Category: Finance
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Illinois 3rd in Foreclosures Nationally
This is embarrassing: Foreclosures starts in Illinois are on par with those in other areas but the state’s court-supervised foreclosure system continues to bog down properties in the process. Almost 7.5 percent of all one-to-four-unit mortgage loans in Illinois were in foreclosure in the first quarter, compared with a national average of 4.39 percent, according…
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Gov. Red Tape Kills Another Biz, Jobs
Last month when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced his streamlining of city business licensing procedures, he chose Logan Square Kitchen as the location to herald this new day in better relations between the city and small businesses. And so it’s more than a little ironic that today LSK owner Zina Murray annouced on her website that…
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Stripping Chicago Spending, Bare Down
“What do a Chicago strip club and the President’s campaign fund have in common?” ANSWER: BOTH were paid- with public funds- as “VENDORS” to the City of Chicago. _______________________________________ Yesterday, OpenTheBooks.com upgraded it’s transparency portal to include the City of Chicago checkbook from 2002-2011. It contains $74 billion in vendor payments. Last year 69,800 entities received checks. Here’s what I found while scanning…
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Wealthy Flee France (Shhh, don’t tell the U.S. Media)
For those that don’t know, France recently had an election and voted for the most socialist guy on the ballot. The guy who’s promising to raise taxes on the rich and increase the transfer payments to the poor. The result? The rich are leaving… in droves. France’s high earners feel increasingly unwelcome in a country…
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Layoffs on Wall Street?
After adding thousands bankers in the past two years, financial firms again appear to be on the verge of cutting that many positions and then some. Consultants and Wall Street recruiters say banks could eliminate nearly 21,000 jobs from their securities divisions in New York alone. Worldwide cuts could be even larger. Recruiters say big…
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Scientists plan $1b Ghost Town
A scientific ghost town in the heart of southeastern New Mexico oil and gas country will hum with the latest next-generation technology — but no people. A $1 billion city without residents will be developed in Lea County near Hobbs, officials said Tuesday, to help researchers test everything from intelligent traffic systems and next-generation wireless…
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B of A’s Mortgage Reduction Insanity
Bank of America has started sending letters to thousands of homeowners in the United States, offering to forgive a portion of the principal balance on their mortgages by an average of $150,000 each. The reduction for qualifying homeowners could amount to monthly savings of up to 35 percent on mortgage payments, Bank of America said…
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China Enters U.S. Banking Market
The United States on Wednesday opened its banking market to ICBC, China’s biggest bank, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company. Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a…
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Labor Force Participation Rate Messes with Unemployment Rate
Exactly a month ago I wrote about the bogus employment numbers claimed for the Chicago area. I claimed that there were no actual jobs “created” and that the only reason the employment rate went down was because people simply left the job market. Didn’t have this at the time… but my theory has real support.…
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FYI, You CAN Cheat on Your Property Taxes
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Assessor Joe Berrios on Tuesday urged state lawmakers to give them more power to go after property owners who improperly claim tax breaks, saying they could recover more than $150 million in three years with the new authority. Under legislation pending in Springfield, counties could go after back…