Crash Survival Zone

Look around your house. There are probably books you never read, CDs you never listen to, and DVDs you never watch. Wouldn’t it be great if you could trade them in for something new you’d enjoy? You can. Swaptree.com is here to help. The site lets users barter goods they’re willing to part with for [...]

The recession is nearing its end. At least, it seems to be. A generally improving trend in the economic data has forecasters saying the downturn will turn into an upturn sometime between early this summer (the optimistic view) and late next winter (the pessimistic one).

But here’s my assessment: So what? A recession is defined by [...]

Home prices are likely to fall for the next year, then stabilize, with a rebound in 2012 as the overall economy takes off again

Americans have not seen a boring housing market since the last millennium. You know—the average, ordinary kind of market where supply just about matches demand, prices are steady, and real estate ceases [...]

By Dean Baker

As every backcountry hiker recognizes, you must first know where you are before you can figure out how to get to where you want to be. While it is important to know where we want to go, progressives often badly misunderstand where we are now.

Specifically, much of the anger of progressives is wrongly [...]

By Brad DeLong

Let me make five points to eliminate or refute, or at least to fight against or lay down a marker that there is, well, call it “confusion” about what the right state of the American macroeconomy should be.
My first point is that over the past six months the economy has been a severe [...]

By Alan S. Blinder

Some people with hypersensitive sniffers say the whiff of future inflation is in the air. What’s that, you say? Aren’t we experiencing deflation right now? The answer is yes. But, apparently, for those who are sufficiently hawkish, the recent activities of the Federal Reserve conjure up visions of inflation.

The central bank is [...]

By William Greider

The most disturbing thing about Barack Obama’s call for financial reform was the way in which the president falsified our predicament. He tried to make it sound as though everyone was implicated in the financial breakdown and therefore no one was really to blame. “A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street [...]

Louis Licata has shelved plans to hire three more employees for his Cleveland law firm. Jeannie Macone, of Florida, is cutting back on inventory for her trinket and home décor business. In Ohio, Patrick Allen has slashed employee travel and begun paying cash for work dinners with clients of the marketing firm that he started [...]

The stock market’s damage has already been done. And if you’re one of those people near or already in retirement, you already know you’re going to have to work longer, save more or spend less.

But what should you do right now with the money you have left? Should you wade back into the stock market, [...]