5 ways that Wall Street and the U.S. Government punish the American saver – Artificial low interest rates, understating inflation, pushing people into the stock market casino, and destroying yield on traditional safe investment vehicles.
The only savers in the U.S. seem to be the investment banks. Four of the big banks on Wall Street turned out a perfect quarter as they have managed to leverage the zero percent funds from the Federal Reserve into government securities. At the same time, middle class Americans would be lucky to get 0.1 […]
The Futile Act of Saving in America Today – No Money Down Car Purchases, Low Down Payment for a big Mortgage, and High Interest Credit Cards for Everyday Spending.
This recession did change spending, at least for a few months. When the recession hit Americans had a negative savings rate, the first time ever we had the ability to spend more than we actually brought in. As the recession progressed, Americans did start saving and we took the personal savings rate to 6% (this […]
The Great American Bank Heist – On the Day we Reach a Monthly Foreclosure Filing Record Banks Announce Record Profits and the Stock Market is up 80 Percent.
It is rather fitting that on the day we hear about banks reaching record profits once again, because after all it is so difficult to borrow at zero percent and gamble in the stock market and make a gain, that we also find out that March was the highest month of foreclosure filings ever (and […]
The Invisible Recovery – 40,000,000 Americans Receiving Food Stamp Assistance – Since 2000 23 Million Americans have been added to the Food Assistance Program.
The latest food stamp data for January of 2010 shows that 39,430,724 Americans are receiving food stamps or are part of the supplemental nutritional assistance program (SNAP). If you make the acronym and name long enough and with a neutral undertone average Americans won’t fret that 40 million of their fellow neighbors are one government […]