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Summary List Placement The Senate approved the $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation on Saturday morning, putting Democrats another step closer to locking down President Joe Biden’s first legislative achievement after a marathon period of voting. The economic aid package heads back to the House for final approval. Republicans were united in their opposition in the 50-49 […]

Summary List Placement In this week’s episode of “Pitchfork Economics,” co-host Nick Hanauer points out that the United States doesn’t really have an industrial policy. Other nations intentionally establish suites of economic, regulatory, and fiscal policies which direct their industrial sectors into specific fields, focus manufacturing into new technologies, and discourage harmful corporate behavior such […]

Summary List Placement Texas officials said they do not plan to reverse an estimated $16 billion in electricity overcharges  incurred during a deep freeze that roiled the state’s power grids and left millions without power last month.  In a meeting on Friday, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCOT) said it will be too challenging […]

Summary List Placement Sen. Elizabeth Warren has made it clear: She wants to tax the ultrawealthy. It’s a measure that a majority of Americans support, and could bring in billions in tax revenue, but beyond the political will to make it law it faces several legal obstacles. Besides implementation concerns, it might not be allowed […]

Summary List Placement The US treasury secretary Janet Yellen on Friday said the US government needed to “go big” with its coronavirus stimulus relief.  Yellen spoke in favor of President Joe Biden’s planned $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which is working its way through Congress.  “Well, it’s a big package, but I think that we need […]

Summary List Placement Elon Musk would have paid $4.6 billion in 2020 under proposals for an “ultra-millionaire” tax, data from tax groups shows. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts proposed the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act Monday. It would apply an annual 2% tax on individual net worth between $50 million and $1 billion, or 3% on net worth above […]

Summary List Placement Senate Democrats brokered a deal on Friday evening on unemployment benefits, clearing a major barrier for the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. It potentially sets up final vote on the relief legislation sometime on Saturday. Two Democratic aides told Insider that the new plan would provide $300 in federal unemployment benefits through September […]

What a two-year stretch it has been for appraisers. The appraisal workforce was already in decline in 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the industry’s workforce shrank even further. To compound matters, homebuyer demand skyrocketed thanks to historically-low mortgage rates and societal changes. These factors combined to throw the appraisal industry in flux. […]

Summary List Placement The Senate kicked off a “vote-a-rama” on Friday with a vote on the $15-per-hour minimum wage, but the proceedings quickly stalled out because of a clash over unemployment benefits in the Democratic relief package. Senate Democrats made a last-minute change to the relief bill, reducing the federal unemployment benefit to $300-per-week instead […]

Summary List Placement New York legislators may be able to push through taxes on the ultrawealthy amidst the turmoil surrounding Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Bloomberg reports.  Cuomo previously outlined a worst-case scenario where New York’s wealthiest would see the country’s highest income rate taxes if the White House didn’t step in to help with the budget […]

Summary List Placement The February jobs report shows the labor market in reopening rehearsal.  The US added 379,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, handily exceeding the median economist estimate of 200,000 additions. The unemployment rate fell to 6.2% from 6.3%, labor force participation held steady, and the number of Americans citing COVID-19 for not seeking employment fell […]

Summary List Placement Senate Democrats struck a last-minute deal on Friday to lower unemployment benefits in the stimulus package to $300 per week and extend the benefits through the end of September, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the decision. This is a significant change from the rescue package recently approved by the House, which included […]

Tension between long-time rivals United Wholesale Mortgage and Rocket Pro TPO, formerly Quicken Loans Mortgage Services, reached a new boiling point after the top wholesale lender in the nation announced it will no longer work with brokers who also work with Rocket Mortgage.  Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of UWM, gave brokers and owners just […]

Summary List Placement It’s a decades-old debate: Does paying someone simply for being alive make it easier for them to find a job or discourage them from seeking work?  One city got its answer on Wednesday: A new report evaluated a basic-income pilot in Stockton, California, that gave 125 residents $500 monthly stipends for two […]

Summary List Placement The federal government’s debt pile is on track to nearly double over the next three decades, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Government debt swelled over the past year as lawmakers passed stimulus bills aimed at helping Americans through the COVID-19 recession. The increased spending led federal debt to reach […]

