Financial review of 2007: January

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Bankrate's 2008 Financial Forecast

A look back at 2007

When it comes to personal finance, you can learn a lot about what will happen by looking at what has happened.

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Month-by-month snapshot

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec

Financial review of 2007
January

This month in history:

Jan. 1, 1772
First traveler's check issued (London).

January 1960
U.S. census reaches 179,245,000.

Jan. 10, 1997
Italy's new 1,000 lire coin shows a divided Germany on map.

Jan. 30-31, 2007
FOMC meets and leaves key rate unchanged.

Microsoft launches its new operating system, Vista, to mixed reviews. Complaints about Vista eventually reach such a fever pitch that PC makers are forced to give customers the option of backtracking to Windows XP on new machines.

Complaints about climate also reach a fever pitch, as representatives from 10 of the world's largest corporations, including General Electric and DuPont, lobby Congress for action on reducing the country's output of greenhouse gasses.

Whole Foods Inc. enters the S&P 500, as organic and gourmet foods join the mainstream.

Crude oil futures continue to fall, reaching levels last seen in May 2005. There's no sign of the cost decline at gas pumps.

A look at the numbers


	Unemployment rate: 4.6 percent
	CPI one-month change: +0.2 percent
	Productivity: Q1 +0.7 percent
	Average 60-month new-car loan: 7.86 percent
	Federal funds rate: 5.25 percent
	NAR existing homes sales: 6,440,000
	Months' supply of existing home sales: 6.6
	Existing home sales price: $210,900
	Consumer debt: Q1 $2,418,500,000,000
	Dow Jones industrial average high: 12,685.54
	Average price for gallon of regular gas: $2.19

Unemployment rate

The unemployment rate is the percentage of employable people seeking work out of the total number of employable U.S. residents. It is compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency of the Labor Department.

-- Posted: Dec. 10, 2007

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