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NEW YORK - With a wedding planned for August and a new mortgage to pay, Laura Capp and her fiancé don't have much money to spend on Christmas this year. So Capp and Fred Rihn will limit their gift list, try to make rather than buy some of the items they do give, and eliminate some holiday travel. "Luckily, my extensive extended family is also cutting back this year," Capp said. For the first time, her wing of the family in Pittsburgh probably won't travel to visit the Baltimore clan. "The high cost of gas is a factor," Capp said. "And some of us don't have time off of work - or need to save up the time for other things." Many Americans like Capp and Rihn are cutting their spending this holiday season, scaling back plans for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, or looking for gifts that don't break their budgets.
State unemployment numbers improved
Kentucky's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 6.1 percent in September 2007 to 5.6 percent in October 2007, according to the Office of Employment and Training (OET), an agency of the Kentucky Education Cabinet. October 2006's jobless rate was 5.7 percent.The U.S. seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained at 4.7 percent from September 2007 to October 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.Four of the 11 major nonfarm job North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) sectors reported employment increases in October 2007, while six decreased, and one was unchanged, according to OET. A decrease of 100 jobs in October 2007 brought Kentucky's nonfarm employment to a seasonally adjusted total of 1,856,500. Since October 2006, Kentucky's nonfarm employment has increased by 12,500.According to the seasonally adjusted employment data, the government sector, which includes public education, added 1,900 jobs in October 2007.
Owners hope new shops will boost business in McMinn
SWEETWATER, Tenn. -- A seven-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 11 between Niota, Tenn., in McMinn County and Sweetwater, Tenn., in Monroe County is mainly farms and rural homes, not a hot spot for retail businesses. But travelers in the area have been speculating on who was building a line of shops called Spring Creek Crossing along the highway not far from Sweetwater. Local welder and fabricating shop owner Jack Stiner saw the area as ripe for a shopping center, one that would harken back to a time of locally owned stores where people knew each other and could shop in a friendly, hometown atmosphere. An avid antiques collector, Mr. Stiner knew what type of items interested people who like to browse in collector shops, and he decided to follow his dream.
Building rules slow Japanese growth
New regulations that discourage construction and business lending add another burden to an economy already weighed down by slowing growth in the United States, the biggest export market for Japan. That has been giving investors reason to shun Japan, whose Topix stock index is the worst performer this year in Asia, down more than 14 percent. "We had an economy that was heavily regulated, and then deregulation and liberalization gathered momentum under Koizumi," said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse Group in Tokyo. "Now, we have re-regulation. The markets have not taken it well." .
Citigroup feels heat to modify mortgages
Paulo Perez, a graphic artist, hasn't made payments in months on the $330,000 mortgage on his ranch house in La Puente, Calif. It fell to Citigroup Inc.'s mortgage-servicing unit to decide what to do about that. After Citigroup moved to foreclose on him, Mr. Perez, who is 28 years old, asked the financial giant to cut his monthly payments to a level he can afford. Citigroup representatives eventually said no, offering him a less appealing suggestion: Sell your house, turn over the proceeds, and we won't go after you for any unpaid balance. On the front lines of the great American mortgage workout, tens of thousands of borrowers are in trouble and looking for relief. Washington has offered advice about what lenders should do, and influential groups that counsel low-income borrowers are ratcheting up pressure on Citigroup and others to offer struggling homeowners more favorable terms on their existing loans — even borrowers whose finances seem hopeless.
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