No longer able to turn their homes for cash, Americans are increasingly using plastic to meet their basic living expenses. But many can't afford to pay the bills
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."
- Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law
Two people were shot to death by police in Mogadishu when starving Somalians rioted over rising food prices. Starving Haitians are eating "mud biscuits" because they can no longer afford to eat real food. The United Nations Food Agency sees civil war breaking out in "sub-Saharan, African and also in Asia and Latin America" because of the rising price of food, fuel, and basic commodities.
Pandit, who took Citi's reins in December, said Friday he expects to shed $400 billion of assets he inherited within the next three years. Two-thirds of the divestitures will come from the company's troubled consumer banking division.
If Citi were $400 billion thinner today, it would have about $1.79 trillion of assets, just ahead of Bank of America Corp. (BAC), which cracked the scales with $1.74 trillion of assets at the end of its first quarter on March 31. When Bank of America completes its planned acquisition of Countywide Financial Corp. (CFC) later this year, it would surpass Citigroup, even with Countrywide's rapidly deteriorating mortgage assets.
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There is one campaign issue that for me at least, is just not understood and that is the debate on whether or not to lift the payroll tax cap on FICA taxes above current Social Security Wage Base, $97,000.
John Miller is professor of economics at Wheaton College said in Dollars and Sense:
About four months ago the headline of the financial news was Bank of America buys Countrywide Financial for $4 Billion. The news had a temporary soothing effect on the markets, which were being roiled by the housing bust.
Bank of America Corp is likely to renegotiate its deal to buy Countrywide Financial Corp down to the $0 to $2 level or completely walk away from it, said Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, [analyst Paul Miller] ...
Countrywide's loan portfolio has deteriorated so rapidly that it currently has negative equity ...
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