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Latest Articles: Economy
Obama Birthday Crash Continues: -200 & falling
Post Date: 2011-08-05 12:04:03 by Happy Quanzaa
2 Comments
Dow Drops 200 Amid Global Jitters; Vix Soars Stocks tumbled in another choppy session Friday, erasing their earlier rally as investors were quick to take profits following a stronger-than-expected government jobs report and amid ongoing jitters in the euro zone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped, led by BofA [BAC 8.06 -0.77 (-8.72%) ] and Caterpillar [CAT 86.7192 -2.8308 (-3.16%) ], after nose-diving more than 500 points—its worst one-day fall since Dec. 2008. The blue-chip index was up 171 points at its session high this morning. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also fell sharply. In the previous session, all three major averages tumbled into negative territory for the year. In ...
USPS posts $3.1 billion loss in Q3, warns of default
Post Date: 2011-08-05 11:15:45 by Happy Quanzaa
2 Comments
(Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service posted a net loss of $3.1 billion in its third quarter and warned again it would default on payments to the federal government if Congress did not step in. Total mail volume for the quarter that ended June 30 fell to 39.8 billion pieces, a 2.6 percent drop from the same period a year earlier, as consumers turn to email and pay bills online. The mail carrier, which does not get taxpayer funds, has struggled to overhaul its business as mail volumes fall. It has said personnel costs weigh heavily and is facing a massive retiree health benefit prepayment next month. "We are experiencing a severe cash crisis and are unable to continue to maintain the ...
U.S. Payrolls Rose 117,000 in July; Jobless Rate Fell to 9.1%
Post Date: 2011-08-05 08:33:13 by war
10 Comments
Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Employers added more jobs than forecast in July, the jobless rate fell and wages climbed, easing concern the U.S. economy is grinding to a halt. Payrolls rose by 117,000 workers after a 46,000 increase in June that was more than originally estimated, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for a July gain of 85,000. The jobless rate dropped to 9.1 percent as more Americans left the labor force, while average hourly earnings climbed 0.4 percent. Job gains may need to accelerate further to bolster consumer spending, which rose last quarter at the slowest pace in two years. Weaker growth puts more pressure ...
What is Really Driving the Deficit?
Post Date: 2011-08-05 01:50:01 by jwpegler
5 Comments
We spend $700 billion on the military each year. If we leave Iraq and Afghanistan we save $100 billion. If we leave Europe, Japan, and South Korea we might save $100 billion more. I support downsizing those commitments right now. That leaves us with $500 billion in military spending, which is less than 3.5% of GDP. That would be lowest military spending since before WWII. It's a reasonable price to protect the country. The deficit this year is over $1,500 billion. Take $200 billion out of the military and we still have a $1,300 billion deficit. Yes military spending needs to be reformed, but it is not the primary driver of the deficit. The primary driver of the deficit is that ...
Dow’s losing streak now in ninth day (Obama matches Jimmy Carter's 1978 record)
Post Date: 2011-08-04 22:24:49 by Hondo68
1 Comments
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — The stock market is poised today to do something it has not done in over 33 years: Decline for nine straight sessions. The last time the Dow Jones Industrial Average did that, in fact, was Feb. 22, 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president and the country was struggling to come to grips with a period of anemic economic growth and high inflation. Isn’t it comforting to know that we’ve made such progress over the last three decades? Actually, about the only thing that is comforting in the historical data on Dow losing streaks is that many of them have occurred near major bear-market bottoms. For example, before February 1978, the previous ...
Two-year Treasury yield drops to a record low
Post Date: 2011-08-04 21:43:49 by Skip Intro
9 Comments
NEW YORK (AP) -- Prices for Treasury securities jumped Thursday, sending the yield on the two-year note to a record low, as investors rushed to U.S. government debt in search of safety. Stocks tumbled around the world on worries that the U.S. economy is weakening and that Europe's debt problems are getting worse. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 513 points, its biggest drop since December 2008. The yield on the two-year Treasury note fell to 0.26 percent, a record low. Late Wednesday it was 0.34 percent. Bond yields fall when demand for them increases. That means traders are willing to accept smaller returns in exchange for investments they consider to be relatively stable. ...
