Federal Reserve data show that in relative terms, that debt is getting more expensive. In 1989 households earning $30,000 or less a year paid an average annual interest rate on auto loans that was 16.8% higher than what households earning more than $90,000 a year paid. By 2004 the discrepancy had soared to 56.1%. Roughly the same thing happened with mortgage loans: a leap from a 6.4% gap to one of 25.5%. "It's not only that the poor are paying more; the poor are paying a lot more," says Sheila C. Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
It's a very good article, going into depth on just how badly those who are scraping buy are even further victimized by these various credit agencies.
One of the amazing things I've run across in the research and promotion of "Crazyman's Economics" is that people who brag about how much money they've made in the markets don't care about those who lose money.
They claim it's their fault they lost their money. They didn't do the proper research, they trusted the wrong people. Look at the report Wall Street put out earlier this week. They said it was human nature that caused investors to be too greedy when things were going well and panic too soon when things got shaky. (Translation: It's not our fault, it was the investors' fault.)
In fact, we've asked dozens of people who made money one question: "Where did your money come from?" Almost every single one of them, from guys in the coffee shop in Veedersburg, IN to afternoon host Tracy Jones on 700 WLW in Cincinnati say the same thing..."I don't care."
Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
This week's star is Senator Byron Dorgan. Now I happen to really like Dorgan. He has that Midwest sensibility and more importantly, a MBA, a background in corporate taxes and economics and is chair of the Democratic Policy Committee.
One of the things Dorgan is known for is incredible floor speeches with large graphs and images. Believe me, with him on the floor other Senators have no excuse to claim they didn't know a bill or policy was hurting US workers. You can't ignore Dorgan.
Here he says there is no real representation in Congress for the American Worker:
Images obviously baffle people. There is no 1-2-3 click easy to embed them into blogs. Hopefully the below will help you prepare images without too much @??#&*)%!!!!
The User Guide shows the XHTML tags to correctly format your images. Please note the resizing of the image so it fits on the page.
Image Editing and Extraction
To extract an image from a PDF, PS or other graphics format file or to convert, resize, crop or edit an image, you need image editing software.
I recommend editing your images with GIMP. GIMP is open source and available on Linux and Mac. Here is the Windows version.
Some folks are having difficulty understanding how to extract an image.
Henry Waxman is investigating whether the Bush Administration took a page out of Naomi Klein's book, "The Shock Doctrine" by deliberately precipitating a bear raid on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Washington Post.
According to the New York Times, a group of Wall Street executives have released a report detailing what went wrong and steps they can take to prevent it from hapening again. OK, quit laughing.
According to the article:
"Wall Street failed to anticipate how wide-reaching problems with mortgage bonds would spread into seemingly distant corners of the financial markets, the report said. Awash in easy money, banks doled out credit without sufficiently charging for the risk. Wall Street also created complex structures that masked connections between asset classes as well as compensation incentives that pushed traders to take risky steps for short-term gain. The industry’s failings have now translated into pain for the broader economy, the report said."
I gotta laugh for in the past, there has been such inherent sexism in the women vote analysis. Things like soccer moms and feelings and fear....well, I guess it takes a think tank run by women to get to the truth of the matter.
A new poll from the National Women's Law Center finds:
Poll Findings: Women Are Worried About the Future and Believe Government Must Act
According to a recent poll by the National Women's Law Center, women feel the impact of economic insecurity and rising food, energy, education, and health care costs more deeply than men – and see government as a key to the solution.
According to the poll, women want:
A better health care system
An end to the wage gap
Affordable birth control, comprehensive sex education, and protection for Roe v. Wade
Woah, new article from Business Week is pointing to regulators allowing:
The folks who brought you the mortgage mess and the ensuing hedge fund blowups, busted buyouts, and credit market gridlock have another bold idea: buying up and running troubled corporate pension plans. And despite the subprime fiasco, some regulators may soon embrace Wall Street's latest scheme.
In preparation for that moment, the world's biggest big investment banks, insurers, hedge funds, and private equity shops have been quietly laying the groundwork for such deals over the past year. They would be a big prize for Wall Street. The $2.3 trillion pension honey pot has $500 billion in "frozen plans" that are closed to new employees and whose benefits are capped
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