Posts by Martha C. White

With the unemployment rate hovering just shy of 10 percent and Washington focused on job creation, President Obama this month called on Congress to approve a plan that would take $30 billion in repaid TARP funds and make it available for small banks to lend to small businesses. There’s just one problem: there’s little indication that these banks need the money — or that making it available would stimulate lending.

While the national unemployment rate of 10.2 percent is a sobering reminder of the depth of this recession and the protracted timeline a recovery will take, the challenges posed by long-term unemployment are far greater — and, given the potential snowball effect, more dangerous.

Despite the recent good news that home prices in the U.S. rose 2.9 percent in the second quarter of 2009, it’s too early to call it a turnaround for the battered housing sector.

While the plight of homeowners affected by the real estate meltdown has been well-documented, renters too often fall under the radar.

While the steady rise of the nation’s unemployment rate has become shorthand for the recession’s impact, many economists say the grim figures — 8.9 percent in April — don’t tell the whole story of Americans’ financial distress.