Jake Tapper Grills Jay Carney: We Know Obama Attends Fundraisers, What Is He Doing To Create Jobs?
Post Date: 2011-08-04 21:33:41 by smokestack
29 Comments
With stocks plunging on Wall Street, tensions were rising in today’s White House press briefing as ABC’s Jake Tapper relentlessly demanded Press Secretary Jay Carney explain exactly what it is that President Obama is doing to help create new jobs. When Carney suggested Obama is urging Congress to pass legislation, Tapper got agitated and responded, “so the same stuff he was doing a couple months ago, calling on Congress to pass things?” Critics of Obama will no doubt applaud Tapper’s efforts here, yet even supporters of the President can’t fault Tapper for forcefully demanding answers. Some of Tapper’s remarks that left Carney a bit uncomfortable: ...
Markets plummet on global economic fears
Post Date: 2011-08-04 21:30:21 by Skip Intro
2 Comments
Fears that the global economy could be slipping back toward recession sent markets plummeting Thursday, with economic and financial problems around the world fueling a vicious cycle that risks spiraling beyond the control of governments. On both sides of the Atlantic, economic vital signs are rapidly deteriorating. The United States’ recovery is stalling, and Europe’s debt crisis is threatening to strike Spain and Italy, which have two of the continent’s largest economies. Investors are increasingly afraid that the world’s leading governments, weighed down by debt and wounded by the last economic downturn, may not have the wherewithal to keep the emerging crisis in ...
Market Craters: Dow Falls 512 Points
Post Date: 2011-08-04 16:59:11 by lucysmom
17 Comments
What we are seeing today is not as bad as the worst days of the crisis, but it ins’t much consolation for investors who had gotten back in the pool on the belief that the system had been patched up reasonably well and the economy was on the mend. All the authorities did was patch up a predatory banking system with duct tape and bailing wire and hoped enough cheerleading would restore confidence. And after the banks got their bailout money, the mood seemed to be “we spent so much on them, we don’t have anything left for anyone else.” The alarming rise in government deficits, which was primarily the result of the crisis (falls in tax revenues and increases in automatic ...
Obama's "Recovery" vs. Reagan's Recovery: The Stark Differences
Post Date: 2011-08-04 16:32:47 by smokestack
1 Comments
Let’s compare the Obama “recovery” to the Reagan recovery. Obama's "recovery" has come with poor GDP growth, a net loss of jobs, and an increase in the unemployment rate. Reagan's recovery came with robust GDP growth, a net gain of over 600,000 jobs, and a huge drop in the unemployment rate. Here are the numbers: The recession that Reagan had to overcome peaked in December 1982 with an unemployment rate of 10.8%. That recession included double-digit interest rates and double-digit inflation. Yet, by the 24th month of Reagan’s recovery, unemployment had dropped from 10.8% to 7.3%, and we had a net gain of 684,000 jobs (for a month-by-month look at the ...
Washington's employment bubble bursting
Post Date: 2011-08-04 13:48:31 by Happy Quanzaa
1 Comments
Nearly 30,000 Washington-area workers joined the jobless ranks over the past two months as the unemployment rate ratcheted up almost an entire percentage point -- and all signs point to more bad news on the horizon. May and June's unemployment rate marked the first time this year the region saw upticks in joblessness, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And more job cuts are on the way, positioning Washington to have the worst job growth in a single year since the recession ended. "We're just catching up with the rest of the nation in terms of bad economic performance," said University of Baltimore economist Richard Clinch. ...
Left-Winger Robert Reich Despondent Over Obama Failure
Post Date: 2011-08-04 13:46:23 by smokestack
2 Comments
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, lefty political commentator, and so-called “economist,” is despondent over the failure of President Obama to “tell Americans the truth” about the budget debate now coursing through Washington D.C. Reich is very typical of how the far left in American politics is furious at Obama’s constant failure to go as far left as they want him to go. As absurd as it is, Reich’s ire is something worth keeping in mind. Naturally Reich started his HuffPost screed slamming Republicans as the “most irresponsible and rigidly ideological” he’s ever seen them. This is, of course, because we are finally ...
