Economy
Friendliest U.S. States For Small Businesses
Owning your own business can be tough no matter where you live, but location can make a big difference in becoming a success. Thumbtack, a service firm, performs an annual survey that ranks 95 U.S. cities across all 50 states based on ease of entrepreneurship. Approximately 18,000 small businesses ranked their city in 36 different…
See Full Article Here ->Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP): Its Concept and Effects
The U.S. Treasury Department recently announced that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for banks and the Detroit bailouts yielded $15.35 billion in profits. For those who don’t remember much about TARP and how it all started, here is a quick recap! Owing to the 2007-2008 subprime crisis, global credit markets came to a near…
See Full Article Here ->China Cuts Interest Rates, Lends Support to Floundering Economy
Late last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 rounded off five straight weeks of stock gains by hitting new closing highs. The S&P 500 closed at a new all-time finishing high of 2063.5, while the Dow set a new record by closing at 17,810. One of the reasons…
See Full Article Here ->There’s Reason to be Encouraged about the Economy
How about some good news for a change? Over the past three months, the nation’s economic output has grown at an even faster rate than most experts predicted. As a result, we are witnessing the economy’s strongest six-month performance in more than 10 years. And with the holiday shopping craziness just ahead, experts are very…
See Full Article Here ->Achieving New Highs – The Small Business Credit Index
The Experian/Moody’s Analytics Small Business Credit Index (SBCI) that measures credit quality for firms with less than 100 workers hit an all-time high of 112.2 in the last quarter. From a revised 109.8 in the first quarter, the Index gained 2.4 points in the second quarter, accompanied by accelerated job growth and an annualized GDP…
See Full Article Here ->What Is Driving U.S. Treasury Yields?
With the economy on the path of recovery and the Federal Reserve pulling back on stimulus, have you been expecting bond yields to start moving upwards? If yes, hold your horses before you juggle your portfolio or take any position in the financial markets based on this assumption. It’s true that U.S. stock markets have…
See Full Article Here ->Is Now A Good Time To Get Started With Credit Card Borrowing?
With an improvement in the current economic outlook and market liquidity conditions, banks are now looking at growth options to increase their earnings. As a response to greater competition and changes in risk appetite, banks and federal associations have eased underwriting standards to expand their loan portfolio and achieve expansion. This spells good news for…
See Full Article Here ->The Economy: A good-news, bad-news scenario
The nation’s employment numbers continue to improve. In June, the country’s economy added another 288,000 jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. When you combine that with the news that April and May’s numbers have been readjusted to a higher number, it brings the final tally of the first six months of 2014…
See Full Article Here ->Despite Personal Income Consistently Going Up, Spending is Down
During May of this year, the average American’s personal income rose by 0.4%. Your first inclination might be to say, “Big deal.” However, May marks the fifth month in a row in which there was an increase in personal income. In addition, personal incomes are now rising faster than the rate of inflation. Further hammering…
See Full Article Here ->April Surplus Was Great, but What About the Rest of the Year?
The US Treasury department reported some very good news for the month of April. Specifically, they booked a $114 billion surplus for the month, the best May the Treasury Department has had since 2008. (Source) This sounds great, right? It is, but April is also the month in which there is an abnormally large influx…
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