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Ben Bernanke
Bernanke Sees Risks in Further Steps to Spur Jobs
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the Fed can't take additional steps to try to ease high unemployment without escalating high inflation. If inflation were to accelerate, the Fed would have to raise rates to slow borrowing and spending and blunt price increases. Hiring might then slow. Speaking at a news conference with reporters, Bernanke sketched a picture of an economy growing steadily but still weighed down by a prolonged period of unemployment, now at 8.8 percent. He acknowledged the pain that is causing, noting that around 45 percent of the ...
G-7 Countries Announce Joint Currency Intervention
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON -- Finance officials from the Group of Seven major industrialized countries on Thursday agreed on a coordinated effort to weaken the Japanese yen, which has surged to record levels following last week's earthquake and tsunami. A super-strong yen could cripple Japanese exports, further worsen the economic impact of the disaster that killed thousands and triggered an unfolding nuclear crisis. The coordinated intervention in international currency markets would be the first by the G-7 countries since the fall of 2000, when the G-7 intervened in an effort to bolster the euro. ...
February Federal Budget Deficit Sets Record
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON -- The government ran the largest-ever budget deficit for a single month in February. The shortfall kept this year's annual deficit on pace to end as the biggest in U.S. history. The widening deficit reflects the impact of the tax-cut package President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans brokered in December. As a result, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in January raised its estimate for the annual deficit from $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion. It said the tax cuts would add $400 billion to this year's gap. The budget year ends Sept. 30. The tax-cut package ...
Jobs Market Convalescence Could Take a Long Time
By Joseph Schuman - AOL NewsThe U.S. jobs market may finally be on the verge of an actual recovery, but expect it to come back with a whimper rather than a bang. The Labor Department today said the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance last week was just 368,000. That's the lowest number of weekly jobless claims reported by the government since May 2008, before the full force of the financial crisis slammed into the American economy, and it marks a drop of 20,000 from the previous week's total. Chris Hondros, Getty Images An unemployed man looks over job listings on a board at a New York ...
Bernanke: 'Several Years' Before Unemployment Returns to Normal
By Patricia Murphy - Politics DailyFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday that although the American economy is showing improvement, the unemployment rate will probably remain high for years to come. "If the rate of economic growth remains moderate, as projected, it could be several years before the unemployment rate has returned to a more normal level," Bernanke told the committee. The Fed chairman called the current rate of job growth "relatively weak" and noted that the American economy has only replaced only about 1 million of the nearly 9 million jobs that were lost in the wake of ...
Bernanke: Mideast Threat to US Economy Is Mild -- For Now
By Joseph Schuman - AOL NewsThe spike in fuel prices, sparked by Mideast turmoil, currently poses only a mild threat of broader inflation because the ailing U.S. jobs market has kept a lid on wages, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress today. But a continuing rise in the prices of oil and other commodities like steel, cotton and food could threaten both the economic recovery and stability for the cost of daily life for most Americans, Bernanke said. "In the past few weeks, concerns about unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and the possible effects on global oil supplies have led oil and gasoline ...
Ben Bernanke: Reports Overstate Damage From GOP Spending Cuts
By Patricia Murphy - Politics DailyFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke waded into a heated Washington debate Tuesday when he predicted that federal spending cuts proposed by House Republicans would not damage economic growth to the extent that two recent reports have predicted. House Republicans voted in February to slash $61 billion from the 2011 federal budget. Since then, Democratic leaders in both chambers have circulated two reports -- one from Goldman Sachs and one from Moody's -- that say such spending reductions would significantly damage the U.S. economy. The Moody's report, from economist Mark Zandi, predicted ...
Fed Predicts More Economic Growth but Says Unemployment Will Remain High
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyUnemployment is likely to remain high this year but the economy could grow at a faster rate than previously thought, the Federal Reserve predicts. In its first forecast since November, Fed officials said U.S. economic output could expand by 3.4 to 3.9 percent in 2012, The New York Times reported Wednesday. That's compared to the 3 to 3.6 percent growth predicted previously. The improved outlook comes after a boost in household spending in the final months of 2010, particularly on cars, as well as increased optimism by businesses, according to The Los Angeles Times. But the good news isn't ...
When Do Inflation, Debt Become Bigger Worries Than Jobs?
By Joseph Schuman - AOL NewsSo much for the jobs-jobs-jobs agenda. The epidemic unemployment gripping the the country may still be the top priority of the Federal Reserve. But other issues loom larger for the new majority in the House of Representatives, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke learned this morning in his first testimony of the year before a committee that has switched hands to Republicans. There was little change in Bernanke's outlook from his recent public comments -- an economy picking up steam, inflation that's tame and stubbornly high unemployment that's unlikely to abate anytime soon -- but his audience in ...
Bernanke Encouraged by Sharp Drop in Unemployment
By not in system - AOL NewsFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that the sharp drop in unemployment over the last two months is encouraging but cautioned that it will take several years for hiring to return to normal. See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/e2eqhY ...
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