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Rising Oil Prices Beginning to Hurt US Economy
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON - Just when companies have finally stepped up hiring, rising oil prices are threatening to halt the U.S. economy's gains. Some economists are scaling back their estimates for growth this year, in part because flat wages have left households struggling to pay higher gasoline prices. Oil has topped $108 a barrel, the highest price since 2008. Regular unleaded gasoline now goes for an average $3.69 a gallon, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge survey, up 86 cents from a year ago. The higher costs have been driven by unrest in Libya and other oil-producing Middle East countries, ...
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 ...
Unemployment Dips to 8.9 Percent, 192K Jobs Added
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON - Employers in February hired at the fastest pace in almost a year and the unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent - a nearly two-year low. The economy added 192,000 jobs last month, with factories, professional and business services, education and health care among those expanding employment. Retailers, however, trimmed jobs. State and local government, wrestling with budget shortfalls, slashed 30,000 jobs, the most since November. The government's report Friday bolstered hopes that employers will shift into a more aggressively hiring mode and allow the economic recovery to get on ...
Obama-GOP Tax Deal: A Win for Politics, Not Policy
By David Corn - Politics DailyOkay, tea partiers, is this what you really wanted? Republicans holding middle-class taxpayers and unemployed Americans hostage so the well-to-do get budget-busting tax cuts that will be less efficient in generating jobs than other economic initiatives? On Monday, the GOPers succeeded in hammering out a compromise with President Obama that will extend the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers for two years, including the well-to-do. For caving on the tax breaks for the rich, Obama won a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance, a 2-percent payroll tax credit, $40 billion in tax breaks for ...
Opinion: Big Risks From a Foreclosure Halt
By Marty Robins - AOL News(Oct. 13) -- We've recently seen a lot of reports about flaws in the foreclosure process, including lenders certifying that they're familiar with all pertinent aspects of a given case when they're not. This is unacceptable, and those responsible for such false certifications should be held legally accountable. But the response we've seen to these revelations from many large lenders -- placing a moratorium on foreclosures -- is a cure much worse for the economy than the disease. While these actions are certainly a well-intended effort to "protect" homeowners from the consequences of ...
Opinion: Three Cheers for Government Bailouts
By Michael Cohen - AOL News(Oct. 6) -- There is perhaps no word more likely to stoke the anger of ordinary Americans than "bailout." Whether it's the hundreds of billions spent to save the financial industry or the tens of billions allocated to rescue America's carmakers, Washington "bailouts" of private industry have come to symbolize all that is wrong with our supposedly omnipresent and overbearing federal government. But there's one serious problem with all this anger -- it's utterly misplaced. Government bailouts have actually been a true success story that prevented a far worse economic calamity. Rather than a ...
Boehner's Economic Take: At Odds With CBO, Biden and Guru Mark Zandi
By Jill Lawrence - Politics DailyRep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader and speaker-in-waiting, isn't getting much pundit love for his speech on the economy Tuesday at the City Club of Cleveland. The headline was his suggestion that President Obama fire Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, economic adviser Larry Summers and the rest of his economic team. Conservative blogger Ed Morrissey called that sound counsel. But economist Mark Zandi, who has advised candidates of both parties, including Obama and 2008 GOP nominee John McCain, said Wednesday that would be counter-productive. "Certainly changing leadership doesn't ...
Nearly 50 Percent Leave Mortgage-Aid Program
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON (Aug. 20) -- Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration's flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out. The program is intended to help those at risk of foreclosure by lowering their monthly mortgage payments. Friday's report from the Treasury Department suggests the $75 billion government effort is failing to slow the tide of foreclosures in the United States, economists say. More than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December 2007, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. ...
Government Layoffs Loom at State and Local Levels
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyStates, counties and cities running out of options in dealing with widening budget gaps could soon start laying off more workers, putting another roadblock in the way of the economy's recovery, USA Today reported Tuesday. Moody's chief economist, Mark Zandi, told the newspaper that up to 400,000 state and local workers could get pink slips over the next year as officials try to make do with shrinking revenue and less federal funding. Cumulatively, states face a $140-billion budget gap in fiscal 2011, which began July 1 for most, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That ...
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