The NYT reports that the recession is taking a big toll on those called for jury duty. Few people like jury duty. But for many people squeezed by the recession, a jury summons holds a new fear: financial ruin. Judges and court officials around the country say they are seeing the impact of the recession […]
Archive for September 1st, 2009
The Expensive Home Buyer Tax Credit
One of the more interesting numbers to come out of today’s economic news was the cost per marginal homeowner of the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit. It’s a rather astounding $43,000. That’s what it costs to lure those that wouldn’t have bought into the market. A couple sites in the blogosphere talked about this […]
Labor Stakes Out Its Position On Healthcare
Big labor laid down its demands for health care today and they aren’t shy about what they want or what will happen if they don’t get it. From Politico.com: “Democratic lawmakers will not be able to count on the AFL-CIO‘s support if they drop the public insurance option from the health care reform legislation, union officials […]
August Auto Sales Predictably Up
As expected C4C goosed auto industry sales in August. Sales in that month equate to a seasonally adjusted rate of around 14 million. That actually is at the lower end of the boost that was expected. Some have raised their expectations of full-year sales from a shade below 10 million units to 10 million or […]
ISM And Housing Looking Better
Once again this morning a couple of positive economic developments, or at least the news sounds good. The National Association of Realtors reports that their Pending Home Sales Index, a forward looking measure of contracts signed, was up 3.2% in July to 97.6 from 94.6 in June. The index was at 87.1 in July 2008. […]