recession

Stories 181 - 200 | << Prev   Next >>

Record Number Enrolled in Medicaid
Record Number Enrolled in Medicaid
Aug 30, 2010 10:59 AM CDT

Record Number Enrolled in Medicaid

One in 6 Americans now in federal anti-poverty programs

(Newser) - The recession has sent a record one in six Americans into federal anti-poverty programs, according to a new USA Today survey. More than 50 million are now enrolled in Medicaid, a number that has jumped 17% since the recession’s official start in December 2007. “Virtually every Medicaid director...

Hands Off, Obama: Let Housing Prices Fall
Hands Off, Obama:
Let Housing Prices Fall
opinion
Aug 28, 2010 1:07 PM CDT

Hands Off, Obama: Let Housing Prices Fall

False incentives will hurt us in the long run

(Newser) - In case you missed it, be advised that home sales have fallen off a cliff. This week's grim numbers will no doubt raise the call for the Obama administration to reach into its bag of tricks (bring back that tax credit, maybe?) to encourage people to buy and thus keep...

US Birth Rate Tumbles in Recession

It hasn't been this low in about a century

(Newser) - Forget the Dow and the GDP. Here's the latest economic indicator: The US birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in at least a century as many people apparently decided they couldn't afford more mouths to feed. The birth rate dropped for the second year in a row since...

Fixing the Economy Is a Lot Like Parenting
Fixing the Economy
Is a Lot Like Parenting
DAVID BROOKS
Aug 27, 2010 1:11 PM CDT

Fixing the Economy Is a Lot Like Parenting

It's all about 'good values' and a secure environment

(Newser) - Americans debated the merits of fiscal stimulus a lot—in particular how big it should be. But it's important not to lose the forest for the trees when engineering an economic recovery, David Brooks writes for the New York Times . Consider Germany, which had a much smaller stimulus and is...

How Banks' Fake Daisy-Chains Led to Meltdown
 How Banks' Fake 
 Daisy-Chains Led 
 to Meltdown 



investigation
Aug 27, 2010 10:40 AM CDT

How Banks' Fake Daisy-Chains Led to Meltdown

Self-dealing artificially propped up market for CDOs

(Newser) - An extensive ProPublica investigation reveals what it calls “one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history.” Banks, most notably Merrill Lynch, set the stage for the economic meltdown by rewarding themselves for said “self-dealing” during the final two years of the housing bubble. They created...

Krugman: We're Not Bouncing Back

'Policy-makers are in denial'

(Newser) - You know that recovery officials promise is underway? It's not happening, scoffs Paul Krugman, and he blames federal officials' reluctance to take responsibility. "This isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy-makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact," he writes in...

Two Very Different Outlooks on Our Economy
Two Very Different Outlooks
on Our Economy
opinion
Aug 25, 2010 1:32 PM CDT

Two Very Different Outlooks on Our Economy

One expert says be confident, another calls it a depression

(Newser) - How goes the economic recovery? Depends on what you read. These two views could hardly be further apart:
  • Cheer up! Enough with the "gloom and doom," writes Ross Devol of the Milken Institute. The economy is stronger than is widely acknowledged and can regain its past "dynamism"
...

'Household Misery Index' Hovering Near 30-Year High

Economic fear still rampant, new measure shows

(Newser) - An update of the "Misery Index" from the '70s shows that economic anxiety remains at a high level—just below the all-time high set in December 1982, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Misery, as measured by the blog Paper Economy 's "Household Misery Index," dropped in June...

Jobless Claims Hit 9-Month High

Reach 500K mark as employers again cut back

(Newser) - New applications for unemployment insurance reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November, a sign that employers are likely cutting jobs again as the economy slows. The Labor Department said today that initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 12,000 last week to 500,000,...

Broke Italian Man Tries to Sell Kidney

Price? $128K or a job

(Newser) - An Italian man hurting for money tried to sell one of his kidneys for either 100,000 euros ($128,000) or a job. The 52-year-old lost his position as an administrative manager a year ago, and his situation grew worse after his wife kicked him out, reports APP.com via...

The South May Fall Again: 22 US Cities That'll Double Dip

(Newser) - It seems that low wages and taxes eventually catch up to you. Moody's has identified 22 cities in the US that are ripe for a double-dip recession. Twelve are in the South, five in the Midwest, and the rest are a smattering of smaller cities in the Northeast and West—...

