The Sun's Financial Diary

Is the economy finally starting to turn around? If you pay attention to what the Fed is doing, you might get the impression that the answer to that question is yes.
But it’s more important to first take a look at exactly what the Fed’s been up to. A couple of weeks ago, the [...]

Financially, the decade of the 2000s was one that most people would probably like to forget. We kicked off the decade with the bursting of the tech bubble and the events of 9/11. Along the way, we witnessed the housing market collapse and wrapped up the decade with the worst United States economic [...]

The economy has grown again, but the labor market showed no sign of improving. Actually, if you look at the the unemployment report released this morning, you will probably feel things are getting worse, not better.
In the latest job report, the government said that the nation’s monthly unemployment rate reached 10.20%, the highest level in [...]

Good news for 55 million social security benefit recipients who are looking forward to the one-time $250 economic recovery payment.
I mentioned early that the Social Security Administration plans to issue the checks to SSI recipient this month. Now it looks like the waiting is over. An announcement on the SSA website says that first payment [...]

Two months ago, I wrote an article on when social security recipients will receive the $250 payment as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Since then some readers have left comments, mostly concerning who are eligible for the economic recovery one-time payment. While I am glad that post helped some people [...]

The U.S. job market keeps weakening. According to the latest unemployment report released by the Labor Department this morning, U.S. employers slashed 651,000 nonfarm positions in February 2009, pushing the monthly unemployment rate to 8.1%, the highest level since December 1983. February marks the third straight month that job losses exceeded 600,000, the first time [...]

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was passed by the Congress over the weekend and signed into law by President Obama yesterday, the Treasury Department today released a fact sheet on details of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (PDF file) that will help struggled homeowners to fight foreclosure. [...]

A reader, Brenda, today commented on my American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Breakdown post with the following question:
When will we get the 250.00, those of us that are on S.S. or will we.
When I read those articles on the stimulus plan after it was passed over the weekend, I didn’t see a mention [...]

In the exchange-traded fund (ETF) world, things have happened fast and furious. According to an article on Financial Planning, a total of 434 ETFs were launched in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, a very bad year for stock and mutual fund investors in general, another 164 new ETFs were introduced, as financial firms try to [...]

The House has already voted to approve the $789 billion economic stimulus plan (called American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) President Obama has sought since he took office less than a month ago. The Senate will take on the bill later today and it could be sent to the President for his signature as soon [...]