Don’t bounce a check in Brazil, the overdraft fee is 188% of the amount of the check. While on that subject it would be wise to think about the price you will pay for the use of your credit card. It is at an average of 23%….per month. That means that your interest on a [...]
For most of the past forty years the US has been unequaled in terms of global leadership – the most respected and influential nation in the world. The economy was the envy of the world and the US Presidents were the global statesman that most trusted. The US has been watching its ranking sink for [...]
The World Bank has issued one of the most sobering studies it has done in a long time. According to the demographic tables it uses, the world’s nations will have to create 200 million jobs in order to reach anything close to full employment. There was a loss of 27 million jobs in the recent [...]
There are many challenges facing government during a recession but when that recession is combined with a budget crisis, things get really nasty. The recession puts a lot of people into desperate financial shape and that means that they have to turn to the government for help – at precisely the moment the government seeks [...]
The wild enthusiasm that accompanied the good data releases at the start of the year was probably never justifiable but neither is the gloom that is setting in now. There were some factors that made the first few months better than expected – weather being one of the more important. The warm winters advanced some [...]
Towards the start of the year the data from the Philadelphia and New York Federal Reserve Banks looked solid and they both provided some additional ammunition as far as manufacturing’s surge. Now both are showing some declines in activity and that does not bode all that well for the pace of economic recovery this year. [...]
The latest plan from the White House on the subject of unemployment is to copy some elements of a plan that Georgia pioneered earlier this year. It essentially involves a job try-out. Workers will receive their unemployment checks for eight weeks plus a small stipend while [This content is for MEMBERS ONLY. Please click Subscribe [...]
There is some speculation that the US economy is starting to have a déjà vu moment. The pace of growth in 2011 looked pretty good and then global events affected that progress and growth soon turned to slump. This year also started with some economic enthusiasm and now there are all manner of warning bells [...]
Corporate earnings also give us an opportunity to peer into the street-level segments of the marketplace – and the American Express earnings report from yesterday provided an interesting snapshot. In addition to the Experian report above showing defaults were dropping, American Express showed an 8.7% increase in credit card use for March. This is important [...]
Consumer loans experienced a drop in default rates for what appears to be a third consecutive month (since the beginning of the year). Part of this could be the fact that most defaults have happened and the rate would naturally go down. Or, it could be a legitimate drop in the rate because economic conditions [...]
