Daily News Channel
President Barack Obama faces a daunting political reality: the world he envisioned in the spring and summer of 2008, when he was formulating his political strategy and building his political alliances, has been replaced by a world in economic danger. His $3.5 trillion budget might make sense if these were normal times, with a newly elected, very liberal Administration wanting to focus on reshaping America and redistributing wealth. However, these are not normal times
On the best of days, Washington and Wall Street are as antsy as a boy who plants an acorn and then starts talking about climbing the tree. And these are not the best of days. Under the stress of a global financial disaster and juiced up on the amphetamine of 24-hour cable chatter, America’s axis of money and influence is jittery and nervous and primed for panic
To fix the banks, Washington needs to get toxic assets off their balance sheets. That’s easily said but not so easily done. One reason is an obscure accounting rule that is the subject of intense lobbying by representatives of the banking industry ahead of congressional hearings on Thursday on the matter
First there was last winter’s $168 billion economic stimulus package, followed by a $300 billion fund in June to help distressed mortgage holders. Then came $350 billion for the banks , another $350 billion for the banks, $787 billion in economic stimulus and $410 billion in an earmark-packed spending package for fiscal 2009 that Congress passed on Tuesday. Dizzy
Some Democrats are increasingly concerned about President Obama’s $787 billion financial fix for the ailing economy, and are demanding greater transparency on further spending.
Even before the financial and home foreclosure crisis hit full stride, the number of homeless children in America had reached an alarming level. The National Center on Family Homelessness released a report today that estimates that one in every 50 American children was homeless between 2005 and 2006. That totals roughly 1.5 million kids.
Slumping consumer demand pushed China’s consumer and producer price indices into negative territory in February, state-run media reported Tuesday.
Over the last few weeks, the newspaper industry has entered a new period of decline.
After a one-year, 50% drop in the stock market, and the fastest, deepest spate of job losses since 1974, Americans have a lot of data to support their sense that the country’s economic house is crumbling. The last thing they want to hear is that the man charged with the reclamation project doesn’t have a crew ready to start work. So when news broke late last week that two top nominees for the Treasury department were withdrawing their names from consideration for undisclosed personal reasons, what ordinarily might have been dismissed as a harmless staffing snafu became the latest cause for unease among those watching Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
In many respects, Senator Chris Dodd is more powerful than ever on Capitol Hill these days. After enduring eight years in the political wilderness, the Connecticut Democrat is one of his ascendant party’s senior statesmen, someone who endorsed Barack Obama early on in his presidential campaign and hails from a solidly blue state.