About 5.1 million mortgage holders (or roughly 10% of Americans with mortgages) will own homes that are worth 75% or less than what they owe on their mortgages by mid-June. This is the conclusion of a new study by First American CoreLogic given exclusively to The New York Times. One of the firm’s senior economists, Sam Khater, told the paper, “People’s emotional attachment to their... 

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded California, noting the state’s severe fiscal imbalance and the impending recurrence of a cash shortage if revenue and spending trajectories continue. California lawmakers and analysts have already challenged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal for the year starting July 1. The plan relies on billions of dollars in emergency... 

In late 2009, former Merrill Lynch economist, now with the Canadian firm, Gluskin Sheff, said the following:   “The credit collapse and the accompanying deflation and overcapacity are going to drive the economy and financial markets in 2010. We have said this repeatedly that this recession is really a depression because the (post-WW II) recessions were merely small backward steps in an inventory... 

While iconic American automakers General Motors and Chrysler were saved from the brink of disaster in 2009, others were not so lucky, succumbing to the fate of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.   American businesses, struggling with lower consumer demands and hard-to-get credit, attempted to cut costs in a myriad of ways last year – slashing jobs, cutting back hours, freezing... 

 The California Legislative Analyst’s Office recently reported that the State faces a $21 billion shortfall in the current as well as the next fiscal year. That’s a problem, a really big problem. My young son would say it was a ginormous problem. In fact, it may be an insurmountable problem. Our governor and legislature used every trick in their books when they created the most recent budget....