ABI: Personal Bankruptcy Filings Up 14% from February 2009 – Calculated Risk
“Consumer filings this year will likely surpass 1.5 million filings, or the same number of annual filings averaged in the years leading up to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.”
Greece Approves Plan for New Taxes and Pay Cuts – The New York Times
The new measures include an increase of two percentage points in the value-added sales tax, which is now 19 percent; a further increase in the fuel tax; increases of 20 percent in alcohol taxes and 6 percent on cigarette taxes; a new tax on luxury goods and a 12 percent cut in add-ons to civil servant wages, Mr. Petalotis said.
They also include a 30 percent reduction in the bonuses given to civil servants as holiday pay, which amount to two additional monthly wages, he said.
70% Of The Elderly Aren’t Retiring Because They Can’t Afford To Anymore – Clusterstock
Such job satisfaction will become necessary for most young Americans, since fully supporting retirees from ~60 years onwards will be simply untenable as an increasing proportion of America becomes old due to demographic change and extended life expectancies. Already, in 2012 about 1 in 3 American workers will be over 50 years old according to The Economist.
Census 2010: Impact on Employment – Calculated Risk
With all the talk about the impact of the February snow storms on employment, it is worth remembering that the temporary hiring for Census 2010 will also distort the payroll employment numbers.
Fannie Mae Changes Mission Statement – HousingDoom
Did you note the difference? Their focus changed from helping families to helping those who house America. [Helping those who house America being mortgage bankers and other lenders.]
California job losses grow – The Contra Costa Times
“The economy was a lot worse than everybody thought,” said Howard Roth, chief economist with the state’s Department of Finance. “The job market is weaker than we figured.”
It appears California lost 871,000 jobs in 2009, suggests an estimate provided by the state Employment Development Department.
“This is the worst recession for California since the Great Depression,” said Brad Kemp, director of regional research with Beacon Economics.
Dallas Fed President: Break Up Big Banks – The Baseline Scenario, James Kwak
For whatever reason, the administration and Christopher Dodd seem to be going for the other kind of majority — one that cobbles together a least-common-denominator reform package that leaves the basic financial system intact. Even if they succeed, at best we will have lost our best opportunity for real change in decades.
Here’s The Untold Story Of How AIG Destroyed Itself – Clusterstock, John Carney
The details of AIG’s investment strategy have been largely obscured by the analogy with insurance. In the typical telling, AIG is depicted as insuring mortgage bonds packaged by banks. AIG often seems to be almost a passive and unsophisticated player that came in after the deal.
In reality, AIG was deeply involved in the creation of the financial products it insured, according to a person familiar with the matter.
‘If you really want a fiscal problem, look at the UK’ – FT Alphaville
Britain is probably one of the few countries in the world where political uncertainty, a renewed round of house price deflation and a sinking currency can manage to elicit a bounce in consumer sentiment (the country has a Greek-like 12.5% deficit-to-GDP ratio, which is double the European average and a household debt-to-GDP ratio that, at 170%, makes the U.S. household sector downright frugal at 130
