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“Governor Schwarzenegger’s Golden State is in a world of pain. Now it can’t meet its obligations to taxpayers, vendors and others until a budget deal is reached.”
Does this sound familiar? It sounds like what happened not too long ago except this time it’s involuntary. The Governor isn’t just withholding funds in order to make slothlike legislators do their job but this time the state is just plainly and simply, out of cash.
It’s a sobering reality. 2008 saw quite a few large financial institutions close their doors. Thankfully things settled down a bit and banks received some much-needed aid from the government. We were all hoping that bank closures were over — but it appears that 2009 just may see a repeat.
Just a slice of the article: “In a sobering appraisal of the nation’s banking system, President Barack Obama signaled Monday that he will need more money to bail out the battered financial industry. Even so, he said, ’some banks won’t make it.’”
December saw one of the highest amount of loan applications in decades. But in the recent months, with credit tightening and a slow but steady increase in interest rates loan applications have fallen dramatically. To top it off now credit is becoming even tighter than before. Not many people see it letting up…at least not any time soon.
“In its latest survey of loan officers, the Fed reveals that the percentage of banks that tightened their lending policies on both consumer and commercial loans fell during the fourth quarter as compared to the previous quarter.” Read more about the article that reports the banks’ credit, or lack thereof.
Always a great article every 6 months or a year it’s published. I always scramble to see if any cities in the Bay Area have made it and I’m almost always disappointed to see that we’re very, very far from being at the top. Here’s just a list of the cities ranked best places to live - of course you can also read more detailed reasons why these cities made it into the top 100. But if you just want the list, I’ve listed up to #5 here. There are 75 more at the link provided above:
I’m sure you’ve noticed that with the economic downturn gas prices have also fallen dramatically from a few months ago. Where we could’ve gotten a gallon of gas for a little over $4.00 now we can get for close to $2.00, almost half if not more of the price just a couple months ago.
But have you noticed that with the gas prices plummeting there has been more traffic on the roads, there have been more single drivers, and many, many more people choosing to go out or even leisure drive? Though many people may disagree perhaps an increased gas tax may be beneficial for us. In many Western nations gas is much less affordable than it is here and coincidentally those countries also tend to have much better public transportation systems and healthier individuals. Should we consider putting a gas tax on ourselves so that we can really learn to use our cars as sparingly as possible? Continue Reading…
This article focuses on breaking down where the $700 billion bailout is being allocated including the three main categories: “saving wall street,” “saving main street,” and “saving corporate america.” Continue Reading…
President-elect Barack Obama “nominated Peter Orszag to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the president’s chief number-crunching department, and said he sees ‘tough choices’ ahead in determining programs to keep or cut…As OMB director, Orszag, 40, would prepare the president’s federal budget proposals for Congress and analyze the effectiveness of government programs and policies as well as have a big role in determining funding priorities for federal dollars.” Continue Reading…
“Under Barack Obama, more people who don’t pay income tax would get checks from refundable tax credits. John McCain calls it an expansion of welfare.” What do you think? Continue Reading…
It seems like in recent times we hear about a bank being taken over or bailed out every other day. However “not every U.S. financial company is running to the government for help.
Cullen/Frost, a bank in San Antonio, announced it won’t need government money. Other banks may follow suit to show how strong they are.” Continue Reading…
Financial Times: US Faces Worst Recession In 26 Years
According to records it appears that our recession is starting to look very similar to the one that we suffered in 1982. It’s been a long time since the U.S. has gone through a recession of these lengths but the real question is how long will this recession last?
