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Latest Articles: Economy
Obama Energy Administrator Promises Gas Prices Will Remain High For Rest of Year
Post Date: 2011-03-17 17:16:10 by Happy Quanzaa
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Obama Energy Administrator Says Gas Prices Will Remain High For Rest of Year Washington (CNSNews.com) - In testimony Thursday before the House Natural Resources Committee, Richard Newell, the administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, told congressmen that gas prices will likely stay well above average for the remainder of the year. “EIA expects continued tightening of world oil markets over the next two years, particularly in light of recent events in North Africa and the Middle East the world’s largest oil producing region,” said Newell. “Our latest forecast, issued earlier this month, predicts that regular gasoline at the retail pump will average ...
Obamanomic Cost of Living Hits Record, Passing Pre-Crisis High
Post Date: 2011-03-17 17:09:12 by Happy Quanzaa
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One would think that after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Americans could at least catch a break for a while with deflationary forces keeping the cost of living relatively low. That’s not the case. A special index created by the Labor Department to measure the actual cost of living for Americans hit a record high in February, according to data released Thursday, surpassing the old high in July 2008. The Chained Consumer Price Index, released along with the more widely-watched CPI, increased 0.5 percent to 127.4, from 126.8 in January. In July 2008, just as the housing crisis was tightening its group, the Chained Consumer Price Index hit its previous record of ...
Government Motors shutters US plant on Japan parts shortage
Post Date: 2011-03-17 17:03:32 by Happy Quanzaa
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A shortage of car parts from disaster-struck Japan has forced General Motors to temporarily shutter one of its factories in the United States, the firm said Thursday. Production at an assembly plant in the southern state of Louisiana will halt for one week "due to a parts shortage resulting from the crisis in Japan," the Detroit, Michigan-based company said. The 30-year old Shreveport factory employs 923 workers, producing the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon vehicles. Before the announcement, experts had expressed fears that damage and blackouts in quake-hit areas of Japan could cause parts shortage around the world. While Japan produces a vast range of cars each year, ...
EPA proposes air rules that may hit coal-fired power
Post Date: 2011-03-17 07:26:16 by BO69
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Environmental regulators proposed rules on Wednesday that would force aging coal-fired power plants to choose between installing costly anti-pollution technology or shutting, which could ensure reliance nuclear power and natural gas. The Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed rules, once fully implemented, will prevent 91 percent of mercury in coal from being released into the air. Power plants would have four years to meet the standards. The EPA will take public comment for 60 days on the rules, which would require many coal-fired power plants to install scrubbers and other technologies to reduce emissions of arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases ...
Harry Markopolos who exposed Madoff's Ponzi Scheme says most Wall Street is crooked - most Wall Street money made from illegal trades
Post Date: 2011-03-16 12:09:30 by Godwinson
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Link to Harry Markopolos' book on the Madoff scandal, "No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller", where he says that felony level activity was done industry wide on a daily basis and no one cared because Wall Street operated like this openly. Everyone knew it. Yet these are the wealthy people that most GOPigs and some Democrats want to defend. The rich in America, the top 1% got there by fraud because the system designed for wealth creation (Wall Street) is build on fraud. SUCKERS! Click for Full Text!
Obamanomic Recovery Continues: Housing starts see biggest drop since 1984
Post Date: 2011-03-16 11:57:40 by Happy Quanzaa
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Housing starts posted their biggest decline in 27 years in February while building permits dropped to their lowest level on record, suggesting the beleaguered real estate sector has yet to rebound from its deepest slump in modern history. Groundbreaking on new construction dropped 22.5 percent last month to an annual rate of 479,000 units, according to Commerce Department data released on Wednesday. This was just above a record low set in April 2009 and way below the estimates of economists, who had been looking for a smaller drop to 570,000. January's figure was revised up to 618,000 units from 596,000. But that did not change the tenor of the report, which ...
Nuclear crisis casts pall on Dear Leader's energy plan
Post Date: 2011-03-16 11:33:47 by Happy Quanzaa
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Nuclear crisis casts pall on Obama's energy plan The crippling of several of Japan's nuclear reactors is threatening to sink a major component of President Obama's blueprint for a greener economy, with fears over the potentially widespread contamination of Japan jeopardizing the bipartisan coalition the president needs to expand nuclear power in the United States. The crisis has effectively smothered much of the momentum behind nuclear power, halting the industry's slow strides in recent years to allay public safety concerns -- while earning at least tacit support from environmental groups that consider it a necessary evil in a broader plan to reduce greenhouse gas ...
Obamanomic Recovery Continues: Wholesale prices up 1.6 pct. on steep rise in food
Post Date: 2011-03-16 10:37:52 by Happy Quanzaa
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Wholesale prices up 1.6 pct. on steep rise in foodWholesale prices rise 1.6 pct. due to biggest jump in food costs in more than 36 years WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Excluding those volatile categories, inflation was tame. The Labor Department said Wednesday that the Producer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent in February -- double the 0.8 percent rise in the previous month. Outside of food and energy costs, the core index ticked up 0.2 percent, less than January's 0.5 percent rise. Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest ...
