Unemployment Rate Shoots Past 10 Percent
The unemployment rate shot from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent in October, the highest it has been since 1983, the Labor Department reported on November 6. In response, the...
Sectors
Ford Made Nearly $1 Billion Last Quarter
The Ford Motor Company has posted a net income of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter of this year, no thanks to Uncle Sam. Ford was the only Detroit automaker...
Did “Cash for Clunkers” Cost Taxpayers $24,000 Per Car Sold?
The federal $3 billion “Cash for Clunkers” program promoted by the Obama White House last summer cost an average of $24,000 per additional car sold, according to an analysis by automotive...
Did N.Y. Fed Engineer Sweetheart Deal for AIG Debt Holders?
A year after the onset of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, details continue to emerge of the sordid secret deals cut by the Federal Reserve in bailing out...
Bernanke Urges More Regulation of Financial Sector
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is growing impatient. With the financial crisis continuing to drag on, Bernanke appeared again before Congress yesterday to urge lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at preventing future...
Pay Czar to Slash Executive Compensation
Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s “pay czar,” is expected to announce a plan next week that will slash the annual salaries of top executives at the seven largest companies that received...
No Social Security COLA in 2010
The government has announced that Social Security recipients will not receive a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, in 2010. This is because the COLA is tied to price inflation, which according to...
September Unemployment Hits 9.8 Percent
The national unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent in September, the highest it has been since June 1983. A total of 15.1 million Americans are now out of work, and 7.2 million...
FDIC Wants Banks to Prepay Fees
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation proposed on September 29 that banks prepay $45 billion in insurance premiums to help the FDIC avoid running out of money to cover bank failures. ...
New Figures for GDP Decline and Job Losses
America’s gross domestic product declined in the second quarter of this year, and in September the economy continued to lose jobs. Yet because the decline in the GDP was not as...
Recession Delays, Cancels Retirement Plans
According to a survey conducted in the past two months by an organization known as Experience Works, the current recession is hitting seniors hard, causing them to delay retirement or to...
FDIC Seeks Help From Banks
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is considering borrowing billions of dollars from the very banks it is supposed to be insuring against failure, the New York Times reported on September...
Adobe Expands With Omniture Purchase
Adobe Systems Inc., the largest producer of graphic-design software in the world, has announced a deal to purchase Omniture Inc. for $1.8 billion. Ominture’s focus is tracking website performance and measuring...
Poverty Rate Highest in 11 Years
According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate is at an 11-year high while household incomes are at a 10-year low, all thanks to the worst recession since...
Cheap Chinese Tires Keep Rolling In
As inexpensive Chinese-made automobile tires keep rolling into the United States and U.S. tire manufacturers struggle to stay in business, President Obama will soon have to decide whether or not to...