Credit

6:49 AM, Apr 3, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER

The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place.

President Obama’s economic advisers and outside experts say the nation’s much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession.

In response, administration officials say they are working to get banks to lend to a wider range of borrowers by taking advantage of taxpayer-backed programs — including those offered by the Federal Housing Administration — that insure home loans against default.

Housing officials are urging the Justice Department to provide assurances to banks, which have become increasingly cautious, that they will not face legal or financial recriminations if they make loans to riskier borrowers who meet government standards but later default.

Officials are also encouraging lenders to use more subjective judgment in determining whether to offer a loan and are seeking to make it easier for people who owe more than their properties are worth to refinance at today’s low interest rates, among other steps.

4:24 PM, Mar 28, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER

Chief Justice John Roberts is the victim of credit card fraud, according to multiple reports out today.

UPDATE: Secret Service is investigating.

1:46 PM, Mar 12, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER

First Lady Michelle Obama's social security number and credit report have been leaked online, the Associated Press reports.

"First lady Michelle Obama is the latest public figure to have her Social Security number and credit report leaked online by a website posting private data on celebrities and government officials," reports the AP.

Barack Obama delivers inaugural address 1-20-09 090120-A-8725H-285

7:54 AM, Dec 5, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

President Barack Obama wants to raise the debt limit "without drama or delay," a White House official tells Reuters.

4:14 PM, Sep 20, 2012 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

A perceptive e-mail from a friend from the world of finance:

11:42 AM, Jun 14, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

According to figures provided by the International Monetary Fund, and compiled into this easy to read chart by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee, America will "spend 60 percent more per person than Spain over [the] next 5 years."

12:00 AM, Nov 12, 2011 • By IRWIN M. STELZER

Greece is a far away country about which we know very little, as Neville Chamberlain described Czechoslovakia right before developments there brought the world closer to World War II.

9:01 AM, Aug 8, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

It’s amazing that a senior member of a party that’s in control of a legislative body that hasn’t passed a budget of any sort in more than two years would publically try to pin blame for Standard and Poor’s recent downgrade of America’s long-term credit rating on, of all groups, the Tea Party. But that’s exactly what happened on Meet the Press yesterday.

10:29 PM, Aug 5, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

The New York Times reports that credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded America's long-term debt:

2:00 PM, May 3, 2011 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

I just ran into former White House chief of staff/Treasury secretary/secretary of State Jim Baker at Reagan National airport. After some small talk and some sharing of our pleasure at the killing of Osama bin Laden and our admiration for all involved, from the president to the Navy SEALs, we drifted into a discussion of the debt ceiling fight.

A currency divided against itself cannot stand.

May 9, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 32 • By IRWIN M. STELZER

A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of the disintegration of the eurozone. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcize this spectre: German chancellor and French president, the Brussels eurocracy and the bonus-laden bankers. Let the ruling classes tremble. The debtors have nothing to lose but their burdens.

3:09 PM, Mar 16, 2011 • By FRED BARNES

Larry Summers, the just-departed White House economic adviser, says today’s credit crunch has a new culprit. “In the early days of the crisis, there was clearly a problem with lenders being unable to lend even to creditworthy borrowers,” he says in an interview in The International Economy magazine. But no more.

Giannoulias Would Be A Disaster For Taxpayers

Embattled Illinois Senate candidate’s jobs plan would add $200 billion to the debt.

3:13 PM, Aug 9, 2010 • By DANIEL HALPER

A few weeks ago, Alexi Giannoulias’s Illinois Senate campaign claimed, “Every proposal outlined by Alexi includes a counter-part offset to ensure that it is deficit neutral.” But a closer examination of Giannoulias’s economic plan reveals it would increase America’s debt by more than $200 billion.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Alexi Giannoulias and money are a bad combination.

Macroeconomic data vs. earnings reports, and deficit-cutters vs. borrow-and-spend.

12:00 AM, Jul 31, 2010 • By IRWIN M. STELZER

There are two battles going on that will influence how the economy performs for the rest of this year.

UPDATE: Secret Service is investigating.

A currency divided against itself cannot stand.

Embattled Illinois Senate candidate’s jobs plan would add $200 billion to the debt.

Macroeconomic data vs. earnings reports, and deficit-cutters vs. borrow-and-spend.

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