borrowers.
Politicians all across America declared that this was a breakthrough, etc.
It is amazing of late to watch the news wires and see the number of successful business people who are committing suicide due to the “Red Plague” and its economic chaos.
Today’s Wall Street Journal had a small article buried within the paper which once again demonstrated how screwed up our American Government/Financial Systems are.
Fannie Mae announced on Monday that it is raising its fees to lenders for guranateeing or buying certain mortgages. The article notes that the fees will increase to 3.25% of the loan amounts after April 1st, from the current 1.25%.
A summary of the Lending Club services and processes.
Congrats to Chip for taking such a dire subject and injecting a sense of humor and a bit of hope.
From our perspective at MoneyAssistant.org there is a ton of pain ahead. In addition to expected spikes in unemployment and further underemployment, tightened credit and higher interest rates, and expected deficits at all [...]
An analysis of some key components of the Great Depression
See the original article:
The author is right on target!!
With real unemployment continuing to rise, corporate and private bankruptcies spiking, earnings levels eroding tremendously, asset values tumbling, and credit severely restricted, the “tide” must first recede before it turns and begins to improve. Things are continuing to get worse. Thus, they can not, [...]
Two Wall Street Journal columns jump from their website today:
After Dow’s Collapse, Guarded Hope
After the U.S. stock market’s third-worst year in more than a century, many investors are hoping for a turnaround in 2009. But considering the pain that has continued for more than a year, they are reluctant to bet on it.
Stimulus Versus Recession
Check out the referenced article of 30 Money Sites to check out in 2009:
Highly recommended and lots of good information.
Thanks Thursday Bram!!!
According to a press release, “The Federation of Small Businesses is . . . calling on the Government, the banks, local councils and consumers to play their part during the year by providing support to small businesses in fighting regulation, accessing finance and maintaining cash flow to buck the increasing trend of business closures.”
Today’s Wall Street Journal cites the anticipation of looming “mortgage cram-downs”, as a result of the failure of government’s steps to cease the increase in foreclosures.
The article notes that there are 7.5 million homes underwater currently and that foreclosures are expected to exceed 8.1 million over the next four years!!!! It also notes that Congress was hoping to help 400,000 homeowners through its latest program, “Hope for Homeowners”, but only 357 have applied for the program to date.
Check out this “Layoff Tracker”. Unfortunately, in only includes the largest companies, and excludes the source of most of the unemployment and underemployment.
Now that the government has bailed out Wall Street, the Banks, the insurance companies, the auto makers, and countless others, the real question is “Is it enough?” What needs to be done to get our economy back on track? Are we on the verge of being “back on track”?
Christmas eve… All the presents are wrapped and hidden from the kids. All, meaning one for each kid. For me, I hope I do not get anything. Not that I do not want anything, but because I know the money would be better spent on food or gas or books for the kids over the next week or two.
2007 and the first half of 2008 were marked by hyper inflation, on a global scale. Is this all but forgotten? There were fears the world would run out of oil and gas and market prices reflected those fears. All the corn in the world was being consumed by the soda makers and the ethanol refineries, leaving no corn left for food. Because of the corn prices skyrocketing, the price per pound of beef, pork and fish bounded higher. The global effects caused rice prices in Asia to move higher by 150% and the prices of bread in South Africa rose to beyond the reach of the typical laborers.
About the same time, the fear that there was not enough copper, steel, cement and investment bankers forced pricing on a global scale higher and higher. The US dollar was devaluing because the US did not produce anything that was to be needed by a commodity hungary world, but for our corn and ethanol, and investment bankers.
If the world is literally flooded with dollars, why is it near impossible to refinance a home or refinance and restructure outstanding consumer credit?
With the skyrocketing unemployment, there are many out there espousing the need for the government to provide tax credit to employers, encouraging employment….
With credit lines continuing to be cut, banks not negotiating outstanding loans, and new loans only being extended to those who do not need the money, there is but ONE QUESTION: WHERE IS THE MONEY?
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reported that the number of miles driven in America had fallen by 8.9 billion miles or 3.5% in October 2008 versus October 2007. The Department of Transportation reported that this was the largest decline for the month of October since 1971. They noted that this decline came despite the fact that gas prices have declined from above $4 per gallon to less than $2 over the past 4 months.
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