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Latest Articles: Economy
10 signs the double-dip recession has begun~Many Americans believe '08-'09 downturn never ended
Post Date: 2011-08-01 12:49:24 by Happy Quanzaa
2 Comments
Friday's news on GDP shows the double dip has arrived — an expansion of only 1.3 percent and consumer spending up 0.1 percent in the second quarter. Astonishingly low by any account. The debt ceiling trouble and lack of a longer term resolution to the deficit will make it worse. The U.S. has entered a second recession. It may not be as bad as the first. Economists say that the Great Recession began in December 2007 and lasted until July 2009. That may be the way that the economy was seen through the eyes of experts, but many Americans do not believe that the 2008-2009 downturn ever ended. A Gallup poll released in April found that 29 percent of those queried thought the economy ...
Coburn on ‘Back in Black’ (9 Trillion in cuts, 25% reduction in gov)
Post Date: 2011-08-01 12:08:17 by Hondo68
3 Comments
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., describes his plan to save $9 trillion in 10 years. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Part II
Congressional Sources: Republicans and Democrats Reach Tentative Debt Deal
Post Date: 2011-07-31 05:12:28 by Murron
6 Comments
Congressional Sources: Republicans and Democrats Reach Tentative Debt Deal Democratic and Republican Congressional sources involved in the negotiations tell ABC News that a tentative agreement has been reached on the framework of a deal that would give the President a debt ceiling increase of up to $2.4 trillion and guarantee an equal amount of deficit reduction over the next 10 years. The details are still being worked out, and a senior White House aide tells ABC News, "talks continue but there is no deal to report." Congressional leaders plan to brief their members on the framework tomorrow. The reaction from both parties' rank-and-file will determine whether this ...
Moody's: Neither debt plan protects the nation's AAA rating
Post Date: 2011-07-30 20:03:45 by jwpegler
4 Comments
The "limited magnitude" of both debt plans put forward by congressional leaders would not put the nation's AAA credit rating back on solid footing, Moody's Investors Service announced Friday. "Reductions of the magnitude now being proposed, if adopted, would likely lead Moody's to adopt a negative outlook on the AAA rating," the credit rating agency said in a new report. "The chances of a significant improvement in the long-term credit profile of the government coming from deficit reductions of the magnitude proposed in either plan are not high." It added that "prolonged debt ceiling deliberations" have increased the odds of a downgrade, ...
If you think the debt crisis is bad now ...
Post Date: 2011-07-30 20:00:16 by jwpegler
6 Comments
There is a comforting story about the debt ceiling that goes like this: Back in the 1990s, the U.S. was shrinking its national debt at a rapid pace. Serious people actually worried about dislocations from having too little government debt. If it hadn’t been for two wars, the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the housing meltdown, and the subsequent financial crisis and recession, the nation’s finances would be in fine condition today. And the only obstacle to getting there again, this narrative goes, is political dysfunction in Washington. If the Republicans and Democrats would just split their differences on spending and taxes and raise the debt ceiling, we could all get back to our ...
“Is Standard and Poor’s Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis?”
Post Date: 2011-07-30 10:17:00 by lucysmom
15 Comments
It’s not the default that strikes the most fear in the White House and Congress these days. It’s the downgrade As Robert Reich notes, Standard and Poors is the “biggest driver in the deficit battle.” Why would anyone care what the corrupt and disgraced organizations who quite nearly brought down the world economy think about anything at this point? And yet, that is where elite opinion is focused right now: [W]hat really haunts the administration is the very real prospect, stoked two weeks ago by Standard & Poor’s, that Barack Obama could go down in history as the president who presided over his country’s loss of its gold-plated, triple-A bond rating. [] ...
