*7/29/10 New York Times:U.S. Economic Growth Slowed to 2.4% Rate in 2nd QuarterBy CATHERINE RAMPELL
The United States economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter, after expanding a revised 3.7 percent in the previous three months, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.
Nonresidential fixed investment, which covers items like office buildings and purchases of equipment and software, was a key driver of growth in the second quarter, rocketing up at an annual rate of 17 percent, compared with a 7.8 percent increase in the first. The equipment and software category alone grew at an annual rate of 21.9 percent, the fastest pace in 12 years...
*7/23/10 ABC News:U.S. Trims '10 Deficit Forecast as Economy Faces Headwinds By Alister Bull
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration warned on Friday the U.S. economy had encountered "strong headwinds" and the country's fiscal challenge remained grim, but it lowered an estimate for the budget deficit this year.
Outlining the country's fiscal path over the next decade, the White House said the numbers were moving in the right direction but the deficit and debt were too high. "The economy is still struggling; too many Americans are still out of work; and the nation's long-term fiscal trajectory is unsustainable," the White House said in the annual midsession review of President Barack Obama's budget.
Polls show Americans are anxious about the economy and could punish Obama's Democrats in November 2 midterm congressional elections for perceptions of big government spending and high unemployment after a severe recession...
*6/4/10 NY TImes:U.S. Adds Jobs in May, but Private Hiring Disappoints By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Employers added 431,000 nonfarm jobs nationwide in May, the biggest increase in a single month in a decade, the Labor Department said Friday. But the bulk of the growth was in government jobs, driven by hiring for the Census, and private-sector job growth was weak.
The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent nationwide, from 9.9 percent in April, the department said.
The figures for May represented the fifth consecutive month that payrolls have risen, but fell below analysts' expectations that 540,000 jobs would be added to the economy. Most of the private-sector gains were in manufacturing, but over all, the figures suggest that nongovernment hiring was weak...
*6/2/10 Forbes.com:U.S., Emerging Markets To Recover Nicely In Third Quarter
Moderating oil prices will help, but eurozone austerity problems loom beyond Q3.
U.S. growth will accelerate in the third quarter on the back of rising consumer and investment spending, aided in part by moderate oil prices. This picture is part of a natural recovery from double-digit contractions in some areas of spending in 2009, namely in fixed investment. It also presages a return to form for U.S. external accounts, with the current account going further into deficit.
This is good news for emerging economies, at least in the short run. On the strength of acceleration both in domestic spending growth and double-digit export growth, emerging markets outside Europe will continue to post the highest growth rates...
* 4/14/10 New York Times:U.S. Must Start to Rein In the Deficit, Fed Chief Says By SEWELL CHAN
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve chairman said Wednesday that the government must begin to make "difficult choices" to address its gaping deficits and warned that "postponing them will only make them more difficult." The chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said that a "credible plan" for reining in federal deficits could help long-term interest rates and raise consumer and business confidence. "Although sizable deficits are unavoidable in the near term, maintaining the confidence of the public and financial markets requires that policymakers move decisively to set the federal budget on a trajectory toward sustainable fiscal balance," he said...
*4/2/10 New York Times:Job Market Brightens as U.S. Payrolls Surge in March
By CATHERINE RAMPELL and JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
After more than two years in which over 8 million jobs were lost, the country's nonfarm payrolls surged in March. Employers added 162,000 jobs last month, and employment numbers in the previous two months were revised upward. Nationwide, the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent...
*3/10/10 Washington Post:China Will Lead The Way By Ben Pershing
The Senate approved a $140 billion package of tax breaks and aid to the unemployed Wednesday, the most substantial effort by the chamber to boost the nation's economy since passing the stimulus bill last year. Six Republicans joined 56 Democrats to pass the "tax extenders" measure, 62 to 36. The package faces an uncertain future in the House, where Democrats have taken a markedly different approach to the "jobs agenda" than have their Senate colleagues...
*3/5/10 New York Times: Jobless Rate Holds Steady, Raising Hopes of Recovery By PETER S. GOODMAN and JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
The American economy lost fewer jobs than expected last month and the unemployment rate remained steady at 9.7 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday, bolstering hopes that a still-tenuous recovery may be gaining momentum. The government's monthly snapshot of the job market found that another 36,000 jobs disappeared in February -- hardly cause for a celebration...
