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Latest Articles: Economy
Home sales data: lipstick on a pig (Today Show)
Post Date: 2010-10-25 16:22:29 by Badeye
2 Comments
Home sales data: lipstick on a pigBy John Schoen, Senior Producer "Been down so long, it looks like up to me," sang Memphis bluesman Walter "Furry" Lewis. The song was recorded in 1928, but Lewis may as well have been singing about the U.S. housing market circa 2010. The headline on the latest monthly sales report for existing homes looks pretty good: traffic in September picked up a full 10 percent from the month before. On a percentage basis, the gain was spectacular – the biggest monthly increase in 28 years. But that's about as far as the good news goes. The upturn – which still leaves home sales at levels 19 percent lower than a year ago – ...
Obama: A captive of his own history
Post Date: 2010-10-22 15:12:04 by jwpegler
15 Comments
As we approach the 2010 mid-term elections, the GOP is poised to make big gains in the House of Representatives, State Governors offices, and State Legislatures. The GOP will also likely pick up several seats in the U.S. Senate, but not enough to gain a majority. Few people predicted this outcome when Barack Obama took office less than two years ago. So what happen? In short, Obama and the Democrats blew it. They took a bad situation, created by George Bush, and made it worse. It didn't have to be this way. In spite of some of some my more partisan friend's opinions to the contrary, the left does come up with some good ideas on occasion. However, most of those ideas never get ...
John Elway: Invested $15 Million in Ponzi Scheme
Post Date: 2010-10-15 17:00:52 by Ibluafartsky
1 Comments
John Elway: Invested $15 Million in Ponzi Scheme By (Correspondent) on October 14, 2010 4,208 Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images According to a report released on Yahoo! Sports today, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway invested $15 million dollars with recently arrested Ponzi schemer Sean Mueller earlier this year. The former Broncos quarterback and a partner gave Mueller the money to be invested in a hedge fund separate from the rest of the pool, of close to $71 million. As of the conclusion of the investigation, $12 million of the money had been put into a Morgan Stanley trust fund as requested, and $3 million of the money was unaccounted for. This is just the latest in a series of ...
House To Vote On Bonus Payment For Social Security
Post Date: 2010-10-14 23:43:58 by Murron
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House To Vote On Bonus Payment For Social Security By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, AP Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House will vote in November on a bill to provide $250 payments to Social Security recipients to make up for the lack of a cost-of-living increase for next year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. The Social Security Administration is expected to announce Friday that more than 58 million retirees and disabled Americans will go a second consecutive year without an increase in benefits. Pelosi said she will schedule a vote on a bill to provide the $250 payments when Congress returns for a lame duck session after the Nov. 2 congressional elections. The payments would be ...
Recession job losses: Worse than first thought
Post Date: 2010-10-12 11:00:40 by Badeye
6 Comments
Recession job losses: Worse than first thought By Chris Isidore, senior writerOctober 12, 2010: 4:46 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As bad as job losses were during the recession, we're about to find out that things were even worse. The government currently estimates that 2.2 million jobs were lost from April of 2009 through March of this year, a significant portion of the 7.8 million jobs lost since the start of 2008. But in a little-noticed note at the bottom of September's jobs report, the Labor Department said it now appears there were 366,000 additional jobs lost during the 12 months that ended in March, a revision that is not yet included in the official numbers. That ...
No Cost of Living Raise For Social Security
Post Date: 2010-10-11 08:22:10 by Murron
28 Comments
No Cost of Living Raise For Social Security WASHINGTON — As if voters don't have enough to be angry about this election year, the government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through another year without an increase in their monthly benefits. It would mark only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. The first year was this year. "If you're the ruling party, this is not the sort of thing you want to have happening two weeks before an election," said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration and now a ...
