Progress Through Business, Inc.

Cascade Asset Management, a Madison-based recycler of electronic equipment, with which Progress Through Business works, has joined with the Basel Action Network and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition to prevent the dumping of toxic electronic waste in developing countries and local landfills. establish a certification program for recycling so-called e-waste.

The first of the Bush administration's major financial takeovers, the seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is poised to get more expensive and some analysts are warning that it may ultimately cost more than the government has suggested.

Mounting troubles in the financial and housing markets have further undermined the health of the companies in the months since the government seized them in September, making it likely the Treasury will be required to pump billions of dollars into the mortgage-finance giants.

After the bank bail-out, it is now Detroit’s carmakers who are pleading for help

If nothing else, the revelation by General Motors (GM) on November 7th that it is in danger of running out of cash before the end of the year has concentrated minds. The reaction within the embattled car industry, and in Washington, DC, has been the same: we knew it was bad, but we did not know it was that bad. Ford is in a similar position, although its cash should hold out for a few months longer.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson signaled a significant shift on Nov. 12 in how the Bush Administration aims to apply the remaining $400 billion available under the federal government's bailout plan, saying the department would focus increasingly on consumer debt, nonbank financial companies, and homeowners facing foreclosure.

Paulson made clear he no longer plans large-scale purchases of questionable mortgage-related securities, the original model for the $700 billion financial-rescue plan.

Dalecia Apple would buy what she wanted when she wanted it. If the Newark teen had $20, it was gone by the end of the day. All that changed after a summer of learning about savings, budgeting and the ins and outs of how to be a bank teller.

In an effort to help educate young people about financial planning and to introduce Newark stu dents, including Apple, to careers in finance, Capital One opened a bank branch at West Side High School yesterday.

"I was not good at saving at all, but now I have control of my money," Apple said, laughing. "It doesn't feel good to be broke."

The level of foreclosure activity in the state continued to intensify last month, showing a dramatic 75 percent increase over last year, even as the number of properties actually going to auction dropped off slightly.

Foreclosure filings on 8,473 properties across the state were filed in October, with Essex, Bergen and Salem counties driving the activity, according to the latest data compiled by RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties.

There were both alarming numbers and curious wrinkles behind the state's foreclosure activity.

WASHINGTON — The prospects of a government rescue for the foundering American automakers dwindled Thursday as Democratic Congressional leaders conceded that they would face potentially insurmountable Republican opposition during a lame-duck session next week.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd said Thursday that he did not think there would be enough Republican support in the Senate to get the 60 votes needed to move an emergency aid bill forward.

Not so long ago, corporate giants with names like PanAm, ITT and Montgomery Ward roamed the earth. They faded and were replaced by new companies with names like Microsoft, Southwest Airlines and Target. The U.S. became famous for this pattern of decay and new growth. Over time, American government built a bigger safety net so workers could survive the vicissitudes of this creative destruction — with unemployment insurance and soon, one hopes, health care security.

AS RECENTLY as a month ago, there were still hopes that America and Europe might just pull back from the precipice of a recession. Those hopes have been dashed. The economies of the rich world seem to have fallen off a cliff. The question now is the height of the drop.

PHILADELPHIA — Harvey Shaw’s plans to move out of his parents’ house, finally, have been derailed. With a high school degree obtained belatedly at 21, he had held a full-time job for 26 months as a detailer at a car dealership here, sprucing up new and used cars.

But in early October, Mr. Shaw, now 24, recalled, “I came back from vacation, and they said they were cutting back and replacing me with part-time workers.”

Labor experts say the hardships of the gathering recession are sweeping down to hurt the working poor and younger job seekers most of all.

Craig Wilson, of Salt Lake City, has joined Progress Through Business to create a new division of the organization. His goals include: 1) Explaining in real-life detail the essence of Wikipedia’s definition of Frugality: "The acquiring of and resourceful use of economic goods and services in order to achieve lasting and more fulfilling goals”; and 2) Helping people break out of the shackles of material and financial bondage into a world ‘beyond money’ where life can become a constant stream of joyful service that leads to enduring happiness and meaningful relationships.

Lenders Cite Toughened Standards and Declining Creditworthiness of Borrowers as Some Critics Blame Government Inaction

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122575609098795075.html

Progress Through Business is working with Cascade Asset Management, a Madison-based firm that recycles used electronic equipment.
Based in Madison the 9 year-old firm has offices throughout the country from Delaware to Washington state and California.
According to its website, items bound for recycling are separated into over 50 commodity streams from aluminum to zinc-carbon batteries. This high degree of separation produces superior recovery yields.

Bankers and just about everybody else agrees that a foreclosed home is an eyesore and destroyer of property values. But Peter McNamee of Sacramento who heads his own research firm, McNamee research, is working to turn them back into occupied properties.
His idea is to take these homes off the bank’s hands at a deep discount and rehabilitate them as rental properties for foreclosed families.
What this does, he says, is turn an eyesore in into a property that can stabilize home values in neighborhoods. The home can then be sold to families that have rebuilt their credit.

Progress Through Business is cooperating with several Madison, Wisconsin companies to provide free tax preparation services to their low-income employees.
Metavante, a credit card maker and processor, Food Fight, which operates several restaurants, the US Veterans Administration Hospital, the University of Wisconsin Hospital and the telecom company, TDS are participating in the program, says Kris Schlenker, who is coordinating the effort for Progress Through Business.
“The dollars they get works out to a raise, so the employee feels the company is invested in them, says Schlenker.

U.S. government agencies made at least $5 billion in mistakes in their recent reports of contracts awarded to small businesses, with many claiming credit for awards to companies that long ago outgrew the designation or never qualified in the first place, a Washington Post analysis shows. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR200810...

Capitalism sure is fragile if subprime borrowers can ruin it.

Two weeks ago, I wrote that the breakdown of the nation's financial industry was undeniably a self-induced injury; that it would finally force conservatives to own up to the wrongheadedness of their deregulatory project; that they couldn't possibly blame the disaster on any of their traditional bogeymen.

Date: Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Time: 8:00 a.m. -- 1:30 p.m.
Location: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Where: 230 S. LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL

[From the Wall Street Journal] With big banks looking like they’ll be unstable for a while — and therefore hesitant to lend — small businesses may be turning more and more to community banks.

As small businesses themselves, these neighborhood institutions have generally been considered more stable than their bigger brethren, largely because they didn’t put so much money into highly leveraged off-balance-sheet investments.

But that doesn’t mean they’re immune from the problems swirling around Wall Street. [Follow link for the rest of the story]

By DAVID BROOKS, NY Times
Published: September 22, 2008
Once, there was a financial elite in this country. During the first two-thirds of the 20th century, middle-aged men with names like Mellon and McCloy led Wall Street firms, corporate boards and white-shoe law firms and occasionally emerged to serve in government.

Starting in the 1960s, that cohesive elite began to fall apart. Liberal interest groups took control of Democratic economic policy. Supply-side think tankers and Southern conservatives dominated the GOP.