When they need to get reelected....it gets done..

It is the time of the year, election time. Every two year, or four years it is time to reelected or remove people from there spot on capital hill. So when it comes to reelection time all the Congress members are trying to push bill through and making decisions faster so it looks like they will get things done when the are in office. According to an article called "Washington's housing fix taking shape" the Senate is working round clock to create a bill to help the bad housing market. The article states that the bill will include boost in funding for protection against foreclosures, help promote buying in areas where there are vacant lots, and give tax breaks to business. I think that this is very good because now Congress is really looking at the problems that the economy is having on all the areas of the our daily life. They need to start helping the people that are reelection them more and not so much on the big companies that are paying for them to back them and helping them get reelected.
According to the article there are a number of things that this bill is going to help they include:

• Modernize the FHA
• Help for troubled borrowers trying to refinance
• Tax credits for buying troubled properties
• New property tax deduction
• Bigger tax break for home builders
• Money to aid areas hit by foreclosures
• More money for consumer counseling
• Greater transparency for borrowers

I hope that Congress can get to work and make this bill pass because it is something that our economy greatly needs to stay out of a recession.

The information for this post was from CNNMoney.com called "Washington's housing fix taking shape" written by Jeanne Sahadi at http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/02/news/economy/housing_bipartisan_draft/index.htm?cnn=yes.

Who's college am I paying for?

When you are getting gas at a gas station do you everything "who is getting rich from my $40 purchase of gas ever week?" You may think that the gas stations are the ones that are making money from charging you $3 a gallon but in an article call "Who gets rich off $3 gas - who doesn't" the truth is that the crude oil makes that largest part of the $3 a gallon, it makes about $2.07. According to the article that money goes to oil companies like Chevron, BP, and Marathon or national oil companies that are controlled by other countries like Mexico and Saudi Arabia. In the article there are other people that get a small amount of money from the gas and that includes the oil traders, gas stations, taxes, transportation, and refining. I think that this is wrong and maybe should not have such a depends on oil and we need to find other forms of gas that we make our cars go. I also think that we should not be giving all this money to companies that are not even in the United States and we need to focus on ways that we can bring money in the United States economy.

This article is from CNNMoney.com titled "Who gets rich off $3 gas - who doesn't" written by Steve Hargreaves and the picture is from the same article.

Money....When is it coming?

When is the government going to start to send out our tax rebates that they are promising us? In an article in CNNMoney.com the IRS states that is will start sending out the 130 million rebate payments on May 2. All of this is in hope that it will boost the economy. The article states that the IRS hopes to get 25% of the checks out in the first three weeks and to have all of the checks out by July 11. According to the article it take the IRS about two weeks to process your tax returns, and then on top of that you will get you rebate in the mail too.
This information came from an article on CNNMoney.com written by Jeanne Sahadi called "Special tax rebates will begin May 2: IRS" at http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/17/pf/taxes/rebates_payment_schedule/index.htm.

Wheels make the world go round....

In an article written about the 3 major car industrials: GM, Ford, and Toyota, the stocks of cars have fall in the first two months of the new year. This big companies will be cutting shifts and also cutting the number of cars that they will produce in the second quarter. The cars that are not being sold by all od these companies are the larger trucks and SUV which have drop three percent in Feb. According to the article GM has dropped sales by 13 percent and Ford has dropped seven percent. I think that a large number of these drop in sales have been caused by the talk of there being a recession and by the large drop in the housing market.
According to the article written by Dee-Ann Durbin, both GM and Toyota are cutting the number of cars that they are producing in the second quarter. I hope that with this it will cut down the number of jobs that will be lost. Ford has stated in the article that it will be going from two shift in the summer to only one shift to match the lower demand for cars in North America.
I hope that the Untied States will be able to work out of this recession so that the people will not have to be laid off for long because that will most likey hurt our economy even more that what it has already.
The article I use was called "GM, Ford, Toyota US Sales Fall in Feb.;US Sales Tumble at GM, Ford, Slip at Toyota in February, GM and Ford Cut Production" by Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Auto Writer at http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080303/auto_sales.html.

Money.....Money...

