In the space of only a few months, commercial real estate company WeWork has gone from a promising looking IPO to on their deathbed. They have some tough decisions. The concept behind WeWork, allowing for more efficient use of commercial space by allowing them to be shared among users, sure sounded like a good idea […]
The reinsurance business has taken a turn for the better lately, but some continue to struggle, especially two that are run by hedge funds. Can we find some value here? Value investing involves people finding companies whose stocks are distressed, if not the company as well, and jumping on in hopes that things will turn […]
The Fed cutting the overnight by a quarter point does entice people to do more mortgage financing. This does stimulate the economy somewhat, but also stabilizes it. A lot of people have a mortgage but don’t really realize what shapes mortgage rates. This is good to know if you are wanting to buy or refinance […]
Some economists are warning that the slowing housing market might bring on a recession or at least slow down growth too much. We need to look at the whole picture. There are all sorts of things that may concern us about the economy, and by extension, the health of the stock market and our investments. […]
We’re moving more and more toward the cashless society that has long been predicted for us, although something needs to replace the cash. Credit cards are doing just fine with this. Cash used to be king, and in fact not that long ago it was the only way to buy something for money, at least […]
Not all that long ago, people used to go to their bank to get their mortgage. This was a very relationship driven business. The internet came along and changed everything. Banks used to handle just about all of the mortgage business at one time, and all of it among those whose credit risk fit the […]
A lot of people use credit cards to earn rewards. As it turns out, a very large number of them don’t quite understand how these rewards work, especially with travel rewards. A great many people don’t take much interest in matters of personal finance, even though the effects of this lack of interest and knowledge […]
Health care reform is a big priority for Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. The biggest obstacle is how this would be paid for, but he has some ideas. It’s not hard to make a good case for the U.S. health care system needing some serious remediation, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is […]
It actually took a lot longer than we may have thought to fully recover from the Great Recession. Rates of non-performing loans are finally back to before this all started. One of the meaningful ways that we measure the state of our economy is to look at the percentage of loans that are not performing, […]
Can we look at the rate that people are refinancing their mortgages and conclude this will or even could cause a housing market crash? Some people do, although it makes no sense. The 2007 housing market crash still haunts many people it seems. This did indeed spawn an economic event of catastrophic proportions, so it’s […]