Even with the fact that today the news came in that jobless claims have dropped to a one-year low, the reality is that this is the worst job market in right around 26 years. So, even as the picture starts to improve, things still need to be happening to stimulate job creation. And, as a result, president Barack Obama is convening a jobs summit.
Gathering 130 people together — business people, union leaders, and economists — at the White House is one way he hopes to get input on what can be done to increase the effectiveness of the jobs efforts …read more

One of the realities of banking is that there are fees involved. And, interestingly, the bigger the bank, the bigger the fees. It is rather frustrating to read about bailouts of big banks, only to find that very large percentages of their profits come from fees. So, not only are your taxes going to help prop up these big banks, but you also prop them up through the fees you pay. The Service Employees International Union estimates (since banks don’t reveal it) that J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America all make more than 70% of their profits from …read more

Credit may be getting harder to come by for small business owners as Bank of America announces more than $500 million dollars in charge offs of small business loans this past quarter. That’s up from $239 million in the third quarter of 2007.
What it means is that are cutting back on loans to small business – so much so that they have declined to #4 on the list of SBA lenders. In 2007, they were #1.
And I have a feeling they aren’t the only lender who will be more stringent in credit lending in the upcoming months.
It’s going extremely difficult …read more