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Latest Stimulus News
July 15, 2010: The national debt just topped $1 trillion, thanks in large part to all of the stimulus packages. To put that massive number in perspective, it's $47,000 per person for every citizen in America.
July 1, 2010: Recent economic news shows that consumer spending is down and will probably stay down for years, hampering the overall economic recovery. High unemployment rate and lower net worths are preventing people from spending and borrowing.
December 7, 2009:Â Only 11,000 jobs were cut in November 2009, the lowest number of job losses since December 2007, which is considered the start of the recession.
November 15, 2009: Job loss totals for August 2009 were 216,000; September was 263,000; and October was 190,000.
August 15, 2009: Job loss totals for July 2009 were reported at 247,000, the lowest for 2009, but still a discouraging blow.
July 26, 2009: With each passing day, Americans are losing hope that President Barak Obama can fix the economy. In comparing a mid-January 2009 poll to a July 2009 poll, the number of people who believe that Obama can fix the economy has dropped by 19%.
July 19, 2009: The unemployment rate, which was 7.6 percent in Janaury 2009 reached 9.5 percent in June 2009 and is expected to keep climbing throughout the year.
July 12, 2009: Job loss totals for June 2009 totalled 467,000.
July 5, 2009: Older workers are having a harder time finding jobs. On average, people over the age of 55 are staying jobless for 30 weeks, compared to 21 weeks for those who are younger. The unemployment rate for this age group is at seven percent, the highest level since 1948. Some employers might be reluctant to hire more mature workers because of: less proficiency with technology, higher salary demands, and/or the fear that they won't stay long in the jobs.
June 21, 2009: In April 2009, consumer spending dropped by $15.7 billion, the second largest drop ever, only surpassed by the March 2009 plummet of $16.6 billion. People are spending less, saving more, and decreasing their reliance on credit cards as the economy falters.
June 14, 2009: As of this week, according to the Obama Administration, only about 5% of the $787 billion from the stimulus package passed in February 2009 had actually been distributed.
May 31, 2009: Housing lenders are now seeing a third wave of foreclosoures, this time affecting borrowers with good credit and fixed rate home loans. This wave of defaults is attributed to rising unemployment rates. It follows the first two rounds of foreclosures, when speculators and sub-prime borrowers walked away from loans.
May 25, 2009: In an effort to encourage first time home buying, the 2009 Obama Stimulus package included an $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers. Many local housing agencies across the country are offering to lend part, or all of that money, so that buyers can once again get into a house with no money down. To qualify for the credit, homebuyers have to purchase the home by November 30, 2009.
May 10, 2009: Job loss totals for April 2009 were released, and the number was better than expected, but still grim at 539,000 jobs lost.
April 26, 2009: The 19 largest banks in America are undergoing stress tests, ordered by the Obama Administration. The purpose of the bank stress tests is to get an accurate picture of the health of the banking systems. Banks will be separated into categories: healthy, need more TARP money, beyond hope.
April 24, 2009: All 26 cities with the highest foreclosure rates are located in just four states: California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. Las Vegas has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, at 4.5%.
April 22, 2009: Unemployment is now 10% or higher in the following states: Indiana, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, Michigan, California, South Carolina, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Nevada.
April 18, 2009:Â In the past week, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs reported better than expected earnings. The news cheered Wall Street, which took it as a sign that TARP (the Bush stimulus introduced in October 2008) is helping stabilize the banking industry.
April 16, 2009: Economists are divided as to whether pumping billions of dollars into the economy through a myriad of economic stimulus packages will lead to inflation. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says no, others say yes. Bernanke is betting that high jobless rates, idle factories, and lower energy costs will keep inflation in check.
April 14, 2009: The billions of dollars in economic stimulus package money that have been poured into the mortgage industry are finally beginning to show positive results. The average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage is hovering around 4.5%, making it the perfect time to refinance.Â
April 11, 2009: President Obama sees a "glimmer of hope" in the economy as a sliver of consumer confidence returns and low interest rates on mortgages begin to lead to mass refinancings.
April 8, 2009: Just to clarify details of the 2009 IRS economic stimulus, no checks are being sent out this year, except to people on Social Security and retired government and railroad workers. In late May or early June of this year, those people will receive a one-time $250 economic stimulus check. For everyone else, starting in April, an average of $10 per week was added to paychecks. This Obama stimulus will continue through 2010, amounting to $400 per year or 6.2% of wages, whichever is less. Last year, the Bush stimulus sent $600 checks to American workers, as part of a $178 billion economic stimulus package designed to jumpstart the moribund economy.
April 4, 2009: Despite the massive economic stimulus plans, bills, and packages that were introduced in 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, the American economy continues to shed jobs at an alarming rate. Another 663,000 jobs were lost in March 2009. An estimated 13 million people are jobless, an 8.5% unemployment rate. The rate would be 15.6%, if workers who gave up or took part-time jobs were included in the unemployment figures. All told, 5.1 million American jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007. Economists predict that another 2.4 million jobs will be lost in the next year, and presumably this number takes into account the economic stimulus efforts of the Bush Administration and Obama administration.
April 3, 2009: All of the economic stimulus packages seem to be kicking in, at least in the eyes of Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its best four-week window (in terms of percentage gain), since 1933, when the country was in the throes of its last Great Depression. Stocks rose 20.4% in this four-week period.
