Foreclosure Nation

Inflation is back, and it's not limited to America. Prices in developed countries are rising at the highest rate since the financial crisis first started in 2008, caused largely by increasing food and gas prices, according to figures released on Thursday by the Organization for Economic Co-operati...

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WASHINGTON — For all the talk of recovery, Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about the economy as soaring gas costs strain already-tight budgets. But so far, people aren't taking it out on President Barack Obama, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. Even so, the survey highlights a c...

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History's two most influential advocates for economic liberty, Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, nevertheless turned away from "free banking" to support some financial regulation and legislative reform in the wake of financial crises. Smith's views were influenced by the global banking crisis of 1772 ...

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Does economic history hold a giant clue for getting America out of its present trade mess? Yes, because it debunks the idea that free trade is how nations become prosperous. Instead, it shows that nations win at international trade by playing a 400-year-old game called mercantilism. Let's look a...

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What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector’s curren...

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South Florida's population growth has resumed following a recession-induced interruption, but the rate of household formation may lag for awhile. Weak job growth may be hindering growth in the number of new households, which has consequences for a wide range of South Florida businesses, from real e...

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The prime example of a bubble that really hurt was the parabolic ascent of the NASDAQ Composite Index from a rational level of 2200 in early 1999 to the ridiculously irrational 5000 15 months later. That was vertical mania by investors out of their mind. By the end of 2002 the value of these mostly...

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The prime example of a bubble that really hurt was the parabolic ascent of the NASDAQ Composite Index from a rational level of 2200 in early 1999 to the ridiculously irrational 5000 15 months later. That was vertical mania by investors out of their mind. By the end of 2002 the value of these mostly...

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IT'S a good thing the cacophony surrounding Ben Bernanke’s testimony to the Congressional budget committee last week passed largely unheard in the financial community. Congresswoman Schwartz, in a litany of “what-ifs”, asked Mr Bernanke if he thought it was morally correct for Congress to require Am...

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THE US does not face an imminent fiscal crisis. The US government will not default on its debts, and it’s even unlikely that the Fed will be forced to monetise federal debts. However our fiscal regime is becoming increasingly dysfunctional, thus radical reform would be quite helpful. I’ll sketch o...

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The U.S. economy is struggling to emerge from a recession that led to the destruction of eight million jobs. At the same time, the federal budget deficit remains stuck above $1 trillion. Having already allocated more than $1.6 trillion toward economic stimulus (the 2009 stimulus package and the De...

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The city on a hill and the last, best hope of mankind has entered a new period in its history. We are now America, the downwardly mobile. The problem isn't due to the recession. Would that it were. The decade just concluded is the first in which Americans, on average, have seen their incomes decli...

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WASHINGTON (Federal Reserve officials in December felt the U.S. economic recovery was still weak enough to warrant monetary support despite growing signs of strength, Fed meeting minutes released on Tuesday showed. Wall Street economists have been busy revising up their forecasts for economic gr...

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A number of analyses of the U.S. and global crisis begin by attempting to explain what they assume to be a paradox -- how could so small a market segment (subprime housing and CDOs backed by subprime) have caused (1) the largest financial bubble in history, (2) a U.S. economic crisis, and (3) a near...

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It was the year that the economy started to recover and then slid back into a slump — only to offer reason for renewed hope in the final weeks. When 2010 began, hiring and consumer spending were finally picking up. But then something changed in the spring — a combination of the debt troubles in ...

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THE $858 billion tax package signed into law this month provides some stimulus for our ailing economy. With the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, more will certainly be needed, yet further deficit spending may not be a politically viable option. Instead, we are likely to see a big fight over rai...

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The first modern competition between gold and paper money ended like the pre-modern ones. Gold won. Herewith, a short summary: A rogue, John Law, was the protagonist of the story. He killed Beau Wilson in a duel. Then, he went on the lam...first to Scotland...then to Amsterdam...and finally to Pa...

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Nothing comes from nothing. But what comes from something? Did you see what happened? The Fed's holdings topped $2 trillion for the first time ever. It took 95 years to get the Fed's holdings to $600 billion. In the space of 3 years, it has added $1.4 trillion more. That's something. Extraordi...

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For Release: Contact: Wednesday, December 8, 2010 George Smaragdis (202) 728-8988 Nancy Condon (202) 728-8379 I. II. III. FINRA Foundation Releases Nation's First State-by-State Financial Capability Survey IV. New Jersey, New York and New Hampshire Most Financially Capable, Kentucky and...

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For Release: Wednesday, December 8, 2010 Contact: George Smaragdis (202) 728-8988 Nancy Condon (202) 728-8379 Financial Capability Survey Shows Floridians Are More Financially Literate Than National Average, but More Likely to Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck WASHINGTON – America’s first State-by-S...

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WASHINGTON – America’s first State-by-State Financial Capability Survey revealed that Californians are fifth in the nation in saving and in avoiding high-cost, non-bank loans. The findings are part of the National Financial Capability Study, conducted by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, whic...

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WASHINGTON – America’s first State-by-State Financial Capability Survey revealed that New Yorkers ranked in the top five among all states in at least three of five measures of financial capability. The findings are part of the National Financial Capability Study, conducted by the FINRA Investor Ed...

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WASHINGTON – America’s first State-by-State Financial Capability Survey revealed that while Washingtonians are second in the nation in comparison shopping for credit cards, they are less financially literate than the national average. The findings are part of the National Financial Capability Study,...

