Student debt becoming a larger albatross for economic growth: $1.2 trillion in student debt is outstanding and many college graduates working in jobs that don’t require their degree

There was a time when going to college made sense in every feasible way. It made sense professionally, economically, and many college graduates have a wonderful time in the process of completing their degrees. Most would argue that learning is vital in growing and moving forward.

Latest Housing Numbers Reveal Disturbing Trends

There was much celebration regarding the jump in July housing starts and permits, which literally blew away Wall Street expectations, being the highest since November 2013. So is this the housing recovery everyone’s been waiting for? Sadly, no, because one glance at the internal numbers reveal that virtually all of the surge higher was due to a big jump in multi-family starts.

Cyberattacks: Perpetual state of siege for U.S. companies

The financial industry — indeed, most of the business world — works within a state of almost perpetual cybersiege at a level few consumers grasp. And the costs and dangers are growing for those who seek to protect their assets and their customers. “The constant barrage of attacks is real,” says J.

JPMorgan Warns Military Escalation In Ukraine ‘May Lead To A Lehman-Style Shock’

The sudden military escalation in Ukraine in recent days has, according to JPMorgan’s Alex Kantarovich, reduced the earlier hopes that the high level meeting in Minsk on 26 August would help to defuse the conflict. As Kantarovich warns, the markets are now bracing for the US/EU responses. In the worst case scenario, now appearing more likely, severe pressure on stocks may extend.

The Next Generation Will Have It Worse, Most Americans Say

Employers have been creating jobs at a good clip this year, but Americans are too exhausted and discouraged by the pain of the recession and slow recovery to see much cause for optimism. That’s the conclusion of a new report surveying the economic sentiment of workers, released Thursday by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

Cyprus-Style Account Seizures Coming To A Bank Near You

It’s bad enough that you don’t make any interest holding your money in a checking or savings account at the bank. But at least it’s safe, right? Not so much, as Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer announced this month that instead of banks receiving bail-out money (from taxpayers) when they experience financial problems, they have now planned for a bail-in (by depositors and investors).

Two experts warn stock market correction could total 60 percent

Markets could soon face a fall of up to 60 percent, two experts told CNBC on Wednesday. A jolt to international confidence in central banks will lead to a 30 to 60 percent market decline, David Tice, president of Tice Capital and founder of the Prudent Bear Fund, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” When this happens, he said, markets will face a “period of extreme turmoil.

The Nail In The Petrodollar Coffin: Gazprom Begins Accepting Payment For Oil In Ruble, Yuan

According to Russia’s RIA Novosti, citing business daily Kommersant, Gazprom Neft has agreed to export 80,000 tons of oil from Novoportovskoye field in the Arctic; it will accept payment in rubles, and will also deliver oil via the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO), accepting payment in Chinese yuan for the transfers. Meaning Russia will export energy to either Europe or China, and receive payment in either Rubles or Yuan, in effect making the two currencies equivalent as far as the Eurasian axis is conerned, but most importantly, transact completely away from the US dollar thus, finally putin'(sic) in action the move for a Petrodollar-free world. More on this long awaited first nail in the petrodollar coffin from RIA:

IMF chief Christine Lagarde charged with ‘negligence’ over graft case

IMF chief Christine Lagarde, one of the world’s most powerful women, announced Wednesday she had been charged with “negligence” over a multi-million-euro graft case relating to her time as French finance minister. The shock announcement came a day after she was grilled for more than 15 hours by a special court in Paris that probes ministerial misconduct, the fourth time she has been questioned in a case that has long weighed upon her position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. “The investigating commission of the court of justice of the French Republic has decided to place me under formal investigation,” she said in exclusive comments to AFP.

It Begins: Council On Foreign Relations Proposes That ‘Central Banks Should Hand Consumers Cash Directly’

Moments ago a stunning article appearing in the “Foreign Affaird” publication of the influential and policy-setting Council of Foreign Relations, titled “Print Less but Transfer More: Why Central Banks Should Give Money Directly to the People.” In it we read the now conventional admission of failure by Keynesians, who however, unwilling to actually admit they have been wrong, urge the even more conventional solution:

Burger King is buying Tim Horton’s

Burger King announced that it has reached a deal to buy Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons and base itself in Canada, a controversial transaction that raises questions about business taxes and corporate patriotism. The deal is the latest example of a U.S.

Invasive insect threatens to destroy the entire Florida citrus industry

Nearly all of the state’s citrus groves are affected in varying degrees by greening disease, and researchers, growers and experts agree that the crisis has already started to compromise Florida’s prominence as a citrus-growing region. Florida is second in the world, behind Brazil, in growing juice oranges, producing about 80 percent of juice in the U.S.

Average cost of raising a child hits $245,000

New parents be warned: It could cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars to raise your child — and that’s not even including the cost of college. To raise a child born in 2013 to the age of 18, it will cost a middle-income couple just over $245,000, according to newly released estimates from the U.

The Home Flipping Bubble Implodes (Again)

Home flipping – buying a home and reselling it within 12 months, hopefully for a profit – is the American entrepreneur’s reaction to the vagaries of the housing market. When these gutsy people perceive a big profit opportunity, such as soaring home prices, they pile into the market, and profit grows on trimmed trees and freshly painted walls and rehabbed bathrooms, and flipping volume soars, and the time it takes to complete a flip drops, and nothing can go wrong. Then something goes wrong.

Food stamp fraud rampant: GAO report

Americans receiving food stamps were caught selling and bartering their benefits online for art, housing and cash, according to a new federal report that investigates fraud in the nation’s largest nutrition support program. Complicating the situation is the fact states around the country are having trouble tracking and prosecuting the crimes because their enforcement budgets have been slashed despite the rapidly-rising number of food stamp recipients, according to the Government Accountability Office report. Under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, 47 million people have been awarded $76 billion in benefits.