Economy Jul 08 U.S. consumers reduced their borrowing by $18.3 billion in May By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
Sep 27 Watch President Obama outlines roadblocks with the Republicans, bu President Obama outlines roadblocks with the Republicans, but progress with Iran…
Economy Aug 17 Watch Americans Facing More Inequality, More Debt and Now More Trouble? Did America's record-high level of economic inequality in 2007 help cause the financial crisis of 2008? With Americans' borrowing back on the rise and signs that economic inequality is growing, could there be another financial crisis in the near future?…
Economy Jul 12 Smacking Into the Debt Ceiling: the Day-by-Day Consequences Daily U.S. Government Income and Expenditures: Use the slide bar to see how Treasury's cash deficit is projected to grow if the debt ceiling is reached, starting with Aug. 3. Mouse over the red points to see the running…
Politics May 16 Watch How Does the U.S. Debt Ceiling Work and Why Does it Matter? The United States government hit the legal limit for the amount of money it can borrow Monday, but Treasury officials say they can take other measures to pay the bills. Ray Suarez discusses questions about how the debt ceiling works…
Jun 21 Watch Amid Hopes of Economic Recovery, Small Businesses Battle Credit Crunch In his ongoing series of reports making sense of economic news, Paul Solman examines the struggles of companies to gain enough credit to stay afloat as lending remains tight. Continue watching
Jun 08 How Do the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds Work? Question: How do the Social Security and Medicare trust funds work? My understanding is that there is no money there, so that general government revenues have to be tapped to answer calls on them. Thus they are insolvent now? Paul… Continue reading
Apr 06 Where Does Money Go When It’s Taken Out of the Stock Market? Question: As the Dow continues to fall, I keep wondering where the money is going. Obviously, money is being pulled out of the stock market, even though we all are still buying and using products, and companies are still functioning. Continue reading
Feb 10 Are Companies Able to Function Without Loans? Note from Paul Solman: We haven’t had a “guest vetter” here at the Business Desk for some months. But interviewing MIT’s Simon Johnson the other day for a piece on ‘good bank… Continue reading
Oct 21 When the Treasury Department is repaid the money it lent, shouldn’t that be used to pay down the national debt? Question/Comment: When the day comes that the banks and other financial institutions start to repay the vast amounts of money that have been borrowed by the Treasury Department, shouldn’t that money be used to pay down the additional national debt… Continue reading