It’s time to adjust our preconceived notions for how—and where—poor people live. While poverty rates rose throughout the country over the past few years, the sharpest increases occurred not in the “poor” inner city, but the …
Save for Retirement or Pay Tuition? Most Parents Are Making the Wrong Choice
With all the hand wringing over the high cost of college and amid an increasingly loud debate as to whether the expense is worth it, parents by a wide margin see saving for tuition as equally or more important than saving for retirement.
What Should We Call the Non-Recession Non-Recovery?
Technically, we’re not in a recession. And yet, judging by the anger on Wall Street and polls revealing that more than three-quarters of Americans sense we’re in a recession, it sometimes seems like the economy is faring just as …
Is the global economy facing a global banking crisis?
So it’s official. The French-Belgian specialty bank Dexia is the first financial institution to fall victim to Europe’s debt crisis. In a deal hammered out by the governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Dexia will be dismantled, with the Belgian government nationalizing the local operations of the bank. Taxpayers are also …
The Too-Good-to-Be-True Product Hall of Fame
Latest Housing Bust Casualty: Babies
Back in 2007, America was experiencing a mini-baby boom. The recession brought that to a quick halt. As early as 2008, the country saw a significant drop in birth rates. Baby booms and busts do tend to follow economic cycles. But what was surprising was how quickly birth rates cratered, dropping even before it was clear we were in a …
Nobel’s Newbie: Don’t Blame Economists for the Economy
News of this year’s Nobel prize winners in economics came in today, against the backdrop of a possible second global economic crisis. Two American macro-economists, Thomas Sargent of New York University and Christopher Sims at Princeton, claimed victory for their work on how our expectations and policies actually impact the economy. So …
Housing Survey: Americans Pessimistic, but ‘Would Buy’ If They Had to Move
Pity the American consumer, especially when it comes to housing. A large proportion of those surveyed (43%) in a recent Fannie Mae poll about homeownership and the economy report that their expenses are “significantly higher” …
‘Desperation Mode’: Netflix Drops Qwikster DVD Spinoff, Stock Price Soars
Just three weeks ago, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings admitted he “messed up” by failing to adequately explain the changes to the DVD-streaming company’s membership plans and pricing structures. Hastings apologized at the same time he …
FTC Blasts Government Debt Collectors For Abuses
It’s not unusual for a government agency to go after rogue debt collectors, but it’s rare that those collection firms are operating on behalf of another federal agency.
Why Reduced Credit Card Delinquency Is Bad News
New data from the American Bankers Association shows that the rates of late payments for most categories of consumer loans are creeping up. In the aggregate, nine of 11 different loan categories showed increases in nonpayment …
3 Ways to Get Help Selling Your FSBO Home
In 2010, some 9 percent of the homes sold in the U.S. were sold FSBO — For Sale By Owner — according to the National Association of Realtors. The fact that the strong majority of homes are sold by real estate agents is …