Bernanke, Please Heed Your Own Advice
Bernanke, Please Heed
Your Own Advice
paul krugman
Aug 13, 2010 1:02 PM CDT

Bernanke, Please Heed Your Own Advice

Your dithering is keeping Americans unemployed

(Newser) - If only Ben Bernanke would listen to himself—or at least the self that blasted Japan's government in the '90s for passively allowing the economy to wither, writes Paul Krugman. Back then, he urged Japan to "abandon its excessive caution" and accused economic officials of using flimsy technical excuses...

Shut Up, Alan Greenspan
 Shut Up, Alan Greenspan 
OPINION
Aug 3, 2010 1:37 PM CDT

Shut Up, Alan Greenspan

Ex-Fed chairman can't get anything right

(Newser) - Former fed chairman Alan Greenspan warned this weekend that the US is headed for a double-dip recession, which might be frightening news, if we didn’t have a conflicting opinion—from former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan! Just 4 months ago, Greenspan said odds of a double-dip recession had fallen drastically....

House Extends Jobless Benefits

Measure now goes to President Obama for his signature

(Newser) - Congress has approved legislation to restore unemployment insurance to people who have been out of work for six months or more, ending a seven-week interruption that caused 2.5 million people to lose benefits averaging about $300 a week. The 272-152 House vote sends the measure to President Obama, who...

City That Fired Everyone Doing Just Fine

Outsourcing works out for Maywood, California

(Newser) - Not having any employees hasn’t been so bad for Maywood, Calif. A budget crisis forced the small city to fire literally everyone in June, and it contracted out various essential services to neighboring cities. But Maywood was so bad at handling those services itself that outsourcing has led to...

Reasons to Bet Against a Double-Dip Recession
Reasons to Bet Against
a Double-Dip Recession
OPINION
Jul 19, 2010 3:34 PM CDT

Reasons to Bet Against a Double-Dip Recession

Data don't support hysterical headlines

(Newser) - Fears of a double-dip recession is running high, but economic data suggest that they are unfounded. Writing in the Wall Street Journal , Milton Ezrati of the money management firm Lord Abbett explains:
  1. The consumer is regaining strength: A 1.4% decline in retail sales for May gave rise to double-dip
...

Hey, Stimulus Backers, Don't Be So Arrogant
 Hey, Stimulus Backers, 
 Don't Be So Arrogant 
david brooks
Jul 6, 2010 12:21 PM CDT

Hey, Stimulus Backers, Don't Be So Arrogant

At least concede the possibility you're wrong

(Newser) - David Brooks sounds a bit fed up with all the economists— Paul Krugman , he's looking at you—loudly demanding another stimulus. Among the shots in today's New York Times column:
  • "The Demand Siders are brilliant, but they write as if changing fiscal policy were as easy as adjusting the
...

Our Economy: Damned If We Do, Damned If We Don't
Our Economy: Damned If We Do, Damned If We Don't
steven pearlstein
Jul 2, 2010 1:58 PM CDT

Our Economy: Damned If We Do, Damned If We Don't

Short-term fixes needed, but they hurt our long-term prospects

(Newser) - Steven Pearlstein surveys the mess of our economy and finds that we're in quite a pickle: "To fix the economy in the long run, we have to weaken it in the short run—yet weakening it in the short run makes it just that much harder to fix it...

World Risks Repeat of '30s Double Dip
 World Risks 
 Repeat of '30s 
 Double Dip 
Analysis
Jun 30, 2010 12:53 PM CDT

World Risks Repeat of '30s Double Dip

Spending cuts could send economy plummeting again

(Newser) - The world's top economies are all talking about tightening their belts, and in so doing risk repeating the mistakes of the 1930s, writes David Leonhardt of the New York Times . When President Roosevelt tried balancing the budget in 1936, it plunged the recovering country back into depression. But austerity enthusiasts...

Let's Face It: It's a Depression
 Let's Face It: It's a Depression 
Paul krugman
Jun 28, 2010 8:21 AM CDT

Let's Face It: It's a Depression

Savage cuts when governments should be spending will prove the fatal blow

(Newser) - Paul Krugman uses the D word today, arguing that we're now in the early stages of a third depression. It may turn out to be more like the Long Depression of the 19th century than the dreaded Great Depression, but that's not going to offer much succor to the legions...

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