The no votes: 22 GOPers who balked Boehner
Post Date: 2011-07-29 19:24:34 by Happy Quanzaa
3 Comments
Speaker John Boehner pushed his debt-ceiling bill through the House Friday night with the support of 218 Republicans. Here are the 22 no votes: Justin Amash (Mich.) Michele Bachmann (Minn.) Chip Cravaack (Minn.) Jason Chaffetz (Utah) Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.) Tom Graves (Ga.) Tim Huelskamp (Kans.) Steve King (Iowa) Tim Johnson (Ill.) Tom McClintock (Calif.) Mick Mulvaney (S.C.) Ron Paul (Texas) Connie Mack (Fla.) Jim Jordan (Ohio) Tim Scott (S.C.) Paul Broun (Ga.) Tom Latham (Iowa) Jeff Duncan (S.C.) Trey Gowdy (S.C.) Steve Southerland (Fla.) Joe Walsh (Ill.) Joe Wilson (S.C.) CORRECTED: Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) voted YES on the Boehner bill. That was incorrect in the initial list. Rep. ...
Resuscitating America’s Manufacturing Base: Outsourcing and corporate lobbying efforts at fault
Post Date: 2011-07-29 14:30:11 by Godwinson
2 Comments
Resuscitating America’s Manufacturing Base: Outsourcing and corporate lobbying efforts at fault By Heide B. Malhotra Epoch Times Staff Reviving America’s manufacturing sector, once considered the bread and butter of the United States, is still on the back burner, as large corporations continue to outsource jobs to foreign shores. “When the job market peaked in 2008 on the eve of the financial crisis, the manufacturing sector had already shed 5 million workers since the decade began,” said John Bougearel, a market analyst and trader, in an article on the website, naked capitalism. About one-third of U.S. manufacturing jobs were lost through outsourcing between 2000 ...
John Boehner's Debt Ceiling Bill Stalls In House
Post Date: 2011-07-29 06:25:11 by Murron
4 Comments
John Boehner's Debt Ceiling Bill Stalls In House WASHINGTON -- A Republican plan that would have hiked the nation's debt ceiling for only six months and left the country's spending captive to a "Super Congress" failed to advance in the House Thursday night, with Democrats and Tea Party-backed Republicans opposing the plan. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had initially scheduled a 6 p.m. vote on his measure which, in addition to raising the debt ceiling, would have cut $915 billion in spending and set up a 12-legislator commission to compel another $1.8 trillion in reductions over 10 years. The vote was then postponed to later Thursday night, but House Majority ...
A very secret agent [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-07-28 10:16:46 by lucysmom
80 Comments
There is a charade playing out in Washington at the moment in respect of the completely meaningless "debt ceiling" which the US maintains as a relic from the days of the gold standard. We are told that at the US Treasury's account at the Federal Reserve Bank there will soon be no more taxpayers' dollars, and therefore the Fed will soon be unable to make any more payments or issue any more cheques on behalf of the Treasury. The money has run out. This is nonsense. It is a myth, and moreover it is a myth that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke exploded in his recent testimony to a US congressional committee. Asia Times">Click for Full Text!
HuffPo-AOL Admits We’re in a Depression… Sorta
Post Date: 2011-07-26 23:24:50 by Hondo68
3 Comments
It takes a while for the Obama warm and fuzzy glow to wear off. Libs at HuffPo – now a property of transnational behemoth AOL-Time Warner – are actually beginning to come around... sorta.HuffPo-AOL wants you to tweet and tell them what the economic crisis is – recession or depression? It looks like the creaky false right-left paradigm has broken down, at least in regard to the economy. Libs are turning away from the term “Bush's recession” and may be finally admitting that one man does not crash the economy.Well, that might be a bit too optimistic.Libs and government types are beginning to test the depression terminology waters. Paul Krugman calls it a ...
My Business Update
Post Date: 2011-07-25 19:34:15 by jwpegler
24 Comments
A few of us have talked about how computer professionals are starting to see more work lately. There is clearly pent-up demand for computer services now, regardless of the overall shape of the economy and looming "debt crisis". In the last week my tiny little company: Signed a big deal with one of the largest mobile handset manufacturers in the world. We are starting next Monday, and I have to be in Taiwan the week of Aug 15th. We have been invited to propose on a project for one of the most preeminent management consulting firms in the world. We don't have any background with them, so we'll see how it goes. It's just amazing that we somehow got on their vendor ...
