In 2007, one of the first indicators, and causes, of the coming recession emerged; subprime mortgages. Roughly 80% of U.S. mortgages issued to subprime borrowers were set with adjustable rates, which led to disaster. After the housing market hit its peak in 2006, it began a rapid decline, and rates began to skyrocket. That meant that all of those who borrowed on with an adjustable rate, were now subject to hefty payments that they could not afford, sending delinquency rates through the roof. And so began the worst recession in U.S. history since the Great Depression, with housing at the center of it all [see also Three ETFs For Obama’s Public Works Plan].
[click to continue…]
With anxiety building ahead of mid-term elections later this year, the Obama administration used the Labor Day holiday to announce a plan designed to kickstart job creation and further boost the economic recovery. The president unveiled on Monday a long-term public works plan to spend as much as $50 billion over the next six years. [...]
The housing sector of the U.S. economy has been battered and bruised over the last several years, as new home prices have plummeted, sales activity dried up, and unemployment skyrocketed towards double digits. A brief reprieve came recently in the form of generous government subsidies for first time home-buyers, a program designed to spark an [...]
The U.S. housing market, having been battered and bruised during the recent recession, had staged an impressive recovery in recent months as belief that the market has finally hit bottom seemed to gain support. But new data reveals the true fragility of the housing recovery, and indicates that the potential for a “double dip” in [...]
The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) gauge of confidence of new home sales fell for the first time in four months in October, declining to 17 from a reading of 18 in September. All three components of the index slipped – a first since the peak of the recession in November 2008. The component [...]
Early Friday morning, eyes around the world will be focused on Copenhagen, Denmark, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will announce the host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The announcement ceremony figures to be quite a spectacle, with heads of state from the four finalists expected to make last minute pleas for [...]
Newsweek grabbed headlines this week with its bold cover declaring “The Recession is Over.” While not everyone (including the president) agrees with this prognosis, it does seem that at the very least “we’ve stopped the freefall,” to borrow Obama’s words. Unemployment has slowed (although it is yet to reverse course), the decline in GDP was [...]
