NOTE: The seasonally adjusted weekly claims numbers are being impacted by the layoffs in the automobile industry and other manufacturing sectors. Usually companies cut back production in the summer, and the numbers are adjusted for that pattern – but this year the companies cut back much earlier. This distortion is…
From the WSJ: U.S. Regulators to BofA: Obey or Else Bank of America Corp. is operating under a secret regulatory sanction … the so-called memorandum of understanding gives banks a chance to work out their problems … Citigroup Inc. has been operating since last year under a similar order with…
Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags .…
Note: This report included a holiday weekend. Since vacation travel is holding up better than business travel I’d expect year-over-year RevPAR (and occupancy rate) to be off less than earlier this year for the summer months and especially for holiday weekends. From HotelNewsNow.com: STR reports U.S. hotel performance for week…
Just for information purposes, the following graph is from Northern Trust . What was the high of the unemployment rate in the Great Depression? The civilian unemployment rate was around 25% during several months of 1932-1933 Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows the unemployment…
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal development, personal productivity, or other book of interest. The New Global Student by Maya Frost is one of those books that takes what you think you know about a subject and flips it on its ear. This time around, it’s…
In April and May, National Public Radio featured a series on inexpensive gourmet dishes entitled “How Low Can You Go?” Although many of the dishes looked quite tasty, most of the dishes weren’t actually all that inexpensive, often narrowly getting below $10 to feed a family of four, and…
From the Financial Times: Romer upbeat on US economy Ms Romer, chairman of the US president’s council of economic advisers, told the Financial Times in an interview she was “more optimistic” that the economy was close to stabilisation. … Ms Romer said stimulus spending was “going to ramp up strongly…
Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags .…
Given the very positive (overall) comment, email, and Twitter response to my idea of bringing back the “book club” idea for a handful of books, along with many similar suggestions for it, I’m going to follow the crowd with most of those suggestions. Here’s how I’m going to try…