Ever since the financial collapse and recession of a few years ago, financial experts have been watching the sky or signs of falling. They’ve scrutinized the behavior o US assets at home and on the world stage for sings of another collapse and recession. Currently...
Interest Rates: Trends for 2015?
With every new year comes a round of predictions about the financial future. This year, as in many others, the fate of interest rates in 2015 and beyond is the subject of speculation, most of it pessimistic. Financial experts and economists are once again predicting...
Looking Ahead: Another Financial Crisis?
As the US economy regains its feet after the massive financial collapse of 2008, economists are turning their gaze to the future: what will trigger the next major economic crisis – not just for the US, but also for the global economy as a whole? And a bigger question:...
Is the Fed Finally Ending the Stimulus?
Is it curtains for QE3? The Federal Reserve has announced that Quantitative Easing, round three, better known as QE3, is coming to an end – although key interest rates won’t rise until mid-2015. The end of the stimulus also marks the end of a massive experiment in...
Lower Credit Standards: Economic Boost or Bust?
We’ve always been told that success depends on setting high standards. Lowering your standards, so the conventional wisdom goes, leads to accepting low quality and ultimately bad outcomes. But in a bid to offset a sluggish recovery, the US government is advocating...
US Dollar Rides High in World Markets
After the roller coaster ride of recent recession years, the US dollar is on top again – at least for now. And its strong showing against other world currencies may be due to the Federal Reserve’s much-maligned Quantitative Easing plan. According to a recent Business...
Do Borrowers Need Banks?
Banks are an essential part of the financial landscape – or at least, they’d like you to think so. But are they? New banking alternatives may be making the traditional bank loan a thing of the past. The traditional banking model has been around for centuries,...
FICO Score Changes: A Boost For Risky Borrowers?
Fair Isaac is changing his game. And that has some financial experts worried. The nation’s premier credit scoring agency, the Fair Isaac Company, has come to an agreement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to change the way credit scores are calculated....
Can Corporate Tax Inversions Harm the Economy?
The chief financial officer of drugstore giant Walgreen’s just departed his job. And while the movements of higher ups at megacorporations often resemble a round of musical chairs, this particular job change sheds light on a new trend in corporate tax evasion: tax...
Can Living Wills Prevent Another Banking Collapse?
People make living wills – and now, so do banks. To prevent a major financial meltdown like the one that hit the country in 2008, major US banks are now required to create a contingency plan for failure and submit it to government regulators. But because those...