According to an article "U.S. home sales, goods order feed recession fears" the sale of single families home in the United States have drop to a 13 year low in January and along with other problem with the U.S. people not wanting to buy goods all of this is fueling the recession fears. In a report given in front of Congress by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke he talks about how the U.S. economy needs to have more interest rates cuts. The article states that the housing market is still dropping and if the housing market continues to weaken than the economy as a whole will continue to get weak and force into a recession.
I think that we need to work on the housing market and get that up and in a stronger state and then start working on the economy as a whole. You need to work on one thing at a time and make the economy stronger so that we can become a wealthier nation.
The article I got this information from was called "U.S. home sales, goods order feed recession fears" from http://news.moneycentral.msn.com.

Signs

Why are people not spending money? According to an article published on CNNMoney.com job growth has not changed, housing economy is in a hole. All of this is signs of economy trouble, and with this many economist see us falling into a recession, this is according to the National Association of Business Economics. Over 45% of economists are now predicting that we will be in a recession this year.
The GDP this year will be at the weakest it has been in 5 years. All of these forecasts are in line with the forecasts from the Federal Reserve this past week. There are many things that this country is trying to do to get the economy back on track so that we can start to become a power country. I hope that this will get the country back on track and more money in the economy.
I got this information from CNNMoeny.com called “Recession more likely this year - survey
Business economists see growing evidence that the country has toppled into a recession” from http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/25/news/economy/economists_recession.ap/index.htm.

One problem can lead to another…

What is one thing that every American wants to own? A home. But there are many problems that are not allowing some Americans to own their own home. According to the Associated Press there is a handful of states that are that are working on ways to get many investment banks and big lenders caught for more than just bad business decisions and bad mortgage troubles. With these bad judgments from these mortgage companies they can be the ones that are causing the problems in the economy right now. I think that there are many companies that need to change their way so that they can stop causing the poor market now.
In the article they are looking for ways to change the way that many cities and states pursuit bad lenders. The lenders have written $625 billion in subprime mortgages in the 2005, this is a big problem because most of that money will never come back because the people that received the money cannot pay the money back but they were approved for it. I am just hoping that this does not make the economy problem even worse. I am hoping that the right people will fix this problem and the economy will become better.
I got the information from this article from the Associated Press title “Wall Street faces fury over subprime” from http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20080218&id=8204803.

Up..Up... and Away!!!

Finally the market is moving up after Congress raised the retail sales. This comes even with us being unwilling to spend money but the DOW was up almost 180 points, which is a good thing after weeks of the market dropping. All of this information came from an article in the the Defiance Crescent News online. Many of these problems can be caused by the failing housing mortage and us the buyers not willing to spend our money to buy things. I am hoping that the government plan we help the economy grow and I want the United States to get out of this recession so we can start paying back some of the debts that we have built up.
For most of the stocks they have all rose, but they not stay up we will have to keep checking to make sure that they stay up and keep growing. I am glad that the stocks are rising and that the market is growing and finally making money. Many of the companies are now making money, which can only say that we are willing to spend money again.
This information from this article came from The Associated Press titled "Stocks End Higher on Upbeat Sales Data" at http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WALL_STREET?SITE=OHDEF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT#, written by Joe Bel Bruno.

Recession....Recession

On Monday the President signed a $170 billion economic stimulus package that was passed by Congress last week. The President is hoping that this package will send American tax rebate checks by May in hope that this will prevent a recession or make it a very brief recession. The package also gives more tax break to business, veterans, and senior citizens. The best thing was that Congress got this bill through all the talk and debate in less than four weeks, which President Bush is very happy about. This bill will pay taxpayer between $600 to $1,200 and there also we are a $300 per child tax credit. The main reason for this bill is to put money in to the taxpayers’ hands and hope that they will spend it to help pull the market out of the recession.
I believe that this is a good plan but the only problem is, will the taxpayer take the money and spend it on will they just save it and not spend it. I hope that this extra money that we as taxpayer our getting this year will allow us to spend it and put some money back into the economy and help it grow and grow so we can get pulled out of this recession and not let it last a long time.
I got my information from an article published on CNNMoney.com called “Bush to Sign Stimulus Package Wednesday” at http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/11/news/economy/bush_stimulus/index.htm.

