House Republicans on Wednesday thwarted a Democratic effort to award $250 checks to Social Security recipients facing a second consecutive year without a cost-of-living increase. Get the full story »
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Americans say China’s economy is No. 1
Only one in five Americans believe that the U.S. has the world’s strongest economy, while 47 percent believe that China deserves that honor, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Northbrook-based Allstate Corp. and the National Journal.
It’s the first time that the Allstate-National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll has posed the question.
The survey also found that 67 percent of Americans believe that their financial situation will get worse or remain the same in 2011, rather than improve. Get the full story »
Flawed $100 bill causes billion-dollar headache
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
More than 1.1 billion new $100 bills have been put into quarantine while officials search for a solution to a printing problem that has rendered some of the bills unusable, an official familiar with the situation said Monday.
Originally scheduled for a February 2011 release date, the bills were the first run of a high-tech note designed to combat counterfeiting by including a 3-D security ribbon.
The Federal Reserve first acknowledged an issue with the bills in October, but did not specify the scope of the problem. Get the full story »
Survey: U.S. to see 3 percent growth in 2011
U.S. economic growth and inflation is expected to pick up a bit next year, while the jobless situation will improve slightly, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Get the full story »
Fed’s Bernanke did not rule out more bond buys
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did not rule out further purchases of Treasury bonds beyond the $600 billion program announced last month, CBS television reported Bernanke as saying in an interview on the show “60 Minutes”. Get the full story »
Dollar tumbles after disappointing jobs report
The dollar tumbled broadly Friday after a November jobs report showed a higher rate of unemployment in the U.S., a sign that the economic recovery is still struggling. Get the full story »
Demand for temp workers remains strong
The U.S, economy added the highest number of temporary jobs last month since January, suggesting U.S. employers remain concerned about the pace of the U.S. recovery and are reluctant to step up permanent hiring.
Concrete evidence remains elusive that temp jobs — traditionally a leading indicator of full-time, or “perm” hiring — will soon translate into robust jobs growth. Get the full story »
Country lowers retirement age to 58
Bucking a global trend, leftist-led Bolivia is lowering its retirement age and nationalizing its pension funds. Bolivia’s Congress approved legislation early Friday to make Bolivians eligible for full pensions at age 58. The country’s 70,000 miners will get to retire two years earlier. Get the full story »
U.S. unemployment climbs to 9.8%
Job candidates at a World Women in Technology career fair at Chicago's Navy Pier in October. (Tim Boyle/Getty)
In a major setback for the economy, the nation’s jobless rate jumped to 9.8 percent in November as employers added surprisingly few new jobs over the month, the government said Friday.
The unemployment rate had been at 9.6 percent in the prior three months. The increase last month came as employers added just 39,000 jobs in November — a sharp drop-off from a revised 172,000 job gains in October and an average monthly gain of 86,000 this year. Get the full story »
CBOT traders see no Fed rate hike until 2012
U.S. short-term interest rate futures traders boosted bets the Federal Reserve will wait until mid-2012 before raising rates, after a government report showed the U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly rose in November. Get the full story »
Factory orders broadly lower in October
New orders received by U.S. factories dropped 0.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted $420 billion in October, a setback for the manufacturing sector as demand declined across a broad array of goods, a government report on Friday showed. Get the full story »
Survey finds optimism rising, but guarded
Business leaders expressed increased optimism about the nation’s economy, though they still have a significant level of concern about the future, according to a quarterly survey by Chicago-based Grant Thornton LLP. Get the full story »
CBS: Bernanke to appear on ‘60 Minutes’ Sunday
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will appear on the news program “60 minutes” on Sunday, part of an effort by the central bank to step up its public communications.
The move comes as the Fed’s decision last month to purchase an additional $600 billion caused a flurry of criticism from politicians in Washington, who argue the central bank is playing with fire and courting future inflation. Get the full story »
Dec. 1, 2010 at 5:35 p.m.
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Filed under: Banking, Economy, Investigations, Policy, Politics, Real estate U.S. sees big costs for banks to fix foreclosures
U.S. banks will have to make “significant investments” to clean up foreclosure practices and some lenders potentially face strong pressure from investors to buy back faulty mortgages, a top Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. Get the full story »
Fed officials say U.S. must address budget issues
The European debt crisis should serve as a warning that the United States must address its long-term budget problems, U.S. Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday. Get the full story »
