debt

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Secret Santas Wipe Away Strangers' Layaway Debts

Anonymous donors clearing accounts at Kmarts, Walmarts

(Newser) - A nice fad this holiday season: Secret Santas are going around to Kmarts and Walmarts and paying off the layaway accounts of random strangers. It's happening all over, including stores in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, South Carolina, and Montana. The AP , NPR and Time round up examples of the...

Student Loan Debt to Hit $1T This Year

...that's more than Americans owe on their credit cards

(Newser) - America’s total outstanding student loan debt will cross the $1 trillion threshold for the first time this year, putting those loans ahead of credit cards as the country’s biggest source of debt, USA Today reports, citing figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Student lending has...

Mortgages, Wages Force Many to Delay Retirement

Debt weighing down 60-something Americans: Wall Street Journal

(Newser) - Many Americans are being forced to put off retirement thanks to mountains of debt and lower wages, a feature in today’s Wall Street Journal asserts. Because wages have barely kept up with inflation over the past 35 years, Americans have been borrowing more money and saving less. As of...

Fitch Reaffirms AAA Rating
 Fitch Reaffirms AAA Rating 
Aug 16, 2011 9:01 AM CDT

Fitch Reaffirms AAA Rating

Also says outlook on US ratings is stable

(Newser) - Take that, Standard & Poor's: Fitch Ratings says it will keep its rating on US debt at the highest grade, AAA, and says its outlook on the US ratings is stable. Fitch cited the United States' "flexible, diversified, and wealthy economy," as well as its flexibility in...

Palin Lashes 'Clueless' Obama for Debt Debacle

Stop dithering, drill for natural gas, she urges

(Newser) - Sarah Palin skewered President Obama on Facebook last night over the nation's credit rating downgrade, saying he doesn't have "even a notion" of how to deal with the current fiscal meltdown. She blasted his latest press conference as another orgy of "old talking points and finger-pointing....

Moody's: Greek Default 'Virtually Certain'

But EU effort means country will likely stabilize

(Newser) - Moody's downgraded Greece's bond ratings by a further three notches today and warned that it is almost inevitable the country will be considered to be in default following last week's new bailout package . The agency says the new EU package of measures implies "substantial" losses for...

Obama, Congress Still Seek 'Grand Bargain'

New committee to look for $5T in cuts over 10 years

(Newser) - That big debt ceiling deal just won't die: Lawmakers are still working on an ambitious "grand bargain" that would hack as much as $5 trillion from the national debt over the next decade, reports the Washington Post . President Obama, House speaker John Boehner, and other congressional leaders have...

One Trend Among GOP Freshmen: Debt

Not the national kind, the personal kind

(Newser) - Republican freshmen in Congress say they're serious about tackling the US debt—but when it comes to their own personal debt, many have what the Washington Post amusingly calls “a more nuanced view.” At least 30 out of 87 had debts of $50,000 or more last...

Gingrich Owed Tiffany's More Than $250K

Wife's House filings reveal debt to jeweler

(Newser) - Newt Gingrich owed Tiffany jewelers up to $500,000 in 2005 and 2006, House financial disclosures reveal—and it’s not clear whether he’s paid it off yet. Though Gingrich left the House in 1999, his wife worked for the House Agriculture Committee until 2007, and thus filed the...

Rising at Last, Ground Zero Tower Faces New Hurdle

Investors take issue with bond sale; could delay building once again

(Newser) - After seemingly interminable delays, a new World Trade Center tower is finally rising—but now it’s encountering new financial problems. An institutional investor group is holding up the $1.3 billion bond sale that would finance the construction of Tower 4 for fear it could hurt the value of...

Feds Hit States With Interest on Unemployment Loans

Tax-free provision ended with first stimulus

(Newser) - With most states already swinging in the recessionary winds, more bad news—many will have to start paying interest on the money they borrow to pay unemployment benefits. When jobless levels hit the unthinkable, with some states seeing 14%-15%, many had to go cap in hand to the feds to...

56% of Americans Retiring With Debt

And most were unwilling to delay retirement to chip away at it

(Newser) - Financially speaking, now isn't such a great time to be a new veteran . Or a resident of Nevada . And it's definitely not a good time to be retiring. Newsweek pulls together a handful of recent studies regarding Americans entering their golden years that are downright depressing. Among them:
  • Bankruptcies are
...

Gambling Debt May Have Led to Bronco's Suicide

Kenny McKinley owed loads to casino

(Newser) - Kenny McKinley had a gambling problem and deep debts as a result when he took his own life in September, investigators looking into the wide receiver’s death discovered. One fellow Bronco, backup quarterback Tom Brandstater, told investigators he’d lent McKinley $65,000 to pay down $40,000 he...

Money Trouble May Signal Alzheimer’s

Financial advisers ponder meaning of 'competence'

(Newser) - The first sign of Arthur Packel's Alzheimer's was the call from the homeowner's association asking for unpaid fees. As his mind began its long slide, it turns out, the first thing he did was simply stop paying bills. When his wife tried to pick up the slack, she found much...

Debtor’s Prison Makes Its Ugly Return

Government 'shakes down' citizens for collectors

(Newser) - Strongly worded letters and menacing phone calls aren't enough, it seems, to whip America's debtors into shape. Instead, the country's collection industry is turning to civil courts, using taxpayer money and government resources to pursue "low level deadbeats," finds Reason . The process pits debtors against a system that...

Credit Card Debt Drops to 8-Year Low

Falls to an average of $4,951

(Newser) - The average American’s credit card debt hit an 8-year low in the second quarter of the year—even as rates hit a 9-year high . The average combined credit card debt fell to $4,951, down 13% from $5,719 over the same stretch last year, according to figures from...

France Urged to Repay Haiti's $22B 'Independence Debt'

Payout would make up for quake aid shortfall

(Newser) - France should fork over almost $22 billion to Haiti to make up for the "independence debt" it extorted from its former colony 200 years ago, a group of prominent activists and authors has urged in a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The money would give the impoverished Caribbean...

9 Celebs in Serious Debt
 9 Celebs in 
 Serious Debt 
Jun 28, 2010 10:56 AM CDT

9 Celebs in Serious Debt

LiLo might want to consider a cheaper place to live

(Newser) - Mariah Carey’s $38,000 veterinary bill inspired The Frisky to round up a few more celebs who owe lots of dough:
  • Rihanna: By working out with a $1,500-a-day private trainer for a month, she racked up a nearly $30,000 bill—which her trainer said hasn't been paid.
...

MGM Troubles Stop 007
 MGM Troubles Stop 007 
Apr 21, 2010 2:49 AM CDT

MGM Troubles Stop 007

Producers blame uncertainty about studio's future

(Newser) - MGM's massive debt has done what Goldfinger, Scaramanga, et al couldn't: Stop James Bond in his tracks. The next 007 movie starring heart-stopper Daniel Criag has been suspended indefinitely because of the studio's financial woes and uncertainty about its future, the BBC reports. MGM owes $3.7 billion and has...

LiLo's Credit Card Debt: $600K
 LiLo's Credit Card Debt: $600K 
trainwreck dept
Apr 19, 2010 9:57 AM CDT

LiLo's Credit Card Debt: $600K

One card already cut the not-really-an-actress-anymore off

(Newser) - We all know Lindsay Lohan's ability to shop outweighs her ability to get cast in movies these days, but now her debt has a number. And it's a big one: “Lindsay owes credit cards $600,000,” a source tells Radar , adding that one card even cut her off....

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