Private Payrolls Up 64K Government Sheds 159k Rate Steady @ 9.6%
Post Date: 2010-10-08 08:37:18 by war
30 Comments
Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost more jobs than forecast in September, reflecting a decline in government payrolls that shows the damage being done by rising fiscal deficits. Employers cut staffing by 95,000 workers after a revised 57,000 decrease in August, Labor Department figures in Washington showed today. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 5,000 drop. The unemployment rate unexpectedly held at 9.6 percent. Private payrolls that exclude government agencies climbed 64,000, less than forecast, underscoring the concern expressed by some Federal Reserve policy makers that the rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s has been too slow and ...
Monster Employment Index Improves
Post Date: 2010-10-07 10:30:21 by war
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Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The outlook on U.S. employment conditions improved in September, according to the Monster Employment Index. The U.S. employment outlook index rose to 138 from 136 in August. The index measures overall employee demand from online recruitment activity. Monster reviews more than 1,500 web sites, including corporate career sites, job boards and Monster.com to obtain a comprehensive overview of jobs available and advertised online.
ADP: Private-sector employment decreased by 39,000 In September
Post Date: 2010-10-06 08:35:23 by war
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Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Following is the text from the Sept. private payrolls report from ADP Employer Services. September 2010 National Employment Report Private-sector employment decreased by 39,000 from August to September on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report released today. The estimated change of employment from July to August was revised up from the previously reported decline of 10,000 to an increase of 10,000. The decline in private employment in September confirms a pause in the economic recovery already evident in other data. A deceleration of employment occurred in all the major sectors shown in The ADP Report and for all ...
Announced U.S. Job Cuts Fall 44% From Year Ago, Challenger Says
Post Date: 2010-10-06 08:31:28 by war
8 Comments
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Job cuts announced by U.S. employers fell in September from a year earlier, indicating the labor market is being restrained by a lack of hiring rather than an increase in dismissals. Planned firings dropped 44 percent to 37,151 last month from 66,404 in September 2009, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The September figures ended a quarter in which job cuts were the fewest in a decade. The reductions would have been even smaller were it not for government and non-profit sector, which last month announced the biggest job cuts since May, the report said. While some companies are putting fewer Americans on unemployment lines, others have ...
Bush Tax Cuts Had Little Positive Impact on Economy
Post Date: 2010-09-25 18:20:40 by Skip Intro
27 Comments
Republicans are heavily invested in permanently extending the tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration, all of which expire at the end of this year exactly as the legislation was written in the first place. To hear Republicans, one would think that the Bush tax cuts were the most powerful stimulus to growth ever enacted and only a madman would even think of allowing any of them to expire. The truth is that there is virtually no evidence in support of the Bush tax cuts as an economic elixir. To the extent that they had any positive effect on growth, it was very, very modest. Their main effect was simply to reduce the government’s revenue, thereby increasing the budget ...
So How Did the Bush Tax Cuts Work Out for the Economy? [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2010-09-25 13:13:21 by Skip Intro
184 Comments
The 2008 income tax data are now in, so we can assess the fulfillment of the Republican promise that tax cuts would produce widespread prosperity by looking at all the years of the George W. Bush presidency. Just as they did in 2000, the Republicans are running this year on an economic platform of tax cuts, especially making the tax cuts permanent for the richest among us. So how did the tax cuts work out? My analysis of the new data, with all figures in 2008 dollars: Total income was $2.74 trillion less during the eight Bush years than if incomes had stayed at 2000 levels. That much additional income would have more than made up for the lack of demand that keeps us mired in the Great ...
400 Richest Americans Got Richer This Year, As Most Americans' Net Worth Tanked: Forbes
Post Date: 2010-09-23 12:17:28 by Skip Intro
2 Comments
The richest Americans got even richer this year, according to the new Forbes 400 list, even as the country's total net worth tanked during the second quarter. The top 400, all of whom are worth at least $1 billion, saw their combined wealth increase 8 percent this year, to the dizzying total of $1.37 trillion, according to analysis from CNN. Meanwhile, according to data released last week by the Federal Reserve, the net worth of American households and non-profits in the second quarter of this year plunged 2.8 percent, or $1.52 trillion, from the previous quarter, to settle at $53.5 trillion. This means the 400 richest people in America account for about 2.6 percent of the ...
