| Lenders' pitches aiming higher
Despite the mortgage meltdown, the blizzard of advertising for home loans continues.
With the subprime market in tatters in the wake of record defaults and foreclosures, fewer pitches scream "Bad credit? No problem!" Instead, lenders struggling to remain profitable are targeting people who have good credit and plenty of home equity.
With fewer homes being sold -- and, therefore, fewer loans taken out to finance purchases -- mortgage firms that have survived the subprime shakeout are focusing their marketing on persuading homeowners to refinance.
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GM Loses $39B in 3Q, Shares Fall
General Motors Corp. posted a company record $39 billion loss Wednesday for the third quarter, as a charge involving unused tax credits brought an abrupt end to a string of three profitable quarters for the nation's largest automaker. The loss was one of the biggest quarterly corporate deficits ever. GM's shares closed more than 6 percent lower. Standard & Poor's downgraded GM shares from hold to sell, and said GM's near-term outlook has worsened significantly in part due to reduced U.S. sales. GM attributed most of the third-quarter loss to a $38.6 billion noncash charge related to accumulated deferred tax credits in the U.S., Canada and Germany. Accounting rules require companies to write down the value of such credits if they have scant prospects for a return to profitability in the near term.
Viewing all entries for: January 2008
Infrastructure spending may be warranted, but as stimulus and weighed against immediate tax rebates to consumers, the plan fails miserably. New roads take years to plan and longer to build. The candidate misses the point entirely. Then there is the solution itself. Interestingly, a number of conservative commentators have come out in support of this plan to add capacity to the principle north-south highway on the East Coast. We hear about infrastructure needs all the time, so why doesn't this plan make any sense? Building new lane-miles will not have any positive impact on traffic beyond the short-term. New capacity immediately increases traffic flow, thereby reducing the cost of driving on the widened roadway. That reduced cost attracts drivers from other routes and from mass transit, and it ultimately induces new journeys by incentivising development along the wider road.
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