- Recession Cost Count For In Debt Consumers
Everyone has felt the pinch from the recession in some way, but now real numbers are being calculated that put a dollar value to that pinch. According to an economist, Phillip Swagel, consumers lost an average of $100,000 during the recession. Swagel used to work for the U.S. Department of Treasury so he is quite familiar with accumulating and summarizing relevant data.
Swagel now works for the Pew Economic Policy Group and Pew sponsored t...
- Consumers on New Footing with Banks
Consumers have been battered and bruised by the recession, and one of those bruises has been administered by their own financial institutions. Banks have refused to extend credit. They began to reduce people’s credit card balances and often with little notice. The days of generous credit card offers also ended even before the passage of the Credit CARD act which clamped down in credit card fees.
The resentment among consumers has been palp...