Tag Archives: Middle Class Dismissed

Wendy McElroy: Let a Thousand Home Businesses Bloom

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“Home industry is particularly important to the poor for at least four reasons. First, the business overhead is usually low. Second, it allows people to use their labor as equity to develop a business for which financial or capital equity is not available. Third, it does not require higher education. Fourth, people own the means of production, such as an equipped kitchen or a garage with tools. Home industry also has the advantage of not draining the public purse—that is, production does not draw on government subsidies or privileges, which benefits individuals as producers, taxpayers, and consumers.  But does it benefit governments?”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/let-a-thousand-home-businesses-bloom

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Family Dollar to close 370 stores after net income falls 35% in Q2

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“Family Dollar intends to take what it describes as ‘immediate, strategic actions,’ Levine said.  That includes plans to close approximately 370 underperforming stores and reduce the company’s work force.  Family Dollar operates about 8,100 stores in 46 states. It has about 34,000 employees.  Last week, the retailer announced it had cut 135 jobs at its headquarters — or roughly 6 percent of the corporate facility’s 2,400-employee work force in Matthews.   Family Dollar also plans to slow new-store growth beginning in fiscal 2015, with plans to open between 350 and 400 stores. That’s down from 525 stores this fiscal year.  Family Dollar also will lower prices on roughly 1,000 basic items, Levine said.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2014/04/10/family-dollar-to-close-370-stores-after-net-income.html?page=all

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Soc. Security, Treasury target taxpayers for parents’ decades-old debts

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“Hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are instead getting letters like the one Grice got, informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check.  The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year — $75 million of that on debts delinquent for more than 10 years. The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago — the result of a single sentence tucked into the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam.  No one seems eager to take credit for reopening all these long-closed cases.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/social-security-treasury-target-hundreds-of-thousands-of-taxpayers-for-parents-old-debts/2014/04/10/74ac8eae-bf4d-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html

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Cities to Carpoolers: Sharing Your Car is Illegal, We Will Seize Your Car

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“The U.S. isn’t exactly a ‘free market’, with outright bribery — condoned by the U.S. judicial system — or collusive public-private cartels leading to some products and services being banned from the market.  Just ask Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) whose electric vehicles have been banned from sale in many states.  That debacle arose due to the fact that Tesla has no dealerships and fearful dealership lobbyists banded together to pay off state politicians to ban direct auto sales. Now the same principle is being applied to stymie the emergency of another set of companies in the transportation sector — cloud-driven ride-sharing services.”

http://www.dailytech.com/Cities+to+Carpoolers+Sharing+Your+Car+is+Illegal+We+Will+Seize+Your+Cars/article34659.htm

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Bill Bonner: Debunking the Fed’s Credit Propaganda

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Bill-Bonner2

“We have no choice but to go ahead.  But to where? And how?  Hold on. One question at a time, please.  To where? Japan!   How? By using the same policy tools the Japanese used. It worked there, didn’t it?   The Fed is fully committed to staying the course. If credit deflation returns to the US, it will have to be over Janet Yellen’s dead body. Which is not a bad idea. But Yellen is not likely to let it happen… not if she can prevent it.  But there’s the rub. If credit is going to keep expanding, someone has to borrow more – a lot more.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/debunking-the-feds-credit-propaganda/

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CFPB targets ‘zombie’ foreclosures

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“Zombie foreclosures result when banks begin a foreclosure -even going so far as to send the homeowners a foreclosure notice – but then abandon it, failing to alert the homeowners, who have often moved out, that they are still responsible for their vacant properties.  Borrowers, who don’t realize they still own their homes, are then left responsible for mortgage debt, taxes and upkeep.  Zombie foreclosures usually occur on low-value properties that weren’t worth the banks‘ time to foreclose upon. Rather, the banks charged the houses off. Banks have been walking away from foreclosures much the way some homeowners walked away from their mortgages.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-regulations-zombie-idUSBREA2C1GA20140313

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Four states hit record highs for home prices

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“Home prices in Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota and Texas hit peaks, and another 18 states were within 10% of their peak prices (see the above chart from CoreLogic).  Factors driving home prices include low inventory and strong employment growth. The Dallas area, for example, recently posted the third largest annual gain in jobs among 32 U.S. metropolitan divisions. Over in North Dakota, county populations are booming, and the state had the No. 1 rate of personal income growth last year.  Of note, the four states that posted record high prices in February also all missed the extreme price volatility seen during the housing bubble and its aftermath.”

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/04/01/four-states-hit-record-highs-for-home-prices/

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Cheap Printing vs. Expensive Drilling

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“Yellen explained that the Fed helps people secure employment ‘by influencing interest rates.’ She followed, ‘Although we work through financial markets, our goal is to help Main Street, not Wall Street.’  Her predecessor used the same rhetoric in 2012. ‘This is a Main Street policy. Many people own stocks directly or indirectly. The issue here is whether or not improving asset prices generally will make people more willing to spend.’  Oil, unlike the Fed’s fiat dollars, can’t be created out of nothing. And, job or no job, people are driving.  Mrs. Yellen tells crowds, Don’t worry be happy, your job will be printed anytime now.  Let’s just say, for those with a job to go to, getting there will not be getting easier.”

http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/cheap-printing-vs.-expensive-drilling

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Obamacare Consequence Will Leave Many Americans Out of Luck

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“Americans thinking about buying health insurance on their own later this year, or maybe switching to a different insurer, are probably out of luck.  With limited exceptions, insurance companies have stopped selling until next year the sorts of individual plans that used to be available year-round. That locks out many of the young and healthy as well as the sick and injured, even those who can afford to buy without government subsidies.  The law, which requires nearly all Americans to be insured or pay a fine, bans insurers from rejecting customers because of poor health. The companies say that makes it too risky to sell to individuals year-round.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/04/the-little-noticed-consequence-of-obamacare-that-will-leave-many-americans-out-of-luck/

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Argentina inches toward economic crisis, again

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“Inflation is accelerating and projected to hit 40% in 2014, according to Sergio Berensztein, director of Poliarquía Consultores. Unofficial estimates put the inflation rate at above 25% in 2013, much higher than the official government rate of 10.9% — a figure few believe, Berensztein says.  A study from consultancy Estudio Bein estimates inflation has eroded wages nearly 10% over the past four months. The Argentine peso was devalued nearly 20% in January, further diminishing purchasing power and making imported items more expensive.  Moody’s downgraded Argentina’s sovereign rating March 17 to Caa1, seven levels below investment grade status, Bloomberg reported.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2014/04/01/argentina-economy-inflation/7011063/

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