GOP now battling its own right wing over budget
Post Date: 2011-03-15 14:27:07 by Happy Quanzaa
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No closer to a deal with Democrats on a long-term budget, House Republican leaders on Monday started losing the support of their own conservative members for a three-week funding measure needed to stave off a government shutdown and give the two parties time to work out that long-term spending plan. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who heads the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of conservative GOP House members, announced Monday he would not back the latest stopgap plan to keep the government operating. It would be the second short-term budget bill Congress took up this month after passing a two-week funding measure March 1. Jordan's announcement came after Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican ...
If Market Keeps Falling, Fed Will Keep Printing: 'Dr. Doom'
Post Date: 2011-03-15 09:21:25 by Happy Quanzaa
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Marc Faber Falling stock prices will be met only with more money injections from the Federal Reserve, Marc Faber, the so-called "Dr. Doom," told CNBC. Speaking as global markets fell violently lower in the wake of the Japan earthquake and fears of a nuclear meltdown, Faber said a stock correction actually is healthy in view of how far equities have come from the March 2009 lows. He also expects weakness to persist and the Standard & Poor's 500 to drop as much as 15 percent. Further, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will likely give the green light to another round of Treasurys purchases, which have come to be known as quantitative easing, he said. "We may drop 10 to 15 ...
Bill Clinton: Drilling delays 'ridiculous'
Post Date: 2011-03-13 15:08:42 by Happy Quanzaa
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Bill Clinton reportedly criticized delays in oil drilling permits since last year's spill in the Gulf. | AP Photo Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that delays in offshore oil and gas drilling permits are “ridiculous” at a time when the economy is still rebuilding, according to attendees at the IHS CERAWeek conference. Clinton spoke on a panel with former President George W. Bush that was closed to the media. Video of their moderated talk with IHS CERA Chairman Daniel Yergin was also prohibited. But according to multiple people in the room, Clinton, surprisingly, agreed with Bush on many oil and gas issues, including criticism of delays in permitting offshore since ...
Betting on green
Post Date: 2011-03-13 14:42:37 by jwpegler
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“ENVIRONMENTALISTS are fiddling while Rome burns,” says Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture-capital firm. “They get in the way with silly stuff like asking people to walk more, drive less. That is an increment of 1-2% change. We need 1,000% change if billions of people in China and India are to enjoy a Western, energy-rich lifestyle.” Forget today’s green technologies like electric cars, wind turbines, solar cells and smart grids, in other words. None meets what Mr Khosla calls the “Chindia price”—the price at which people in China and India will buy them without a subsidy. “Everything’s a toy until it reaches ...
Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages
Post Date: 2011-03-08 16:31:48 by Happy Quanzaa
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Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement. Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data. “The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,” said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a ...
Roubini Predicts Oil Will Hit $150 Per Barrel, Traders Betting On $200 [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-03-08 09:08:54 by Happy Quanzaa
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“Oil price shocks have led to US recessions in 1974-75, 1980, 1990, 2001 and 2008-2009. 3 of these were caused by Mid East political shocks,” notoriously bearish economist Nouriel Roubini wrote on his Twitter account at the end of February. Last Wednesday, he made another bold prediction: “If troubles spread to other countries such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, this could push oil prices up to $140 to $150 per barrel, which could trigger a double-dip recession in the periphery of Europe and the U.K.” While the predicted oil price may seem shock-worthy, the correlation of oil prices and recession should not. As James Hamilton, an Economics Professor at the University of ...
Government posts biggest monthly deficit ever
Post Date: 2011-03-07 13:31:50 by Happy Quanzaa
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The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February at $223 billion, according to preliminary numbers the Congressional Budget Office released Monday morning. That figure tops last February’s record of $220.9 billion, and marks the 29th straight month the government has run in the red — a modern record. The last time the federal government posted even a monthly surplus was September 2008, just before the financial collapse. Last month’s federal deficit is nearly four times as large as the spending cuts House Republicans have passed in their spending bill, and is more than 30 times the size of Senate Democrats’ opening bid of $6 billion. ...
America Is Not Broke [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-03-07 10:29:22 by Godwinson
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Michael Moore Oscar and Emmy-winning director Posted: March 6, 2011 02:53 PM America Is Not Broke Speech delivered at Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, March 5, 2011 America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich. Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans ...
Greece slams rating agencies after Moody's cut~below junk status
Post Date: 2011-03-07 09:43:50 by Happy Quanzaa
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LONDON (AP) -- Greece launched a tirade against credit ratings agencies Monday after Moody's downgraded its debt grade further below junk status, warning the bailed-out euro country might have to default on its massive borrowings. The agency slashed its rating by three notches to B1 from Ba1 and warned it may cut again if the government's commitment to austerity wanes or international creditors become less willing to support it - Greece was saved from bankruptcy last May after accepting a euro110 billion ($154 billion) bailout from the EU and the International Monetary Fund. The Greek government's response was quick and critical. It said Moody's downgrade was ...
