Got a bad case of the fiscal blues? No surprise there. No other major metropolitan area is as stressed out as Tampa Bay when it comes to the combined factors of a rough job market, tight credit, household budget constraints, lower net worth and, most significantly, a lousy housing market. That's according to the quarterly Consumer Distress Index released Wednesday by the nonprofit credit counseling agency CredAbility. Out of the top 25 metros, Tampa Bay was not only most financially distressed, but it also was the only major metro in the bottom-rung category of "Emergency Crisis." Detroit, the second-most-distressed city, just barely landed one category higher: "Distressed Unstable."Detroit and Miami-Fort Lauderdale have been in emergency crisis mode during parts of 2011, along with Tampa Bay. ... Continue reading →
TALLAHASSEE — If Citizens Property Insurance Corp. moves forward with a controversial plan to uncap rates for new customers, the price to join state-run insurance will increase by an average of 30 percent next year.Data prepared for a Citizens committee meeting on Thursday show the plan would lead to significantly higher premiums in most cases and homeowners, in some parts of the state, would pay twice as much as their neighbors for the same coverage. The plan — which Citizens agreed to study more closely after it sparked public outcry last month — is part of the insurer's aggressive push to reduce its risk and shrink in size. Central to its strategy is finding ways around a 10 percent cap on rate increases put into ... Continue reading →
TAMPA — Dozens of people gathered outside JPMorgan Chase's annual shareholders meeting Tuesday morning in anticipation of a protest of the massive bank's staggering $2.3 billion trading loss revealed last week.Most of those outside the bank offices near Interstate-75 and Martin Luther King Boulevard were members of the media, though Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies also were on scene.Shareholders were checking in for a meeting in which CEO Jamie Dimon has the unenviable task of explaining the loss to upset investors.Dimon has called the loss "terrible" and "egregious."The details of loss are reminiscent of what nearly took down the financial system four years ago — trades so complicated and so large that they go unnoticed until they come smashing down.It's the kind of loss that helped ... Continue reading →
