Ok, who thinks credit scores needs to be regulated after this story from Mother Jones.
TODAY'S TWO MINUTES HATE....Here's the latest reason to hate credit card companies: Shop at Wal-Mart, obviously a sign of financial distress, and your credit limit gets lowered. Hallelujah!
This is not even the real issue. The question really should be why are not U.S. taxpayer funds to be used first and foremost to create jobs for U.S. workers?
Banks receiving massive U.S. taxpayer funds are firing U.S. workers while keeping temporary foreign guest workers. Why? Because they are an important conduit to offshore outsource and they are cheaper.
The Institute for Supply Management has come out with it's latest manufacturing numbers for January 2009.
January marked 12 months of contraction in the manufacturing sector. However, the rate of decline as measured by the PMI was slower than experienced in December.
One thing Mother Jones is pointing out...the main stream media rarely tally up the suicides of regular folk, or the increase in extreme violence and this implies hypocrisy in American culture. Millionaire suicides over financial distress hit the headlines....but the thousands who are in quiet desperation never get a mention...unless they take along with them at least 3.
Lieber asks all the hard questions - you know, the ones the answers to which are really, really embarassing. For example, where exactly has the $7 or $8 trillion from the Fed gone to?
In mid-September, when it was on the ropes, AIG received an astonishing $85 billion emergency line of credit from the Fed. Soon, that was supplemented by another $67 billion. Much of that money, to use the government's euphemism, has already been "drawn down." Shamefully, neither Washington nor AIG will explain where the billions went. But the answer is increasingly clear: It went to counterparties who bought derivatives from Cassano's shop in London.
This is a bombshell. Banks, while receiving billions in TARP bail out money and firing U.S. workers right and left sought foreign workers. The associated press did an investigation on where your taxpayer money is going and this is what they found!
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.
Menzie Chinn looks at the numbers for consumption and durable consumption, which are in free fall (follow the link to see the graphs), especially in comparison to the 2001 recession. Chinn notes that
Greetings everyone to the second edition of Econ’ Notables & Quotable. We’re still trying to get the kinks out of this, get the format right and what have you. As always, I look forward to your comments and critique. If you have any ideas on how to improve EN&Q, don’t hesitate to let me know. Well, without further adieu, let’s begin the show!
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