financial crisis

Are Credit Cards The Next Collapse?

First came trouble with mortgages, then home equity loans and commercial real estate. Now, banks are starting to worry about credit cards.

As the economy slows and unemployment rises, consumers are defaulting on credit-card payments more often. And though that trend is unlikely to create a crisis in line with the mortgage fallout, it's still a headache for banks that are already hurting.

Posted in Economy/Trade, financial crisis

Millions Lose Homes, As Families Plead for Help

BOSTON - Bank crashes in Iceland, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout of Ukraine and volatile stock markets the world over -- it all links back to the U.S. communities where hundreds of thousands of families are losing their homes with no let up in sight, those on the frontlines say.

'Foreclosure has been a huge issue, a ballooning, mushrooming issue for at least two years. We've been inundated with phone calls for help,' said Tracy Garrett, a housing advocate with Community Action House, a non-profit in Michigan.

Posted in financial crisis

Just How Dumb Are White Males?

Let me now defend white males. We can't possibly be as dumb as the polls showing we are John McCain's most reliable voting base would indicate. Do we white men believe for an instant that a vote for McCain would not represent more of President Bush's failed economic policies at home and costly military adventures abroad? If we don't hold such a belief, why are a majority of us expected to vote against the positive change that Barack Obama so clearly represents?

Posted in Economy/Trade, election 2008, financial crisis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2008
3:07 PM

CONTACT: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)
Alan Barber, 202-293-5380 x115 (CEPR);
Taylor Materio, 202-662-1530 x227 (NLIHC)

Comparison of Ownership vs. Rental Costs Points to Negative Equity Accruals in Many Markets Over the Next 4 Years

Policy makers should exercise extreme caution intervening in housing market as prices continue to fall to trend levels

WASHINGTON - October 28 - As the housing market meltdown continues unabated, a report released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) shows that in many bubble-inflated markets, homeownership remains a costly and risky proposition.

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The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. CEPR's Advisory Board of Economists includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University

The National Low Income Housing Coalition is a membership organization dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. NLIHC educates, organizes and advocates ensuring decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone

Posted in financial crisis

Greenspan Says, 'Who Could Have Known?'

That's right, the former Maestro told Congress last week, when asked about the meltdown of the housing bubble and the resulting financial crisis, "we're not smart enough as people. We just cannot see events that far in advance."

Posted in Economy/Trade, financial crisis

Ordinary Americans Left Out of Bailout

Mark Seifert tours reporters around streets more reminiscent of Baghdad than Cleveland, Ohio. They are deserted. The homes are boarded up, covered in graffiti. Once residential neighbourhoods, they are now hangouts for drug dealers.

At the end stands a nice little ranch with a kept garden. It's the home of an elderly couple who have lived here for decades. Their mortgage is paid off but the value of their home has depreciated by half. They cannot sell. They have nowhere to go.

Posted in financial crisis, foreclosures, Bailout

Populism Arising—but Will It Be the Killer Kind?

The old assumptions and paradigms about capitalism and free markets are dead. A new, virulent populism, still inchoate, is slowly and painfully rising to take their place. This populism will determine the future of the country.

Posted in Economy/Trade, financial crisis, Politics, Election 2008

Fixing the Crisis Is Not So Easy

Most Americans know the phrase, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” In the good times, when the economy boomed and Wall Street prospered, it looked like nothing was broke. The free market, we were told, was working like magic insuring prosperity and progress.

Posted in financial crisis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2008
3:55 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020;
or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Greenspan Expert

WASHINGTON - October 24 - The lead piece in the Washington Post today is "Greenspan Says he was Wrong on Regulation." (The piece is critiqued by economist Dean Baker, who continuously warned of the ramifications of the housing bubble since early in this decade.

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Posted in financial crisis

Economy Needs to Become More Local

In an earlier period of hard times for Americans, my grandmother Florence I. Skoloda sat at her kitchen table and noted in her little blue diary that she had paid $20 on her grocery bill having just received a $32 pension check.

The pension was from the federal government based on my grandfather John's service in the Spanish American War. He had died two months before her entry dated Nov. 12, 1938, just a few days after Kate Smith sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" for the first time on her radio show.

Posted in Economy/Trade, financial crisis, Localism