On Summary List Placement The Senate voted along party lines to kick off debate on the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan on Thursday afternoon.  But Republicans appear intent on dragging out the proceedings to make it as painful as possible on Democrats advancing the measure without GOP support. The protracted debate could mean Senate passage of […]

Summary List Placement To help the people who have struggled the most during COVID-19, the US Treasury Department announced a $9 billion investment on Thursday in programs to support low-income and minority communities. The Treasury Department opened applications for the Emergency Capital Investment Program, which, according to a press release, is designed to help communities […]

Summary List Placement Former Prudential Financial CEO George Ball told Yahoo Finance on Thursday that he believes cryptocurrencies are “attractive” as a “small part” of any portfolio. Until recently, the chairman and CEO of investment firm Sanders Morris Harris had long been a critic of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In a video call with Reuters […]

Multifamily property owners who are struggling to make mortgage payments due to the coronavirus pandemic now have a reprieve through the end of June for mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Friday. Forbearance options for multifamily mortgages backed by the GSEs were set to expire on Mar. 31, but the FHFA has […]

Summary List Placement The clock is ticking for Congress to get the American Rescue Plan on President Joe Biden’s desk by March 14 — the day Americans are set to lose their unemployment benefits. And now that the bill sits in the Senate, many Americans can’t afford to see federal aid run out. The $900 […]

United Wholesale Mortgage, the top wholesale lender in the nation, announced on a Facebook live Thursday that it will no longer partner with brokers who also work with Rocket Mortgage and Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of UWM, gave brokers and owners a deadline of March 15 to sign an addendum […]

Summary List Placement Tech stocks’ market leadership may be fading and investors aren’t “bullish enough about the reopening,” according to Fundstrat’s Tom Lee. Lee made an appearance on CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Wednesday. In the interview, he said he sees tech stocks’ market leadership fading as the post-pandemic reopening gets underway. “I think tech’s leadership, […]

As reported yesterday, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a notice of proposed rule-making that would “delay the mandatory compliance date of the general qualified mortgage rule 15 months to Oct. 1, 2022.” The bureau said: “extending the mandatory compliance date of the general QM final rule would allow lenders more time to offer QM […]

The average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan rose 5 basis points last week to 3.02%, marking the first time since July that the industry has seen rates break above 3%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Since reaching a low point in January, mortgage rates have risen by more than 30 basis points as the […]

Summary List Placement The number of people filing for unemployment insurance in the US rose less than estimated as Democrats neared a critical vote on President Joe Biden’s stimulus proposal. New jobless claims reached an unadjusted 745,000 for the week that ended Saturday, according to the Labor Department. The median estimate from economists surveyed by […]

Summary List Placement Unpaid internships have come under renewed scrutiny in recent days, as discourse has swirled online over their potential for exploitation and inequity. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even weighed in with a tweet on Monday, writing: “Pay your interns! It’ll improve your operation and make it more diverse and just.” Now, Sens. Cory Booker […]

The regulatory landscape has shifted quickly under President Biden. To discuss just what that means for those in the housing economy, Kris Kully, a partner at Mayer Brown, and David Stevens, the former CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, will speak on a panel titled A New Regulatory Regime, at HousingWire’s virtual Spring Summit on March 4. […]

Summary List Placement Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned “conservative” Democratic senators who pushed their party to limit eligibility for a new set of $1,400 stimulus checks under President Joe Biden’s relief package.  Biden has endorsed the proposal for quicker phaseouts for the $1,400 stimulus checks to prevent people who earn higher incomes from getting a third […]

Summary List Placement President Joe Biden wants to pump billions of federal stimulus into state and local governments as part of his $1.9 trillion package. But state tax revenues for 2020 were surprisingly healthy. A JP Morgan survey called 2020 “virtually flat” with 2019 with regard to tax revenues for 47 states that reported their […]

Summary List Placement Billionaire Leon Cooperman told CNBC’s Squawk Box that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax has “no merit” and is “foolish.” He also revealed the real attitude among the wealthy and why critics say such a tax has implementation problems: the 1% would hide their assets. Sen. Warren and several progressives introduced the […]