*2/24/10 Wall Street Journal: Senate Votes 70-28 to Approve $15 Billion Job-Creation Bill
By COREY BOLES
WASHINGTON--With an unusually strong bipartisan vote Wednesday, the Senate approved a $15 billion bill lawmakers hope will spur job creation in the flat employment market. The vote was 70-to-28 with around a dozen Republicans siding with the Democratic majority to approve the measure. This was an even larger number of minority party members to vote with the Democrats on the legislation than a key procedural vote earlier in the week...
*2/18/10 NY Times:Fed Raises Interest Rate That It Charges Banks By SEWELL CHAN
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve, taking its first step to normalize lending after more than two years of extraordinary actions to prop up the economy, on Thursday raised the interest rate it charges banks on emergency loans. The Fed emphasized that the increase in the discount rate, to 0.75 percent from 0.50 percent, which will take effect on Friday, did not represent a broad tightening of credit. Instead, officials said, the change was intended to discourage emergency borrowing by banks and other deposit-taking institutions when other financing is available...
*2/10/10 U.S. Dept of Labor Statistics:U.S.Economy at a Glance
*2/10/10 U.S. Dept of Labor Statistics:Colorado Economy at a Glance
*NY Times: Labor Market Shows Signs of Rebirth in New Data By PETER S. GOODMAN
The unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped to 9.7 percent in January, from 10 percent in December, the government reported Friday, buoying hopes that the worst job market in at least a quarter-century is finally improving. But a different survey in the Labor Department's report found that the economy lost 20,000 net jobs during the month, muddying the picture and underscoring the formidable struggles still confronting millions of Americans. Yet with the pace of decline slowing, most experts focused on signs that the economy was recovering after the longest recession since the Great Depression...
*1/29/10 NY Times: U.S. Economy Grew at Fastest Pace in 6 Years Last Quarter By CATHERINE RAMPELL
The United States economy grew at its fastest pace in over six years at the end of 2009, but a sluggish job market is still souring economists on the sustainability of the recovery. Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, after growing at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent in the previous quarter. Analysts had forecast annualized growth of 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter, and the better-than-expected result sent stocks higher...
*1/26/10 Wall St. Journal: Budget Freeze Is Proposed White House Plan Applies to Only 17% of Spending; Small Impact on Deficit By LAURA MECKLER And JONATHAN WEISMAN
WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama intends to propose a three-year freeze in spending that accounts for one-sixth of the federal budget--a move meant to quell rising concern over the deficit but whose practical impact will be muted.
To attack the $1.4 trillion deficit, the White House will propose limits on discretionary spending unrelated to the military, veterans, homeland security and international affairs, according to senior administration officials. Also untouched are big entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare...
*1/21/10 New York Times:.Obama Moves to Limit `Reckless Risks' of Big Banks By SEWELL CHAN and ERIC DASH
WASHINGTON -- Declaring that huge banks had nearly brought down the economy by taking "huge, reckless risks in pursuit of quick profits and massive bonuses," President Obama on Thursday proposed legislation to limit the scope and size of large financial institutions. The changes would prohibit bank holding companies from owning, investing, or sponsoring hedge fund or private equity funds and from engaging in proprietary trading -- what Mr. Obama called the Volcker Rule, in recognition of the former Federal Reserve chairman, Paul A. Volcker, who has championed the restriction...
*1/13/10 Wall Street Journal: Job Data Set to Fuel Fight Over Stimulus By LOUISE RADNOFSKY
WASHINGTON -- The $787 billion economic stimulus package was responsible for keeping between 1.5 million and two million jobs in the economy through the end of 2009, White House economists said Tuesday, in a report that will fuel the political battle over the plan's impact. The report comes days after new figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics put joblessness at 10% nationwide in December, the same as the previous month.
Unemployment has risen since the stimulus plan was passed last February. Some Democrats say this is proof of the need for additional jobs-creation programs, and President Barack Obama has said he will focus on jobs in the coming weeks. Republicans use official unemployment figures to make their case that stimulus efforts have been a costly failure...
© Copyright
League of Women Voters of La Plata County, Colorado. All rights reserved.
![[LWV]](images/lwv76.gif)
