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 […]
California state budget and fiscal year problems assure a weak housing market and poor employment conditions for another fiscal year. $3 billion miss in April tax revenues, selling electronic freeway ad space, and 80 percent of income from volatile sources.
The state of California is entering the new fiscal year budget wrangling period. What the legislature in Sacramento was hoping for in April with generous tax revenues actually turned out to be an absolute bust. The California housing bubble bursting is still having deep ramifications for the future of the state. Unfortunately what we are […]
How much do average Americans make after the Great Recession? Examining the income of U.S. households. 65 percent of U.S. households live on $65,000 or less.
In order to understand the middle class, we first have to draw a line in the economic sand. Many in our society would like to believe that we live in a classless system but this isn’t true especially when we look at the financial data. This classless belief has been shattered with the current structure […]
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 […]