Summary List Placement President Joe Biden has signed off on faster phaseouts for $1,400 stimulus checks, a step that would cut the number of people eligible for a third direct payment in the $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan that is awaiting passage into law. A Democratic aide confirmed to Insider that the president approved paring […]

Summary List Placement The Bank of England is set to tweak its $28 billion corporate bond program to make it greener. The UK government told the Bank on Wednesday that it should take climate change into account. Campaigners have criticized the Bank’s bond-buying for funding big polluters. Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 […]

Summary List Placement Rishi Sunak on Wednesday announced a further £65 billion worth of fiscal measures for the year, bringing the government’s total support aimed at recovery from COVID-19 to £407 billion. To restore public finances, the UK government hiked the rate of corporation tax from 19% to 25%. Sunak’s tax move could encourage higher […]

Summary List Placement Employment in the US private sector grew last month as falling COVID-19 case counts and continued vaccination lifted economic activity. Private payrolls rose by 117,000 in February, according to ADP’s monthly employment report. The median estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg was an increase of 200,000 payrolls. The reading marks a second […]

Mortgage applications recovered slightly from last week, increasing 0.5% for the week ending Feb. 26, 2021 according to the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. A giant dip in applications was reported following the devastating winter storms in Texas the week of Feb. 8, but a week of normalized weather brought numbers back up, […]

Summary List Placement US billionaires would have paid $114 billion between them in 2020 under an “ultra-millionaire” tax proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Monday, according to two tax groups. The bill, called the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, would apply an annual 2% tax on individuals with net worths between $50 million and $1 […]

Summary List Placement More wealthy Americans should be audited on a regular basis, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday, telling Bloomberg she wants to double the IRS budget to do just that. “The audit rate of the top one-tenth of 1% — the 100,000 families that would be affected — the audit rate will be 30%,” […]

Summary List Placement President Joe Biden was hit with his first cabinet defeat on Tuesday as his pick to oversee the White House budget office withdrew from consideration after generating resistance from a key conservative Democrat and a group of moderate Republican senators. “I have accepted Neera Tanden’s request to withdraw her name from nomination […]

Summary List Placement For now, Democrats are not going to pass a minimum wage increase over Republican objections. The path towards a minimum wage hike as part of the COVID relief package was always narrow. Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate — a bare-minimum majority when you count the vice president’s tie-breaking vote — […]

Fannie Mae announced today the appointment of Simon Johnson and Christopher Brummer to its board of directors, as well as the extension of Robert Hertz’s board term for another three years. Fannie CEO Hugh Frater said Johnson and Brummer bring “deep economic, regulatory, and business expertise,” and Board Chairwoman Sheila Bair said the duo are […]

Alex Kutsishin, CEO & co-founder of Sales Boomerang, will speak at HousingWire’s virtual Spring Summit on March 4, diving into what a two-year study reveals about the importance of borrower retention. To protect business in a competitive market, industry leaders need a 360-degree, real-time view of customers’ changing circumstances, so lenders can identify opportunities the […]

Summary List Placement Senate Democrats are up against a narrow timeline to approve a $1.9 trillion stimulus package and get it to President Joe Biden’s desk. But some Democratic senators are eyeing changes to key components of the legislation, particularly unemployment insurance and stimulus checks. The jockeying among Democrats to amend provisions for direct aid […]

Rocket Companies Chairman Dan Gilbert may want to gift some karma to users of the infamous subreddit Wall Street Bets. His company’s stock soared nearly 100% on Tuesday after the day traders at the subreddit took interest in the mortgage lender’s stock, which had been hovering around the $20 mark for much of the past […]

Summary List Placement The US is currently administering, on average, 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccines per day. But budget experts say that is not enough to prompt the economic recovery the country truly needs. In a report released on Monday by Penn Wharton Budget Model — a nonpartisan economic research organization at the University of Pennsylvania […]

Summary List Placement The US economic recovery hinges a great deal on how the rest of the world rebounds, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. For the moment, the US is expected to fully recover from its virus-induced downturn by the end of the year. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects […]