TALF

As banks maintain a tight rein on loan standards and consumers hold back on taking new debt, the economic recovery looks like it will be a slow one. Economists don't have a clear picture of what's next for the economy. Some believe that the downturn has been so severe, we'll see a strong recovery....

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve signaled that it thought the worst of the recession has passed. The thing is, for job seekers, that is not even the right question to ask. On the other hand, for people who try to make money buying stocks, it's now obvious that they should have taken President Obama's...

The Federal Reserve wants to loosen up credit by ridding banks of toxic assets, but its premier program to do that, Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), got off to a very slow start in March. Interest in the program shot up in May, up by 145 percent from March, with investor demand...

For years, we became so accustomed to consumer credit going up, up and up, it was one measure of the economy that seemed infinite. In February, however, consumers proved gravity, cutting their borrowings for the fourth time in the last six months. Consumer credit outstanding fell by an adjusted...

When are the acronyms going to stop? First, people had to learn not to associate TARP with a tent. Now, comes the TALF (Term Asset -Backed Securities Loan Facility) which sounds like something my cat would cough up. In fact, it is a new $1 trillion program designed to unfreeze credit markets for...