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Posts Tagged Barack Obama
The U.S. Isn’t as Free as It Used to Be
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Trading Markets on January 26th, 2010
The United States is losing ground to its major competitors in the global marketplace, according to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released today by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. This year, of the world’s 20 largest economies, the U.S. suffered the largest drop in overall economic freedom. Its score declined to 78 from 80.7 on the 0 to 100 Index scale.
![[index2010]](http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AK833_index2_NS_20100119142047.gif)
Obama confident his proposed bank fee will become law
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Banks on January 18th, 2010
President Barack Obama said Saturday that he’s determined his proposal to require banks repay taxpayers for financial-crisis aid through a special 10-year fee will become law.
“We’re not going to let Wall Street take the money and run. We’re going to pass this fee into law. And I’m going to continue to work with Congress on common-sense financial reforms to protect people and the economy from the kind of costly and painful crisis we’ve just been through,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
The “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee” proposed by Obama Thursday would total at least $90 billion over 10 years. The fee would be charged to financial institutions with more than $50 billion in assets. The assessment would remain in place for at least 10 years, or until all losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP were repaid. Ten firms will pay 60% of the tax. Read more about the proposed fee.
“Those who oppose this fee say the banks can’t afford to pay back the American people without passing on the costs to their shareholders and customers. But that’s hard to believe when there are reports that Wall Street is going to hand out more money in bonuses and compensation just this year than the cost of this fee over the next ten years,” Obama said. Read the rest of this entry »
There Will Be No ‘Second Wave’ Crisis
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on December 25th, 2009
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday the Obama administration is confident it will prevent a repeat of last year’s financial crisis, the worst to hit the country in seven decades.
“We are not going to have a second wave of financial crisis,” Geithner said in an interview with National Public Radio. “We cannot afford to let the country live again with a risk that we are going to have another series of events like we had last year. That is not something that is acceptable.”
Geithner, interviewed on NPR’s “All Things Considered” program, rejected the idea that a serious new crisis could be triggered by lingering problems with commercial real estate loans or with a sudden weakening in the value of the dollar.
“We will do what is necessary to prevent that and that is completely within our capacity to prevent,” he said.
Geithner spoke on a day when President Barack Obama met with executives from a number of community banks, reiterating his plea for banks to do more to lend to small businesses. Obama took a more conciliatory tone with the leaders of the smaller community banks than he had in a meeting last week with leaders of the country’s largest banks. Read the rest of this entry »
Unemployed? Refinancing Won’t Be Easy
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Banks on July 20th, 2009
Mortgage rates are inching down, making refinancing more attractive for people who want to trim expenses. If you’re unemployed, however, your chances of successfully refinancing your home are very slim—especially if you can’t prove a steady source of income.
“A couple of years ago, it would have been technically very possible,” says Keith Gumbinger, vice president at mortgage information firm HSH Associates. As lenders have tightened standards, they’re now scrutinizing all aspects of potential borrowers’ financial lives.
“Income documentation is one of the primary ways lenders identify your ability to repay them,” says Mr. Gumbinger.
And while some homeowners may be able to use unemployment benefits to aid in qualification for a mortgage modification under the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable plan, currently there isn’t much relief for the unemployed.
The Obama administration is exploring programs that could help unemployed workers get mortgage help, including possibly extending unemployment benefits, said Housing and Urban Development Department senior adviser William Apgar before the Senate Banking Committee last week. Read the rest of this entry »
Foreclosures rise 15 percent in first half of 2009
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on July 16th, 2009
The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes soared by nearly 15 percent in the first half of the year as more people lost their jobs and were unable to pay their monthly mortgage bills.
The mushrooming foreclosure crisis affected more than 1.5 million homes in the first six months of the year, according to a report released Thursday by foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.
The data show that, despite the Obama administration’s plan to encourage the lending industry to prevent foreclosures by handing out $50 billion in subsidies, the nation’s housing woes continue to spread. Experts don’t expect foreclosures to peak until the middle of next year.
Foreclosure filings rose more than 33 percent in June compared with the same month last year and were up nearly 5 percent from May, RealtyTrac said.
“Despite all the efforts to date, we clearly haven’t got a handle on how to address the situation,”said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president for marketing. Read the rest of this entry »
Banks Oppose Financial Agency’s Costs; Consumers Seek Clarity
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on June 23rd, 2009
U.S. bankers lined up against a new federal oversight agency proposed by President Barack Obama, even as consumer advocates back the regulator as a way to help people understand the financial products they use.
