Author Archives: loansandcredit

As this graphic illustrates, the United States government has a history of stepping in to help ensure companies it deems too big to fail remain solvent. Since 1970, the government has provided assistance to specific companies and industries to prevent a ripple effect throughout the economy. It is a costly practice, but one that has been more […]

Like overstretched American homeowners, governments and companies across the globe are groaning under the weight of debts. Debt vs. GDP Governments and companies around the world are going further and further into debt. The statistic used most often to evaluate this condition is the relationship between GDP and debt. GDP is gross domestic product, which […]

Breakdown by U.S. state of the highest and lowest tax rates for gasoline, cigarettes, sales and booze. State Taxes in America One of the factors that makes the cost of living vary from state to state in the U.S. is taxes. Each state sets the tax rate for many types of taxes and quite a […]

Which form of plastic is more popular with American consumers? There are currently 576,400,000 credit cards in the United States versus 507,000,000 debit cards, so credit cards clearly have the upper hand. Among 2010 credit cards, 270.1 million are Visa (down 11% from 2008), 203 million are MasterCard (down 22% from 2008), 48.9 million are […]

According to data compiled during the 3rd and 4th financial quarters of 2009, China outranks every other country in the world in terms of a positive international trade balance. Close on China’s heels, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Japan also showed healthy positive international trade balances. The figures were smaller for Norway, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, […]

Is the US economy feeling better? Track state and nationwide changes in unemployment rates, jobs by industry, and foreclosure facts for 2009 Unemployment rates rose from 2008 to 2009, with the overall unemployment rate rising from 7.3% to a record high of 10%. The increase in unemployment is tied to almost every industry in the […]

Learn to live with less. Learn to shun envy. Appreciate what you have. If you have less, you will appreciate what you have more. No Image 10 Lies That Landed You in Credit Card Debt No matter how much most of us try to avoid the temptation to purchase items we really don’t need, we […]

Based on standard FICO criteria, we were shocked to learn that the U.S. credit score was… Calculation of the United States Credit Score Everyone realizes the significance of monitoring their credit score and ensuring it’s as high as possible, especially with the immense scrutiny of lenders these days. At the same time, we have also […]

For the first nine months of 2009, bankruptcy filings reached 1.07 million; this number is expected to reach 1.4 million by the end of the year. Bankrupt in America This image depicts just how horrible the first half of 2009 was for a large portion of the country. The map contains a color for each […]

This map depicts 16 of world’s largest stock exchanges. World Stock Exchanges Of the approximately 100 major exchanges located throughout the world, 16 of the world’s largest stock exchanges are depicted on the above image. The map also shows the market value and share turnover of each exchange. Share turnover is defined as a measure […]