Bloomberg: Economy Drives More Americans to Extreme Poverty

Economy Drives More Americans to Extreme Poverty
By Catherine Dodge - 2011.11.02 09:01 PM

The number of Americans living in neighborhoods beset by extreme poverty surged in the last decade, erasing the progress of the 1990s, with the poorest areas growing more than twice as fast in suburbs as in cities.

Reuters: U.S. throws lifeline to underwater homeowners

U.S. throws lifeline to underwater homeowners
By Margaret Chadbourn
WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:53pm EDT

(Reuters) - U.S. homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth got new help on Monday with the government's expansion of a refinancing program in a step that could help up to 1 million borrowers.

WSJ: Obama Warns of Default Risk

POLITICS JULY 26, 2011
Obama Warns of Default Risk
President and Boehner Spar Over Competing Debt Plans as Deadline Approaches

With Congress deadlocked a week before the government runs out of cash to pay its bills, President Barack Obama warned Monday in his starkest terms yet that the U.S. is on the brink of a default that could trigger an economic upheaval.

NYT: How We All Suffer

How We All Suffer

July 11, 2011
Kim Luu is the editor of Money and Risk and a principal at an independent brokerage firm specializing in retirement and 401(k)s.

The federal Home Affordable Modification Program was badly designed, overly complicated and poorly communicated. Borrowers suffered through horrendous paperwork for months and years. People ran through their retirement savings during the process, and then lost their homes anyway. Meanwhile, banks are saddled with billions of dollars in losses and inventory that still need to be auctioned.

NYT: The Unemployment Factor

The Unemployment Factor

July 11, 2011

Morris A. Davis is the academic director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

WSJ: U.S. Tackles Housing Slump

POLITICS JULY 11, 2011, 4:47 P.M. ET
U.S. Tackles Housing Slump

By NICK TIMIRAOS

The Obama administration is ramping up talks on how to revive the housing market, which is weighing on the economic recovery—and possibly the President's re-election in 2012.

Bloomberg: Banks Await Foreclosure Deal’s Financial Terms as States Split

Related News: Law · Finance · Insurance · Real Estate · U.S. · Funds · Politics · Municipal Bonds
Banks Await Foreclosure Deal’s Financial Terms as States Split
By David McLaughlin - Apr 21, 2011 3:33 AM GMT+0900

Attorneys general negotiating the settlement of a nationwide foreclosure investigation have yet to approach banks with a proposed dollar amount that would fund principal reductions for borrowers, a state official said.

Finance, Nicolas Sarkozy

Purely financial capitalism has perverted the logic of capitalism, Financial capitalism is a system of irresponsibility and ... is amoral. It is a system where the logic of the market excuses everything.

- Nicolas Sarkozy, French President, At the Symposium "New World, New Capitalism," Paris, Jan. 9, 2009