Last week we asked if the White House jobs summit would be able to yield a cost-effective solution to stem job loss. Judging by the president’s proposals to increase employment outlined in a speech Tuesday, the answer seems to be “not really”:

The president’s proposals addressed three main areas. He focused primarily on help for small businesses, targeting them with tax credits to encourage hiring and unused Wall Street bailout dollars to increase lending. He also backed a one-year elimination of the capital gains tax on gains from new investment in small business stock and other measures.

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Last week was a busy one for us here at HSH.com. We apologize that our weekly recap didn’t have a chance to go live over the weekend. You know what they say, “better late than never.”

Monday:

“Mortgage Rates Fell As Low As 4.83% Last Week“: This is the lowest 30-year Conforming rate we’ve seen in decades!

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We just recently read that, according to the critics, the president’s jobs summit — which began earlier this afternoon — “is more about politics than policy.” If you think about it, isn’t most, if not all, policy driven by political pressures?

On one hand, economists like Lawrence Summers feel that “There is no more important priority for the American economy than jobs.” On the other hand, many lawmakers are up for reelection in 2010, and how their home states interpret how their lawmakers handle the unemployment situation could influence whether or not they remain in office, and whether or not the president will continue to have a Democratic Congress on his side. With all that said, the pressure is on from all sides to stem the tide of job loss: Read the rest of this entry »

Each Saturday we review all the stories we published during the week — just in case you missed one or two.

Friday

“FHA Reserves Almost Gone, And There’s No Going Back“: HUD/FHA say no need for a bailout. We say that the FHA’s expanded role in the marketplace suggests otherwise.

Thursday

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President Obama announced today that a jobs summit will be held at the White House next month in order to recast legislative attention to a sector of the economy that has worsened:

“This is one of the great challenges that remains in our economy, a challenge that my administration is absolutely determined to meet,” [said the president].

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