The economy, is it good or bad. (Page 108/181)
Pyrthian DEC 21, 11:05 AM

quote
Originally posted by fierobear:
Consumer spending surges in November

WASHINGTON - Consumers put aside worries about slumping home sales and soaring gasoline prices and headed to the malls in November, pushing spending up by the largest amount in 3 1/2 years.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending surged by 1.1 percent last month, nearly triple the October gain. The gain reflected various promotional efforts by retailers such as heavy discounting and longer store hours at the start of the holiday shopping season.

The November advance was the biggest one-month jump since a 1.2 percent rise in May 2004 and was significantly above the 0.7 percent analysts had expected. Incomes were also up last month, rising by 0.4 percent, double the October increase but slightly below the advance that had been expected.



very misleading. see what they did? October sucked. bad. so, they report the jump into a normal november black friday by saying its the hugest increase ever. even tho the actual spending is not. just like our current economy is "normal" - its just the fall from the mighty economy of the clinton years making it look bad - this is normal november, just looks great from bleak bush october
fierobear DEC 21, 11:46 AM
No good deed goes unpunished.
Toddster DEC 21, 11:52 AM

quote
Originally posted by Pyrthian:


this is normal november



source?
Pyrthian DEC 21, 12:00 PM

quote
Originally posted by Toddster:
source?



I dont need sources - I am right until proven wrong
84Bill DEC 21, 05:15 PM
Okay you say 20 billion wasn't enough??? bahhh make it 58.. why not 100 billion... it aint our money anyway...

Fed lends another $20B to ease crunch
Federal Reserve, in round 2 of new effort to help banks, says it received bids for $58 billion and pledges more.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve, working to combat the effects of a severe credit crunch, announced Friday it had auctioned another $20 billion in funds to commercial banks at an interest rate of 4.67 percent.

Fed officials pledged to continue with the auctions "for as long as necessary."

The central bank said it had received bids for $57.7 billion worth of loans, nearly three times the amount being offered, indicating continued strong interest in the Fed's new approach to providing money to cash-strapped banks.


Pain Street USA: '08 housing outlook
The forecast is for a longer, deeper home-price slump than previously expected, with double-digit declines in many markets.

EW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The United States is deep in its worst housing slump since the Great Depression, and according to a new report, it's not going to get better any time soon.

In a new survey, Moody's Economy.com says many metro areas will record losses of 20 percent or more during the downturn, with the national median price for single-family homes dropping 13 percent through early 2009. Factoring in discount offers from sellers, the actual price decline would be well over 15 percent.

Eighty of the 381 metro areas covered by the report will record double-digit losses, according to the report. Most of the worst-hit markets are in once high-flying areas, such as California and Florida.

The steep losses were bound to arrive sometime. Throughout the housing slump, which began in the summer of 2006, experts kept expecting prices to tumble, but it wasn't until recently that they dropped substantially, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com.
84Bill DEC 23, 05:27 PM
Circuit City chief: 'Very dissatisfied'
Electronics retailer reports a wide loss and weak sales. Company blames slack demand for gadgets and internal problems. Investors see red.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Circuit City shares plummeted Friday after the retailer reported a much wider-than-expected third-quarter loss that it blamed on its ongoing store reorganization and double-digit sales declines of gadgets like camcorders and DVD players.
84fiero123 DEC 23, 08:26 PM
Gov't Tries to Contain Mortgage Crisis


Email this Story

Dec 23, 2:08 PM (ET)

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

(AP) President Bush shakes hands with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, after signing the Mortgage...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - After a slow and stumbling start, official Washington is scrambling to try to prevent the unfolding mortgage crisis from pushing the country into recession during an election year. There is a strong feeling, though, that the government will need to do more to avert a financial disaster.
One former Treasury secretary advocates temporary tax cuts and emergency spending on the order of $50 billion to $75 billion. Such action could help the U.S. from slipping into what Lawrence Summers, who served under President Clinton, fears could become the worst downturn since the steep 1981-82 recession.
Some Republicans are worried, too.
From both Martin Feldstein, who was President Reagan's top economic adviser, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan have come calls for deeper government intervention to deal with the threat.
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Before it is all over, the government may have to resort to measures last used in the savings and loan crisis of the 1990s. Back then, it was a new agency to take over failing thrifts sunk by bad loans. Today, it could mean a government agency to buy up billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities that investors are shunning.

http://apnews.excite.com/ar...71223/D8TNB5JO0.html

But estimates are that only about 250,000 people will end up getting a rate freeze - a fraction of the 3.5 million home loans that could go into default over the next 2 1/2 years.

These efforts may help at the margins. They do not, however, address one of the biggest threats to the economy: a spreading credit crisis triggered by the soaring defaults on subprime mortgages.
Some of the biggest names in finance have suffered multibillion-dollar losses as a result, and critical segments of the credit markets have frozen up. Banks and investors fear making further loans or buying securities backed by debt because they do not know how many more loans might go into default.