April 3, 2009: At the G-20 global summit in London, the world's most prosperous countries agreed to inject $1 trillion into global financial markets and to enforce more stringent regulations, aimed at avoiding a repeat of the 2008-2009 financial meltdown.
April 2, 2009: The federal tax credit, Making Work Pay, kicked in for most American workers, a $10 bump per week. This tax credit is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the $787 billion economic stimulus package pushed through by the Obama Administration in February 2009. The tax credit extends through 2010, and it represents 6.2% of a worker's wages, up to $400 per year.
April 2, 2009: We're going to need every bit of that economic stimulus money that's being pumped into the housing industry. In the last year, a home-price index for 20 major American cities shows that housing prices have dropped an average of 19% in the past year. Dallas had the most stable prices, only dropping 4.8%, and Phoenix was the hotbed for housing trouble, falling 35%.
March 28, 2009: The State of Colorado just qualified for an extension in federal unemployment benefits, when the state's three-month unemployment average exceeded 6%. Typically, Colorado unemployment benefits have lasted 26 weeks. Thanks to the Bush Administration economic stimulus package that was implemented in the summer of 2008, the federal government added 20 weeks to those benefits. The Obama economic stimulus package - the American Recovery and Revinvestment Act - which was passed in February 2009, added another 13 weeks. In other words, if you lose your job, you now have 59 weeks to find another one.Â
March 24, 2009: The Dow Jones has risen 19% since March 9, largely on news of President Obama’s trillion-dollar “toxic asset purchase" bank program, which is part of Obama's far-reaching economic stimulus plan. |
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Did You Know…
November 10, 2009: A recent survey shows that only 1 in 20 Americans plans to buy a home next year. The distressed American economy and high unemployment rates seem to be putting a damper on people's desire to move.
June 21, 2009: No more liar loans - in May 2009, the House voted to tighten controls on the mortgage industry. Income and credit now have to be verified on borrowers, and ballooning payments and questionnable banking practices have been outlawed.Â
June 7, 2009: A skin care clinic in Arlington, Virginia is giving away free Botox injections to unemployed workers...a sign of the times as job markets tighten up across virtually all industries.
May 20, 2009: Many people are comparing the current economic recession to the Great Depression, which lasted almost twelve years, from 1929 to 1941. At its highest point, in 1933, unemployment was 25%.
April 23, 2009: First the American legal industry took a hit during this global recession, now the prostitution industry in Germany. Brothels in Germany are having to step up their marketing efforts, with free promotions, all-inclusive packages, discounts, and free transportation, bringing new meaning to the term economic stimulus packages.Â
April 21, 2009: No one seems to want to take a risk on a start-up business in this economy. Venture capital funding dropped 61% in the first quarter of 2009, sinking to its lowest point since 1995. This is bad news for small businesses, who only received a miniscule portion of the various economic stimulus packages, $15 billion in lending, to be precise.
April 20, 2009: Leading economists point out that in a typical recession, the economy begins to rebound 6-10 weeks after unemployment rates hit their highest points. Following are job loss totals for the first quarter of 2009: January 650,000; February 651,000; March 663,000.
April 11, 2009: The economic stimulus packages can't come quickly enough for women and children who are at risk of domestic violence. Crisis centers all across the country are reporting increases in domestic violence rates, attributed to high rates of unemployment and high levels of financial stress.Â
April 10, 2009: Approximately 120 million economic stimulus checks were sent out to American taxpayers in 2008 by the Bush Administration. This time around, under the Obama stimulus package passed in February 2009, the average American worker will receive $400 per year in 2009 and 2010, in the form of small amounts added to each weekly paycheck. For 2009, the economic stimulus amount will be approximately $10 per paycheck (because the program started partway through the year), and in 2010, the economic stimulus bonus will drop to about $7 per check.
April 9, 2009: As the economy unraveled, so, too, did Ponzi schemes around the country, big and small. Bernie Madoff, who stole somewhere in the range of $50 billion from investors, is the poster child for this type of fraud, but he wasn't alone. It seems that investment advisors all across the country had been running similiar scams, most of which didn't come to light until the fall of 2008, when frightened clients tried to pull their money out of the stock market. Just one little problem. Their savings and retirement had never been invested in the stock market, and all of the statements showing 20% returns and greater were pure fiction, printed out on home computers. Once the economic stimulus packages take hold and the stock market rebounds, undoubtedly, Ponzi schemes will spring up again, fueled by people's greed and desperation.
April 6, 2009: Pretty soon, lawyers will need their own economic stimulus package. In a typical recession, law firms fare well as people increasingly turn to lawsuits as a way to generate money. But nothing about this economic crisis seems to be typical. Reportedly, aw firms are suffering because most people are choosing to settle rather than risk drawn-out court cases, and corporate business is way down because mergers and acquisitions have come to a virtual halt. If President Obama announces a stimulus plan for attorneys, we'll give cover the economic stimulus package in detail!
April 2, 2009: Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius, who is slated for the Department of Health and Human Services post, is the sixth senior nominee to the Obama Administration who has admitted to shortchanging the Internal Revenue Service.
April 1, 2009: At one time, General Motors was the largest automaker on Earth, selling half of all of the cars sold across the world. Now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, General Motors has received economic stimulus from the Bush Administration in September 2008 (part of the $25 billion in low-interest loans given to Big 3 automakers General Motors, Chrylser, and Ford) and from the Obama Administration in March 2009 (part of the $22 billion economic stimulus given to GM and Chrysler).Â
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