NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market closed mostly lower Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its first losing week of 2012, after the government reported that economic growth was slower at the end of last year than economists expected. (more)
As children across America costume themselves as ghouls, ghosts, goblins and former North African dictators Monday night, they may have missed the most spine-chilling scare of the day. According to calculations based on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, on All Hallows’ Eve the United States’ total debt will surpass its Gross Domestic Product for the first time since World War II. (more)
The U.S. economy hit the brakes in the first three months of 2011 as higher prices, especially for gasoline and food, squeezed spending by Americans. (more)
Now that the mainstream media is hopefully done swooning over President Obama’s State of the Union speech, some of us are more concerned about the real state of the Union, by the numbers. It’s not what he said or did not say, nor is it how he said it. It should be about our national security and our national economic health. (more)
The Congressional Budget Office issued updated figures today that predict the budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 will be a flaming huge $1.5 trillion. That’s about $414 billion bigger than the CBO last August figured this year’s shortfall would be. And yes, it would be a record in terms of absolute dollar red ink for Uncle Sam. (more)
Here’s the spin and the facts from the White House – and from Republicans – on the spending freeze in President Obama’s State of the Union address. (more)
Apparently Russia understands basic economics and self-control better than the Obama administration. (more)
Listening to the local news on the radio recently, I heard a report about how newly elected Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz plans to save $8 million by, among other things, merging the “Office of Sustainability” with the Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management. (more)
SINGAPORE (AP) – Singapore’s economy grew a record 14.7 percent this year, rebounding strongly from last year’s recession as the global recovery boosted exports and tourism. (more)
President Obama’s effort to replicate President Bill Clinton’s presidency-saving first-term triangulation has begun, now that he has agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts for all brackets and has reached a free trade agreement with South Korea. (more)
An emerging conservative criticism of the debt reduction plan released by President Obama’s commission this week is that it would represent a massive tax hike. (more)
The lame-duck session is the final gasp of a Congress that consistently failed to recognize the priorities of the American people over the past two years. This week, Congress failed to renew funding for unemployment benefits, to extend current tax rates past this year and to fund the federal government for the coming year. (more)
Summoning the most urgent and stern rhetoric possible, President Obama’s debt commission co-chairmen released their final report Wednesday morning upon a capital culture waiting eagerly to tear it to shreds. (more)
The response by conservatives and liberals to an initial offering by co-chairs of President Obama’s deficit commission this week could not have been more different. (more)
The United States economy grew at an annual rate of 2 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday, as it struggled to sustain its recovery from a deep recession. (more)
GYEONGJU, South Korea—A proposal among the Group of 20 nations to target curbs on current-account imbalances, meant to avert a “currency war,” itself ran into opposition from industrial and developing nations Friday. (more)
As most of us should know by now (but probably don’t), a country’s gross domestic product (its GDP) consists of its people’s consumption (C), plus their investment (I), plus what their government spends (or does not spend) on their behalf (G), plus their net exports (NE) — exports less imports. Expanding GDP, denoting a growing economy, is deemed to be a good thing; contracting GDP, denoting an economy in recession, a bad one. At the moment, governments in the developed world are struggling to keep the GDP of their countries expanding. But if doing so is such a good thing, why is it proving such a struggle? (more)
Is the recession’s great irony that government spending killed Keynesianism? With economists, bankers and investors perplexed over the economy’s continued funk, we cannot be blamed for looking in odd places for answers. Could it possibly be that continuously increasing spending over eight decades has left little ability for government spending to affect the economy? (more)
Investors will face defaults on government bonds given the burden of aging populations and the difficulty of securing more tax revenue, according to Morgan Stanley. (more)
SHANGHAI — After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday. (more)
