In this post, Bruno commented and posted this link to reference this statement: In 2005, the top 1 percent of tax returns paid 39.4 percent of all federal individual income taxes and earned 21.2 percent of adjusted gross income, both of which are significantly higher than 2004 when the top 1 percent earned 19 percent […]
Hat tip to afferent input for this link: Morality vs. Business Decisions But this is not about morality at all. This is about business decisions. See Moral Obligations Of Walking Away and The Business of Walking Away for more on the morality vs. business decisions. In a nutshell, banks made business decisions to lend money […]
Tanta says: If you have a servicer who is doing a lot of repayment plans, and the MBA data suggests we have that, then you’re going to see a lot of delinquency statuses going “in reverse,” and you’re also going to see, unfortunately, a lot of loans going from 30-days or 60-days down straight to […]
Supplemental Appropriations: Opportunities Exist to Increase Transparency and Provide Additional Controls. GAO-08-314, January 31.
Bank Fees: Federal Banking Regulators Could Better Ensure That Consumers Have Required Disclosure Documents Prior to Opening Checking or Savings Accounts. GAO-08-281, January 31.
“What will be the consequence of losses of over $1 trillion and, possibly, as high as $2 trillion? That would wipe out most of the capital of most of the US banking system and lead most of US banks and mortgage lenders – that are massively exposed to real estate – to go belly up. […]
Counterpunch reports this item: A psychiatrist who has treated former military personnel at Guantánamo prison camp is telling a story of prisoner torture and guard suicide there, recounted to him by a National Guardsman who worked at Guantánamo just after it opened. Dr. John R. Smith, 75, is a Oklahoma City psychiatrist who has done […]
The other point from my earlier chart on health care spending worth noting is that in the PCE data health care accounts for around 20% of consumer spending. In contrast, medical care only has a weight of 6.2% in the CPI. Since health care prices generally rise some two to three percentage points faster then […]
I was looking at some data yesterday and encountered a big surprise. I suppose like almost everyone I was under the impression that health care spending was growing much faster then the economy and absorbing an ever growing share of resources. This theme dominates much discussion of health care issues, particularly projections of the federal […]