recession: Unemployment Benefits Not Always Beneficial - 02/01/10 01:51 AM
What if the very programs that are supposed to help the unemployed are actually prolonging unemployment? Beyond the staggering cost to the government, there are other implications to extending unemployment benefits. Research strongly suggests that a long stretch of unemployment compensation actually prolongs the high unemployment rate. It is an unfortunate cycle that is likely to continue for awhile.
Unemployment compensation is the kind of governmental compassion that generally has support from both Democrats and Republicans, hence the recent bills that have passed through Congress to extend a variety of unemployment benefits. While it varies from state to state, typical … (2 comments)
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recession: Budgeting for the Future - 01/08/10 12:57 AM
It's not just the cold weather across the country that is causing many Americans to hunker down and save instead of spend. No matter what the analysts and the Fed says, unemployment is still at ten percent and the country still feels like it's in recession, forget the technicalities. The New Year always brings a little monetary sobriety after the holiday spending binge, but over the last year Americans have become more serious about saving money and paying off debts.
Even with good intentions, becoming fiscally savvy can be easier said than done. A recent NBC Today poll showed that … (1 comments)
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recession: Americans Hunkering Down for a Chilly Economy - 12/24/09 12:37 PM
According to recent polls, more Americans would rather see the government work on the economy then work on the environment. The economy remains at the forefront of Americans' minds and tops the list of concerns. Despite the empirical evidence that the economy is on the mend, people across the country still feel the effects of the worst recession since the Great Depression. The national unemployment rate is still at ten percent and retail numbers are still down.
The National Retail Federation reports that consumer spending this holiday is at a five year low. The fact that the hottest toy of … (0 comments)
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recession: Stimulating the Economic Numbers - 11/23/09 01:18 AM
Statistics can be tricky. It all depends on who is doing the math and for what purpose. The latest report on how many jobs can be attributed to the workings of the stimulus package is a perfect case in point. The Obama Administration came out at the end of October with the announcement that the stimulus package has created 650,000 jobs.
To give the government credit, it didn't just pull that number out of a hat. The Recovery, Accountability, and Transparency Board (RATB) is an independent entity that has tracked the money being spent for the Recovery Act. Every dollar … (0 comments)
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recession: The Great Recession Has Been a Bumpy Ride - 10/16/09 04:25 AM
It is hard to believe just two years ago in October the Dow Jones industrial set a record high of 14,164. According to the Associated Press, just one year after that it was at 8,451 in mid October 2008. Today the Dow is around 9,800. Stocks have rallied recently on signs that retail sales are improving. The last two years have been a bumpy ride.
The AP recently broke down the economic numbers, putting into perspective just where the U.S. economy stands today. "The panic of last fall has been replaced by the resignation that the worst is over but … (29 comments)
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recession: The Recession is Over, In Case You Hadn't Noticed - 09/14/09 11:36 PM
The Associated Press reported recently that a new government survey indicates that the recession is over. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and analysts across the country say that the economy is showing growth again. However, what no one can predict is how deeply the so called Great Recession has permanently changed Americans' spending habits.
"A study by research firm AlixPartners concluded that once a new normal sets in after this recession ends, Americans will spend at about 86 percent of their pre-downturn level," a recent AP article reported. While the Fed expects business spending to increase in the next quarter, … (5 comments)
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recession: The Truth Behind the Housing Numbers - 08/29/09 11:45 PM
The recent headlines have trumpeted a rebound in the American housing market. According to the Associated Press, July's 7.2 percent increase in home sales was the biggest month-to-month jump in the last ten years. But before breathing a sigh of relief and checking Zillow for increased home values, it might be a good idea to look at the story behind the new and improved numbers.
A big chunk of the recent increase is first-time home buyers taking advantage of the tax credit. One third of recent home sales are due to the $8000 incentive for first-time home buyers, which … (1 comments)
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recession: What U.S. Cities Are Doing to Promote New Construction - 08/25/09 02:19 AM
With real estate vacancies on the rise and new construction having taken a sharp downturn, many cities across the nation are coming up with some clever and creative methods to entice new building construction into their respective areas.
Although home sale numbers may be resurrecting in some cities, this is not the case for most. Not only are home sales down, but new home construction has hit rock bottom in many major cities.
Commercial vacancies are also steadily climbing, which have caused the lending industry to raise the bar in obtaining new construction loans. Builders are now struggling … (0 comments)
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recession: Is 2009 The Year of Real Estate Bargains? - 08/25/09 01:49 AM
Everyone has felt some of the impact of slumping real estate prices over the past two and a half years, from homeowners trying to tap into shrinking equity to commercial property investors seeing smaller returns and greater vacancies. As 2009 reaches the halfway mark, however, the case for real estate's turnaround is becoming more and more apparent. By 2010, home and commercial property prices will have stabilized further, and interest rates will certainly have risen somewhat. As a result, the next three to six months may be the best opportunity to lock in an attractive mortgage rate, while still reaping the … (1 comments)
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recession: Second Half of Year Should be Better - 07/11/09 05:30 AM
As the worst recession since World War II closes in on the two year mark, less people are losing their jobs, but unemployment is still rising. People who do have jobs are working fewer hours for less pay. According to the Associated Press, the national unemployment rate is 9.5 percent, the highest it's been in 26 years. It's predicted to hit 10 percent before the end of the year--a number President Obama hoped to avoid with his administration's efforts to turn the economy around.
