News

Recession Briefing 10.15: Stimulating Tax Dollars?

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

The public will get a chance to see in detail how their stimulus money is being spent when data is released about the $787 billion stimulus package on the website Recovery.gov today. (Huffington Post)

Concerned about Social Security recipients, veterans, and people on disability payments struggling to make ends meet, President Obama is asking Congress to send them each a $250 check next year. (Christian Science Monitor)

A new study found that the recession is taking a big toll on working moms: Over half of the 1,000-plus women surveyed reported working longer hours, while just one in four women without children and one in three men reported doing so. (U.S. News & World Report)

U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to a record in the third quarter. A total of 937,840 homes received a default or auction notice or were repossessed by banks, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier. (Bloomberg)

Concluding that some of the nation’s biggest banks are in good enough shape to raise capital from private investors, senior Treasury officials would like more of them to repay billions of dollars in taxpayer money that bailed them out over the last year. (New York Times)

It is an open question whether foreclosure auctions indicate that the U.S. real-estate market is recuperating or is still in intensive care. But the rapid-fire, under-the-hammer sales are on the rise. (Reuters)

Three years ago, the art world was buzzing and works were fetching records sums. Then the recession struck. How can the art market recover? And will the slump change art itself? (Guardian)

The recent signs of possible improvement in the economy have not trickled down to the states, which continued to be pummeled this spring by the steepest drop-offs in tax collections since comparable data was first compiled nearly half a century ago. (New York Times)

Federal Reserve officials see the US economy emerging from recession but in a recovery “restrained” by high unemployment and difficult credit. (Agence France Presse)

Retail sales declined in September by the largest amount this year as car sales plummeted following the end of the government’s popular Cash for Clunkers program. But outside of autos, sales were better than expected. (Associated Press)

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Tags: jobs, real estate, recovery, stimulus, tax, taxes