Archive for the 'Recession' Category
Comfort Zone Investing: Seeking shelter from the storm … but where?
Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the recently-released book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In that weekly column, he’ll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.
With a major market meltdown going on, it’s only natur…
Housing’s new day may very well start with the FHA
Groucho Marx once remarked that whenever things start to look really dark, remain calm, don’t panic, and above all, turn on a light.
Given the barrage of financial stresses battering the credit and fairness markets these days, consumers, economists and investors alike could use some of Grouch…
In a recession, luxuries are the first to go
For anybody who’s been following the downfall of Sharper Image, there seems to be a pretty obvious lesson: when society are worrying about the rising cost of food and are scrimping to fill their gas tanks, high-priced doodads and assorted electronic gewgaws are the first things to go. The next t…
Dow below 12,000 — do I assemble out 11,000? Yes I do!
Earlier in the week I posted about finding the market bottom using that age-old handheld calculator, a white paper serviette. So, unfortunately it looks like I may be right again. Not precisely something I was hoping for, but whether it has to be, it has to be. I wonder whether my old serviette…
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac agree to revise home appraisal standards
The nation’s two largest sources of mortgage funds have agreed to sponsor a new home appraisal watchdog group to prevent inflated home values, Reuters reported Tuesday. Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) will supply $12 million each by the next five years to create the new independen…
According to Buffett, America is already in a recession
Over the past six or eight months we have heard more and more chatter about the dreaded “R” word. The dreaded “R” word being recession, and depending on who you listen to, you have either been laughing at the opportunity of America sliding into a recession, or you have been preparing for the ine…
Do manufacturing and interpretation crunches spell recession?
A pair of profitable reports nowadays raise the question of whether the U.S. economy is experiencing negative growth that quarter. The Associated Press reports that interpretation spending fell to the lowest level in 14 years and that U.S. manufacturing contracted to its worst level in five years.
…
U.S. interpretation spending falls 1.7% in January, worse than expected
U.S. construction spending declined 1.7% in January 2008, as private builders continued to pull-back amid the housing slump, the U.S. Commerce office announced Monday.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected interpretation spending to decline 0.7% in January 2008. interpretation spendi…
Consumers now spent up, not pent up
In another nod to a slowing economy, consumer spending slowed in January, while income growth sputtered as well. The Wall Street Journal reported recently (subscription required) that the Commerce department said “personal spending rose 0.4%, but was unchanged after adjusting for inflation. Such spe…
An IRS letter worth waiting for
Typically, seeing an envelope with the letters “IRS” on it in your mailbox could be a cause for concern, but by the next week some 130 million homes in America will be receiving letters in the mail bringing good news from the Internal Revenue Service.
As you are probably already aware, in its…
With an 8.9% home price drop, W out-destroys his dad
n
Reuters reports that U.S. home prices fell a record 8.9% in 2007. The final day home prices fell anywhere approach as much as in 1991 when they lost 2.8% of their value. That was when the current president’s father was in office. And he presided by a $200 billion government bailout of the savin…
Countrywide Financial puts an end to Colorado ski junket
With media outlets and politicians heaping sympathy on subprime borrowers on the brink of losing everything, it’s vital to keep in intellect the real victims on that mess: that’s right, the mortgage brokers who got us into it.
As whether plummeting earnings from the decline in subprime lend…
Economists surveyed say risk of 2008 U.S. recession is increasing
A new survey has found that the percentage of economists forecasting a recession has more than doubled, Bloomberg News reported Monday.
The National organization for commerce Economics’ survey of 49 economists done January 29-February 13 found that 45%, a majority, expected the downturn to be…
Congress takes on executive pay; O’Neal, Prince, Mozilo to testify
Former Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) Chief Executive Stan O’Neal, former Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) CEO Chuck Prince and former Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) Angelo Moziilo are due to testify before the U.S. Congress next week about executive pay. No, ladies and gentlemen, I am not…