Super Money

“Super Tuesday” vote day, who do you want Clinton, Obama, or McCain. It is time to make a decision about what direction that we want this country to go in for the next four years. CNNMoney.com states “that the Senate is debating changes to the bipartisan bill that was proposed by President Bush. It was approved by the House last month. The legislation wants to get money in the hands of consumers and give businesses benefits for creating new jobs. I think that this bill is a great idea if it will help the the economy grow and help with the spending issues that the nation is facing now.
In the time of economy problems the Republicans and Democrats have been working together. The House will be voting on this bill this week and President Bush is most likely going to sign the bill on Feb. 15th. The IRS will then ship out the rebate checks to the taxpayers. I hope that this will start an economy surge so that we can get this nation back on top. We need to start pushing the nation’s lawmakers to work on this economy problem that we are having now. So the more that they are willing to give us money to spend and get the money flowing in the economy the better.
This information came from CNNMoney.com; the article is called “Vote near in Senate showdown over economy” at http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/06/news/economy/stimulus_senatevote/index.htm?postversion=2008020610.

Election 2008

According to an article published on CNNMoney.com this is one of the most competitive presidential elections in years and it is also on pace to be the most expensive campaign ever. So of the largest public trade compaines are among the biggest contributors to the top candidates. I think that this is a bad thing because these companies that are give money out now are going to be wanting something in return in the end from these candidates if they win. I feel that if you are going to give your money to one of the candidates you should not be doing it for other means of profit in the end.
In 2004 candidates raised a then record of $880.5 million and spent $719.7 million. The CRP (Center for Responsive Politics) has estimated that the candidates will raise up to a $1 billion this election. I think that it is good that they have all this money do they can travel around and talk to people form each state but what I think that people should be caring about the most right now is the facts and stands that they are taking on the issues. We should be election a president for what they believe in and no thow much money that they can bring into there campaign.
The article I used was from CNNMoney.com called"Election '08: Where the Street is putting its $" at http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/04/markets/election_donors/index.htm?postversion=2008020503.

Cuts Can Help

According to the article “Fed Cuts Rates Boldly; Wall Street Wary” the Federal Reserve has cut its interest rates even more in the hope that this will less the blow of the recession. The reduction was a larger half point decrease and also with that the President included for individuals tax rebates and more tax breaks for business to help fire up the economy.
I think that this is a good idea and I hope that it will work because our economy right now is in bad shape and we need to do something to help push it out of this recession. I hope that the recession does not cause a major down fall in the United States.
In the article Wall Street when these cuts first happened becomes charged but at the end of the day the Dow Jones was still down. The good thing was that commercial banks followed the Federal government and decreased the prime lending rate to 6%; which also was down half a percent.
According to the article before all the cuts and decrease the economy virtual stopped. This is due to the destroyed housing market, bad mortgage investments, and credit problems both for people and business. The nation’s foreclosure rate has hit an all-time high which is causing banks billions of dollars in losses. The next meetings for the Federal Reserve are set for March and likely there will be more cuts.
I think that the Federal government is doing everything that it can to help stop this recession. I hope that this will help get the economy back on track and make it stronger. I the next President of the United States is going to have a lot to deal with in the economy when the takeover.
This information came for the article “Fed Cuts Rates Boldly; Wall Street Wary” by Jeannine Aversa at http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080130/fed_interest_rates.html?printer=1.

Now a Global Problem

Despite the Federal Reserve drop in interest rates to help growth in the economy, the United States economy is dragging down the rest of the world. Starting with Japan's market which dropped nearly 4 percent on the worries of the United States economy which has already dropped the Japanese in to a recession.
Some of the biggest problems that the United States is facing is in the mortgage sector. There has been many losses on the subprime and equity markets that have hurt the economy greatly. I believe that the main problem face the United States is the amount of home forclousres that are happening now. The numbers have gone up and they are not getting better. This is really putting a drain on the economy in the United States and the rest of the world.
The United States has done things to help like an emergency 75 basis point Federal Cut and a $150 million plan to start growth. They also want to cut interest rates again. I hope that this will help the economy not just for us but for the rest of the world also.
This infomation can from an article "Economy woes batter global equities" by Jeremy Gaunt from http://www.reuter.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL2545612820080128.

