Informative News Artricles

In a move that most experts expected, the Federal Reserve decided today to leave the target for the federal funds rate--what the Fed charges banks to borrow money on a short-term basis--between zero and 0.25 percent, where it has been since December 2008. The Fed also repeated its pledge to keep rates low for an "extended period." Although it's uncertain how long this extended period will last, few are expecting a rate hike in the near future. "Everyone knows rates can't stay this low forever," says Doug Harsham, vice president of municipal trading at Raymond James. "It's just a question of when it's going to change and how drastically."
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Let the bankers come with their foreclosure notices. Invite the building inspectors, too. At 100 years old, Agnes Albinger has lived on her 70-acre patch of farmland longer than most of those people have been alive. She has seen two world wars come and go, survived the Depression — in part by subsisting on minnow stew — and raised 40 foster children. Now, she has become a rallying point in this rural community as she fights to keep her Monee farm.
Continue Reading (courtesy Chicago Tribune)