Category Archives: Politics

Case-Shiller Home Prices Take Off

The Mortgage Corner The July S&P Case-Shiller home price index shows home prices are in full recovery mode. Over the last 12 months, prices rose 12.3 percent and 12.4 percent as measured by the 10- and 20-City Composites in the … Continue reading

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Why Didn’t Fed Reduce QE3?

Popular Economics Weekly Chairman Ben Bernanke attempted to answer that question at his post-FOMC press conference last Wednesday.  He said economic growth has slowed and so the Fed has reduced its growth projection to 2.0 to 2.30 percent for the … Continue reading

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What is a Real Minimum Wage?

Financial FAQs The debate on how to boost this economic recovery has now shifted to the federal minimum wage standard, now at $7.25 percent per hour. This is in part because the latest Census Bureau report shows 46.5 million Americans … Continue reading

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More Home Equity, Fewer Defaults In Q2

The Mortgage Corner CoreLogic, a Southern California real estate data firm, also released new analysis showing approximately 2.5 million more residential properties returned to a state of positive equity during the second quarter of 2013, and the total number of … Continue reading

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Bad Jobs Report, Another New Deal Needed

Financial FAQs We now know why this economic recovery has been so weak 4 years after the end of the Great Recession. The government has been taken out of the jobs market. Government spending has been cut, rather than increased … Continue reading

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Labor’s Day Remembered

Popular Economics Weekly As we celebrate another Labor Day, a national holiday, how do we remember it? I would like to remember it as some other developed countries celebrate it. France, for instance, has enshrined the one-hour lunch, whereas a … Continue reading

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Martin Luther King Worried About Economic Injustice

Popular Economics Weekly Martin Luther King said the basis of disparities between the races had as much to do with income inequality as outright racism in his book, Why We Can’t Wait.  “Many white Americans of good will have never … Continue reading

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What’s The Fed To Do?

Popular Economics Weekly Why the debate over who should be the next Federal Reserve Chairman? There is a tug of war going on between inflation ‘doves’ and ‘hawks’ within the Fed. The debate is whether inflation is or will be … Continue reading

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How To Lower That Household Debt?

Financial FAQs Here is the underlying reason our economy isn’t growing faster, hence creating more jobs. Household debt hasn’t even declined to early 2000 levels, mainly because household incomes haven’t risen above 2000 levels, after inflation is factored in. Mortgage … Continue reading

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Will Interest Rates Continue to Rise?

The Mortgage Corner We think not.  Interest rates are rising, mainly due to some Fed Governors saying they may begin to end the QE3 purchase of securities later this year. But that is based on overly optimistic growth projections by … Continue reading

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