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Fed under fire as public anger mounts

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Tom Raum - Nov. 23 (News Analysis) - Suddenly the Federal Reserve is everybody's punching bag. Strip the Fed of its bank regulation powers, some in Congress are demanding. Get probing audits of its behind-the-scenes operations, others say. The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is always fair game for criticism and second-guessing, usually over interest rate actions. But this year the criticism is much broader as Congress responds to widespread public anger that the Fed bailed out Wall Street but not ordinary Americans, and with unemployment in double digits.

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How Stimulating

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Monthly - By Steve Benen - Nov. 21 (Comment) - Republican critics of the economic recovery efforts, when they're not taking credit for the money that's benefiting their state/district, take it as a given that the stimulus "failed." For the right, it's a foregone conclusion, hardly worth discussing anymore. The New York Times reminds us today that "dispassionate analysts" agree that a fair look at the stimulus package shows that it may be "messy" but it's also "working."

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Danger lies in threat to Fed independence

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Alan Blinder - Nov. 19 (Special Report) - H.R. 1207 seems innocuous enough. The overall question it raises sounds fair: After all, why should the Fed be immune from audit?

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Tax credits eyed for solar energy firms amid Obama’s push for ‘green jobs’

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Hill - By Ben Geman - Nov. 19 (News Report) - Solar energy companies are lobbying for new tax credits for domestic manufacturers that would come on top of subsidies included in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted earlier this year. Solar energy companies are lobbying for new tax credits for domestic manufacturers that would come on top of subsidies included in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted earlier this year.

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GM Plans to Repay U.S. Loan

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By John D. Stoll - Nov. 16 (News Report) - General Motors Co. plans to begin paying back a $6.7 billion loan it owes the U.S. government starting late this year, putting it on track to potentially repay the entire note by the middle of 2011, said a person familiar with the matter. But in a move that could be controversial and risky, the car maker plans to use other money it received from the government to pay back the borrowing.

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Health bill reduces senior benefits, according to report

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Lori Montgomery - Nov. 15 (News Report) - A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending — one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's health-care system — would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday.

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CIA says it gets its money's worth from Pakistani spy agency

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Greg Miller - Nov. 15 (News Report) - The CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan's intelligence service since the Sept. 11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency's annual budget, current and former U.S. officials say.

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What is expert advice worth on the stock market?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Haaretz - By Eli Malki - Nov. 12 (Special Report) - How seriously should you take their forecasts? Does an understanding of economics and the capital market give you tools to peer into the future? A paper by psychology professors Gustaf Torngren and Henry Montgomery of Stockholm University - "Worse Than Chance? Performance and Confidence among Professionals and Laypeople in the Stock Market" - demonstrates that Lao Tzu nailed it on the head.

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Nine states pose fiscal threat to US recovery

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Financial Times - By Nicole Bullock - Nov. 11 (News Report) - Some of the same financial troubles that have pushed California toward economic disaster are wreaking havoc in nine other states and posing a threat to the nascent recovery, according to research released

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Bad Decisions May Be Contagious

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Science - By Michael Torrice - Nov. 10 (News Report) - Like the flu, a person's emotional state can be contagious. Watch someone cry, and you'll likely feel sad; think about the elderly, and you'll tend to walk slower. Now a study suggests that we can also catch someone else's irrational thought processes.

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When God is Watching, People Are More Generous.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Gad Saad - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - One argument in support of religiosity is that it makes people more moral. I am not particularly moved by this premise, as I find it a lot more impressive to be ethical, moral, kind, honest, and decent for reasons other than the fact that a "celestial dictator" (to borrow Christopher Hitchens' brilliant term) is watching over me. Moral and immoral acts are committed both by atheists and believers so neither group holds a monopoly over either form of behaviors.

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Stimulus for Cotton Candy, Tango and a Fish Orchestra? Wacky, or Actually Worthy?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Nov. 07 (Investigative Report) - Breakfast at Fuddruckers: $19.24. Snow cone and cotton candy machine: $146.89. Six extra preview performances of “Little House on the Prairie – the Musical”: $50,000. Benefit to the economy? According to the recipients of this stimulus money: Priceless.

