Aug 21 Watch Reviving the Economy Tests Convential Views on Inflation With the economy showing hints of a recovery, the threat of inflation is testing policy makers at the Federal Reserve as they work to determine how quickly to unwind emergency moves taken during the height of the financial crisis. Paul… Continue watching
Aug 20 Watch Tougher Credit Card Rules Offer New Consumer Guards New rules for credit card companies took effect Thursday, the first in a series of measures designed to protect consumers from changes to the terms of their card agreements. Jeffrey Brown gets perspective from a consumer advocate and a banking… Continue watching
Aug 20 Simon Johnson on Economic Green Shoots By Business Desk Editor’s Note: For the next week, we’ll be featuring video conversations here on the Business Desk with one of our favorite economists, Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF, now at the… Continue reading
Aug 19 UBS to Surrender 4,450 Client Names to IRS UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank, will provide the names of some 4,450 account holders to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as part of a tax-evasion settlement reached between the two countries' governments. Continue reading
Aug 19 Watch IRS Deal Pierces Veil of Swiss Banking Secrecy A New York Times reporter assesses the impact of Swiss banking giant UBS agreeing to give the U.S. Internal Revenue Service names of some account holders. Continue watching
Aug 14 Who Gets the Interest on U.S. Government Debt? Question: We have a $12 trillion dollar debt and add to it pretty much every year. How does that work? I take on debt to buy, say, a car and I pay interest to the bank that loaned me… Continue reading
Aug 13 Home Foreclosures Set Third Record in Five Months By Online DA Foreclosure filings in the United States jumped in July, again setting a record for the third time in five months. The increase was due to falling home prices and the recession, which kept some homeowners from making payments or refinancing. Continue reading
Aug 06 Are Credit Card Companies Raising Rates to Repay the Government? Question: I received a call from my sister this morning asking me for help regarding her credit card debt. According to her bank and credit card issuers, they are raising their credit card interest rates because they have to pay… Continue reading
Aug 05 Should We Have Dealt With ‘Too Big to Fail’ in the 1980s? Question: If you go back and look at the recession of 1982, you will see that the Fed bailed out large banks mainly due to bad LDC loans. I think the precedent of moral… Continue reading
Aug 04 Watch Despite Federal Aid, Lenders Slow to Modify Home Loans Fewer than 8 percent of eligible borrowers have successfully modified their mortgages under a $75 billion federal plan aimed at halting home foreclosures, according to a Treasury Department report. Jeffrey Kaye reports on the early struggles of the program. Continue watching