Traders ‘short’ dollar as currency loses attraction
Post Date: 2011-03-06 19:31:40 by Happy Quanzaa
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Hedge funds and forex dealers are betting record amounts against the dollar, reflecting a growing belief that the US currency has lost its haven appeal and that eurozone interest rates will soon rise. As the crisis in the Middle East has worsened, the latest exchange data show that traders are selling “short” the currency. The big US fiscal deficit and concerns about the effect of rising oil prices have been blamed by some for the dollar’s slide. Figures from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which are often used as a proxy for hedge fund activity, showed that short dollar positions surged from 200,564 contracts in the week ending February 22 to 281,088 on March 1. This ...
Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment Hitting 10.3% in February
Post Date: 2011-03-05 10:06:10 by Happy Quanzaa
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Underemployment surged to 19.9% in February from 18.9% at the end of January PRINCETON, NJ -- Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, hit 10.3% in February -- up from 9.8% at the end of January. The U.S. unemployment rate is now essentially the same as the 10.4% at the end of February 2010. The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work worsened considerably in February, increasing to 9.6% of the workforce from 9.1% at the end of January. A larger percentage of the U.S. workforce is working part time and wanting full-time work now than was the case a year ago (9.3%). Underemployment Surges in February Underemployment, a measure that combines ...
IMF: Consumers Should Get Used to Higher Food Prices Read more: IMF: Consumers Should Get Used to Higher Food Prices
Post Date: 2011-03-04 19:06:42 by Happy Quanzaa
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Consumers should get used to paying more for food, after prices rose to a record, because farmers will take years to expand production enough to meet demand and drive down costs, the International Monetary Fund said. People in developing countries are becoming richer and eating more meat and dairy, meaning more grain for livestock feed and land for grazing animals, Thomas Helbling, an adviser for the IMF’s research department, and economist Shaun Roache wrote in an article. Rising demand for biofuels and bad weather also tightened supply, they said. “Rising food prices may be here to stay,” Helbling and Roache wrote in the article published in the agency’s Finance ...
Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey
Post Date: 2011-03-04 18:25:39 by Happy Quanzaa
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Series Id: LNS14000000 Seasonally Adjusted Series title: (Seas) Unemployment Rate Labor force status: Unemployment rate Type of data: Percent or rate Age: 16 years and over
Santelli: 'Good' Jobs Report Has Dark Side
Post Date: 2011-03-04 17:18:51 by Happy Quanzaa
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I remember all too well my refrain in the fall of 2008: "It’s all about JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!" We created 192,000 headline jobs in the February employment report. It’s not enough, but it certainly is welcome news and it is heading in the right direction — although too slowly. We also learned from the February report that the unemployment rate finally trended below the psychologically important 9 percent mark. This is a very big development, considering the rate was pushing the 10 percent level several months ago. Upon closer scrutiny though, there is another factor contributing to the drop that is not necessarily good news: The official size of the U.S. labor force ...
The Rich lied to America. We want our jobs and money back.
Post Date: 2011-03-03 11:48:45 by Godwinson
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The Rich lied to America. We want our jobs and money back. Back in the 90s the free-trade/globalization movement that had begun in earnest a decade earlier took full shape. At the time we had a Democratic President in Clinton who along with some Democrats from his party and most Republicans passed NAFTA and a host of other free trade / open border globalization economic policies. The American people were told that if they supported globalization even if it led to outsourcing, the next phase in the economy would be one long boom because manufacturing was a dead end and part of the old economy. The new jobs would be the service industry in an office and or maybe people would get to work ...
Obamanomic Depression Continues: Announced U.S. Job Cuts Rose 20% From Year Ago
Post Date: 2011-03-02 09:05:05 by Happy Quanzaa
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Employers in the U.S. announced more job cuts in February than in the same month last year, led by a surge at government agencies. Planned firings increased 20 percent to 50,702 last month from February 2010, the first year-over-year gain since May 2009, according to a report today from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Announcements at federal, state and local government offices almost tripled from last year. “More job cuts at the federal level are expected in the months ahead as pressure mounts to cut costs and rein in the soaring national debt,” John A. Challenger, the outplacement company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. Dismissals of ...
The hollowing-out of Wisconsin: The untold story of Walker's plan is that it will accelerate the state's race to the bottom as a low-wage, low-skill economy
Post Date: 2011-03-01 09:32:01 by Godwinson
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The hollowing-out of Wisconsin The untold story of Walker's plan is that it will accelerate the state's race to the bottom as a low- wage, low-skill economy Meir Russ Tuesday 1 March 2011 14.03 GMT The current events in Wisconsin can be framed in four different story lines, each presenting a pair of conflicting interests: budget gaps and cuts (private v public sector); state government and business against labour unions (business v labour); can we the people afford the educational and health services we have (the haves v the have-nots); and corporations against entrepreneurs (big business v small business). The media focuses on and loves the first two stories. They fit in well ...
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