So even thought the government and just about every economist in the country has said we are in bad shape. Do you still insist that we are fine?

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and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't.
Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.

Phranc DEC 23, 08:49 PM
Posting 100 reports covering the same thing over and over on only one sector of the economy doesn't mean its the end of the world.
84Bill DEC 25, 01:53 PM
Mortgage mess has government scrambling
A look at the moves needed to ward off recession and foreclosures in 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After a slow and stumbling start, Washington is scrambling to prevent the unfolding
mortgage crisis from pushing the country into recession during an election year. There is a strong feeling, though,
that the government will need to do more to avert a financial disaster.

Former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers advocates temporary tax cuts and emergency spending on the
order of $50 billion to $75 billion. Such action could help the U.S. from slipping into what Summers, who served
under President Clinton, fears could become the worst downturn since the steep 1981-82 recession.


Some Republicans are worried, too.

Both Martin Feldstein, who was President Reagan's top economic adviser, and former Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan have called for deeper government intervention.

So far, the Bush administration has opted for less dramatic measures. In fact, the administration came reluctantly
to its biggest step taken - the "teaser freezer."

A deal with the mortgage industry will freeze the low introductory "teaser" rates for five years on some subprime
mortgages - loans to people with spotty credit histories. Otherwise the rates will climb much higher, making the
mortgages unaffordable for many.

A freeze could buy time for housing to rebound, making it easier for homeowners to refinance to affordable fixed-rate
loans. But estimates are that only about 250,000 people will end up getting a freeze - a fraction of the 3.5 million
home loans that could go into default over the next two-and-a-half years.


The administration also is working with Congress to increase the $417,000 cap on the size of loans that the big
mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can handle. This step could help in high-cost housing areas
such as California.

In addition, the administration is supporting legislation that would boost aid to lower-income homeowners by
increasing the scope of mortgage insurance programs handled by the Federal Housing Administration.

These efforts may help at the margins. They do not, however, address the spreading credit crisis triggered by the
soaring defaults on subprime mortgages.

The Fed has cut interest rates by a full percentage point since August. But only the September cut - a
bigger-than-expected one-half of a percentage point - elicited cheers on Wall Street.

With energy prices on the rise, if the Fed cuts interest rates to keep the economy out of a recession, it could sow
the seeds for higher inflation and increase the risk of "stagflation," in which growth is stagnant and inflation
worsens.

In a novel approach, the Fed is auctioning off money to the banks in an attempt to get them to open up their loan
spigots. But the $40 billion provided to the banks so far pales in comparison with the $500 billion from the
European Central Bank.

Many economists believe the Fed will have to cut its federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other,
at least three more times and strengthen the wording of its statements.

"The difference between a soft economy and a recession is confidence. If the Fed appears reticent to do what is
needed, like they did at their last meeting, that does not help confidence," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at
Moody's Economy.com.
Tax cuts, new agency possible

A tax cut possibly in the form of a rebate probably will be debated in the coming year.

Also gaining some currency is the idea of a government agency modeled after the Resolution Trust Corp. of the
S&L days that would buy up mortgage-backed securities as a way of dealing with bad loans. If the government
spent $150 billion to $200 billion to purchase mortgage-backed securities, the thinking goes, it would prevent a
fire-sale that would drive prices of these securities even lower.

When the housing market stabilizes, the price of the government-held securities would begin to rise, allowing the
government to sell them back to investors.

Whatever approach the government decides to take, economists said it will take time for the current problems to
resolve themselves.

"We have the fundamental problem that we built too many houses and we charged too high a price for them," says
David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York. "We have to stop building houses for a while and
the prices have to come down."

[This message has been edited by 84Bill (edited 12-25-2007).]

84fiero123 DEC 26, 10:09 AM
The biggest investment for the normal person in this country is their home, well it used to be an investment.

http://money.excite.com/jsp...ews_id=ap-d8tp6deg0&

October Home Prices Post Record Decline



Wednesday December 26, 9:33 AM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. home prices fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, posting their biggest monthly decline since early 1991, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index.
The record 6.7 percent drop marked the 23rd consecutive month of price deceleration.
"No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim," said Robert Shiller, who helped create the index, in a statement Wednesday.
The previous record decline was a drop of 6.3 percent, recorded in April 1991.
The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index tracks prices of existing single-family homes in 10 metropolitan areas compared with a year earlier. A broader index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 6.1 percent. Among the 20 metropolitan areas used in the broader index, 11 posted record monthly declines.


Miami posted the largest decline among the 20 markets reviewed. Home prices in the Miami metropolitan area fell 12.4 percent in October compared with the same month last year, surpassing Tampa, Fla. as the worst-performing city. Tampa posted a year-over-year loss of 11.8 percent.
Besides those two cities, Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego also posted double-digit year-over-year declines.

So those millions of Americans who’s biggest investment in their lives is their home are doing just fine right? Wrong. We all are getting screwed.

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Technology is great when it works,
and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't.
Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.