Spending Up, But Not By Much
Higher prices may account for the recent 0.1% uptick in consumer spending in January, according to a government report released today, a slight (yes, ever so slight) improvement from what economists were predicting.
Personal income dropped 0.2%, after a 0.5% rise in December.
While personal income rose a little, it wasn’t enought [...]

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Fannie Mae Takes a Spanking
Today is not a good day for Fannie Mae (sorry, couldn’t help stop the poet in me). Fannie Mae took a beating in the final quarter of 2007, losing roughly $3.6 billion dollars–another casualty of mounting home loan delinquencies.
Fannie Mae, which is the big boy on the block when it comes [...]

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The Markets
This up and down stock market may suggest that many investors have weak convictions about which direction they think the stock market will head over the near term.
There seems to be a cross current between investors who are tempted to snap up perceived bargains and other investors who are willing to sell stocks due [...]

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HELOCs Go Bye Bye
If you’re a homeowner, and you’ve used the equity you’ve built up in your home as a secondary stash of cash to pay your credit card bills, remodel your home, or to book glamorous vacations, the good old days may just be gone.
Lenders, feeling the crunch of the subprime fallout and a [...]

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Online Banking - Beware!
It’s in the news everyday, and by now most people understand the inherent risks of not only banking in general, but banking online. The convenience of the internet is great–just try and remember back a few years when you actually had to go to a library to find out anything you wanted [...]

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Personal Loans
Small personal loans are a growing type of loan that banks are finding more demand for these days. While unsecured loans are not as profitable for banks as credit card products are, they make more sense to the consumer because the interest rate on the loan is likely going to be less than it [...]

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Women and Finance
Men and women really are different when it comes to planning for the future and what that means in terms of finances. Women live longer–it’s a fact, and an unfortunate one for me–because, yes, I’m a man. But kudos to the women. But what that means for women is that they have to [...]

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The OTS - Throwing out a Lifeline
The Office of Thrift Supervision, or OTS as it’s known in the industry, unveiled a plan today that would help mortgage borrowers who’ve either fallen behind or are having problems meeting monthly payments by lowering the balance on the mortgage to match the current market value of the borrower’s [...]

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Gift Card or Cash?
Gift cards are great. They’re easy to buy, easy to give, and easy to use–if you use them. Retailers sell a lot of giftcards. Customers redeeming is another story. January saw a slump in terms of sales, part of which is probably attributable to the lack of shoppers coming in to redeem [...]

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The MarketsÂ
There’s not always a direct correlation between what’s going on in the economy and what’s happening in the stock market.
For example, right now, many people are talking about the U.S. either being in or about to start a recession. Just look at some of the bad news.
• Last week, the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment [...]

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