Crash Survival Zone

I have had a ringside seat to the economic downturn this year. It is not an abstraction to me. The folks at the bottom are always the first to feel the pinch, when it comes. Clients of the agency I work at come through our doors every day requesting assistance with basic necessities like food, [...]

With home prices in free fall and mortgage delinquencies mounting, pressure to modify troubled loans is ratcheting up.
But lawyers who represent candidates for modifications say the programs are hobbled by the complexity of securitization pools that hold the loans, as well as uncertainty about who actually owns the notes underlying the mortgages.
Problems often emerge because [...]

by Paul Krugman

No modern American president would repeat the fiscal mistake of 1932, in which the federal government tried to balance its budget in the face of a severe recession. The Obama administration will put deficit concerns on hold while it fights the economic crisis.

But even as Washington tries to rescue the economy, the nation [...]

Most of us haven’t seen an economic decline like this one before, and as the slowdown gets slower, few will be unaffected. Are you ready for the ‘frugal future’?

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Our new economic reality — our “frugal future,” in the words of Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg — will be marked by reduced discretionary spending, higher savings [...]

A revised FICO formula will kick in soon, and the balances you carry will matter more than ever. Luckily, little missteps will count less. Plus: How you can protect yourself.
FICO 08 offers some definite improvements for consumers in several areas, including:

Collections. The new formula ignores small collection accounts in which the original debt was less [...]

The news that President Bush’s war on terrorism soon will have cost the U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion — and counting — is unlikely to spread much Christmas cheer in these tough economic times. A trio of recent reports — none by the Bush Administration — suggests that sometime early in the Obama presidency, spending on [...]

If you’re feeling down, don’t worry. You’ve got company. Economists and psychologists say that recessions tend to make nearly everyone less happy.

The good news, though, is that recent research suggests as long as you don’t lose your job, your mood probably won’t sour as much as the GDP. What’s more, you’re unlikely to stay feeling [...]

Hospitals, which employ 5 million people, are reporting that donations and investment returns are down, patient visits are flat and profitable diagnostic procedures and elective surgeries are declining as people with inadequate insurance delay care. But those patients are turning up later at ERs, seriously ill, making it tough for hospitals to lay off nurses [...]

by Thomas Friedman

…A gas tax reduces gasoline demand and keeps dollars in America, dries up funding for terrorists and reduces the clout of Iran and Russia at a time when Obama will be looking for greater leverage against petro-dictatorships. It reduces our current account deficit, which strengthens the dollar. It reduces U.S. carbon emissions driving [...]

How weird a year was it? Here’s how weird:

O.J. actually got convicted of something.
Gasoline hit $4 a gallon — and those were the good times.
On several occasions, “Saturday Night Live” was funny.
There were a few days there in October when you could not completely rule out the possibility that the next Treasury secretary would be [...]