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Passing the tax compromise between President Obama and congressional Republicans would be a notable achievement - but mainly a negative one. It would avoid a contraction of the economy in January, when tax rates are scheduled to broadly rise. Deficit hawks are unhappy with another round of borro...

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Physicist Doyne Farmer thinks we should analyze the economy the way we do epidemics and traffic. Psychoanalyst David Tuckett believes the key to markets' gyrations can be found in the works of Sigmund Freud. Economist Roman Frydman thinks we can never forecast the economy with any accuracy. Disp...

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As confidence in the economic recovery remains low, entrepreneurs are taking a hit. There were 100,000 fewer businesses with at least one employee created this year than last year, putting the pace at the second lowest in the last 18 years, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing Labor Department d...

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A congressional oversight panel is set to warn on Tuesday that a widespread problem of flawed and fraudulent foreclosure paperwork could upend the housing market and undermine the nation's financial stability, just as the issue is coming under greater scrutiny this week in Washington. The report...

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A congressional oversight panel is set to warn on Tuesday that a widespread problem of flawed and fraudulent foreclosure paperwork could upend the housing market and undermine the nation's financial stability, just as the issue is coming under greater scrutiny this week in Washington. The report...

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A congressional oversight panel is set to warn on Tuesday that a widespread problem of flawed and fraudulent foreclosure paperwork could upend the housing market and undermine the nation's financial stability, just as the issue is coming under greater scrutiny this week in Washington. The report...

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NEW YORK - U.S. banks have found a way to continue betting their own money on some investments, despite a new law's restrictions on proprietary trading, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing Wall Street executives. The "Volcker rule" provision of the U.S. Dodd-Frank financial reform limi...

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Economist Tony Villamil foresees a slow but ongoing recovery of the South Florida economy, barring an unexpectedly dramatic decline in government employment. "The economy is improving but very slowly," said Villamil, dean of the business school at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens. "Usually wh...

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Today's upcoming report by the White House's fiscal commission is expected to include recommendations to raise the retirement age for Social Security and cut Medicare benefits -- two policy prescriptions that will be met with deep opposition from Democrats and some Republicans -- according to a sour...

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CHICAGO () - The top securities regulator said on Tuesday she doubts her agency's overhaul of the country's financial rules will be affected by the recent U.S. election, where pro-business Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives and made gains in the Senate. Mary Schapiro said th...

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Jesse Eisinger is a reporter for ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. This is his first column for DealBook. Across the world, there are booms. Chinese Internet companies are flourishing. Energy companies are finding new s...

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Pundits seem to agree that the anticipated Congressional deadlock won't help the economy. And yet they insist on proposing legislative solutions to the country's economic woes. Reuter's Felix Salmon and the New York Times' Paul Krugman both take issue with a new column by Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of P...

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Buy American" -- it's one of the most common suggestions I get from readers emailing me with job-creation ideas. The federal government could certainly do more of that directly, by expanding domestic-content requirements on government contracts. As businessman/activist Leo Hindery and four co-aut...

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Martin Neil Baily, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies The Brookings Institution SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 — In 1999-2000, the administration of President Clinton was celebrating an era of unusually strong economic growth with both strong productivity gains and employment gains. The unemployment rate was ...

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Higher prices, one top Federal Reserve official believes, could lead us out of the economic slump. The current problem, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said in a speech Saturday, is that even though interest rates are near rock-bottom, people are tending to save money rather than spend it. The ...

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Higher prices, one top Federal Reserve official believes, could lead us out of the economic slump. The current problem, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said... Will the recession just go on and on and on? In the absence of far more vigorous government action, it certainly looks that way. A...

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Let's be honest: the banking system is now fully dysfunctional. It has failed in its primary purpose: to act as a machine for lending into the real economy. Instead the banking system has been turned on its head, and become a borrowing machine. Readers, I know, are smart and on the button when it ...

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Credit for the Recovery By DANIEL GROSS NYT EVERY time the United States suffers a recession, trendspotters hasten to identify signs of frugality, extol the rediscovery of thrift and find evidence that Americans are finally (finally!) kicking their demon debt habit. We crack open hist...

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The Census Bureau poverty data released today makes it clear that our country is facing a state of emergency. In just one year, 3.7 million more people, including 1.4 million children, fell into poverty. Today, more than one in five children is poor. The depth of poverty created by the Great Rec...

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Wall Street Journal: The downturn that some have dubbed the "Great Recession" has trimmed the typical household's income significantly, new Census data show, following years of stagnant wage growth that made the past decade the worst for American families in at least half a century. The bureau...

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A recession is generally defined as two quarters of GDP contraction as noted by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research. The GDP contraction definition is narrow and cannot be used to define the recessions and depressions that occurred in the first 150 years a...

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It has become clear that jobs in some industries may never come back or if they do it will take years or decades for a recovery. 24/7 Wall St. examined the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Employment Situation Summary” and a number of sources that show layoffs by company and sector. The weakness in thes...

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A recovery in residential construction has historically lead the US to recovery in other sectors. Some will argue this time is different. And it may be. This time its certainly deeper and longer. And this time we have supply swollen by foreclosures and shadow inventory and over $700 billion in neg...

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Not Your Grandfather's Recession -- Literally Different Ages, Different Downturns by Rich Morin and Paul Taylor, Pew Research Center The ongoing recession has had different impacts on different age groups in America. Adults 65 and older -- most of whom have already retired and downsized their l...

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