EconomicCrisis.US

Payday lenders didn’t cause the economic crisis, but consumer advocates hoped their sky-high interest rates on loans would be reined in as part of a sweeping regulatory overhaul to prevent a repeat of the financial fiasco.

However, key senators feverishly working to craft a bipartisan bill want to make payday lenders — companies that offer short-term loans to tide people over until their next paycheck — largely exempt from oversight by a new consumer financial protection agency.

Consumer advocates said that exemption would keep payday lenders in California and 34 other states mostly under state controls, which have allowed the lenders to prey on low-income people with loan fees that translate to interest rates of as much as 460% a year.
Read the rest of this entry »

The dollar is expected to advance against the yen but struggle against the euro this week after encouraging U.S. jobs data renewed investors’ confidence in the global economic recovery.

The main beneficiaries of the more positive outlook for growth are likely to be higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollar, which already Friday posted solid gains as investors, emboldened by the better-than-expected reading on the U.S. labor market, returned in strength to growth-sensitive assets.
Read the rest of this entry »

Service industries in the U.S. accelerated in February more than anticipated, indicating the economic expansion may soon create jobs following the worst employment slump in the post-World War II era.

The factory rebound that helped the economy emerge from the recession is starting to filter to other industries, giving a boost to companies such as Macy’s Inc. Stocks, which initially climbed as another report showed job losses cooled in February, later trimmed gains after the Federal Reserve said loan demand was “weak” and labor markets “soft.”
Read the rest of this entry »

In response to Pat Mikenatic’s letter: Yes, the recession is over. The general definition of a recession is “two or more consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.” The economy has grown in the past two quarters. By definition, the recession has been over for eight months and we are in a recovery.

He says that Austrian school economists know that this recovery is a bubble because of fiat money. No, they might think that. They don’t know it. He also claims that Von Mises disproved Keynes. No, Von Mises disagreed with Keynes.
Read the rest of this entry »