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Faces of a jobless recovery

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - Nov. 06 - For Lisa Hall, this is what 10.2 percent unemployment looks like: spending all day at shopping malls going from one store to another in search of a $10-an-hour job, but being constantly told that no one is hiring. For M&M Appliance in Northwest

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Illinois data on stimulus-related jobs saved, created don't add up

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Chicago Tribune - By Bob Secter, Erika Slife - Nov. 04 (News Report) - More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers. Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers. "That other number, I don't know where that came from," said Lauri Hakanen, superintendent of North Chicago Community Unit Schools District 187. The Obama administration last week released the first round of data designed to underpin the worthiness of its economic stimulus plan, which so far has directed $1.25 billion to Illinois schools. That money has helped save or create 14,330 school jobs in the state, the administration claimed.

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Do stimulus jobs last?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Dave Goldman - Nov. 04 (News Report) - Stimulus may have created or saved 640,000 jobs so far, but many of those positions were never intended to last. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was designed to put millions of people to work, mainly for "shovel-ready" projects. By their very nature, most of those projects last only until the work is completed or the funding runs out.

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SPEEA: Boeing's decision to add second line in S.C. bad for everyone

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Ray Goforth - Nov. 03 (Opinion) - Boeing's decision to add a second line in South Carolina is bad for the company and employees and eventually will be bad for shareholders. Better to focus on fixing 787 production problems.

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FCC Fine Print Could Undermine an Open Internet | Save the Internet

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

savetheinternet.com - By Tim Karr - Nov. 03 (News Report) - Buried in the fine print of the FCC’s proposed Net Neutrality rules is a potential loophole that if left open would undermine the future of Internet freedom.

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Debates: Executive pay

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 28 (Other) - Debate statement: "This house believes that on the whole, senior executives are worth what they are paid."

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Not So Unequal, After All

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Brian S. Wesbury And Robert Stein - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. You've heard it over and over again. Many free-market economists have argued against the conventional wisdom, only to be dismissed as out of touch. But an incredible new paper from Northwestern Professor Robert Gordon, a pillar of the "mainstream" academic establishment, says maybe they are right and have been for a long time.

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War weary Europeans test their leaders' resolve

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Mort Rosenblum - Oct. 27 (News Analysis) - Whoever ends up presiding over Afghan chaos and corruption, Europe is losing patience fast with U.S. mission muddle and a president who won’t make up his mind. NATO defense ministers meeting last week in Slovakia backed Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s strategy to strike harder, and fast, against a growing insurgency. But opinion polls and remarks in official circles from Britain to Poland (and elsewhere, like, Canada) make clear that Europeans are fed up with Afghanistan if not the whole military business altogether.

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Stimulus Contracts Go to Companies Under Criminal Investigation

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Oct. 26 (Investigative Report) - The Department of Defense awarded nearly $30 million in stimulus contracts to six companies while they were under federal criminal investigation on suspicion of defrauding the government. According to Air Force documents, the companies claimed to be small, minority-owned businesses, which allowed them to gain special preference in bidding for government contracts. But investigators found that they were all part of a larger minority-owned enterprise in Southern California, making them ineligible for the contracts.

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American bank failures: An uncelebrated century

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 26 (News Analysis) - Partners Bank of Naples, Florida, earned a dubious distinction on Friday October 23rd. It became the 100th American bank failure of the year. On the same day six other lenders—two more in Florida and banks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Georgia—joined the rollcall of failure in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

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Trying to Rein In ‘Too Big to Fail’ Institutions

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Stephen Labaton - Oct. 26 (News Report) - Congress and the Obama administration are about to take up one of the most fundamental issues stemming from the near collapse of the financial system last year — how to deal with institutions that are so big that the government has no choice but to rescue them when they get in trouble.

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In Health Care Reform, Massashusetts Plan May Be the Future

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ABC News - By Mark Trumbull - Oct. 26 (News Report) - A mandate on individuals to buy health insurance can work -- just don't expect it to reduce the cost of care. That, in a nutshell, may be the lesson from Massachusetts as Americans consider healthcare reform ideas backed by President Obama.

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Insurers say health care bill will lead to system failure.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Denver Post - By Jennifer Brown - Oct. 19 (News Report) - Colorado insurance executives, cautious supporters of health care reform throughout the past year, are now warning that current proposals could cause a "system collapse." At issue are what insurance companies consider absurdly low penalties for people who choose not to buy health insurance.

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