Interest Rate
Buddy, can you spare a rate hike?
Funny how what counts as a good idea depends on who stands to benefit.
In two important economic debates, supposedly no-nonsense analysts handle strikingly similar notions quite differently. They ignore or ridicule arguments offered in support of raising the federal minimum wage, and treat the same arguments with the utmost respect when deployed to demand that the Federal Reserve raise interest rates — in effect, that it raise the minimum wage for affluent investors.
For example, whenever the Fed announces that it will leave interest rates unchanged — as it did Thursday — the no-nonsense crowd complains that they are “unnaturally” low. They offer little in the way of hard...
Related "Interest Rate" Articles
Buddy, can you spare a rate hike?
Funny how what counts as a good idea depends on who stands to benefit.
In two important economic debates, supposedly no-nonsense analysts handle strikingly similar notions quite differently. They ignore or ridicule arguments offered in support of raising...
Loan gives low-income borrowers a chance to build equity fast
Two major banks have agreed to originate a new 15-year mortgage under pilot programs aimed at low- and moderate-income borrowers.
In addition, the creators of the so-called Wealth Building Home Loan, which allows home buyers to build equity at a much...
Did the banks rip off Los Angeles?
Big U.S. banks have paid billions of dollars to settle claims by state and federal prosecutors that they trapped unsophisticated borrowers in disastrous subprime mortgages at the height of the housing boom. Now, some Los Angeles City Council members argue...
L.A. council votes to pressure two banks to redo interest rate swaps
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to seek to redo borrowing deals with two banks that advocates say are charging excessive interest rates and eating up money that could help with major infrastructure repairs.
The vote made Los...
L.A. Council calls for banks to renegotiate bond interest rates
The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to try to get out of borrowing deals with banks that advocates say are siphoning off money from the city.
But at the council meeting, questions arose about how and where the city could use any...
L.A. weighs plan to press banks to renegotiate rate swaps
Los Angeles could become the nation's biggest city seeking to jettison financial deals crafted on the eve of the Great Recession that union and community activists contend are draining funds from city services.
The City Council will vote Wednesday on a...
Honking garbage trucks in L.A.: That's no way to deal with Wall Street
A coalition of city labor unions and community activists say big banks preyed on Los Angeles and other municipalities, locking them into interest rate swap deals that ended up costing taxpayers millions of dollars after the economic crash.
So, how do...
L.A. councilman wants Wall Street banks to cut bond refinance fees
A Los Angeles city councilman wants out of deals with two Wall Street banks he says are costing the city money.
Councilman Paul Koretz introduced a motion Friday that calls on two banks to either renegotiate contracts with the city at no cost, or for the...