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More Awful PR For Bank Of America As They Start Cutting Off Credit To Mom And Pop - (www.businessinsider.com) Apparently Bank of America has totally given up on winning hearts and minds. Because according the L.A. Times, the embattled bank is cutting off credit to small businesses in droves — maybe even in the hundreds of thousands. Take, for instance, Babak Zahabizadeh, the owner of a Burbank, California messaging service. He was told in a letter that he needed to pay off his $96,000 loan by January 25th or (another option) he could pay it off in 2 years at a 12% interest rate. That would make his payment 10 times his current payment. "I was like, 'Dude, you're calling a guy who's barely surviving!' " said Zahabizadeh. "My final word was that I can double my payment — but not triple or quadruple it. I told them if they apply too much pressure they're going to push me into bankruptcy."
Freddie Mac: Record low mortgage rates haven't rescued housing - (www.latimes.com) Lenders were offering 30-year fixed-rate mortgages to solid borrowers at an average of 3.95% this week, according to Freddie Mac, the ninth consecutive week of rates at or below 4%. That wrapped up a year of record lows for the survey, which dates back to 1971. In 1981 and 1982, the average 30-year mortgage carried an interest rate of more than 16%, and the typical rate was above 8% as recently as 2000, Freddie Mac said. This past year, the average was 4.45%. Despite the record low rates, applications for mortgages to buy homes dropped as the year ended, even after seasonal adjustments, the latest Mortgage Bankers Assn. survey found. Even the demand for refinance mortgages, which accounted for more than 80% of all applications, fell slightly. “Remarkably low rates are not enough," said Mortgage Bankers Assn. economist Michael Fratantoni, noting that many homeowners have difficulty refinancing because of "lack of equity in their properties, poor credit and a weak job market.”
5 Disturbing New Ways Debt Collectors Are Getting Your Money - (www.cracked.com) For an entire generation of college graduates facing a job market with nothing but tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt and frat party beer guts under their belts, the future is looking grim. Not only will your job at Bath & Body Works not be enough make your various loan payments, but now it looks like the people you owe money to are employing downright ugly strategies to get that money back from you. #5. Social Network Shaming: Just like your brokeass cousin always looking for a handout and your disapproving grandma, debt collectors have figured out how difficult it is to hide on Facebook. And they're using it as well as other social media outlets for some old-fashioned harassin'.
How Cash Has Corrupted Congress - (www.thedailybeast.com) It’s always been about the money. Occupy Wall Street chose to set up its 24-hour outpost of political dissent on the doorstep of the finance industry primarily to underscore the simple fact that money has corrupted our political process so completely that the seat of power in the U.S. isn’t even in Washington, D.C. any more. That said, the Capitol continues collecting its cut, as evidenced in this week’s double-barreled dispatches, in the Washington Post and the New York Times, on the exploding wealth gap between our ever-more affluent representatives in Congress and the financially flat-lined citizens they represent. From its inception, OWS has focused on the concept of legalized bribery, as the continually rising cost of a political campaign—an average of $1.4 million for a successful House run, up fourfold in real dollars since 1976, and nearly $10 million for a Senate seat—has been largely subsidized by wealthy donors, corporations and special interests, in return for legislation that favors their interests.
SOPA bill could mean the end of blogging - (www.politico.com) The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers arguing their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill passes. “If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist,” wrote a blogger at Red Mass Group. Some have asserted that the controversial measures would criminalize pages and blogs that link to foreign websites dedicated to online piracy. In particular, this has concerned search engines like Google, which could face massive liability if some form of the bill passes, some say.
Food Prices Ease Slightly But Are Still Volatile: UN Official - (www.cnbc.com)
A Gathering Storm Over ‘Right to Work’ in Indiana - (www.cnbc.com)
Why Buying A House Is Still A Bad Idea - (www.farseer.org)
Steve Keen: Credit propels House Prices - (www.patrick.net)
Excellent graphics about US wealth distribution - (www.jaredbernsteinblog.com)
This is crony capitalism - (www.tumblr.com)
Verizon to charge $2 fee for online payments - (www.cnn.com)
House prices fall in Oct, could drop another 5% to 10% next year - (www.nytimes.com)
Do Blogs Present "News" or "Commentary"? Is there a Difference? - (www.blogspot.com)
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