This is a modest proposal and actually may not be very original. But this is a very important topic that is not getting enough attention. This proposal could be implemented easily and quickly if it had the right partners.
Our financial system offers many options for people to save, invest and obtain credit. But having all these options is not necessarily a good thing. These increased options have also added more complexity to a financial system that was already pretty intimidating for many people. Many of us do not have a basic understanding or knowledge about finance to make good financial decisions for ourselves. Studies have shown that this financial "illiteracy" is widespread across the U.S.
Have your say on Say on Pay. Executives now get over a third of all income in the United States. We saw outrageous bonuses to the very people who put the entire globe on the brink of financial Armageddon with us footing the bill for their folly.
The debate is over on the need of corporate executive compensation reform. We must have reforms on how the top brass are paid in this country. Else we risk commissioning the very same captains for yet another economic ship of fools joy ride similar to the one which just brought this nation to the brink of doom.
Now the question is which reforms? Will they actually work as intended?
I sometimes find it frustrating how the market bulls try to spin the unemployment numbers to "prove" their point. It you only look at headline numbers it sounds convincing, but if you do some digging then the Rosy Scenario falls apart.
I'm going to take apart three major concepts in this essay.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
This weeks videos are an economics lecture on America's Bubble Economy and a BBC documentary on how the super rich use other people's money to ....create bubbles. (Scroll down to see both videos.)
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
- Hunter S. Thompson
When you live in interesting times it is sometimes hard to distinguish the real news from the fake news. For instance, I read this today.
WASHINGTON—A new report has revealed that when it comes to the important matter of owing large sums of money, Americans display a level of expertise and proficiency unrivaled throughout the world.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that it will sell a record total of $115 billion in new notes next week, more than market participants had expected.
They both look like the could be real news, don't they?
Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke testified and then stonewalled another Q&A today in the House Financial Services Committee.
First to Fed. economic forecasts, otherwise known as gardening:
Job insecurity, together with declines in home values and tight credit, is likely to limit gains in consumer spending. The possibility that the recent stabilization in household spending will prove transient is an important downside risk to the outlook.
The news out today told a story of Americans going back to their puritan fiscal roots.
Americans Pay Back Debts Most Since ‘52 as Jobless Spur Savings
(Bloomberg) -- For the first time since Harry S. Truman was in the White House, Americans are paying back their debts, a phenomenon that just might help keep interest rates low as the Treasury sells a record $2 trillion of bonds and rising unemployment increases U.S. savings.
The stable rock of the American citizen, repairing his balance sheet so that the Great American Economy can recharge with a clean slate, healthy and ready to take on the world. American Capitalism in action, continuing to work in the same way it has worked for hundreds of years.
At least that is what the first paragraph implies. Once you scratch the surface the story isn't nearly so pretty.
One fact is no one knows what the hell is going on with U.S. taxpayer dollars and what the U.S. Treasury as well as the Federal Reserve are doing with it.
This hearing, is a TARP Inspector General Report hearing, otherwise known as Don't ask, don't tell.
While everyone has been focusing on the housing bubble bust, the commercial real estate market is collapsing at a record rate.
Commercial real-estate prices fell 7.6% in May, according to Moody's Investors Service, as both dollar volume and transaction count reached record lows in the nine-year history of the firm's Commercial Property Price Indices...The indexes are down 29% from a year ago and 35% from their October 2007 peak.
That 7.6% drop wasn't a year-over-year drop. It dropped 7.6% in just May.
In April it dropped 8.6%, thus making a two month decline of 16%.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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