Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
main LONDON (CNNMoney) Greece’s banks were slammed Wednesday as the country’s new anti-austerity government abandoned commitments made to its international lenders. Officials from Syriza, the party that won power in Sunday’s elections, said they would halt the privatizations of a major electricity company and port, and hike the country’s minimum wage. The party has also…
(Bloomberg) — The economy in the U.S. expanded at a slower pace than forecast in the fourth quarter as cooling business investment, a slump in government outlays and a widening trade gap took some of the luster off the biggest gain in consumer spending in almost nine years. Gross domestic product grew at a 2.6…
(Bloomberg) — Companies that defaulted for a second time in the years following the latest recession accounted for more than twice the proportion of total defaults than the historical average, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Firms that missed payments on obligations more than once due to debt swaps or bankruptcy reorganizations, made up 39 percent…
Illustration by Alex Eben Meyer Much ink has been spilled railing against vaccine skeptics—you know, those people who don’t get their kids immunized against catastrophic childhood diseases because they believe the shots can cause autism and other serious problems. In a recent Parade magazine piece, reporter Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus: A True…
WOODINVILLE, Wash.—Five years ago, Quadrant Homes churned out starter houses in the Seattle area with an average sales price of $269,000 and the marketing slogan, “More House, Less Money.” But facing a debt-burdened middle class and rising land prices, Quadrant has since exchanged entry-level buyers for customers free of credit worries and ready to splurge….
article start American families have made big strides repairing their balance sheets from the economic crash, but their finances remain disturbingly vulnerable to emergencies—a major obstacle to economic mobility, a new report says. About 70% of U.S. households are struggling with at least one of three problems with their balance sheets—low incomes, insufficient savings or…
Economist Edward Wolff’s latest paper on household wealth during the Great Recession has some really startling data on who gained and lost ground between 1983 and 2013. Alisha Ramos turned it into this striking chart: US net worth rose considerably over that period, which is what you would expect to see. Technology has improved and productivity…
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has attacked eurozone austerity. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, has launched a strong attack on austerity in the eurozone as he warned that he single-currency area was caught in a debt trap that could cost it a second lost decade. Speaking in Dublin, Carney…
Memo: From Nick Hanauer To: My Fellow Zillionaires /.shifty-wrapper You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to…
(Bloomberg) — The business of bundling riskier U.S. mortgages into bonds without government backing is gearing up for a comeback. Just don’t call it subprime. Hedge fund Seer Capital Management, money manager Angel Oak Capital and Sydney-based bank Macquarie Group Ltd. are among firms buying up loans to borrowers who can’t qualify for conventional mortgages…