In his State of the State speech, Governor Brown said he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy in California as well as increase the sales tax.  Taxes will be used by the state government for state programs, and at least some state Republicans would like to avoid a tax increase.  According to a recent [...]

Browsing in the Oakland Public Library today, I came across a book about economics with an interesting title: Getting Better.  I checked out the book, and I started reading this evening. What I read got me thinking about The Great Recession in the United States, about our housing crisis, and about the lives of Americans, [...]

Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story by Larry N. Gerston.  See the story titled: “Governor Jerry Brown’s tepid budget solution” at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/09/EDGA1MM0H4.DTL Mr. Gerston is the author of the forthcoming book, Not So Golden After All: The Rise and Fall of California (Taylor and Francis). Mr. Gerston brings up two points that may [...]

Today, Freddie Mac, a government agency that provides “mortgage capital to lenders,” gave mortgage servicers the authority to provide six months of forbearance without prior approval to homeowners who are unemployed, and an additional six months of forbearance with prior approval from the agency. The effective date of the new policy is February 1, 2012. [...]

The housing market received a positive signal from the U.S. central bank today.  The Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Reserve (also known as the Fed or U.S. central bank) plans to keep interest rates at the current level for the next year or two.  This means mortgage rates will likely remain at historic [...]