Economy Dec 27 The American Dream Deferred: What Befell our Strategic Defaulters? We've devoted a lot of attention to the foreclosure crisis that is threatening the homes of so many Americans, and to various ways they've sought help: non-profit third parties; the government's loan modification program, HAMP. But…
Economy Dec 24 2010, the Year of Foreclosure Of the two dozen "Words of the Year" cited by the New York Times the other day, two of them -- "robo-signer" and "put-back" -- were spawned by the foreclosure crisis. (See this link for the Gray Lady's definitions.)…
Economy Dec 16 Will the U.S. Follow Europe’s Austerity Lead? Paul Solman answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Thursday's query: Name: Sharon McDonnell Question: Paul, I apologize if I missed a step in the…
Economy Dec 15 Why Doesn’t the U.S. Just Print More Money, Rather Than Borrow? Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Wednesday's query: Name: Bill Turner Question: Why does the U.S. borrow so much instead…
Arts Dec 14 Tool$ Tuesday: Interactive Tax Cut Graphic Today's tool concerns the extension of the Bush tax cuts and comes via the Washington Post, which generated the interactive graphic some time ago. But it's as timely a tool as ever, given that the Senate vote…
Arts Dec 13 What’s Causing U.S. Personal Spending to Drop: Job Losses, Fear or Both? Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and site visitors on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Monday's query: Name: Michael Cassady Question: Paul, If the U.S. consumer market is the…
Arts Dec 10 Loan Modifications: A Question of Economic Injustice? Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Friday's query: Three questions today, one answer. Name: James Tracey Question: On a recent…
Economy Dec 09 Good Ideas to Save the Economy Can Have Unintended Consequences Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Thursday's query: Name: Fred Damato Question: Would this work to jump start the economy?…
Economy Dec 07 Two Retirement Planning Tool$ to Use NOW Retirement tools. The questions they ask you to fill in seem designed to scare your pants off: How much do you expect to earn on your assets? When are you planning to retire? When are you going to die?…
Economy Dec 03 Unemployment Figures: Worse Than They Appear The verdict on today's unemployment numbers is unequivocal. Conservative economist Peter Morici writes: "Terrible! Only 39,000 new jobs created is awful. After we back out health care and social services, which are largely government funded, the…