Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category
“Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds…
…The congressional shopping list goes beyond what the Air Force had initially requested as part of its annual appropriations. The Pentagon sought to buy one Gulfstream V and one business-class equivalent of a Boeing 737 to replace aging planes. The Defense Department also asked to buy two additional 737s that were being leased.
Lawmakers in the House last week added funds to buy those planes, and plus funds to buy an additional two 737s and two Gulfstream V planes. The purchases must still be approved by the Senate. The Air Force version of the Gulfstream V each costs $66 million, according to the Department of Defense, and the 737s cost about $70 million.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Department of Defense didn’t request the additional planes and doesn’t need them. ‘We ask for what we need and only what we need,’ he told reporters Wednesday. ‘We’ve always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for.’”
source: wsj.com
“To get the economy back on track, will President Barack Obama have to break his pledge not to raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans? In a ‘This Week’ exclusive, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told me, ‘We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.’ Geithner was clear that he believes a key component of economic recovery is deficit reduction. When I gave him several opportunities to rule out a middle class tax hike, he wouldn’t do it.
‘We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically,’ Geithner told me. ‘And that’s going to require some very hard choices.’ ‘We will not get this economy back on track, recovery will be not strong and sustained, unless we convince the American people that we are going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established,’ he said…”
source: abcnews.com
“Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke appeared incredibly nervous during an interview aired last night on PBS’ NewsHour, particularly during a question on the ongoing effort to pass legislation that would see the Fed’s books being opened up to a general audit. In a display that will greatly encourage those who continue for push for greater transparency of the privately run Fed’s actions, Bernanke stammered and stuttered his way through the interview, his voice shaking as he attempted to rail against calls to audit the Fed, reciting now familiar and standard lines of propaganda.
‘There’s an effort in Congress, and in the House in particular, to audit what the Federal Reserve does, particularly in monetary policy. How do you feel about that?’ asked PBS’ Jim Lehrer. ‘So that bill, people don’t fully understand what that bill is about. It sounds like, audit the Fed, it sounds like ‘Let’s look at the books.’ That’s what it sounds like.’ Bernanke spluttered…”
source: infowars.com
“The EU is about to enter talks with the US on giving it access to banking data in its fight against terrorism. German politicians from across the political spectrum are up in arms, and members of the European Parliament say they will try to scupper any deal that violates data privacy.
US anti-terror officials want to be able to continue examining Europeans’ financial transactions, and it appears likely that the European Union is going to comply.
On Monday, foreign ministers of European Union member states gave their approval for the European Commission and Sweden, which currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, to negotiate an agreement with Washington that would allow it to scrutinize European citizens’ banking data. However, there is a growing wave of criticism from across the political spectrum in Germany and from the European Parliament…”
source: spiegel.de
“The dollar fell to the lowest level this year against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners as speculation the global economy is emerging from the recession reduced demand for a refuge.
The Australian dollar advanced to the highest level since September against the U.S. currency after the Reserve Bank said the economy may rebound faster than forecast six months ago. The euro climbed to a seven-week high against the dollar after Deutsche Bank AG said second-quarter profit rose 68 percent, beating analysts’ estimates…
The Dollar Index, which the ICE uses to track the dollar against currencies including the yen, pound and Swedish krona, fell as much as 0.4 percent to 78.315, the lowest level since Dec. 18, and was at 78.509 at 7:30 a.m. in New York, compared with 78.626 yesterday. The euro advanced 0.2 percent to $1.4256 per euro, from $1.4232. The 16-nation currency traded in a range of $1.3833 to today’s high of $1.4304 in July…”
source: bloomberg.com
“The feds are spending tens of millions of stimulus dollars to repair and build toilets across the nation, in an outflow of taxpayer funds that critics have branded ‘potty pork.’
From humble sylvan outhouses to ‘historic’ restrooms, cash from the $787 billion stimulus is going to spruce up or completely replace aging toilets, government releases show.
In New Mexico alone, the feds are spending $2.8 million for toilets in national forests. “
source: nypost.com
“Divisions between the administration of Barack Obama, the Federal Reserve and key regulators came to a head on Friday as officials debated plans to overhaul the US regulatory system.
Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, said there was ‘a lot of dumb regulation in our country’ and urged lawmakers to enact quickly the administration’s plan to reform the system, in spite of resistance from the financial industry and other regulators.
