6/23 Economy: Economic News, Policy & Analysis - The Washington Post

Economy: Economic News, Policy & Analysis - The Washington Post         Global stocks hit by Fed's US economy warning as Greece set to top EU leaders' summit June 23, 2011 at 6:04 PM   LONDON — A downbeat assessment of the U.S. economy from the Federal Reserve hit global stocks Thursday, while the euro faltered ahead of a meeting of EU leaders where Greece's debt troubles are likely to dominate talks. Market sentiment, which is fragile ahead of next Tuesday's crucial parliamentary vote in Greece on more austerity cuts, was knocked by a warning from Fed chief Ben Bernanke that the problems plaguing the U.S. economy "may be stronger and more persistent" than originally thought. However, with inflation at relatively high levels, Bernanke gave no indications that the central bank is likely to provide more monetary stimulus after the current $600 billion program runs out at the end of the month. Read full article >>         Oil falls below $94 in Asia after Bernanke comments fuel pessimism on US economy June 23, 2011 at 4:16 PM   SINGAPORE — Oil prices fell to below $94 a barrel Thursday in Asia amid investor concern U.S. economic growth and crude demand could disappoint this year. Benchmark oil for August delivery was down $1.51 to $93.90 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $1.24 to settle at $95.41 on Wednesday. In London, Brent crude for August delivery was down $1.81 to $112.40 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Read full article >>         Push to help Greece get access to unused EU development funds faces headwinds June 23, 2011 at 3:24 PM   BRUSSELS — Greece's financial meltdown is set to overshadow yet another summit of European Union leaders, who on Thursday will discuss new ways to get the country back on its feet and protect the euro's stability. Eurozone governments earlier this week delayed any final decisions on new aid for Greece until July 3, when they will know whether the parliament in Athens backs massive new budget cuts, privatizations and economic reforms. But the first victim of Europe's debt crisis will still dominate discussions Thursday. Read full article >>         Now on trial: Self-described Wall Street 'bad boy' who found sobriety; vanity intact June 23, 2011 at 2:57 PM   NEW YORK — Ross Mandell has embraced his billing as Wall Street's "bad boy" investment manager — a shameless self-promoter who brags about how he over-indulged in fast-lane excesses before getting sober, bulking up and becoming rich during the dot-com binge in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The FBI abruptly rewrote the script in 2009 by arresting him on charges he was central to a $140 million securities fraud scheme. Fast forward to Wednesday, when an admitted co-conspirator who took the witness stand against Mandell was asked what some of the cash raised from investors was spent on. Read full article >>         China frees Hong Kong scholar jailed on state secrets charges, after rare sentence reduction June 23, 2011 at 12:10 PM   BEIJING — A Hong Kong-based historian jailed on state secrets charges in China was released Thursday after his heavy sentence was reduced in a show of clemency that a rights group says has been increasingly rare for political prisoners. Xu Zerong, an Oxford-trained political scientist, said in a phone interview that he was released Thursday morning from Guangzhou Prison in southern Guangdong province's capital city. The scholar, now 57, was convicted a decade ago of leaking secret military materials. His case came amid a series of arrests of Chinese academics with foreign connections and his heavy sentence alarmed fellow academics and drew the attention of human rights groups. Read full article >>         Australia's 2 biggest telcos sign on to super-fast national broadband network rollout June 23, 2011 at 11:51 AM   CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's two largest telecommunications companies signed lucrative deals with the government to join the rollout of a fiber optic national broadband network that will be among the world's fastest. Telstra Corp. and Optus Pty. Ltd. — which combined represent 60 percent of Australia's retail broadband market, signed separate deals with the government Thursday to close down their own infrastructures and transfer customers to the national broadband network, known as the NBN. The deal with Telstra, the larger company, was required under the NBN business plan to achieve the rollout at 36 billion Australian dollars ($38 billion). Read full article >>         New Zealand offers to pay 5,000 to leave quake-hit homes in country's second-largest city June 23, 2011 at 11:50 AM   WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand's government said Thursday that it has offered to pay thousands of homeowners to leave areas of the country's second-largest city that were hardest hit by recent earthquakes. Christchurch was struck by a magnitude-7.1 earthquake in September and a devastating magnitude-6.3 quake in February that killed 181 people and crippled much of the city. The government said it has offered to pay about 5,000 Christchurch homeowners to leave and have their homes razed, with certain swaths of land remaining too unstable for rebuilding. The future of an additional 10,000 homes, many of which may also need to be destroyed, is still being assessed. Read full article >>         Congressional leaders increase pressure on group discussing debt-reduction deal June 23, 2011 at 9:06 AM   Congressional leaders from both parties made new and competing demands Wednesday in exchange for their votes to raise the nation's debt limit, increasing pressure on a bipartisan group attempting to negotiate a debt-reduction deal with the White