Index of U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Rises 0.3%
Post Date: 2010-09-23 10:39:59 by war
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Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The index of U.S. leading indicators rose in August more than forecast, signaling the economy will keep expanding through early next year. The 0.3 percent gain in the New York-based Conference Board’s gauge of the prospects for the economy in the next three to six months follows a 0.1 percent increase in July. The index was forecast to rise 0.1 percent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 56 economists. A longer factory workweek, higher stock prices and a gain in building permits were among the reasons for the increase in the index. Federal Reserve policy makers this week said growth is likely to be “modest in the near ...
Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Rose in August From Record Low
Post Date: 2010-09-23 10:02:59 by war
5 Comments
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of U.S. previously owned homes rose in August rose to the second-lowest level on record, indicating housing remains depressed a year after the economic recovery began. Purchases of existing houses climbed to a 4.13 million annual pace, in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and second only to July’s 3.84 million rate as the weakest in a decade’s worth of data, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The jobless rate will average more than 9 percent through 2011, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, and that will undermine confidence and signaling foreclosures will hinder real ...
Jobless Claims in U.S. Increased 12,000 to 465,000
Post Date: 2010-09-23 08:49:02 by war
12 Comments
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, a sign companies remain cautious about hiring as economic growth slows. Initial jobless claims increased by 12,000 to 465,000 in the week ended Sept. 18, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The total number of people receiving unemployment insurance declined, while those getting extended payments rose. Employers that have slowed firings since the recession ended in June 2009 haven’t stepped up the pace of hiring enough to reduce an unemployment rate hovering near a 26-year high. A lack of job growth may signal consumer spending will be restrained in the second half of the ...
Fiat Currency Wars, Competitive Devaluations Fuel Gold’s Rally to $1,300/oz
Post Date: 2010-09-23 01:41:12 by Capitalist Eric
2 Comments
With the price of gold zeroing in on yet another major milestone, - $1,300 /oz, some heavy hitters in the marketplace are beginning to wonder if the yellow metal’s rally, is getting a bit too frothy, or even worse, whether a speculative bubble is brewing, that might ultimately deflate under its own weight, and lead to a sharp correction. On Sept 15th, famed hedge fund trader George Soros said that gold prices might continue to rise, but warned that that gold is the “ultimate bubble.” “Gold is the only actual bull market currently. It just made a new high yesterday. In the present circumstances that may continue. I call gold the ultimate bubble, which means it might go ...
Fed hints it could buy more bonds
Post Date: 2010-09-22 17:50:27 by Capitalist Eric
7 Comments
The Federal Reserve has opened the door to buying billions of dollars of Treasury bonds in a further programme of quantitative easing by making a substantial change to the policy statement issued after its September meeting. The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said on Tuesday that it “is prepared to provide additional accommodation if needed to support the economic recovery”, displaying a bias towards easing absent from its last policy statement. Fed officials are considering adding to the $2,350bn of assets on its balance sheet to drive down long-term interest rates and stimulate an economy that is not growing fast enough to bring down unemployment. [Poster Comment: ...
Recession Odds Under 20%, Says Analyst Who Called End of Slump
Post Date: 2010-09-22 10:10:54 by war
4 Comments
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Economist Thomas Lam, who accurately forecast 16 months ago when the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression would end, now says chances of a renewed slump in the coming year are no more than 20 percent. “The main risk to the U.S. economy today is really a prolonged period of mild growth rather than an imminent recession,” said Lam, the Singapore-based chief economist at OSK-DMG, a joint venture between Malaysian securities firm OSK Holdings Bhd. and Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG. Lam’s May 2009 call that the U.S. would emerge from recession the following month -- confirmed this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research -- drew ...