Obamonpoly
Post Date: 2011-07-22 18:07:09 by jwpegler
2 Comments
Return of Mass Layoffs a Grim Sign for U.S. Workers
Post Date: 2011-07-22 13:42:27 by jwpegler
2 Comments
Putting pressure on an already lousy job market, the mass layoff is making a comeback. In the past week, Cisco, Lockheed Martin and Borders announced a combined 23,000 in job cuts. Those announcements follow 41,432 in planned cuts in June, up 11.6% from May and 5.3% vs. a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Meanwhile, state and local governments have cut 142,000 jobs this year, The WSJ reports, and Wall Street is braced for another round of cutbacks. This week, Goldman Sachs announced plans to let go 1000 fixed-income traders. If these trends continue, we may soon be talking about losses in the monthly employment data -- not just disappointing growth, says Howard ...
Is Bank of America At Risk of a Death Spiral?
Post Date: 2011-07-21 11:12:25 by lucysmom
16 Comments
Bloomberg’s Jonathan Weil took a look at Bank of America’s stock price, which is trading at less than half of the Charlotte bank’s book value, and discussed whether the bank is at risk of a serious crisis. If a levered financial firm’s stock trades at a severe discount from book value, it is not attractive to raise equity via selling shares (the dilutive impact on existing shareholders is punitive). Yet the steep discount is a sign that the market doubts the strength of the concern’s equity base. If those worries persist, and the company is not able to shore up its balance sheet via earnings (ie, either its profits are impaired or they are offset by writeoffs), ...
Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?
Post Date: 2011-07-20 12:31:54 by jwpegler
13 Comments
Each year for the past two decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in "poverty." In recent years, the Census has reported that one in seven Americans are poor. But what does it mean to be "poor" in America, ask Robert Rector, a senior research fellow, and Rachel Sheffield, a research assistant, at the Heritage Foundation. To the average American, the word "poverty" implies significant material deprivation, an inability to provide a family with adequate nutritious food, reasonable shelter and clothing. The actual living conditions of America's poor are far different from these images. - According to the ...
Under New Proposed Inflation Measure Seniors Would Lose $720 per Year in Social Security Payments
Post Date: 2011-07-19 03:17:11 by Murron
23 Comments
Under New Proposed Inflation Measure Seniors Would Lose $720 per Year in Social Security Payments As I have pointed out before, as part of the current deficit-reduction talks, White House officials and Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle are advocating changes to the way inflation is calculated by using a method to measure inflation known as the "chained consumer price index." This method would likely result in a slower inflation adjustment rate payment on social security. So if you think the current CPI doesn't reflect price inflation accurately, just wait until the SS administration starts using a Congressionally approved 'chained consumer index". ...
A Brief History Of Obama's Fiscal Record (the burden of bad choices)
Post Date: 2011-07-17 10:09:02 by Hondo68
0 Comments
After working hard to compile a list of Obama's rather questionable record of fiscal promises and actual executions, the gist of which is represented best by the violent clash between myth and realty in Christina Romer's "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" whose epic failure is defined by one simple chart, we were disappointed to learn that Paul Ryan had already done this. And leaving Paul Ryan's politics aside, the facts do speak themselves. They speak even louder when one considers the din raised by the same president who back in 2006 said: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of ...
Confirmed: Federal Reserve Policy is Killing Lending, Employment and the Economy
Post Date: 2011-07-16 21:04:23 by Hondo68
1 Comments
I've previously documented numerous ways in which the Fed is working against its stated goals, such as:Reinforcing cyclical trends (when one of the Fed's main justifications is providing a counter-cyclical balance);Increasing unemployment (when the Fed is mandated by law to maximize employment); and Encouraging financial companies to make even riskier gambles in the future (when it is supposed to stabilize the financial system). And see this.And I've repeatedly pointed out that the Federal Reserve has been intentionally discouraged banks from lending to Main Street - in a misguided attempt to curb inflation - which has increased unemployment and stalled out the economy.As I ...
