This story was co-published with NPR. Back in 2009, Kevin Evans was one of millions of Americans blindsided by the recession. His 25-year career selling office furniture collapsed.
About 47 percent of stocks in the Nasdaq Composite Index are down at least 20 percent from their peak in the last 12 months while more than 40 percent have fallen that much in the Russell 2000 Index and the Bloomberg IPO Index. That contrasts with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which has closed at new highs 33 times in 2014 and where less than 6 percent of companies are in bear markets, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The divergence shows the appetite for risk is narrowing as the Federal Reserve reins in economic stimulus after a five-year rally that added almost $16 trillion to equity values.
If so, Italy’s public debt will spiral to dangerous levels next year, ever further beyond the point of no return for a country without its own sovereign currency and central bank. “This is catastrophic for the finances of the country. We’re heading for a debt ratio of 145pc next year,” said Antonio Guglielmi, global strategist for Mediobanca.
Just when we thought that the Fed is pulling an Obama and has “no strategy” to deal with what not some fringe blog but Deutsche Bank itself proclaimed was the bubble to end, or rather extend, all bubbles, when it said that “the bubble probably needs to continue in order to sustain the current global financial system” they surprise us once again when they report that, drumroll, the Fed has formed a committee led by the former head of the Bank of Israel – best known for using de novo created fiat money to buy AAPL stock as part of “prudent monetary policy” – Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, to monitor financial stability, which according to Bloomberg is “reinforcing the Fed’s efforts to avoid the emergence of asset-price bubbles.” Because contrary to what even five-year-olds know by now, the Fed is supposedly not promoting the emergence of bubbles but is actually “avoiding” them. No, really.
At first, Hollywood thought the summer’s movies weren’t as good as usual, to explain the 15% drop in sales. Now they are noting that the drop occurred since January as well, and are really worried. They just don’t know what to make of it, because, frankly, the actors and actresses live in a liberal fantasy land in Hollywood.
JANET LEE DUPREE, 72, was surprised when she received her first Social Security benefits seven years ago. About one-fifth of her monthly payment was being withheld and she called the federal government to find out why. The woman, who is from Citra, Fla.
The idea that the Obama administration has the budget deficit under control is a complete and total lie. According to the U.S.
U.S. consumers have made a lot of progress in paring down the extreme debt loads that helped make the 2008 financial crisis such an epochal disaster.
Marc Faber has long predicted that a collapse in U.S. stocks is coming.
It has come down to this for Brian Perry: an apple or banana for lunch, Red Sox ballgames on an old Zenith TV and long walks to shake off the blues. At 57, Perry has been unemployed and looking for work for nearly seven years, ever since that winter when the Great Recession hit and he was laid off from his job as a law firm clerk.
Carrying tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt has become the new normal. Thanks to climbing tuition and inadequate college savings, 40 million Americans now have at least one outstanding student loan, according to new analysis from credit bureau Experian. That’s up from 29 million consumers in 2008.
The world is facing a global jobs crisis that is hurting the chances of reigniting economic growth and there is no magic bullet to solve the problem, the World Bank warned on Tuesday. In a study released at a G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting in Australia, the Bank said an extra 600 million jobs needed to be created worldwide by 2030 just to cope with the expanding population. “There’s little doubt there is a global jobs crisis,” said the World Bank’s senior director for jobs, Nigel Twose.
The Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, exists to serve big banks and Wall Street. There is no other reason for the existence of the Fed. None.
International investors have been warned to pull their cash out of Britain to protect themselves against the ‘cataclysmic’ impact of Scottish independence. Japan’s biggest bank, Nomura, warned sterling could plunge by 15 per cent in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote – amid warnings over a ‘run on UK assets’ threatening savings and pensions of ordinary families. It came as it emerged David Cameron has pleaded with business chiefs to publicly warn against Scottish independence.
Milk futures rose to a record as exports by the U.S. climbed amid shrinking inventories of cheese and butter, signaling higher costs for pizza and pastries.
Mexico is on track to become the top exporter of automobiles to the United States, and it’s the Japanese automakers like Mazda, which has all but pulled the plug on U.S. production, making that happen.