GEICO, the third-biggest privately-funded provider of automobile insurance in America, is reaching out to young adult drivers between the ages of 21 and 34. Geico’s newest marketing campaign involves a partnership with the Ecast touchscreen media network.

Ecast’s touchscreen interfaces grace the jukeboxes of more than 10,000 bars across the USA. They allow bar patrons to connect to an enormous online database of music, accommodating a far wider variety of tastes than the limited music selection of any single bar.

Intuitively, it would seem that people buy home insurance at all on the presupposition that eventually they will have to make a claim. That is the only way insurance makes sense at all. Aside from the fact that it’s often required by law, why pay the premiums if you don’t think you’ll ever need to collect?

Given this common-sense assumption, it can seem unfair that filing multiple claims with your home or auto insurance provider–especially certain types of claims–can make your rates go up. Certain kinds of claims cause your insurer to see you as a liability. After filing many claims, you might find that not only have your rates increased, but your coverage has diminished. What’s worse, other insurers might become more hesitant to offer you new coverage.

The effects of the sluggish economy can be seen almost anywhere in the country if you go to a gas station and look at the prices for fuel. We’re living in a time where people have to be conservative when it comes to driving, because paying at the pump for a full tank is becoming something of a luxury that most people are hard-pressed to afford.

The American housing crisis shows few signs of abating. The National Association of Realtors released figures earlier today that show Americans are able resell fewer and fewer homes than ever before.

Over the course of 2008, the number of non-new one-family homes sold across America has decreased by 15.5%. Since 2005, the highest point of the housing bubble, that figure has fallen by 33%. During the month of June, that number had decreased by 2.6%, a very high loss for only one month. If the June rate of US homes sold continued for over a period of one year, it would amount to 4.86 million non-new homes sold–the lowest number of non-new homes sold in ten years.

The Association of British Insurers has announced recently that motor insurance fraud has taken a staggering leap this year due in large part to the credit crunch. Strapped for cash, drivers are turning to fraudulent claims as a way to get some much needed dollars. The risks associated with making a fraudulent insurance claim seems to be worth it for those drivers who report their vehicle damaged or even stolen.

The amount of these claims has jumped to 70% over the last four years which is alarming to industry experts. Largely due to a record amount of consumer debt and the lack of available credit lines this jump translates to 24,000 false claims from the 14,000 recorded four years ago.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board has told Congress that the housing and credit debacles have created a great strain on the economy. Energy prices have worsened, and hiring has declined.

Fed Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke said, “The outlook for the economy has worsened in recent months, and the downside risks to growth have increased. To date, the largest economic effects of the financial turmoil appear to have been on the housing market, which, as you know, has deteriorated significantly over the past 2 years or so.”