Housing Starts in U.S. Increased More Than Forecast in August
Post Date: 2010-09-21 08:33:24 by war
3 Comments
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Housing starts in the U.S. increased more than forecast in August, a signal the industry is stabilizing. Builders broke ground on 598,000 homes at an annual rate, up 10.5 percent and the most since April, following a 541,000 pace in July, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Economists forecast August starts at a 550,000 pace, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Building permits, a proxy of future activity, rose from a record low. Mortgage rates close to record lows may be giving builders some confidence to begin new projects after the expiration of a government tax credit caused sales to plunge. Even so, a housing recovery is ...
Mr. Showmanship’s Show Is Closing (Liberace Museum Closing)
Post Date: 2010-09-20 22:43:24 by Skip Intro
1 Comments
Mr. Showmanship’s Show Is Closing By ADAM NAGOURNEY LAS VEGAS — Bill Holt was gawking. At the room filled with ornate antique pianos, among them a Baldwin grand glistening with a coat of rhinestones that was Liberace’s favorite. At a 1962 Phantom V Landau Rolls-Royce, covered in mirrors, that looked like a disco ball on wheels. At Liberace’s collection of candelabras, rings, capes and boots. At, in short, the paraphernalia of a onetime star of the Strip who appears to have become a symbol of an era that is not only past, but forgotten, too. The Liberace Museum, once a tourist attraction on a par with the Hoover Dam — 450,000 people came every year to the ...
15 Shocking Poverty Statistics That Are Skyrocketing as the American Middle Class Continues To Be Slowly Wiped Out
Post Date: 2010-09-19 03:34:02 by Capitalist Eric
8 Comments
The "America" that so many of us have taken for granted for so many decades is literally disintegrating right in front of our eyes. Most Americans are still operating under the delusion that the United States will always be "the wealthiest nation" in the world and that our economy will always produce large numbers of high-paying jobs and that the U.S. will always have a very large middle class. But that is not what is happening. The very foundations of the U.S. economy have rotted away and we now find ourselves on the verge of an economic collapse. Already, millions upon millions of Americans are slipping out of the middle class and into the devastating grip of poverty. ...
Tax Cuts May Prove Better for Politicians Than for Economy
Post Date: 2010-09-16 10:56:58 by war
4 Comments
With Congressional midterm elections looming, the financial debate in Washington this fall will probably be consumed by one incendiary and expensive issue: whether, and how, to extend the multitrillion-dollar Bush tax cuts. President Obama is advocating a mixed bag of tax proposals. He wants to extend the cuts for all but the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans and offer businesses hundreds of billions in breaks and write-offs intended to encourage investment and hiring. Republicans, and a few Democrats, assert that the Bush tax cuts should be extended for everyone, warning that a tax increase right now, even if limited to the highest income bracket, would hurt small businesses and choke ...
Poll Suggests Opportunities for Both Parties
Post Date: 2010-09-16 09:48:36 by war
1 Comments
Republicans are heading into the general election phase of the midterm campaign backed by two powerful currents: the highest proportion of voters in two decades say it is time for their own member of Congress to be replaced, and Americans are expressing widespread dissatisfaction with President Obama’s leadership. But the latest New York Times/CBS News poll also finds that while voters rate the performance of Democrats negatively, they view Republicans as even worse, providing a potential opening for Democrats to make a last-ditch case for keeping their hold on power. The poll represents a snapshot of the country’s political mood as the campaign pivots from primary contests that ...
Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell Last Week to 450,000
Post Date: 2010-09-16 08:37:21 by war
4 Comments
Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to the lowest level in two months, a sign the labor market is improving. Initial jobless claims dropped by 3,000 to 450,000 in the week ended Sept. 11, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast was for a rise to 459,000, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The total number of people receiving unemployment insurance fell, and those getting extended payments plunged. While the pace of staffing reductions has slowed, hiring is needed to foster bigger gains in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News this ...
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