Will Obama Outmaneuver the GOP Again?
Post Date: 2011-07-15 14:34:31 by jwpegler
5 Comments
The debt showdown in D.C. is getting really nasty. This week Obama upped the ante by claiming that if the debt ceiling isn't raised, the government might not be able to send out Social Security checks. This is an old Democrat scare tactic. Whenever there is a budget battle at any level of government, unscrupulous Democrat politicians hold up the programs that would be most painful to cut as a way to scare voters to put pressure on the GOP to cave into their demands. The GOP shouldn't fall for it any longer. The Federal government is expected to take in $179 billion in revenue in August. Interest on the debt, Social Security, Medicare, and military salaries will add up to $143 ...
Boehner: No Debt Limit Solution Til After Vote On Balanced Budget Amendment
Post Date: 2011-07-15 12:58:49 by jwpegler
14 Comments
Whatever the ultimate outcome of the debt limit fight, the theatrics will continue in the House of Representatives for another week or so. Scores of House Republicans say they won't vote to raise the debt limit unless a Constitutional balanced budget amendment has been sent off to the states for ratification. And so whatever Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other Congressional leaders decide about the real path ahead, he'll hold votes next week on a major spending cut and spending cap plan that includes a hike in the debt ceiling, and, separately, on a balanced budget amendment. The latter would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate and, in its current form, stands ...
Call Obama’s bluff [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-07-15 12:04:22 by jwpegler
55 Comments
President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?” How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $1041;trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached? All of a sudden he’s a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his own party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He’s been saying forever that he’s prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never ...
“God, Gold, and Guns”: Right-Wing Whackjobs, Shameless Hucksters, and Economic Fraud [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-07-15 10:50:58 by Godwinson
64 Comments
“God, Gold, and Guns”: Right-Wing Whackjobs, Shameless Hucksters, and Economic Fraud July 28, 2010 by Kevin T. Keith It’s hard to keep track of the craziness on the right – birtherism, creationism, secessionism, supply- sideism, the Gold-Fringed Flag conspiracy . . . the range of delusions they gin up to obsess over and rile each other up about is so broad and ever-changing that you can’t keep it straight. But weird economic fads, often fraudulent, are part and parcel among it all. I don’t mean just large-scale weirdness, like voodoo economics and the constant yammering about “socialism”. Here I’m talking about retail-level con games – ...
Return of the Gold Standard as world order unravels
Post Date: 2011-07-15 00:32:50 by Hondo68
4 Comments
As the twin pillars of international monetary system threaten to come tumbling down in unison, gold has reclaimed its ancient status as the anchor of stability. The spot price surged to an all-time high of $1,594 an ounce in London, lifting silver to $39 in its train. Gold surged to an all-time high of $1,594 an ounce in London, lifting silver to $39 in its train. Photo: AP On one side of the Atlantic, the eurozone debt crisis has spread to the countries that may be too big to save - Spain and Italy - though RBS thinks a €3.5 trillion rescue fund would ensure survival of Europe's currency union. On the other side, the recovery has sputtered out and the printing presses ...
Democrats ... Faking Debt Ceiling Crisis in Order to --- Continue Irresponsible Spending
Post Date: 2011-07-14 15:04:13 by BorisY
2 Comments
Democrats Faking Debt Ceiling Crisis in Order to Continue Irresponsible Spending 7/13/2011 Rachel Alexander President Obama and the Democrats are issuing dire warnings that the U.S. may default on its debts if the debt ceiling is not increased. This is a false threat. If the debt ceiling is not increased by August 2, it is highly unlikely that even one member of Congress would vote to stop paying on debt owed. They would not dare to be seen as voting to stiff other countries on money owed them by the U.S. Defaulting on our debt is a red herring argument Democrats are using to force people into thinking our only choices are raising the debt ceiling or raising taxes by closing tax ...
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