Tag: Economy

What a whirlwind the United States Presidential Election was! It sparked record interest in the Presidential Debates and polls predicted the highest turnout rate of voters in the history of our Presidential Elections.   Trump was the third Presidential candidate in US history to win the election after losing the…

With Donald J. Trump now America's 45th president many are now asking if he can bring around the economic change promised while on the campaign trail. A lot of people voted for him as a change agent and from an economic point of view at least are hoping he can…

From a long term trend perspective, despite a few recessions along the way, the American economy based on GDP data, has been growing consistently bigger. Coupled with the stock market reaching new long term highs one may argue that America has found its groove again and that we are back…

Thanks to recent announcements by the Federal Reserve around cutting back on buy back programs interest rates have been rising, with the forecast for even higher rates by year end. Based on the latest rates have been rising consistently of late with the 30-year fixed rate averaging over 4.1%. That's up from…

In a presidential campaign, you hear lots of rhetoric on the how bad the economy is (Republican viewpoint) or how things are much better than in 2008, when we were at the depths of the recession and had a different president (Democrat viewpoint). On a monthly basis, media outlets publish…

[Update - Fed Undertakes QE3] The Federal Reserve has confirmed market expectations of a new round of quantitative easing, known as QE3. The new round of easing will be done by expanding its holdings of long-term securities with open-ended purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt a month. The focus,…

See updated details on the potential 2020 payroll tax cut [Updated- 2012 Payroll Tax Credit Holiday, Unemployment Benefits and Medicare Doctor Payments Extended to Dec 31st] With House Republican support Congress has passed legislation extending the federal payroll tax holiday through the end of the year without demanding spending cuts…

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis has released the 2010 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures which showed a 2.6% average increase across the nation. As the graphic below shows 48 states and Washington DC experienced real GDP growth, led by the eastern seaboard states. Texas, North Dakota and Oregon were…

With gold prices rolling past record highs on a regular basis, a number market pundits feel that we are entering a gold bubble.  Like the housing and financial bubbles many have gotten swept away with the lure of easy money, only to coming crashing to earth when the bubble pops.…

Its been a while since I hosted the CoPF and I was pleasantly surprised to see many new faces in the personal finance blogging space along with some of my old favorites. It was especially interesting to see some of the newer blogs out there because it reminded me of…

So what will the year ahead look like for the US and global economy? Last year was a year of recovery, but it was sputtering and many questioned whether the recovery was real and if it could be sustained. As we head in to 2011 things are looking brighter following a…

After lots of money printing and pandemic relief stimulus payments (free money) by the Government over the last few years, things are starting to look more bleak with high inflation, global conflict and rising energy prices. All these portend to signs of a recession in the not too distant future,…

[Update Jan 2013] Congress and the Obama administration have reached an agreement that will extend a number of small business tax breaks through 2013 following the fiscal cliff deal which was legislated through the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. You can see details of the extended tax breaks in this article. [Update Sep-Oct 2010] Obama's Small Jobs…