Bryan Noeth, a policy analyst for the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability, lays out the case for focusing attention on student loan borrowers with seemingly manageable levels of debt who still have problems making payments.
The buildup of mortgage debt before the crisis and the subsequent deleveraging have had profoundly different effects on different age groups. Younger families generally experienced the most volatility, while older families emerged with the largest net increase in mortgage debt.
The financial crisis and ensuing recession took a toll on just about everybody’s household wealth. Not surprisingly, the pain wasn’t evenly distributed. Those groups that are usually the most vulnerable in our society—young and middle-aged minority households—suffered the most, percentage-wise.
Did you know that buying a credit default swap can be like buying insurance on your neighbor’s car—and then getting paid when that neighbor has an accident? Learn the ABCs of CDS, and find out why they are so important to any discussion of the European debt crisis.
Increasingly, emerging markets are becoming a source of growth in the global economy. For example, foreign direct investment both into and out of these countries has shown a phenomenal increase since 2000.
To those who don't know, the term "shadow banking" probably has a negative connotation. This primer draws parallels between what has been termed the shadow banking sector and the traditional banking sector—showing that they are similar in many ways.
On a national level, the number of vacant homes is declining, as is the percentage of mortgages in serious delinquency. However, the demand for housing hasn't picked up, nor have prices.
How did poor underwriting bring about the collapse of the subprime mortgage market? More importantly, how would subprime mortgages perform if underwriting standards did not deteriorate?
As in most crises, investors turned to Treasuries in droves over the past couple of years, even as yields declined.
