President Bush has signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act after the US House of Representatives had passed the plan on 07/23. It provides aid to homeowners facing foreclosure and protects the country’s two largest mortgage finance companies from collapse.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee almost half the country’s $12 trillion in home [...]
All Posts Tagged With: "economy"
Bush signs $300 billion Housing and Economic Recovery Act
Eating habits and the economy
The US economy has had it’s share of challenges this year and the problems remain as we step into the second half of 2008. Rising food prices, gas prices at record highs, lack of credit availability in the economy, a housing market slump and continuing mounting expenses in the war on Iraq ( approx. $540 [...]
July 28th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedJune Inflation double that of May, 2008 energy index up 29%!
According to the Department of Labor Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers for June, prices increased 1.1 percent for the month of June compared with 0.6 percent for May - almost double. The index for energy rose sharply for the second straight month, increasing 6.6 percent in June following a 4.4 percent increase in May. The [...]
July 16th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedPending home sales decline, gains forecast for 2nd half stays put
A modest near-term movement is expected in existing-home sales, with an expected during the second half of the year, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors®.
The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI),a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in May, fell 4.7 percent to 84.7 and remains 14.0 percent below May 2007 [...]
Crude hits record high as the holiday weekend approaches
Crude oil futures have hit a record high of $144 dollars a barrel as the 4th of July, 3 day weekend, approaches.
According to the EIA, the average price of retail gasoline for the week of 06/30 was $4.095, up $1.136 from the same time last year, a 38% increase! The worst hit metro’s include LA [...]
Subprimes explained - for the comicaly inclined
A friend of mine, Ashish Das, forwarded this to me. A very nice comical primer on what the subprime mess is about. There has been a lot of noise on this issue and for good reason so here goes. Let me know what you folks out there think. BTW, we are now officialy [...]
June 16th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedSaudi’s to produce more Oil, prices fall
United Nations chief Ban-ki-moon said world’s biggest producer of oil, Saudi Arabia, is to increase its oil production by more than half a million barrels per day (bpd) to 9.7 bpd in July. The news was reported in Abu-Dhabi based National Newspaper after Ban-ki-moon met Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi.
Following the news of higher production, [...]
Inflation in May worst in the last 6 months, food and energy continue climb
The Department of Labor has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers for May. The CPI for all urban consumers rose 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. The index in energy rose 4.4 percent after remaining unchanged in April. The index for petroleum based products rose 5.8% and the energy services index rose 2.3%. [...]
June 13th, 2008 | rp | Comments | ContinuedPending home sales rise, housing expected to do better 2nd half of 2008
It seems like the housing market is finally seeing some signs of a recovery and this may be early indications that the housing downturn is bottoming out.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) numbers for the month of June. Based on prospective homeowners signing contracts in April, the index rose [...]
Fed cuts feds funds rate and discount rate
The Federal Open Market Committee cut a key economic rate by a quarter of a basis point. The Federal funds rate now stands at 2%.
In the United States, the federal funds rate is the interest rate at which private depository institutions (mostly banks) lend balances (federal funds) at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions, [...]
Tax rebates - are they enough to stimulate the economy?
The first rebates from the Bush administration’s economic stimulus package, went out Monday, earlier than previously planned. The rebates will be direct deposited to individual bank accounts. Touted by the Bush administration as a much needed elixir to a “slowing” economy, which many economists think is already in recession, the stimulus package is [...]
April 29th, 2008 | rp | Comments | Continued