Obama Birthday Crash: Stocks Slump Over 2%, Dow Dives 300 Points
Post Date: 2011-08-04 13:31:49 by Happy Quanzaa
0 Comments
Stocks eased off their session lows but were still sharply lower across the board in another volatile session Thursday as fears over a global economic slowdown intensified and ahead of the widely-followed monthly unemployment report. Major U.S. Indexes .DJIA 11608.84 -287.60 -2.42% .NCOMP 2620.62 -72.45 -2.69% 0 .SPX 1227.56 -32.78 -2.6% 0 The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged over 2 percent, led by Caterpillar [CAT 91.9805 -4.2995 (-4.47%) ] and Alcoa [AA 13.52 -0.74 (-5.19%) ], after rebounding from a deep selloff in the previous session to snap an eight-day losing streak. The blue-chip index tumbled 372 points at its session low and is down for the 9th day in 10. The S&P 500 ...
Obamarket Thursday Freefall: -154.8 & dropping
Post Date: 2011-08-04 09:44:56 by Happy Quanzaa
9 Comments
IBOPE Zogby: Most Believe Lost Jobs Won't Return
Post Date: 2011-08-04 09:18:07 by Happy Quanzaa
3 Comments
More than two-thirds of Americans now believe the jobs lost in the recession are unlikely to ever return and an equal amount believe the country’s days as the most powerful economy are over, a new poll shows. However, two-thirds still hope that the United States’ best days are still ahead, an IBOPE Zogby interactive poll of likely voters shows. The poll also found that likely voters are more pessimistic about the economy than they were a year ago. In June 2010, 23 percent believed businesses would add jobs, a figure that has now dipped to 17 percent. The number of those feeling the lost jobs were unlikely to return has risen from 66 percent to 69 percent. Those believing the ...
Scary Chart Pattern Suggests More Selling on the Way
Post Date: 2011-08-04 09:04:37 by Happy Quanzaa
3 Comments
The S&P 500 triggered a scary technical signal — a head and shoulders pattern in the chart — leaving investors to wonder if it's the sign of more selling to come — or just a head fake. The so-called head and shoulders pattern is formed when the chart pattern shows three rallies, with the middle rally peaking higher than the first and second, thus creating a head. If the market breaks the "neckline," that is a trend reversal signal and can mean more selling ahead. "What we're having is a classical technical breakdown. When the S&P broke down through the 1248 to 1250 region, it violated the neckline on a head and shoulders formation, " ...
China: Obama Has Failed To Defuse ‘Debt Bomb’; Chinese Govt Downgrades US Debt
Post Date: 2011-08-04 06:43:40 by Happy Quanzaa
1 Comments
BEIJING: China warned Wednesday that tortured efforts to raise the US debt ceiling had failed to defuse Washington’s “debt bomb”, and that it would further diversify its currency holdings away from the dollar. US President Barack Obama finally signed an emergency austerity bill on Tuesday that averted what would have been a catastrophic debt default for the world’s biggest economy. But a failure to rein in US borrowing could “jeopardise the well-being of hundreds of millions of families within and beyond the US borders”, the official Xinhua news agency said in a blistering commentary on the deal. “The months-long tug of war between Democrats and ...
A hamburger today for $2.4 trillion tomorrow~Barry takes debt team out for burgers @ Good Stuff Eatery
Post Date: 2011-08-03 14:07:01 by Happy Quanzaa
0 Comments
President Obama took his debt team out for burgers at Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, giving new meaning to the "Popeye" character Wimpy's catchphrase "I'd gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today." The White House said the outing was a reward for the debt team's "nonstop" work over the last few months as they worked out a deal with Capitol Hill to extend the government's borrowing limit. Mr. Obama signed the extension into law Tuesday, just ahead of the deadline, allowing up to $2.4 trillion in debt to be accumulated. Good Stuff marks the latest stop in Mr. Obama's Hamburger Diplomacy in and around Washington. He ...
Obamanomic Summer of Recovery Ver. 3.0~battered by the Great Recession
Post Date: 2011-08-03 13:38:49 by Happy Quanzaa
1 Comments
AP NewsBreak: SC tourism slumps sharply in '09 The Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. -- New figures show how badly South Carolina tourism was battered by the Great Recession. The figures from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism show tourism was off 8 percent in 2009. Tourism had an impact of $14 billion after years of generally steady growth. The impact was down from about $15 billion the previous year. Agency spokesman Marion Edmonds said Wednesday the industry has been steadily rebounding and he thinks the loss has been made up by now.
