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Financial Literacy Effort May Miss MarkAlmost every American knows by now that adjustable-rate mortgages can backfire, and in Bathsheba Wyatt-Draper's beginner real estate classes, no one goes home without a stern warning. "If you see the words, 'rider' and 'addendum,' be very afraid," Wyatt-Draper tells the two dozen would-be homebuyers learning the ropes at the non-profit Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. This extensive program of free classroom sessions is popular in today's hard times. But do classes like this work? ...continue |
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Bailouts And Their Side Effects Fair GameThe inevitability of a U.S. taxpayer-financed bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the hobbled mortgage behemoths, shook investors last week. There is no certainty about what form a Mac 'n' Mae rescue would take -- up and down Fannie's and Freddie's capital structure, debt and equity holders want to know how a bailout would affect them. In our highly interconnected financial world, where one company's ills have the potential to infect many others, no bailout exists in a vacuum. And the wider-ranging ripple effects are uncertain. ...continue |
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Wall Street Bailout Aid Questioned at Fed EventDo Washington policymakers listen too much to Wall Street? A possible bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, on the heels of similar action involving investment firm Bear Stearns, seems to send a loud signal to financial companies that the government will clean up their messes. ...continue |
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Best 529 Plans Ranked by College Savings SiteIf you're looking to pick a 529 college savings plan, you might want to check out options offered by West Virginia or Nebraska, which were among the top performing plans in the past year. SavingforCollege.com, a unit of Bankrate Inc., on Friday will release its rankings for top performing plans that were sold directly to investors. ...continue |
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Altura Capital: Helping the Big Guys See -- and Make a Profit With -- the Little GuysMonika Mantilla, founder, president and CEO of New York-based Altura Capital Group said her company's new information platform allows smaller players in the financial world to gain exposure "that would otherwise take millions of dollars and years of time at zero cost." Ms. Mantilla, enthused by the prospect, emphasized her remarks with a dramatic pause, then exclaimed, "Tell me if that's a good value proposition or not!" ...continue |
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The Debt Creators: Shady Lending, Misleading Marketing And Hard TimesJosé García is a senior research and policy associate at Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization. He is co-author of Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies are Drowning Americans in Debt (2008). Prior to working at Demos, Garcia was the vice president for policy at the National Institute for Latino Policy. He sat down to talk about indebtedness -- and his opinions may surprise you. ...continue |
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S&P Case-Shiller: Home Prices Drop by Record 15.8% in MayHome prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever in May, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday, as the housing slump deepened nationwide. ...continue |
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Financial Analysts Seem Dreary at Annual ConferenceEvery year, the CFA Institute, a respected financial analyst investment education group, brings money managers from around the world together in the Chicago area and exposes them to provocative thinkers on investment strategy and market conditions. And with most of the world's stock markets down 20 percent or more from their highs, economies slowing throughout the world, and a credit crisis toying with the flow of money, this year's speakers were gloomy. ...continue |
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Setting Standards for MicrofinanceIn an effort to head off a potential crisis in the fast-expanding microfinance industry, its leaders are adopting global truth-in-lending standards and creating a system for comparing loan terms offered by competing lenders. To manage the effort, a new self-monitoring organization, MicroFinance Transparency, is being set up as the industry's policeman. The goal is to prevent companies from taking advantage of poor people with high interest rates and misleading credit offers. ...continue |
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A CPA's Softer Side: An Accountant's Guide to SuccessWhether in public practice, education, government, industry or somewhere in between, a key indicator a CPA's success will be his or her ability to work with a wide variety of people. As a result, more and more CPA firms are investing in the "soft skills" that allow their team members to be better communicators, negotiators, supervisors and overall contributors to the firm. Mastering these human relations skills is critical to success in many industries. ...continue |
