For a growing number of Americans, job prospects are bleak, savings are too low, debts are overwhelming, and, as the following report reveals, credit ratings are shot to pieces -- how in heck can anybody even think that we are on the cusp of a consumer-led recovery?
"More Americans' Credit Scores Sink to New Lows" (Associated Press)More Here..
The credit scores of millions more Americans are sinking to new lows.
Figures provided by FICO Inc. show that 25.5 percent of consumers - nearly 43.4 million people - now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It's unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use.
Because consumers relied so heavily on debt to fuel their spending in recent years, their restricted access to credit is one reason for the slow economic recovery.
"I don't get paid for loan applications, I get paid for closings," said Ritch Workman, a Melbourne, Fla., mortgage broker. "I have plenty of business, but I'm struggling to stay open."
FICO's latest analysis is based on consumer credit reports as of April. Its findings represent an increase of about 2.4 million people in the lowest credit score categories in the past two years. Before the Great Recession, scores on FICO's 300-to-850 scale weren't as volatile, said Andrew Jennings, chief research officer for FICO in Minneapolis. Historically, just 15 percent of the 170 million consumers with active credit accounts, or 25.5 million people, fell below 599, according to data posted on Myfico.com.
Credit Scores only matter to those that want to go in debt...
ReplyDeleteBanks need to go back to manual underwriting for home mortgages.
As Dave Ramsey says Cash is King... besides, if you haven't the cash for it, you don't need it. Save up or do without. Credit scores are a trophy you have or have had debt. And for those that say you need good credit for a job or insurance, screw that. If I need good credit to get a job, I don't need THAT job, a job that wants its workers to have a credit score that signifies they have been in or still under a debt load. For insurance, how about they underwrite insurance based on something important, like driving habits.
For those of you who still vote Republican (and I wonder why you do), here are the conservative suggestions for how to bring back jobs (excerpted from the Huffington Post):
ReplyDelete"The Chamber of Commerce's four-page letter {to the White House} offers a variety of suggestions for job creation, though it doesn't appear that they flipped past the first few pages of the free-market playbook when brainstorming the proposal. The ideas include deregulation of business, tax cuts for the wealthy, free trade agreements, a reduced corporate income tax, expanded offshore drilling and logging in national forests and the privatization of waterways and roads.
"Specifically, the Chamber urges the president to extend Bush-era tax cuts in full and provide tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas...and they've also suggested a value added tax on consumption."
More deregulation means more BPs.
We've had tax cuts for the rich for the last 8 years. How many jobs did that create? How is NAFTA working out for you or for Mexico? If it was, they wouldn't be coming over the border.
Reduced corporate taxes means you the people have to pay more to make up for it. Drilling and logging? The corporations get 95% of the profits and they sell us back our own resources, while we get 5% of the profits and 100% of anything it costs to fix their mistakes.
Privatizing water means you will be charged double to drink your own tap water and drive on your state's roads. And the state (that's you) will have to pay for all the wear and tear on the alternate roads you'll be driving on to avoid tolls.
Tax breaks for companies that outsource? We have that now! Should we give them an even bigger break?
Consumption taxes fall on the middle and lower classes because we spend most of our income on basic necessities.
Looks like TPTB aren't satisfied with owning 90% of the country--the rich want the rest. The conservatives are after every last penny left in your pocket. These are the folks you support and you think I'm wrong for being a liberal Democrat? Which one of us is really crazy?
Sharonsj, an answer to a question please. Do you believe the want of the many out weigh the need of the one?
ReplyDeleteSister; when you use an axe the size of New England - at least be able to handle the kerf.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem with you Libby's - you like everthing in a nice. neat , tidy little spot. That's just not real world sorry.
Comparing drilling for oil with logging is like comparing Distillers with the Auto Industry.
Here in the northeast where the majority of hardwoods come from; there are no giant corporations in control of anything & if there was; they would have to bid on available timber just like everyone else. These lumber companies are small, family owned operations & the majority of the timber being harvested is on private grounds owned by private individuals.
Occasionally some timber does come up for sale on a national forest; but it is put out to the highest bidder with VERY strict harvesting guidelines.
Remember; timber is just like you garden; it is a crop - it is born, it matures and it dies. There is more sawtimber growing today than there was 200 years ago.
When people make such broad statements that just aren't true & then other people read them & take it for gospel and that's exactly how we get all this disinformation out there - people just don't know what the hell they're talking about!