Articles About Financing

You’ve heard of Kickstarter where budding entrepreneurs and artists reach out via the internet to regular folk to get them to fund their idea in return for swag or just a thank you? Well now, a group of Occupy Wall Street people are using that idea to get people out of debt. Strike Debt is […]

Banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported income of $37.6 billion in the third quarter, a 6.6 percent improvement over third quarter, 2011. This is the 13th consecutive quarter that earnings have registered a year-over-year increase. The other big news —  the decline in the number of banks on […]

The October employment report won’t blow anyone out of the water, but showed a modest improvement that caused many to breathe a sigh of relief.  According to the Department of Labor, 171,000 jobs were added in October – the highest number since February.  Retailing (up 36,000); healthcare (up 31,000) and business services (up 51,000) showed […]

There is no doubt that America needs to get its economic mojo back: in the 2nd quarter its GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.7 percent, according to revised figures published on August 29th.  That growth number is down from two percent in the 1st quarter and 4.1 percent in late 2011. But, anyone […]

US banks are finally opening their purse strings according to The Federal Reserve’s quarterly senior loan officer survey. Who’s getting loans? Large companies, people with decent credit applying for auto loans or credit cards and also people buying homes. There are a number of reasons for why the banks are feeling more confident: less competition […]

All of Wall Street is abuzz about stock brokerage Knight Capital which was brought to the edge of bankruptcy by a software glitch. Seventeen-year old Knight is one of the most trusted trading intermediaries for many of America’s largest mutual-fund companies and retail brokers. It could have all ended when, on August 1st, a software […]

My recent column on the Huffington Post reported on the advent on Wall Street into the housing market as companies like Blackstone and Colony Capital commit billions of dollars to bulk buying bank-owned (REO) single-family homes. I agree that there are pros and cons to this program. The clear source of popular resentment is that […]

Here’s a little news to buck up the real estate mavens weathered by the daily diet of recessionary news: Google has signed the largest lease in downtown Chicago in 7 years. It is a familiar story – a marquee firm relocating downtown because of the hip, cosmopolitan appeal and amenities of a CBD — but […]

What will solve the housing crisis? The Keynesians think it’s a government bailout and the Hayekians think it will ultimately be the invisible hand and spontaneous order of supply and demand that will ameliorate the underwater single-family home sector. Well, could it both? In other words, the government steps in to structure a private sector […]

On June 29, Congress avoided doubling interest rates for new federal student loans. Republicans and Democrats came together to keep interest rates on new Stafford loans, which are subsidized by the federal government, at 3.4 percent. The rates were set to double in July. It’s good news not just for matriculating freshmen but also for […]