Layoffs have slowed down a bit across the country, but hiring has not picked up. While … (1 comments)
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recession: Getting Back To "Boring Banking" - 05/21/09 11:05 AM
These days it seems like bank is a four-letter word and bonus-getting bankers are bad guys, as evil as any comic book villain. All the hullaballoo about the banks passing the government "stress test" makes the average American want to say, "Who cares?"
Well, unfortunately we all have a stake these days in how the banking industry is faring, and not just because our tax dollars have funded billion dollar bailouts. The health of the banking industry is a direct reflection on the health of the economy, and we all pay the price or reap the benefits to a degree.
… (11 comments)
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recession: Thoughts on the Economy: Hope is Great, Real Proof is Better - 05/21/09 01:34 AM
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicted that the economy will improve before the end of 2009, but the country just might not notice it. Bernanke recently told Congress that he believes the economy is nearing the bottom and will start a gradual rise by the end of this year. According to the Associated Press, the Federal Reserve Chairman tempered this hopeful news with a prediction that there would also be "further sizable job losses" in the coming months.
The most recent sign that the economy may be a little less dismal these days was the latest report of the services … (1 comments)
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recession: Austin Jobs and Housing Outlook - 04/29/09 02:58 AM
The Austin area added about 3,300 jobs between March 2008 and March 2009, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. That's the good news. The bad news is that the local unemployment rate has gone from 3.8 percent in March 2008 to 6.2 percent this past March. Austin is not immune to the recession after all.
What Austin is doing is weathering this recession better than most places. That 6.2 percent unemployment rate is well below the 8.5 percent national rate. While other major cities across the country, and even across Texas, are continuing the downward spiral of job losses, Austin … (0 comments)
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recession: Conflicting Economic Numbers - 04/05/09 01:32 AM
The stock market rally has many economists hopeful that the end of the recession is near, but the recent unemployment numbers may have dashed those hopes. According to Associated Press reports, the nation's unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent in March, the highest in 26 years. "It's an ugly report and April is going to be equally as bad," predicted Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
The number of unemployed people climbed to 13.2 million in March and that doesn't include the number of people who are now working part-time due to having their hours cut. Economists predict that … (3 comments)
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recession: Will the Last Ones to the Recession Be the Last to Leave? - 03/24/09 12:19 AM
It seems Texas has arrived to the recession fashionably late, the question now is how long will we stay? The current economic woes began to be felt in some parts of the nation at the end of 2007, the official beginning of this recession. Texas began to feel the squeeze at the end of 2008, a full year later.
Austin in particular has only recently started to feel the economic pain that the rest of the country has been experiencing for the last year. According to a recent Austin-American Statesman article, Texas could cut as much as 296,000 jobs in … (0 comments)
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recession: Should You Refinance or Remodel in Today's Economic Market? - 03/03/09 11:40 PM
Refinancing your home is likened to buying your home again but homeowners often choose to do so when the option of a lower interest rate is available. Refinancing can also help you build equity faster. When contemplating whether or not to refinance, it is important to compare the interest rates of the two loans. You should also look at how much equity you have available in your home before deciding whether or not to refinance, especially if you want to do a cash out refinance.
There are also up front costs to consider, such as closing costs. One potential benefit of … (2 comments)
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recession: Recession? Depression? Deflation? The ABC's of the Economic Downturn - 11/25/08 10:19 PM
News of the economy is inescapable these days and most of it is bad news. The economy dominates the headlines, the evening news and our daily conversations. Sorting out what all the terms mean and what they have to do with your individual bottom line can be difficult. Here is a quick rundown of some of those ubiquitous economic terms:
Recession - The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP growth, real personal income, employment (non-farm … (5 comments)
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recession: Increasing Advertising During a Recession: A Timely Move or an Easy Way to Go Bankrupt - 10/24/08 03:17 AM
Over the last year the US, once flying high, has fallen and face planted into a somewhat ugly recession. For people with steady jobs the fear is of course the dreaded pink slip. But as long as they can keep their jobs their paychecks in most cases will remain the same. For small business owners a recession is often felt in the pocketbook. With less people buying their goods and services their revenues and profit margins can start to sink. And it can be painful for a number of reasons. First many business owners have an emotional attachment to their business. … (6 comments)
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recession: How Will The US Economy Recover? - 05/19/08 01:02 AM
You would probably have to have been living on a remote desert island for the better part of two years to not see any signs of the slowdown in the economy of the United States. Since August of 2007, the real estate market has been reeling from plummeting house prices, due primarily to increasing defaults on sub-prime mortgages. While these mortgages were issued to millions of borrowers with patchy or relatively poor credit ratings over the past several years, interest rates remained unusually low before the Federal Reserve began to increase rates over 2005-2006.
Up until late 2006, this process … (3 comments)
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recession: Current Issues with the Global Economy - 04/11/08 08:03 PM
Though the housing bubble deflated about two years ago, its true effects are only now beginning to emerge. In late 2006, when the economy first began to show signs of weakness in the housing market, most economists predicted that a recession was very unlikely, and that any downturn in real estate prices would be localized and mild. In reality, a global downturn is now a real threat, with the final price of the credit crunch projected to exceed $1 trillion dollars.
Not only have falling house prices in the US spread to other markets abroad, they have contributed to massive … (1 comments)
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