House. Top Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), said they have told Vice President Biden, who is leading the talks, that any agreement on raising the legal borrowing limit must include an effort to boost the flagging economic recovery alongside deep spending cuts sought by Republicans. Read full article >>         For first time, California lawmakers feel financial pain for budget shenanigans June 23, 2011 at 7:14 AM   SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Few tears are being shed for California lawmakers. The man who cuts the state's paychecks decided to enforce a law this week that all 120 members of the Legislature will not be paid their salaries until they balance the state's annual spending plan by closing its $9.6 billion budget deficit. Democratic lawmakers say they followed the law by passing a budget last week and should not be penalized because Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it. Read full article >>         Reconciliation June 23, 2011 at 7:12 AM   Recap: What "Inside Job" got wrong; how a tax cut could lift the debt ceiling; and America has a Congress problem, not a deficit problem. Elsewhere: 1) "We are a social species. We get smart by being around other smart people." Read full article >>         As Europe stumbles, Lagarde presses IMF bid June 23, 2011 at 6:50 AM   French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde interviews with the International Monetary Fund board on Thursday for the job of managing director. But last year, as a debt crisis in Greece unnerved markets and raised the possibility that the euro zone currency union might not survive, Lagarde wasn't so interested in the agency she now wants to command. As the United States and the IMF urged fast action on a program to help settle Greece's problems before they became more expensive and riskier to the world economy, France — through Lagarde — argued that Europe could tend to itself, a position that consumed precious weeks resisting an IMF role in any rescue. Read full article >>         'At best neutral and probably somewhat negative for job creation' June 23, 2011 at 5:58 AM   I don't think that sharp, immediate cuts in the deficit would create more jobs. I think in the short run that we're seeing already a certain amount of fiscal drag coming from state and local governments from the withdrawal of previous federal stimulus, so I think in the short run, you know, the fiscal tightening is at best neutral and probably somewhat negative for job creation. — Ben Bernanke believes we need to reduce the deficit, and also that we shouldn't trick ourselves into thinking this is the right moment to do it with fairy tales of how sharply cutting government spending will create jobs in an economy suffering from too little consumer and business spending. Read full article >>         Summary Box: Caution from Fed chairman on the economy sends stocks wobbling June 23, 2011 at 5:39 AM   BERNANKE: Bernanke said that some of the problems plaguing the economy such as weakness in the financial industry and the housing market "may be stronger and more persistent than we thought." STREAK SNAPPED: Major indexes had been mixed for much of the day but turned lower in mid-afternoon trading as Bernanke spoke at a news conference. The drop followed four days of gains. THE INDEXES: The Dow closed down 80.34 points, or 0.7 percent, at 12,109.67. The S&P 500 index fell 8.38 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 1,287.14. The Nasdaq fell 18.07 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,669.19. Read full article >>         How the Dow Jones industrial average and other stock indexes fared in Wednesday trading June 23, 2011 at 5:34 AM   Stocks faded to a weak close Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the drags on the U.S. economy may be worse than previously thought. Major indexes had been mixed for much of the day but turned lower in mid-afternoon trading as Bernanke spoke at a news conference. Responding to a reporter's question, Bernanke said that some of the problems plaguing the economy such as weakness in the financial industry and the housing market and "may be stronger and more persistent than we thought." Read full article >>         What 'Inside Job' got wrong June 23, 2011 at 5:32 AM   I finally watched "Inside Job" this weekend. It was an excellent documentary for people who don't want to understand the financial crisis but want to believe they would've seen it coming. Watching it, you'd think that the only people who missed the meltdown were corrupt fools, and the way to spot the next one is to have fewer corrupt fools. But that's not true. Worse, it's dangerously untrue. In telling the wrong story about how the financial crisis happened, it misinforms about how to keep it from happening again. Read full article >>         CBO: We'll only have giant deficits if Congress wants giant deficits June 22, 2011 at 11:04 PM   The Congressional Budget Office just released the latest edition of its long-term budget outlook (pdf), and it shows the same thing as always: If Congress lets the Bush tax cuts expire or offsets their extension, implements the Affordable Care Act as scheduled and makes or offset the Medicare cuts prescribed by the 1997 Balanced Budget Act — which CBO calls the "extended baseline scenario" — the national debt will be totally manageable. If Congress passes laws extending the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the cost, repealing the Affordable Care Act and its cost controls and protecting doctors from Medicare cuts without making up the savings elsewhere — the "alternative fiscal scenario" — the national debt will be totally out of control: Read full article >>             This email was sent to wellimauludani@gmail.com. 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