Word: creditably
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...BOTTOM LINE Economists give Kerry credit for addressing the heart of the problem: workers are expensive. But economists have doubts about whether this limited policy will make a real difference. They are much less excited about Bush's tax cuts, which could fire up some consumer spending, but not enough to add jobs, and would worsen the deficit. "We can't afford them anymore," says Diane Swonk, chief economist at Bank One. Shrinking the deficit or making big changes to the health-care system, the experts say, would do more to shore up business confidence and boost hiring...
...HEAVY INDEBTEDNESS of American consumers is nothing new. U.S. families have gradually been spending more of their household budget, about 13%, on debt payments. As long as housing prices hold up, economists say the debt burden will stay manageable. But as interest rates rise, mortgages and credit-card debt get more expensive, especially for those making less than $50,000 a year. "If you look at the low end of the income spectrum, they seem to be having more difficulty making payments," says Sohn. Over time, the deficit could worsen that effect, by making interest rates higher than they would...
KERRY He proposes tougher regulations against abusive mortgage lending practices and credit-card policies. He promises to cut the deficit in half within four years through spending cuts...
Your personal-debt problems may soon worsen. The folks at Economy.com expect the Federal Reserve's string of interest-rate hikes to affect the interest rates you pay on your credit card sometime in the first half of next year, according to Scott Hoyt, the site's director of consumer economics. The key to feeling as little pain as possible is using the next six to nine months to pay down your debt smartly. In my new book, Pay It Down! From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day (Portfolio), I discuss strategies to do just that. For instance...
FIND THE MONEY If you're like most people, you have no idea where you spend your cash or how much you charge each month until your credit-card statement arrives. By taking stock (pencil and paper works for this task; so does a money-management program like Quicken), you'll quickly learn just how much is going toward things like dry cleaning, iTunes downloads and those midafternoon Frappuccinos. Changing your habits is the surest way to find that $10 a day. And if you could manage to do that, in three years you would eliminate the hefty...