The Treasury Department said Friday that the nation’s housing market “remains fragile” and reported that far fewer delinquent mortgage borrowers received loan modifications through a federal government program in July than they did in June. Get the full story »
Filed under: Economy
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Aug. 20, 2010 at 12:14 p.m.
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Filed under: Economy, Housing, Mortgages, Policy, Real estate, Updated Fewer homeowners received mortgage help in July
Aug. 20, 2010 at 10:57 a.m.
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Filed under: Economy, Jobs/employment, Manufacturing, Updated Caterpillar’s CEO predicts future economic growth
Caterpillar Inc. officials said Thursday they don’t expect a double-dip recession because the world’s central banks haven’t made major errors and the economy has been improving throughout 2010, especially in the developing world.
New CEO Doug Oberhelman and other executives met with analysts in New York and discussed the opportunities ahead for the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment. The Peoria, Ill.-based company also affirmed its long-term profit goals.
“We don’t think the world has ended,” said Oberhelman, who has been with Caterpillar since 1975. “We think there is going to be fantastic growth in our industry in the future.”
401(k) hardship withdrawals at 10-year high
In the wake of news about a spike in new applications for unemployment benefits comes another potentially troubling sign: A record number of workers made hardship withdrawals from their retirement accounts in the second quarter.
What’s more, the number of workers borrowing from their accounts reached a 10-year high, according to a report issued Friday by Fidelity Investments. Get the full story>>
Initial jobless claims at highest since November
Employers appear to be laying off workers again as applications for unemployment insurance reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November.
Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 12,000 last week to 500,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the fourth increase in the past five weeks and evidence that the economic recovery has weakened.
Film paints Pritzkers as obstacle to recovery
Workers at the Union Tank Car plant. (Show Us The Tax Breaks)
A short film produced by the hotel workers’ union and screened Wednesday evening in Chicago holds up the city’s wealthy Pritzker family as poster children for corporate decision-making that they say has contributed to the downfall of the economy.
“Show Us the Tax Breaks” attacks the family, and Penny Pritzker in particular, for the decision to close East Chicago’s Union Tank Car plant in 2008. The plant was one of the largest employers in East Chicago, Ind., and when it closed, hundreds of workers were left unemployed. Get the full story »
China becomes No. 2 economy ahead of Japan
Reporting from Beijing and Tokyo – China’s economy surpassed Japan’s as the world’s second-largest – a highly anticipated milestone rich in symbolism for a developing country that began market reforms only three decades ago.
The news came Monday when Japan’s government said its economic output in the second quarter slowed to $1.28 trillion, short of the $1.33 trillion China reported for the same period.
Aug. 16, 2010 at 1:16 p.m.
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Filed under: Banking, Commercial real estate, Economy, Government, Housing, Real estate Fed sees easing in lending standards
The Federal Reserve said Monday that bank lending standards eased somewhat over the last three months while demand for business and consumer loans was largely unchanged.
In its quarterly Senior Loan Officer Survey, taken in July, the Fed found that tight lending conditions, which some economists have linked to the weak economic recovery, were starting to ease. Get the full story »
Fed sets mortgage disclosure, compensation rules
The Federal Reserve on Monday published new rules aimed at protecting consumers from abusive mortgage practices, including clearer cost disclosures and a ban on payments to mortgage brokers for steering borrowers into loans with higher interest rates.
The Fed said it would ban payments from lenders to brokers based on interest rates paid by borrowers or other loan terms. The final rule, which takes effect on April 1, 2011, will end the so-called “yield spread premium” payments blamed for pushing millions of borrowers into unaffordable loans. Get the full story »
Retail sales gain modestly in July
Retail sales managed a modest increase in July after two consecutive declines, but the strength was concentrated in higher sales of autos and gasoline. Most other retailers saw their sales fall.
The Commerce Department says sales rose 0.4 percent last month while sales excluding autos were up 0.2 percent. Both figures were slightly below expectations.
Chicagoans glum about economy
Chicago-area residents’ outlook for the local economy is downright dour compared with last fall, and women are far more pessimistic than men about whether they’re living the American dream.
A survey released Thursday found three in five area residents surveyed in late June didn’t think the economy had hit bottom yet. Back in September 2009, just about half of area residents expected the economic situation to continue sliding, according to the survey commissioned by Citi. Get the full story »
Weekly unemployment filings highest since Feb.
New applications for unemployment insurance rose last week to their highest level in almost six months, a sign that employers are still cutting their staffs. The Labor Department says first-time claims for jobless benefits edged up by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 484,000. Analysts had expected a drop. That’s the highest total since the week of Feb. 20.
Initial claims have now risen in three of the last four weeks and are close to their high point for the year of 490,000, reached in late January. The four-week average, which smooths volatility, soared by 14,250 to 473,500, also the highest since late February. Get the full story »
Job openings flat at 2.9 million in June
U.S. job openings were flat in June while the number of new hires slipped, according to a government report on Wednesday that underscored the persistent weakness in the labor market.
The Labor Department said there were 2.9 million job openings in June, almost identical to May’s tally. Get the full story »
More experienced workers applying for internships
The good news on internships this fall is 27 percent of companies plan to hire interns to help them get through the rest of 2010. The bad news, at least for entry level workers, is 23 percent of companies say they’re seeing more applications for those jobs from experienced workers with more than a decade or experience and mature workers over the age of 50. Get the full story »
Fed turns to government bonds to boost economy
The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that it would begin funneling proceeds from its maturing mortgage bonds into longer-term government debt in an effort to support a sputtering economic recovery.
The Fed, which left benchmark overnight interest rates steady in a zero to 0.25 percent range, also renewed its pledge to keep them low for an extended period, as widely expected. Get the full story »
Productivity has first fall since 2008
Worker productivity dropped this spring for the first time in more than a year, a sign that companies may need to step up hiring if they hope to grow.
Productivity declined at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the April-to-June quarter after posting large gains throughout 2009, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Unit labor costs edged up 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the first increase since the spring of 2009.
