September is normally the best time to buy digital cameras, big screen TV's, housewares, jewelry, interior paints and wallpaper, fall clothing for children, juniors and young men, baseball gear, winter and holiday trips, best month for previous year's model of cars. Watch for Back-to-School Specials and Labor Day Sales.
August 31, 2010 - When Congress modified the bankruptcy law nearly five years ago, one of the key elements of the new law was that anyone wishing to file for bankruptcy needs to seek credit counseling. Until recently, that requirement has been interpreted to mean that anyone not having already attended counseling couldn't file for bankruptcy. If they did, their suit could immediately be dismissed or the judge could simply strike the bankruptcy petition altogether. Now a ruling from a three judge panel of the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has reviewed the law. Their interpretation of it is completely different, and could give those filing for bankruptcy additional protection from creditors.
August 27, 2010 - If you have a credit card then the chances are that at some point you credit card company has treated you in a way that you didn't particularly care for. Perhaps they increased your interest rate for no particular reason. Or maybe they hit you with late fees that were higher than your minimum payment. Well, on August 22nd new regulations went into effect for credit card companies. Here is a quick check list of some of the more significant changes that you can expect under the new regulations.
August 26, 2010 - Bloomberg News has been fighting to get the Federal Reserve's records about FED lending to banks. They wanted the information badly enough that when the FED sought to keep it secret, they filed a federal law suit. Bloomberg won their suit but the FED appealed. When the FED lost that appeal in March based on a ruling of three judges from the New York US Court of Appeals, it appealed again. They asked that the entire court reconsider the case. Earlier this week, they lost that appeal too. But the FED still hasn't given up. The question is, Why?
August 24, 2010 - There is no good way to describe what happened to the sales of existing family homes in July. Overall sales fell by 27% over the previous month; one of the worst single monthly drops in history and the worst sales in the past 15 years. This is despite the fact that mortgage interest rates are at record lows. The news likely means that any talk of an economic recovery by members of congress and the White House are nothing more than wishful thinking and does not speak well for any hope of reducing unemployment numbers.
August 20, 2010 - Despite repeated recovery pronouncements from Congress and the White House, new unemployment claims continue to increase. Last week, there were more than 500,000 new claims; the worst week in 9 months. Not even this news could stop members of the Congress and the President from talking about how many jobs have been created or saved by the stimulus and ongoing government spending.
August 18, 2010 - On Monday, the FED announced a rule changes for home mortgages. Lenders will no longer be able to pay mortgage brokers based on Yield-Spread Premium (YSP). This was a method used by many brokers to place borrowers into higher priced loans than they actually qualified for. Because the banks making the loans made more money over the life of a loan, they compensated mortgage brokers based on the higher payment amounts that they received.
August 12, 2010 - Although the politicians in Washington keep talking about the current economic recovery, unemployment numbers are telling another story. Last week, new claims for unemployment rose even though most analysts were predicting a drop. The government numbers indicate that the overall unemployment rate will edge up this month and are grim news to anyone expecting a fourth quarter turn-around.
August 10, 2010 - Let's say that you are a banker. A consumer walks into your bank and wants to refinance their home loan, but they have a couple of big issues. First, they owe 15% more on their house than it is worth. Second, they have lousy credit - their credit score is only 500. Would you lend to them? Well, that is just exactly what the federal government is getting ready to do and they are using your tax dollars to do it. It is nothing more than another bank bailout that is likely to result in hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer losses. And it is all scheduled to start on September 7th.
August 4, 2010 - One of the warnings that all privacy advocates give out regularly is that you should never give out your Social Security Number unless you know who you are giving it to. Losing control of who sees your SSN, especially if that information is combined with your name and address, often leads to identity theft and financial hardship for victims. So you may think that it is odd that we agree with a federal judge's ruling that allows a website operator to publish names and Social Security numbers on the internet, but that is exactly the position that we are taking.
