Real Unemployment Still in 17 Percent Range
According to the U.S. Labor Department, the economy added 162,000 jobs in March, the most since the beginning of the worst recession since the 1930s. This was below expectations that predicted...
Sectors
Geithner: Jobless Rate to Stay “Unacceptably High”
Voice of America on April 1 quoted U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s statement that the U.S. jobless rate will be "unacceptably high" for a long time. ...
Housing: Washington Only Delaying Inevitable
Friday’s announcement of more intervention in the housing mortgage market will result in a deeper, longer, and more painful delay in the inevitable decline in housing prices that are necessary to...
Fed Loses Secrecy Suit, Considering Options
The Federal Reserve lost an appeal March 19 in a bid to keep hidden the details of its estimated $2 trillion in bailouts to bankers around the world, prompting celebration among...
Social Security Trust Fund in Red, Drawing on Federal IOUs
The March 15 Associated Press story was blunt: "For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each...
Lehman Bros.: Pinprick That Burst the Bubble
The culprits blamed for the failure of Lehman Brothers in September of 2008 included the company’s top executives, their accountants, their highly-leveraged loans that had started going bad, their success at...
Bailout Baloney — Insurance
On Wednesday, February 10, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed confidence that every cent of the Federal Reserve’s exposure to insurance giant AIG would be repaid. Regarding a combined $116 billion...
Sluggish Spending and the Non-Recovery
Coming in the immediate aftermath of news that the sale of new homes dropped in January to its lowest point in 50 years, and that existing home sales hit a seven-month...
Home Sales Drop to 50-Year Low
There are further signs that Barrack Obama’s jobless “recovery” is, in fact, no recovery at all. The latest indication of the fundamental unsoundness of the American economy is found in statistics...
Bailout Baloney – Banking
More than a year has elapsed since the U.S. economy went into a tailspin with the panic that shook the world’s financial markets in the fall of 2008. Two presidential administrations...
Federal Stimulus Almost Gone: Education Budget Woes
Sam Dillon of the New York Times reports that the depletion of federal stimulus money will result in schools approaching "a funding cliff." Dillon claims that the federal stimulus has managed...
Fed Trying to Protect Bailout Secrecy
Last summer, a federal judge ruled that the Federal Reserve must disclose the identities of firms that received any portions of the over-$2 trillion in bailout money back in 2008. This...
Obama Ponders New Taxes on Banking
The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to impose higher taxes on banks as a way of cutting the deficit. Proposals that have been mentioned but rejected include a tax on...
Stimulus Funding Failed to Create Jobs
The Associated Press has conducted an economic analysis to determine the effect of the first 10 months of federal stimulus spending to build roads and highways on creating jobs in the...
GMAC Will Get More Bailout Money
GMAC Financial Services, the former financial arm of General Motors, is set to receive yet more federal bailout funds as the year draws to a close. According to a Reuters report,...