“It would simply complicate our existing financial regulatory structure by adding another extensive layer of regulation,” American Bankers Association President Edward Yingling said in remarks prepared for a House Financial Services Committee hearing today in Washington. Improving existing rules “is likely to be more successful, more quickly, than a separate consumer regulator.”
Financial products are too complicated to permit consumers to compare terms with ease, said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard University law professor who has backed a federal agency, in remarks prepared for today’s 10 a.m. Washington hearing.
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency is part of Obama’s regulatory overhaul to rein in abuses that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The hearing is the first in a series by the House Financial Services Committee to transform the Obama proposal into legislation. Read the rest of this entry »
May U.S. foreclosures 3rd highest on month on record
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Banks on June 11th, 2009
U.S. foreclosure activity for May ebbed from April’s record, but mortgages still failed at a staggering pace as President Barack Obama’s rescue programs had not had time to fully take root, RealtyTrac said on Thursday.
Foreclosure filings dipped 6 percent in the month but increased 18 percent from May 2008, marking the third highest month on record.
“There were almost one million foreclosure filings in a three-month period, and that’s simply unprecedented,” Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac in Irvine, California, said in an interview.
Temporary freezes on foreclosure activity ended in March. Failures of many seriously delinquent loans that were put on hold during those moratoria have been thrust back into the foreclosure cycle.
One in every 398 households with loans got a foreclosure filing in May. Filings, which include notices of default and auctions, were reported on 321,480 properties last month. Read the rest of this entry »
Barack Obama, foreclosure, loan, mortgage, price, real estate, unemployment
Obama’s top 10 stocks
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Favourites, Fund Markets on May 18th, 2009
According to the latest disclosure from the White House, President Obama is a fan of index-fund investing. See the stocks in his main holding.
When it comes to policy, President Obama is moving like lightning. But when it comes to his investments, he’s playing it cool.
Obama holds the bulk of his investing assets in U.S. Treasury bonds, with a range of between $1 million and more than $5 million, according to a disclosure of personal financial interests released Friday.
He also has between $101,000 and $265,000 in two checking accounts.
To save for his kids’ college tuition, he has between $100,000 and $200,000 in two 529 savings plans from Bright Directions: One for children up to 8 years old and one for those between 9 and 12.
The vast majority of his mutual fund holdings are in the Vanguard FTSE Social Index fund (VFTSX), with a range of between $115,000 and $250,000. Read the rest of this entry »
White House: Budget deficit to top $1.8 trillion
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on May 14th, 2009
With the economy performing worse than hoped, revised White House figures point to deepening budget deficits, with the government borrowing almost 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year.
The deficit for the current budget year will rise by $89 billion to above $1.8 trillion - about four times the record set just last year. The unprecedented red ink flows from the deep recession, the Wall Street bailout, the cost of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill, as well as a structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in.
As the economy performs worse than expected, the deficit for the 2010 budget year beginning in October will worsen by $87 billion to $1.3 trillion, the White House says. The deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps.
For the current year, the government would borrow 46 cents for every dollar it takes to run the government under the administration’s plan. In one of the few positive signs, the actual 2009 deficit is likely to be $250 billion less than predicted because Congress is unlikely to provide another $250 billion in financial bailout money. Read the rest of this entry »
Barack Obama, Budget, credit, dollar, money, tax, unemployment
Obama to Crack Down on Business Taxes
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget, Favourites on May 5th, 2009
US President Barack Obama plans changes to tax policy certain to be unpopular with corporations with international divisions and individuals who use tax havens.
Obama’s two-part plan, which he is slated to unveil at the White House on Monday, also calls for 800 new federal tax agents to enforce the system.
The president’s proposal would eliminate some tax deductions for companies that earn profits in countries with low tax rates, as well as consider U.S. citizens who use tax havens in the Bahamas or Cayman Islands guilty of violating U.S. tax laws. If Obama wins congressional approval for the changes - and he faces a challenge on Capitol Hill - it could deliver $210 billion in tax revenue over the next decade.
Officials described the administration’s plan ahead of the announcement on the condition of anonymity so they wouldn’t upstage the president’s remarks. However, they acknowledged the political challenges facing the plan. The administration won’t seek a complete repeal of overseas tax benefits and, although the rule changes are narrower than some anticipated, business leaders still oppose them as a tax hike. Obama aides countered that the plan is a step toward a massive overhaul of international financial regulations the president has promised. Read the rest of this entry »
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5 July 2010
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