Consumers Are Still Playing Defense
Apr 8th, 2009 | By Andrew Gordon | Category: Financial NewsConsumers are feeling poorer, saving more and spending less. With the exception of refinancing their homes, they’re also borrowing less.
Consumers are feeling poorer, saving more and spending less. With the exception of refinancing their homes, they’re also borrowing less.
Citi sets a record… how it could signal a market bottom by June…Dan Amoss on a “rescue” program that might work as advertised — and even touch off a stock rally… Buffett dispenses more pearls of wisdom… highlights of his annual letter to shareholders… Byron King on the energy crisis the government must solve… soon… U.S. still doesn’t have it that bad… the new Iron Curtain forming in the EU
Since January, deflation in the economies of East and Central Europe, including the Baltic Republics and the Balkans, has started to to pick up steam as banks crash, stock markets collapse and local currencies plunge.
Citigroup Inc. (C) is lifting the curtain on the $45 billion in taxpayer capital it received, saying it plans to use $36.5 billion to fund U.S. mortgage loans and assist credit card holders and businesses.
The $800 billion bailout, and billions more being pumped less obviously into the global economy, will cure nothing. Americans are clamoring for a savior. No one is willing to believe that the party is over. In the past, someone always came to our rescue.
Home prices in Manhattan have remained largely immune from the housing crisis gripping the US… until now.
According to Reuters, the New York real-estate market is showing a significant reduction in new deals as Wall Street sheds staff to reduce costs.
“For the most part, the subprime crisis is past its inflection point,” says Eric Roseman in the Offshore A-Letter. “What matters now is how and when other credit indicators normalize.”