‘Every financial crisis of the last generation has sparked some effort at reform, but past attempts began too late, after the will to act had subsided,’ he told the House financial services committee, which will start drawing up legislation in September. ‘That cannot happen this time’…”
via financialtimes.com
“…Paul Krugman is a devotee of John Maynard Keynes. He’s such a hard core disciple that he was Keyensian when Keynesianism wasn’t cool: the period between the 1970s stagflation, which seemed to disprove Keynesian doctrine, and now, when it is groundlessly renascent due to our society’s stunted memory span. He himself proudly admits his devotion to Keynes. He has written such headlines as ‘The Greatness of Keynes” and “Why Aren’t We All Keynesians Yet?’ But what does it mean to be keen on Keynes? What diagnosis does Krugman’s Keynesian economics have for the economic crisis, and what remedies does he prescribe…
…Paul Krugman wants to be our savior. Like a savior, he would perform a miracle for us: that of turning consumption into wealth. But who would accept a messiah with such a John the Baptist as John Maynard Keynes, who proclaimed that credit expansion could perform the ‘miracle … of turning a stone into bread’? In any case, Krugman is a curious kind of savior: one more interested in exercising his brilliance than in actually helping people…”
via mises.org
“For more than half a century the Alpine nation of Switzerland has built a reputation as the world´s centre for tax evasion, fraud accounting, money laundering, racketeering, and above all a staunch ally of corrupt third world leaders and a great beneficiary of third world corruption.
Various categories of persons including Popes, presidents, prime ministers, corrupt dictators, wealthy business men, and drug dealers have all used and benefited from the banking secrecy laws of Switzerland. As a result her economy has been described as an underground economy, a deposit box for dirty money and a ‘dirt-driven economy’…
However, of all the victims of Swiss banking secrecy laws and her shady banking practices, developing countries and Africa in particular seem to have suffered the most. The global infrastructure of international financial secrecy with headquarters in Switzerland has helped bleed trillions of dollars in illicitly generated money out of Africa and the rest of the developing world. The activities of Swiss banking institutions and real estate companies have plunged third world nations into debts, poverty, misery, malnutrition, diseases, economic meltdown, infrastructure decay and political instabilities through the help they give to corrupt politicians, civil servants, the business elite and corrupt multinational corporations who collude and connive with the corrupt entities to loot and hide the proceeds of their ill-gotton gains.
Many third world countries especially those in Africa lack the infrastructures needed to run successful economies. They lack schools, hospitals, roads, harbours, rail infrastructure, irrigation facilities, electricity, clean water, telecommunication, sanitation facilities because of the loots. Many children are orphaned and malnourished and many do not have access to education and healthcare because money meant for all that are stolen and are sitting in Swiss banks such UBS, Credit Suisse. There has not been a single corrupt politician or dictator in Africa, Latin America and Asia who has not had dealings with this secretive alpine country. While third world countries continue to struggle to provide the basic necessities of life Swiss economy is washed with money that could save millions from hunger, starvation and diseases…”
via Lord Aikins Adusei and wikileaks.org
“The UK’s technology industry can pull the country out of its debt hole and make up for the decline in manufacturing.
So reckons Micro Focus, which is launching a manifesto called Making BrITain Great Again. The group is promoting five policy moves backed by its panel of three parliamentarians – Tory Lord Young of Graffam, Labour’s Lord Harris of Haringey and for the LibDems Lord Razzall of Mortlake.
The group notes the long-term decline of UK manufacturing and the recent collapse of financial services shows the need for the UK to have some basis for sustainable growth in the future. The group calls for all political parties to embrace the same five point strategy as follows.”
via theregister.co.uk
“The US Federal Reserve chairman has said the country’s economy is showing sign of improvement – but steps must be taken to prevent job losses from undermining a recovery.
“Better conditions in financial markets have been accompanied by some improvement in economic prospects,” Ben Bernanke said as he delivered the central bank’s’s semi-annual report to the US congress on Tuesday…”
via aljazeera.net
“The federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion to help the financial sector through its crisis, a level of assistance equal to about one-third of the overall U.S. economy, a watchdog report said Monday. Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government’s maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American.
The figures are part of a tough new quarterly report to Congress from special inspector general Neil Barofsky, who accuses the Treasury Department of repeatedly failing to adopt recommendations aimed at making one component of the government financial rescue effort more accountable and transparent. The $4.7 trillion commitment to the industry takes into account about 50 initiatives and programs set up since 2007 by the Bush and Obama administrations as well as by the Federal Reserve. Barofsky oversees one of the initiatives — the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Much of the government assistance is backed by collateral and Barofsky’s $23.7 trillion estimate represents the gross, not net, exposure that the government could face…”
via the associated press