Europe on Brink of 'Major Financial Collapse'
Post Date: 2011-08-03 10:22:58 by jwpegler
15 Comments
Europe is a "train wreck" and on the "brink of a major financial crisis," Scott Minerd, CIO of the fixed-income firm Guggenheim Partners, told CNBC Tuesday. "The way Europe is operating right now, it's what I called recently 'cognitive dissonance,'" Minerd said, or "basically doing the same thing thinking they're going to get a different outcome." "They keep throwing more and more liquidity at it thinking it's going to get better and it's not," he added. Europe fails to recognize that it has a "structural problem, not a liquidity problem." People will "flee the euro" unless they find a way to ...
World stocks fall as growth, debt fears intensify
Post Date: 2011-08-03 08:25:13 by Happy Quanzaa
1 Comments
LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks fell toward five-month lows on Wednesday as worries grew that fiscal cutbacks and stagnating output would prolong a global economic slowdown and aggravate Europe's debt crisis. Wall Street, however, looked set to bounce back after steep losses in the previous session. Tuesday's last-minute budget deal to avoid a U.S. default brought only short-term relief as the focus moved to the impact of tighter fiscal policy on the already slowing economy, illustrated by poor manufacturing data this week. Weak services sector figures on Wednesday for the euro zone and China accentuated the fragile outlook. Disappointing results from European banks -- Societe ...
DC Pols: Let's Just Ignore the Markets, Maybe They'll Go Away
Post Date: 2011-08-03 08:11:31 by Happy Quanzaa
4 Comments
You might have thought this morning's financial headlines would be highlighting all the deep trouble we're in. After all, stock markets in Asia and Europe fell sharply today, following yesterday's blood-bath on Wall Street. Spreads on Italian debt are widening again. Nominal gold has reached an all time high, as desperate investors seek someplace other than sagging US $ assets to hide. The Swiss Central Bank has just slashed interest rates to zero, in an attempt to prevent the Sw Franc from becoming the world's key reserve currency, wiping out Swiss exporters. Japan's Central Bank is struggling with a yen that is still hovering around 77 to the $, the strongest ever, ...
Try as he might, Obama can't shake Bush tax cuts
Post Date: 2011-08-03 03:47:51 by socalv8
3 Comments
Time and again during his presidential campaign, Barack Obama was unequivocal: "We are going to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans." But when the chips were down, now-President Obama blinked and backed away. Twice in less than nine months, Obama has shelved his pledge in deadline-pressing negotiations with congressional Republicans. Obama insists he still is determined to find new revenue by making taxpayers who make more than $200,000 and big corporations pay more, but frustrated liberals say he has already missed key opportunities. Inaction on taxes and his willingness to consider structural changes to Medicare and Social Security, long-cherished ...
Next Fed Easing to Include Inflation Target: Gross
Post Date: 2011-08-02 20:09:46 by Sebastian
0 Comments
The Federal Reserve likely will launch its next round of quantitative easing later this month with language that will set a specific target for inflation, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC. With the economy faltering and stocks selling off aggressively, the central bank likely will have no choice but to announce more easing—QE3, in market parlance. But the next round likely will look different than the first two, which focused on asset purchases such as Treasurys—as was the case with QE2—or an assortment of debt instruments, as with QE1. Gross said the Fed could announce QE3 at its Jackson Hole, Wyo., summit scheduled for late August. "We have a divided Fed so ...
US STOCKS-Massive rout spells trouble for Wall Street [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-08-02 19:51:18 by Hondo68
66 Comments
* S&P 500 turns negative for year * S&P closes below 200-day moving average * Global growth fears weigh on stocks * Dow off 2.2 pct, S&P off 2.6 pct, Nasdaq 2.8 pct * For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US] (Updates to close) NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 turned negative for the year on Tuesday as the wrangling over the U.S. debt ceiling faded and investors turned their attention to the stalling economy. The broad-based index fell for a seventh day and crashed through the key 200-day moving average in an ominous sign for markets. The seven days of losses mark the longest losing streak since October 2008. "It is going to be a long week," said ...
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