Category Archives: Business & Economy
Here Is The Secret Cost Behind All Those “Free” Credit Card Perks
Despite the fact that the Fed insists on keeping interest rates low, many credit cards are actually raising rates for consumers, according to the Wall Street Journal. The increase is to make up for the generous rewards – perks like cash back and travel – that credit cards are offering to lure in customers.
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“Too Much Too Fast” Gas Glut Crushes Shale Drillers
Appalachian shale drillers are getting squeezed by low prices, and a supply glut may mean that there is little prospect of a pricing rebound anytime soon.
Read moreHow Useful is the “Unemployment Rate”? Five Humans Who Don’t “Count” [VIDEO]
The unemployment rate is just 3.7 percent. Does that mean that 96 percent of Americans are going to work this morning? Not even close. BLS data are fallible measures that diagnose only part of our nation’s job market health.
Read moreSub-Prime Auto Credit Deteriorates In July, Says Report
Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) published its Auto Loan Indices for July and reported deteriorating credit conditions for non-prime auto and prime loan pools. In July, losses climbed on both MoM and YoY basis. Annualized net losses rose 67bps MoM and 25bp YoY to 7.30%, while the percentage of borrowers that were two months late increased to 4.41%
Read moreIf Deficits Are This Huge Now, What Happens When the Recession Hits?
The Treasury Department released new budget deficit numbers, and with two months still to go in the fiscal year, 2019’s budget deficit is the highest its been since the US was still being flooded with fiscal stimulus dollars back in 2012.
Read moreStudent Debt Crushes Home-buying Dreams For Millennials , Now Delayed 8 Years
The life-altering impacts of student loan debt on millions of millennials is debilitating towards their financial health. At least 60% of millennials have no savings, and their poor financial health has contributed to the reason why so many young adults can’t afford a down-payment on their first home. About 40% of millennials have student debt, according to the AARP, and Clever Real Estate says the student debt has delayed home buying by eight years for millennials.
Read moreUS Treasury Now Expects To Borrow Over $800 Billion In Debt In Two Quarters
The Treasury is expected to hold its quarterly note and bond sales at record levels for the third straight time as Washington’s latest budget deal shows that the U.S.’s debt binge will continue.
Read moreSubprime 2.0: Mortgages Now Available For Borrowers Without Credit Scores [VIDEO]
Proving that absolutely nothing has been learned from the 2008 housing crisis, a national lender has begun making mortgage loans available for borrowers without credit scores.
Read moreGlobal Debt Hits $246 Trillion, 320% Of GDP, As Developing Debt Hits All Time High
According to the latest IIF Global Debt Monitor released today, debt around the globe hit $246 trillion in Q1 2019, rising by $3 trillion in the quarter, and outpacing the rate of growth of the global economy as total debt/GDP rose to 320%.
Read moreAmerica’s Record-Long “Expansion” Was Just The Rich Getting Richer As The Middle Class Died
The longest US economic expansion in history is now a fact. Sadly, when peeling back the layers of the onion, the reality is far less euphoric. This historic expansion – mostly of asset prices – achieved just one thing: it made the rich richer while crushing the middle class,
Read moreUS Retailers With $1.5 Trillion In Sales Demand An Antitrust Probe Of Amazon And Google
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), whose members include Best Buy, Walmart and Target, demands an investigation whether Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies [Amazon and Google] are manipulating search results that disadvantage traditional retailers.
Read moreThere Are Now More Than 5,000 Bitcoin ATM’s Around The World
The total number of bitcoin ATMs (BTMs) worldwide reached 5,000 for the first time. There are now 5,006 standalone BTMs in around 90 countries, where cryptocurrency users can buy or sell bitcoin (BTC). Some machines offer both services simultaneously. A deal earlier in the year involving coin counting kiosk operator Coinstar brought bitcoin functionality to over 2,200 U.S. locations. The U.S. currently has more than half of the world’s BTMs at 3,229, with a new pilot scheme this month bringing the machines to Circle K convenience stores in Arizona and Nevada.
Read moreU.S. College Grads Are In For An Unpleasant Surprise
U.S. college students currently working on their degree are in for an unpleasant surprise when negotiating their first salaries. That’s because, according to a new study, undergraduate students in the United States are overestimating what they’re worth.
Read moreAmericans Aren’t Paying Their Credit Card Debt. What Could Go Wrong?
Estimates are that consumer credit card debt will increase $70 billion for 2019 alone. Considering that Americans now owe more than $1 trillion, the fact that they are paying back less of what they owe proves that “consumers aren’t quite as healthy as some other metrics may indicate.”
Read moreWhich US States Are Most Exposed To China And Mexico Tariffs
JPMorgan recently examined what types of goods the US imports from China and Mexico and where they go. While it is still too early to see much reaction to the news on trade policy from recent weeks in the economic activity data, JPM thinks that “understanding the cross section of goods imports will be useful in observing effects of the tariffs over time.
Read moreLower Income Americans Are Begging The Fed For Less Inflation
A recent Bloomberg report looked at the stark disconnect between Fed policy and well, everybody else but banks and the 1%. While the Fed sees low inflation as “one of the major challenges of our time,” many of the nation’s most vulnerable, low-income workers, stated the obvious: people don’t want higher prices.
Read moreHow Many People Will Be Retiring In The Years To Come?
The daily rate of people aging into retirement (i.e. turning 65) will peak in 2022 at just below 12,000. Over the next two decades, about 10,000 people will turn 65 every day. This impending milestone is set to tax the resources of the Social Security Administration at a level not yet experienced in the system’s 84-year-existence.
Read moreMillennial Net Wealth Collapses, Study Finds
The net worth of millennials (18- to 35-year-old) has collapsed 34% since 1996, according to a new, shocking report from Deloitte. Millennials are financially worse off than any other generation before them. With student loans, auto and credit card debts, rising rents, and out of control, health-care costs have pushed their average net worth below $8,000.
Read moreNew Rule Could Allow Debt Collectors To Spam 49 Million Americans With Emails And Texts
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) under the Trump administration, has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The CFPB’s proposal would change Regulation F to direct Federal rules overseeing the activities of debt collectors. The new proposal would allow debt collectors to call consumers as frequently as seven times per week and be permitted to start sending emails and texts.
Read moreThe Glut Cometh
All the economic shell-gaming that has been happening since the 2008 crash may finally be coming to a head for the American Auto Industry. Interest rates can’t be kept low to no anymore and car loans can’t be extended much more, either. More than 4.2 million new cars are stacked up unsold as of this month – which is an alarming half-million more cars than were stacked up before. Why? Because people can’t afford to buy new cars. For many, the difference between a $399 per month payment and a $475 per month payment (or whatever the amount depending on the buyer/car) is causing people to hesitate where they previously would have signed the paperwork.
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