S&P Warns of Cuts; Another US Downgrade Coming? - Business News. S&P downgraded the United States credit rating for the first time ever in August of last year. "Governments' fiscal burdens will increase significantly over the coming decade, with the highest deterioration in public finances likely to occur in Europe and other advanced G-20 economies, such as Japan and the U.S. ," S&P said in a statement on Tuesday. Health care costs for a typical advanced economy will stand at 11.1 percent of gross domestic product by 2050, up from 6.3 percent of GDP in 2010, S&P said. Bernanke urges caution in overly rapid deficit cutting. WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke defended the central bank's decision to hold interest rates at record-low levels for the next three years, during a contentious hearing Thursday before federal lawmakers.
The Fed chief told the House Budget Committee that the central bank's plan is an appropriate step to combat high unemployment while inflation is stable. Bernanke was challenged immediately on the issue by the panel's chairman, Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, who said the Fed's move would risk higher inflation and hurt growth. STORY: Fed: Interest rates unchanged, no hikes likely till late 2014 "This policy runs the great risk of fueling asset bubbles, destabilizing prices and eventually eroding the value of the dollar," Ryan told Bernanke.
Obama budget to miss deficit goal. By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY Updated 2012-02-10 6:56 PM President Obama with Jacob Lew, his former budget director, last month upon Lew's promotion to White House chief of staff.
Obama's Deficit Reduction Promise. U.S. to hit debt limit before election day. Thanks For Paying Taxes. Here's A Receipt. : Planet Money. Chart: 'America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece' A.I.G. Earnings an Illusion of a Bend in U.S. Tax Laws. ReutersRobert Benmosche, the chief executive of the American International Group since 2009, at his villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Last week, the American International Group reported a whopping $19.8 billion profit for its fourth quarter. It was a quite a feat for a company that was on its death bed just a little over three years ago, so sick that it needed a huge taxpayer bailout. But if you dug into the numbers, it quickly became clear that $17.7 billion of that profit was pure fantasy — a tax benefit, er, gift, from the United States government. S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks. Finance Addict. Looks like there’s a storm brewing in the U.S. repo markets.
It figures: profit-center banks have every motivation to stay one step ahead of the regs and the pols. Since the gamekeepers have now gotten around to looking at proprietary trading and bringing derivatives onto exchanges, you can almost bet your first-born that the next crisis will be in neither one of these areas but someplace else entirely different. As Walter Kurtz describes so well on his Sober Look blog (emphasis added): Tremendous leverage is in fact available via repo, a market far larger than CDS.
The media often misses the fact that MF Global failed because of repo based leverage. Psychologists explain financial market madness. MELBOURNE -- Some economists have described the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) as the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While data on the causes and effects of the economic catastrophe are still being gathered, a group of global psychologists are providing some insights. Co-edited by RMIT University's Adjunct Professor Susan Long, Towards a Socioanalysis of Money, Finance and Capitalism is a book that applies psychoanalysis to explain the decisions which triggered the financial collapse.
"Many key factors that led to the financial crisis were due to wishful thinking, when leaders fooled themselves that various risks could be overcome despite evidence to the contrary,” RMIT University's Adjunct Prof. Obama Readies Plan to Cut Corporate Tax Rate. The Obama administration will propose today reducing the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent along with removing tax breaks for companies to help offset lost revenue, an administration official said.
The plan would eliminate dozens of tax breaks and reshape the current manufacturing deduction to reduce the tax rate on manufacturing to 25 percent, according to the official, who outlined the proposal on condition of anonymity because it hadn’t been released. The restructured tax code would still include incentives for research and development and renewable energy. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Blaming Capitalism for Corporatism - Edmund S. Phelps and Saifedean Ammous. Blaming Capitalism for Corporatism - The shift of power from owners and innovators to state officials is the antithesis of capitalism : Economics.
Timothy Noah: The Mobility Myth. When Americans express indifference about the problem of unequal incomes, it’s usually because they see the United States as a land of boundless opportunity.
Sure, you’ll hear it said, our country has pretty big income disparities compared with Western Europe. And sure, those disparities have been widening in recent decades. Employment Jumps; Rate 8.3%, 243,000 New Jobs Created - US Business News. Both numbers were far better than consensus, which expected a growth of 150,000 jobs and a steady unemployment rate of 8.5 percent.
Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low. A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55%.
Santelli: Here's What's Wrong With the Jobs Number. Controller: State to run out of cash in March without action. California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing, according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today.
The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state had enough cash to last through the fiscal year that ends in June. But Chiang said additional cash management solutions are needed because state tax revenues are $2.6 billion less than what Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers assumed in their optimistic budget last year. Dependent Nation: Dependency Index Surges 23% Under President Obama; 67 Million Get Aid. Job growth surges, jobless rate near 3-year low.
Romney Says Obama Doesn’t Deserve Credit for January’s U.S. Payrolls Gain. Mitt Romney looked to solidify his front-runner status in the race for the Republican presidential nomination today with a win in today’s Nevada’s caucuses, with early results showing him ahead.
Romney had 39 percent of the vote, with 8 percent of the precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press tally. Former U.S. January U.S. jobs rise 243,000; jobless rate 8.3% U.S. Stocks Jump on Upbeat Data. Dollar Gets No Respect Despite Economic Gains - US Business News Blog. Illuminati Behind Global Government. Many Of You Will Not Believe Some Of The Things Americans Are Doing Just To Survive. You might not want to read this article if you have a weak stomach. Most Americans have absolutely no idea what is going on in the dark corners of America, and when people find out the truth it can come as quite a shock. Many of you will not believe some of the things Americans are doing just to survive.
Gallup Finds Unemployment Climbing to Nine Percent in February. A man looking for work stands on a street corner in Portland, Maine. (AP) (CNSNews.com) – Unemployment in the U.S. rose to nine percent in mid-February, up from 8.3 percent a month earlier, according to a new Gallup survey. The polling company said this suggests that it is “premature” to assume the economy will not feature prominently in the 2012 election season. Dow Closes at Highest Level in 4 Years. Obama to Congress : don't 'muck up' recovery. CBO: Longest Period of High Unemployment Since Great Depression. Growing number of people become 'super-commuters'