The Busted Homes Behind a Big Bet
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
David M. Walker Comeback America
David M Walker, author of Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility he is also the president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a great organization.
The Debt and the Deficit with Paul Krugman, David Walker of Peterson Foundation, Alan Auerbach of Univ. of Cal-Berkeley, Rep. John Spratt and Mohamed El-Erian of PIMCO
Watch very informative Interview with
Charlie Rose
Letter From Camden Fine, President Independent Community Bankers of America to Secretary Geithner
Dear Secretary Geithner:
On behalf of the 5,000 members of the Independent Community Bankers of America, we greatly appreciate and support the Administration’s proposal to establish a Small
Business Lending Fund that would provide capital to interested community banks.Under the program, banks with less than $1 billion in assets could receive capital investments up to 5 percent of their risk-weighted assets, and those with between $1
and $10 billion in assets could receive up to 3 percent. $30 billion in repaid Troubled Asset Relief Program funds would be transferred to the new program.
February 17, 2010 Letter. Apparently as of yesterday in my conversation with the Independent Community Bankers of America, this proposal is still held up Congress.
On behalf of the 5,000 members of the Independent Community Bankers of America, we greatly appreciate and support the Administration’s proposal to establish a Small
Business Lending Fund that would provide capital to interested community banks.Under the program, banks with less than $1 billion in assets could receive capital investments up to 5 percent of their risk-weighted assets, and those with between $1
and $10 billion in assets could receive up to 3 percent. $30 billion in repaid Troubled Asset Relief Program funds would be transferred to the new program.
February 17, 2010 Letter. Apparently as of yesterday in my conversation with the Independent Community Bankers of America, this proposal is still held up Congress.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Who is Fair Issac and What is so Fair About It?
FICO (NYSE: FICO), founded in 1956 as Fair Isaac by engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Isaac, provides consulting services and enterprise decision management systems. They developed the FICO scores, a measure of credit risk, which are the most used credit scores in the world. FICO scores are available through all of the major consumer reporting agencies in the United States and Canada: Equifax; Experian; TransUnion; and PRBC.[1] FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation.
It's amazing how this statistical modelling method has become the standard for measuring credit and financial risk modelling to the consumer. Our financial health and lives are affected by the Fair Issac in every aspect of our lives literally. FICO and your credit score can determine:
-Whether or not you "qualify" for a credit card.
-Whether ot not you qualify for a home loan and how much of an interest rate you will pay on that loan.
-Whether or not your qualify for an auto loan.
- Whether or not you qualify for a small business loan, credit card or line of credit.
-May effect certain job prospects or opportunities.
- May effect certain health an insurance policies that you qualify for.
-Can and does effect whether or not you can rent an apartment or home.
-May require the need for an individual to place a deposit down before getting electric and or phone service.
Fair Issac (FICO) has a huge impact on quality of life issues. Most of us depend on some form of credit in the United States and if you have a lousy credit score this is going to have a direct impact on you. This is especially true if you do not generate other sources of income and cash flow "outside of the box" of a regular job. The good news is that you can turn your credit score around with time, usually within a two year period of conistently paying your bills on time, communicating with your creditors and staying on top of your credit file with the credit bureaus.
" The FICO score, which Fair Isasc says is used by 90% of the 100 largest banks, and other similar scores hold sway over the lives of millions of people. Some consumer groups have raised concerns about whether credit scores are being used properly and whether they are valid resources of credit risk for some groups of consumers especially minorities and lower -income individuals, says Travis Planket, the legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America."
Credit scores, which are calculated using proprietary models are also criticized for a lack of transparency. The new score model FICO 08 will target folks in the subprime category of scores in the 600's. These are the people that lenders are really struggling to predict how well they might pay their bills.
FICO 08 the newly implemented credit scoring system, rolled out in 2008 aims at connecting a making some adjustments to the scoring model and will be more "forgiving" to occasional slips by consumers. Despite the new scoring model, consumers still have to make sure the information in their credit reports which Fair Issac relies on to come up with the credit score is accurate. Errors must be disputed with the three major credit bureaus.
See article "FICO Reveals How Common Credit Mistakes Affect Scores", by Jerermy Simon, Creditcards.com
See also Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey
Friday, April 2, 2010
Start-Ups Chase Cash as Funds Trickle Back
Starting a new business is easier than it was a year ago, but wealthy investors, venture-capital firms and banks are still trickling out money very selectively.
Track The Stimulus
Track the Stimulus details where these investments are made, what jobs are being created and where, and attempts to measure whether these programs are achieving what they sought to achieve whether it is creating jobs, lowering the cost of borrowing to banks and corporations, etc.
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