Yuki Noguchi

When It Comes To Productivity, Technology Can Hurt And Help

Yuki Noguchi — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:43:35 +0000

Even when people think they're buckling down, studies show the average office worker wastes over a third of the day. There's Facebook, of course, and the email from a friend with a YouTube link.

Shifting Retail Landscape Tilts Support For Online Sales Tax

Yuki Noguchi — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:40:11 +0000

The U.S. Senate may vote this week on the Marketplace Fairness Act, a bill that would allow states to collect sales tax from more online retailers. And as the political and retail landscape has shifted from the last time around, the Senate is expected to approve the measure.

The proposal to require online sellers to collect out-of-state sales tax has been kicked around for many years. For a decade, Amazon was a fierce opponent.

And Amazon had U.S. Supreme Court precedent on its side.

Foreclosed Homeowners Getting Back In The Market

Yuki Noguchi — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 22:20:01 +0000

Buyers are coming back into the housing market after losing their homes during the financial crisis — returning to homeownership more quickly than lenders have typically allowed.

With millions of families with recent foreclosures on their records, some report that they are having luck buying a house — in some cases within three years.

Jason Strotheide, for example, bought his house in Charlotte, Mich., from his grandfather. After Strotheide refinanced the house to pay for renovations, payments increased, causing the family to rely more on ballooning credit.

Foreclosure Review Is Free, But Few Borrowers Apply

Yuki Noguchi — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:20:39 +0000

It's been more than six months since government regulators and banks first extended an offer to 4.3 million homeowners facing foreclosure: to review, at no cost, the foreclosure process to check for any possible errors or misrepresentations.

Homeowners stand to collect compensation of as much as $100,000 if errors are found. But thus far, only a tiny percentage of those eligible have signed up.

'Not Enough Folks Have Signed Up'

The push for a review process was set in motion by the "robo-signing" scandal.