They say that timing is everything and I went from thinking mine wasn’t so good to moving on with little angst. I speak of my purchase of the iPhone 4 I bought a few weeks back, just days before the unveiling of a new phone by Apple, the 4S.
The decision to buy the new phone was forced on me by my two-year old Blackberry, which seemed to be slowly and permanently becoming un-RIMmed. So when I heard the news that gave so many smart phone junkies reason to cry, that the new iPhone would not be a 5, but only a 4S, it was good. All you have with the new phone, according to Colin Gillis of BGC Partners, “is an A5 processor in the existing iPhone 4.”
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There was more bad news for a handful of homeowners who are struggling to make their mortgage payment when it was announced that the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program was shutting down. The funding provided forgivable loans up to $50,000 to temporarily help unemployed or underemployed people avoid foreclosure in 32 states and Puerto Rico, through zero-interest loans. It will end with less than half of the eligible funds being spent.
Critics blame restrictive guidelines that enabled only about a tenth of applicants to even qualify for the grants and interest-free loans. “The [HUD] guidelines were so restrictive that it knocked out a lot of otherwise eligible and worthy consumers,” says HUD spokesman Lemar Wooley, adding that “no one could have anticipated how difficult the statutory requirements make it to reach the homeowner.”
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Then there are those who blame Wall Street. Protestors and continued their demonstration, now in its fifth week, at the downtown park in lower Manhattan. The protestors say they are fighting for the “99 percent,” or all of us who do not make it into the wealthiest 1 percent of the population. “The banks got bailed out, we got sold out,” was one cry of the dissatisfied citizens. Perhaps one government body is paying attention. In a new get tougher strategy, the Securities and Exchange Commission stated they intend to “file more civil cases in which defendants are accused of negligence only,” rather than intentional fraud.
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It’s still “Thank God for Mississippi,” if you live in Arkansas and Tennessee. Meg Handley in U.S. News and World Reports gives us the ten poorest states in the union, and the Magnolia State came in at number one. The national averages are:
• Median income (3-year average): $49,445
• Unemployment rate (August 2011): 9.1 percent
• Poverty rate (3-year average): 14.2 percent
Mississippi and it’s “poorest numbers are:
• Median income: $36,850
• Unemployment rate: 10.3 percent
• Poverty rate: 21.3 percent
Arkansas is the second poorest state with:
• Median income: $38,600
• Unemployment rate: 8.3 percent
• Poverty rate: 16.5 percent
And Tennessee placed third with these numbers:
• Median income: $40,026
• Unemployment rate: 9.7
• Poverty rate: 16.1 percent
Rounding out the top 10 were No. 4 West Virginia, No. 5 Louisiana, No. 6 Montana, No. 7 South Carolina, No. 8 Kentucky, No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 North Carolina. Handley writes, “After incremental gains earlier this year, Americans are seeing smaller earnings growth again, with rates receding to levels not seen since the second half of 2010.” The slowdown could be catastrophic, according to some experts, who worry that simmering problems domestically could be brought to a head by the festering sovereign debt crisis and the banking crisis bubbling in Europe.
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But the news isn’t all bad, with many companies beginning to hire again. Rick Newman of U.S News gave the top industries where jobs are coming back, based on data from research firm IBISWorld. No. 1 Office staffing (284,000 new jobs in 2011). No. 2 Tourism (191,000 new jobs), No. 3 Education (131,000 jobs), No. 4 Restaurants (130,000 new jobs), No. 5 Car dealerships (101,000 new jobs), No. 6 Doctors (63,000 new jobs), No. 7 Home-building (47,000 new jobs) of which Newman writes, “The real-estate bust cost two million jobs in construction alone, but job losses seem to have bottomed out, and there’s a good chance 2011 will be the year that a slow housing recovery begins.” No. 8 Warehouse clubs and supercenters (43,000 new jobs), No. 9 Nursing homes and elderly services (41,000 new jobs), No. 10 Supermarket and grocery stores (31,000 new jobs).