Economy | News-Opinion
TOP NEWS: Economy: July 31, 2012
- Fed Seen Forgoing Next of Asset Purchases Until Sept
- Heat Rises on Central Banks
- ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Looms & Debate On Pre-Election Layoff Heats
- US Consumers Remain Cautious
- Jobless Generation Puts Brakes on US
Excerpts and more top stories
FED: Fed Seen Forgoing Next Round of Asset Purchases Until September
Joshua Zumbrun, Bloomberg – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will probably forgo announcing a third round of large- scale asset purchases this week, and is more likely to wait until September to unveil plans to buy $600 billion in housing and government debt, according to median estimates of economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
FED: Some At Fed Are Urging Pre-Emptive Stimulus
Binyamin Appelbaum, NY Times – Some Federal Reserve officials are reviving an idea that rose and fell with Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, as they seek to persuade colleagues to take new action to stimulate growth.
FED: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Randall W Forsyth, Barron’s, Opinion – The Fed may hold off easing until the stock market really tanks.
BANKS: Heat Rises on Central Banks in US & Europe to Take Action
Jon Hilsenrath & Brian Blackstone, WSJ – The U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank face critical tests this week amid heightened expectations that they are moving toward new actions to tackle fragility in the global economy.
BANKS: Crisis Hits Deutsche Bank Income
Eyk Henning, WSJ – Deutsche Bank sought to reassure investors that it has sufficient capital, despite confirming a sharp drop in net profit and saying the debt crisis is still pressuring client activity.
BANKS: HSBC Sets Aside $2 Billion for Legal Woes as Profit Falls
Neil Gough, NY Times – Profit at HSBC Holdings dropped nearly 9 percent in the first half of the year, as the big bank deals with the fallout from a money-laundering investigation and a settlement over selling inappropriate financial products.
FISCAL CLIFF/ELECTION 2012: As ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Looms, Debate Over Pre-Election Day Layoff Heats Up
Zachary A Goldfarb, Washington Post – The deep federal spending cuts scheduled to take effect at the start of next year may trigger dismissal notices for tens of thousands of employees of government contractors, companies and analysts say, and the warnings may start going out at a particularly sensitive time:Days before the presidential election.
CONSUMERISM: US Consumers Remain Cautious
Shannon Bond, Financial Times – US consumer spending was little changed in June even as incomes rose the most in three months, suggesting Americans remain cautious amid high unemployment and slowing global growth.
JOBS: Jobless Generation Puts Brakes on US
Shannon Bond, Financial Times – The share of American 18- to 24-year-olds who were employed fell to 54 per cent last year, the lowest since the labour department began tracking data in 1948, according to the Pew Research Center. The share who are in college has risen, but the researchers say this only partly explains the drop. The jobless rate for Americans age 16 to 24 is above 16 per cent, more than twice the national rate.
HOUSING: Home Prices Rose in All Major US Cities in May as Rising Sales, Limited Supply Aid Recovery
Associated Press via Washington Post – Home prices rose in May from April in every city tracked by a leading index, a sign that increasing sales and tight inventories are supporting a modest housing recovery.
DROUGHT/ENVIRONMENT: Corn for Food, Not Fuel
Colin A Carter & Henry I Miller, NY Times, Op-Ed – It is not often that a stroke of a pen can quickly undo the ravages of nature, but federal regulators now have an opportunity to do just that. Americans’ food budgets will be hit hard by the ongoing Midwestern drought, the worst since 1956. Food bills will rise and many farmers will go bust.
CAMPAIGN SPENDING/ELECTION 2012: A Big Beast to Tackle
The Economist – Cutting spending down to size will be hard for a President Romney; boosting it any further will be hard for a re-elected President Obama.
TRADING: Regulators Target Trading Firm
Scott Paterson, WSJ – A planned Finra settlement with the former owner of Toronto day-trading firm Swift Trade shows how globalized trading, in which firms buy and sell stocks from locations around the world, is stretching regulators’ ability to police the markets.
RETIREMENT: Congress’s Watchdog on Retirement Issues
The Partnership for Public Service via Washington Post - Barbara Bovbjerg is the managing director at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), overseeing a staff of some 200 people who provide analysis and insight for Congress on issues involving aging, retirement security, pensions, elementary and secondary education, child welfare, employment and workforce policies.
The Common Good publishes an U.S. economy news digest every weekday, available here.