Ohio is Spending to Much

In Ohio the budget is predicting to be short some were between $733 million and 1.9 billion for the 2009 fiscal year. This can not be good because there is a limited number of things that you can do to fix this problem. So of them can be to cut money to state agencies like education, which is already not getting as much money as they should be.

The state economists have said that we will be in debt $733 million if the economy grows slowly, we could be $1.3 billion if there is no growth what so ever, and there could be $1.9 billion if the economy goes in to a recession. In Ohio the state's budget is $52.3 billion. To me that is a lot of money but to a state government that may not be a lot but I still think that we should be able to keep the budget balance of at least a lot closer than $733 million to $1.9 billion. Because the people that are working on our states budget should be the best for management money at the state government level.

Basically the whole United States economy has been slow in the recent months and many people are debating whether we are in a recession. The Federal Reserve has had emergency rate cut that were designed to help jump start spending to try to get us out of this recession. I hope that this will help the economy grow and get started again so we do not have to go in to a full recession. So problems we have already is that the Dow Jones Industrial Average that has drop over hundreds of points since trade began this year.

The Gov. Strickland has no I idea what programs he is looking to cut to help the government budget problem that the state is facing now. The only good thing that Ohio has in its budget is what they call a "$1 billion so-called rainy-day fund" which the governor may use. But I hope that he will first look at what he can cut from budget first before he uses the money that they have built up over the years. I hope that the state government can work its way out of this problem that we are in now.

I got this information for the article called "Ohio could face $1.9B deficit" for the Enquirer at http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS01/301230067.

Tax Cuts

As President Bush is getting to the end of his term there is still a lot of goals he has to accomplished. There are many words that our being use to describe our economy and so some are not that good, this last week one of the White House spokesman's use the term "downturn". I think it may be a good word to describe the economy now but it is not a good thing. With the value of American money going down in many overseas economies what are we doing to speed up our economy and make our nations wealth and our nation more economy more stable.
The tax proposal that President Bush has laid out calls for lower income taxes for all, and help for those people who need help. Everyone we pay income taxes with the most amount of breaks for the people in the lower income brackets. This is a good thing because it is allowing those people who need help to get it and also still making the people in the higher income brackets pay money also.
With this tax proposal I am hoping that the economy with get a jump start and start to get wealth back into our economy which we need.
The information I got for this blog came from "Bush tax cut push keeps president on the road" by John King at http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/03/26/bush.travels/ . Also the "The President's Agenda for Tax Relief" on http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/gwbush/bushtaxprpsl.pdf .

The Issues 2008- Taxes

With the Presidential Election coming up many candidates have different views on the issues of spending and taxes. Taxes are very important in the United States because that is were the Government gets it money to play back our debts and other bills. The cutting of all taxes is not the answer, even though people would like that to happen.
Here are some stands that the candidates have taken on taxes.
Clinton purposes to raise the income taxes and keep estate taxes on the wealthy and a higher tax break for those going to college.
Edwards purposes to raise the income taxes and there personal gain tax on the wealthy. He also wants to give a $25 billion a year tax cut to the non-wealthy.
Obama purposes to raise the income, personal gain, and the dividends taxes on the wealthy. He also wants to raise the corporate taxes and will have a $80 billion tax break for mainly the poor and elderly.
Giuliani purposes to cut corporate taxes and to stop estate tax. He also wants to add a permanent child tax credit.
Huckabee purposes to replace income and investment taxes by have the national sales tax be 23%. With some help for the poor.
McCain purposes that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent.
Romney purposes to stop dividend, capital gain, and interest taxes. Also wants to give tax breaks for those earning less than $200,000.
Thompson purpose to let the people choose.
The information about the candidates came for the Associated Press written by Calvin Woodward called "Presidential Candidates on the Issues".

Government Spending

When reading about the federal government is spending over $8 billion in Homeland Security and not telling the people about how and what the are using the money for is I think a big problem. I am OK will the government not tell us everything that they spend money on for safe and so the terrorist do not know the inter workings of our security systems and other important information that should not be share with other countries and other organizations. There has to be a line very the government need to let the people in on why we have to rise our debt up to like $9 trillion. There need to be a plan for were all this money is going and why we have to keep cutting money from other important areas of our government like education,health care, and transportation. We need to find ways to stop the mass amounts of dependants on other nations to supply us with money and other things.