tagged w/ economic recovery
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Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of African-American kids will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and researchers say fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher.Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of African-American kids will be on... more
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The deep recession that's gripped the U.S. economy by the throat since December 2007 is "very likely over at this point," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.
However, Bernanke painted a picture of an underperforming economy well into next year as he fielded questions after a speech at the Brookings Institution, a center-left research center in the nation's capital.
"From a technical perspective the recession is very likely over," Bernanke said, cautioning that unemployment is likely to remain high. "It's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time, as many people will still find that their job security and employment status is not what they wish it was. So that's a challenge for us and all policymakers going forward."
Most mainstream economists think that the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official scorekeeper of when recessions begin and end, eventually will declare that this downturn came to an end in the summer or early fall of 2009.
What follows may not feel much like recovery, Bernanke cautioned, because structural problems in the U.S. economy are likely to resurface. There'll be economic growth during the rest of this year, "but the general view of most forecasters is the pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate, less than you might expect, given the depth of the recession, because of ongoing head winds."
The "head winds" he referred to include an impaired credit system, households still trying to dig out from personal debt and ongoing adjustments in many sectors of the economy, such as construction and autos.The deep recession that's gripped the U.S. economy by the throat since December... more
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http://www.dontgetrolled.org
Once upon a time, corporate titans bankrolled our elections with no limits. There were no social safety nets, no real labor laws, and no voting rights for most Americans. There were the haves and have nots.
This fall, a century of modest limits on corporate influence in politics could be completely rolled back, crushing progress on health care, the environment, energy, economic recovery … on everything!
The Supreme Court on September 9 hears a case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that reopens the question of unlimited corporate money in our elections. In a stunning move, the Court will reach back and reconsider two other pivotal campaign finance cases settled long ago. The potential result? A century-old pillar of campaign finance doctrine could be swept away.
Sound like a good idea? Sounds so very last, last century — except this time it wouldn’t be the robber barons — it would be the giant, multinational corporations buying our politicians outright.
Don’t let our elections and progress get rolled by corporate power!
http://www.dontgetrolled.orghttp://www.dontgetrolled.org
Once upon a time, corporate titans bankrolled our... more
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asherp
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added this
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2 years ago
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From the article...>Despite signs of improvement in global markets, further coordinated actions are needed by governments and banks to ensure that a world economic recovery can take hold, a senior International Monetary Fund official said Tuesday.
"The unprecedented policy response, both in the financial and macroeconomic domains, is gradually beginning to restore market confidence," said Jose Vinals, director of the fund's monetary and capital markets department.
"But continued decisive and effective action is needed to preserve and strengthen these first signs of improvement and to help provide a more stable and resilient platform for sustained global growth," Vinals said in a briefing to discuss the IMF's latest Global Financial Stability Report.
The report indicated a significant deepening and spreading of the crisis beyond the mortgage-related assets in the U.S. responsible for sparking the turmoil. The IMF now projects that worldwide financial losses could top $4 trillion through next year, with the estimated damage from U.S. assets alone increased to $2.7 trillion from a previous forecast of $2.2 trillion in January.
Reflecting the widening scope of the crisis, loan losses and write-downs in assets originated outside the U.S. were also factored in for the first time. Losses from European assets are expected to reach $1.2 trillion through 2010, with estimates of $149 billion for Japanese assets and $340 billion for emerging markets.
Still, IMF officials sounded the most optimistic note yet about the crisis, saying recent improvements in some markets point to the possibility that write-downs could come in below those levels.
"Circumstances in some of the markets were worse than they are now" when the $4.1 trillion loss estimate was calculated at the end of March, Jan Brockmeijer, deputy director of the monetary and capital markets department, told Dow Jones Newswires after the briefing.
That figure is "slightly higher" than current mark-to-market write-downs would suggest, he said, adding that it would be too difficult to give a precise revision due to market fluctuations.
The market improvements have been "across the board" but not significant enough to alter the overall outlook, said Brockmeijer. Some of the biggest improvement has come from emerging-market spreads, which he said is in part due to the recent announcement of plans to triple the IMF's resources, and to countries like Mexico, Poland and Colombia lining up for the new flexible credit line to backstop sound economies.
"Certain emerging-market spreads have come in quite considerably since these liquidity facilities have been announced," said Brockmeijer.
Despite some positive signs, the IMF stressed the need for banks to raise a significant amount of additional capital, estimating that U.S. and European firms would need $875 billion more equity just to return to pre-crisis levels. U.S. banks are nearly halfway there, but European institutions have raised just a third of the capital that may be needed to restore market confidence, the report said.
"The key takeaway is that higher write-downs, together with market demands for both lower leverage and more stringent capital ratios will require financial institutions to hold more capital - whether raised in markets or provided by governments," said Vinals.
When asked about reports that the U.S. may convert some of the preferred shares it owns in banks into common equity - which would cover most of the need for capital among local banks - Vinals said it is a possibility, but that it is up to the government to decide.
Temporary nationalization may also be necessary for a "limited subset of cases" around the world, just long enough to stabilize the situation, said Vinals. But he also welcomed the Obama administration's public-private investment program to provide incentives for the private sector to buy up toxic assets.
"This is something which is useful in order to make private capital come back into tFrom the article...>Despite signs of improvement in global markets, further... more
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