Posted on June 22nd, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
AP News reports today there should be some relief at the pumps once again after “rising nearly every day for the past two months and climbing 67 percent so far this year.”
Gas prices were up for a 54th straight day Sunday, by 0.1 cents, to a new national average of $2.693 a gallon, according to [...]
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Filed under: Big Oil, Consumers, Economic News, Economy, Energy, Gas Prices, In The News, Pamela Leavey, Recession
Posted on May 19th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
Today the Senate overwhelmingly voted to “put new restrictions on the credit card industry, passing a bill whose backers say will make card-issuers spell out their terms in fewer words, using plain English, and treat customers more fairly.”
The 90-5 vote, following a 357-to-70 vote in the House on April 30, made it likely that President Obama [...]
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Filed under: Congress, Consumers, Credit Crisis, Democrats, Economic News, Economy, House of Reps, In The News, Obama Administration, Pamela Leavey, Political News, Politics, President Barack Obama, Republicans, Senate, Wall Street
Posted on May 13th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
As a wholesale supplier of natural bath and body products to small retailers, I wasn’t at all surprised to read the news this morning that “Retail sales fell for a second straight month in April.”
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales fell 0.4 percent last month, much worse than the flat reading economists expected. [...]
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Filed under: Consumers, Democrats, Economic News, Economy, In The News, John Kerry, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Pamela Leavey, Political News, Politics, Recession, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Small Business
Posted on May 9th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
In his weekly internet and radio address today, President Barack Obama called for on Congress to pass a credit card reform bill that would “stop credit card companies from imposing certain late fees,” by Memorial Day.
Coming in on the side of consumers, Obama said that “it is past time for rules that are fair and transparent.”
“Instead [...]
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Filed under: Congress, Consumers, Credit Crisis, Democrats, Economic News, Economy, House of Reps, In The News, Obama Administration, Pamela Leavey, Political News, Politics, President Barack Obama, Recession, Senate
Posted on April 24th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
On Thursday, Senators Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd called on the Federal Reserve to “freeze interest rate hikes on consumer credit card balances,” just hours before a meeting between credit card companies and the White House.
Noting that the Fed has used its emergency powers multiple times since 2007 in the context of the financial crisis, the senators [...]
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Filed under: Congress, Consumers, Corporatism, Credit Crisis, Democrats, Economic News, Economy, House of Reps, In The Blogosphere, In The News, Obama Administration, Pamela Leavey, Political News, Politics, President Barack Obama, Recession, Republicans, Senate, Wall Street
Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
Have you ever used your bank debit card to buy something thinking you have enough money in the account and then found you got hit with a whopping fee because you didn’t have enough money but the bank passed through the transaction anyway? I just recently had this happen to me and it wasn’t pretty.
As [...]
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Filed under: Action Alerts, Congress, Consumers, Corporatism, Credit Crisis, Democrats, Economic News, Economy, House of Reps, In The News, Pamela Leavey, Politics, Wall Street
Posted on March 24th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
I watched Obama’s press conference tonight, as I am sure most of our readers did as well. I felt overall he handled everything that was thrown at him with great confidence and aplomb. Obama used the press conference to stress the concept that “his budget and policy prescriptions are exactly what’s needed to get nation’s [...]
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Filed under: CNN, Consumers, Democrats, Economic Stimulus, Economy, In The News, News Media, Obama Administration, Pamela Leavey, Political News, Politics, President Barack Obama, Republicans, Wall Street
Posted on March 23rd, 2009 by Walter Brasch
[by Rosemary and Walter Brasch]
There have now been more than 4,000 deaths and 30,000 casualties of American military in the war in Iraq. More than 100,000 Iraqis and others, most of them civilian, have also been killed in what is now known to be an unnecessary war. But, we as a nation are not outraged.
We [...]
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Filed under: Constitution, Consumers, Economic News, Economic Stimulus, Economy, Environment, Foreign Policy, Housing, Iraq, Jobs, News Media, Recession, Wall Street
Posted on March 13th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
The WSJ reports that Americans have seen 18% of their wealth vanish in 2008. That’s a rather conservative estimate because they go on in the piece to note some folks have lost upwards of 35% of their wealth. I’ve talked to friends who have lost 40% or more in the past few months.
Given this terribly [...]
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Filed under: Bill Clinton, Bush Admin, Consumers, Credit Crisis, Economic Stimulus, Economy, Pamela Leavey, Recession
Posted on March 4th, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
The dead:
Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departed’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.
The people on the other end [...]
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Filed under: Consumers, Credit Crisis, Economy, Pamela Leavey
Posted on March 3rd, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
The NY Times has a piece today about the former executives of Countrywide Financial… Remember them? They’re one of the companies who top the list of “those who share blame for the nation’s economic crisis.” Yep… Countrywide… They “made risky loans to tens of thousands of Americans, helping set off a chain of events that [...]
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Filed under: Consumers, Corporatism, Credit Crisis, Economic News, Economy, Foreclosures, Housing, In The News, Pamela Leavey, Wall Street
Posted on March 3rd, 2009 by Pamela Leavey
The Federal Reserve rolled out program today geared towards ”boosting the availability of credit to consumers and small businesses.”
The Fed will lend up to $200 billion to spur consumer lending — for autos, education, credit cards and other things. The bold program, dubbed the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, was first announced late last year and [...]
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Filed under: Congress, Consumers, Credit Crisis, Economic News, Economic Stimulus, Economy, In The News, Pamela Leavey, Political News, Recession, Small Business
