As 2020 comes to a close, you may think 2021 will be a better year. And if you are among the top 1 percent Americans in terms of wealth and income, things look pretty rosy. But if you are a middle-class person, next year will be worse for you than in 2020. First of all, … Read more
Even when the economy is booming, individuals can feel uncertain about their finances. During recessions, those uncertainties can escalate into fears about losing one’s job, losing one’s home, losing one’s savings or investments. In early 2020, unprecedented measures to halt the Covid-19 pandemic slowed business activity worldwide. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced … Read more
When I was a kid, my family would mark the holiday season by driving to Oklahoma City to do our Christmas shopping. We always made three stops. We would drop by the Sears store, which was a treat for me because it had escalators, and popcorn was always popping on the first floor. Popcorn and … Read more
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York just released two charts that show the trend of household debt. The most alarming trend here is the rapid growth of student loan debt since 2004. If we look at all debt and the types of loans that are 90+ days delinquent, you will see a big dip … Read more
Andrew Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, Joelle Scally, and Wilbert van der Klaauw Today, the New York Fed’s Center for Microeconomic Data reported that total household debt balances increased slightly in the third quarter of 2020, according to the latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. This increase marked a reversal from the modest decline in the second quarter … Read more
It’s been 217 days since Congress instructed the IRS to send $1,200 stimulus checks to every citizen below a certain income threshold. And yet, it’s likely as many as 12 million people — including those who most need a financial boost — never got the cash. The reasons include confusion about how the complex program … Read more
One year ago, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice promised business leaders that the state’s economy was on the verge of a boom. Continued growth in natural gas production was going to spark an industrial renaissance, bringing construction of a giant collection of spinoff factories. Speaking to the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting, held … Read more
Since the economic impact of the pandemic has hit with massive unemployment and businesses closing, I’ve been asked several times how can things be that bad when the stock market is doing so well. I thought this video did a really good job of explaining why the stock market is not an indicator of how … Read more
Accenture just put out a rather scary look at the pandemic financial challenges that have been put off or hidden by government stimulus. And this is very important information to you and me as consumers. The report by this well respected consulting firm says that as the government stops stimulus efforts to prop up the … Read more
Back on March 11th, I wrote The Coronavirus Might Just Kill Your Finances Before It Kills Anyone You Know. Each day that passes raises my concerns the financial impact from the coronavirus is going to be very painful. As I write this, consumers are being propped up with temporary economic bandages of extended unemployment benefits … Read more