Truck repair firm adds 220 Tennessee jobs
Fitzgerald Collision & Repair will undergo a major expansion in the Upper Cumberland and create 220 new jobs in Tennessee.
The truck repair company said today it will invest $9 million to expand its existing facility in Rickman, Tenn., and establish new operations in Sparta, Tenn.
Fitzgerald Collision & Repair, which was established in 2014, will add 100,000 square feet to its existing state-of-the-art repair facility in Rickman where it will add 145 jobs. The company will also establish a new facility in White County, which will create another 75 jobs.
“The Fitzgerald family has decades of experience in the commercial trucking industry and this most recent venture to provide best-in-class collision and repair service has been a tremendous success,” Fitzgerald Collision & Repair Founder and CEO Robert Fitzgerald said.
The company is entering into new vocational partnership with the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) Livingston, which offers students training in commercial fleet truck maintenance and repair. Interested applicants can visit applyfitzgerald.com for more information.
Debt deadline nears as CBO says deficit up
The drop-dead deadline for Congress to increase the government’s borrowing authority and avoid a devastating economic default is early to mid-October, says a government estimate released Thursday that delivered another challenge to Republican leaders.
Thursday’s Congressional Budget Office report also predicts that the federal government’s budget deficit will spike to $693 billion this year, $134 billion more than it predicted in January. The worsening deficit picture is mostly due to slipping projections of tax revenues.
Congress must act by the October debt deadline or else risk an economy-rattling, first-ever default on U.S. obligations.
The CBO report gives Congress slightly more time than Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has estimated. He has asked lawmakers to increase the so-called debt ceiling before leaving Washington for their August recess – but has also said the government can avert default through September.
The national debt is almost $20 trillion. A 2015 debt limit law expired in March, and Mnuchin has been using accounting maneuvers to keep the government solvent.
Long term mortgages drop to low for 2017
Long-term U.S. mortgage rates were unchanged to lower this week, as the benchmark 30-year rate reached a new low for the year.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.88 percent, down from 3.90 percent last week. The rate stood at 3.48 percent a year ago and averaged a record low 3.65 percent in 2016.
The 15-year, fixed-rate home loan, popular with homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgages, was unchanged last week at 3.17 percent.
Buffett biggest investor in Bank of America
Warren Buffett’s company is likely to become Bank of America’s largest investor soon because the bank received approval to boost its dividend.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holds warrants to buy 700 million shares of Bank of America stock. It received the warrants in 2011 when Buffett invested $5 billion in the bank.
Berkshire has received $300 million a year in interest payments tied to the investment, but now that Bank of America plans to increase its annual dividend to 48 cents per share Berkshire would make more by converting the warrants to common stock and collecting the dividend.
The 700 million shares would give Berkshire a stake of about 6.5 percent in the bank.