Economy In Crisis!

Today President-elect Barack Obama released his team of top economic advisers. And once again it’s more of former President Bill Clinton’s people. Is this the real change Obama is bringing to the White House? Anyway, he also stated that he would remain on course with what the Bush administration had started with rescuing the financial markets. He also want’s to have a new stimulus package passed right away to help create jobs. Some people think this will cost another $700 billion over the next couple of years. If you ask me it looks like more money is being tossed around again. And where in the world are we going to come up with all this money for another stimulus package. Before we know it our money is going to be worthless. I sure hope he knows what he’s doing, because if not things are going to get much worst.

Layaway Program For All!

Christmas shopping is getting earlier and earlier every year for a lot of people. And I guess that’s because big retailers push it on to us earlier every year. Did any of you out there realize that before Halloween was even over there were Christmas items side by side with Halloween stuff? I sure did and it kind of bothered me a little. In my opinion this type of marketing makes a lot people feel like things are being pushed on them. Me personally I wait until after Thanksgiving before I start my shopping, taking one holiday at time. With that being said I haven’t started my shopping just yet. But with all the ranting I just did about shopping early I do feel that there are a few good ideas out, like the Kmart Layaway program. This program helps in more ways than a lot of people realize. One way is that big-ticket items become reachable, by letting you pay over time. And another way is that it reduces the debt of people using the service. That’s because they don’t have to carry debt on their credit cards, which cuts out any interest they would incur. So if you are an early shopper make sure you a least check out Kmart’s layaway program.

Massive Rebound!

Today on Wall Street turned out to be quite a ride for all of us. At one point the Dow Jones industrial at a low of 7,965.42. Then out of nowhere it went right to the top. When it was all set and done, the Dow Jones industrial ended up over 550 points. This type of day just shows how bad things really are. Although the stocks ended up what will tomorrow bring? And I say this because you just never know how the U.S. or world markets are going to respond from day to day. And this makes a lot of people feel unsure on what tomorrow will bring. Me personally I’m a little sick and tired of the rollercoaster ride the Dow Jones takes me on every day. I also feel that the Dow Jones industrial as finally reached the bottom. And I say this because of what had happened today. There was so many deals lying around today investors just had to grab them. But then again who really knows anymore. Lets hope for another big gain tomorrow, and get this economy moving.

Zero Percent!

This week the central bank lowered its interest rate that banks charge each other on overnight loans to 1 percent. The main purpose for this drop is to get banks to start lending. Now what a lot of people don’t realize is that this rate fluctuates. Even before the Fed cut the rate on Wednesday it was already below 1 percent. And that’s because banks are so scared to lend money to anyone. If banks remain on the same course for this month the rate very well could fluctuate to zero percent. And this is what most analysts feel is what is needed, zero percent interest rates. If dropping to zero percent doesn’t jumpstart the economy what is next? There is a lot more options that the Fed can do to start the economy. So this isn’t really a main concern. Japan dropped their interest rate to zero percent for 5 years. So maybe we should do the same to get things moving. And then focus on other options if needed. We’ll get through this, American history has show Americans can battle anything.