Patrice Hill

Welch’s criticism of jobless-rate drop brings a backlash

It may have only been a bit of bad-mouthing typical of fans rooting for their home team, but former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch stirred up a hornet's nest of criticism from fellow businessmen and professional economists when he accused the White House of engineering a big drop in the nation's unemployment rate just a month before the presidential election.

October 15, 2012

Report: Shoppers hit stores with gusto in Sept.

U.S. consumers went on another shopping spree last month, driving up retail sales by a robust 1.1 percent in the second straight month of sizable gains, the Commerce Department reported Monday morning.

October 15, 2012

‘Fiscal cliff’ fight already drags on U.S. economy

Worries about the federal government’s “fiscal cliff” are taking a toll on the economy well ahead of the year-end deadline, which analysts say is looking like it may be more damaging in the run-up than in the reality.

October 9, 2012

Consumers jump-start sputtering economy

The U.S. economy is getting a boost from the awakening of long-slumbering sectors such as housing and local government, even as previously strong sectors such as exports and business investments decline.

October 7, 2012

Unemployment falls to 7.8 percent on faster job growth

A modest pick-up in job growth last month helped lower the nation's unemployment rate to a 4-year-low of 7.8 percent — exactly where it was when President Obama took office nearly four years ago, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

October 5, 2012

Mortgage refinancings surge amid record-low rates

The Federal Reserve touched off the biggest mortgage refinancing wave since 2009 last month by driving the interest rates on 30-year mortgages to record lows near 3.5 percent.

October 3, 2012

Economic signs point both ways for presidential election result

At first glance, it looked as if the elections might be a slam-dunk for Republicans this year, given the way presidents in recent history have fared in the face of poorly performing economies. But as the GOP is finding out, today's economy is a double-edged sword that is cutting both for and against President Obama.

September 30, 2012

Consumer confidence, home prices on the rise

Consumer confidence perked up this month while home prices posted their third straight month of gains in the latest signs that the economy continues to slowly but steadily improve.

September 25, 2012

Workforce dropouts: Frustrated, retired or lack skills

Jobless rates are down both because some people are finding work and because some people have stopped trying, economists say. The big question: Who are all these people who have given up, driving the share of able-bodied Americans in the labor force to a 30-year low of 63.5 percent last month?

September 20, 2012

GOP sees Fed move as a ploy in the election

The Federal Reserve took aggressive action Thursday to try to reinvigorate the economy and generate more jobs, announcing a major program of purchasing $40 billion a month in mortgage bonds that it hopes will drive down interest rates to record lows and spur faster growth.

September 13, 2012

Moody’s warns of downgrade from AAA without budget deal

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday warned that it will downgrade the U.S. government's AAA credit rating if Congress and the newly installed president next year fail to produce a major budget agreement that stabilizes and reduces the U.S. debt.

September 11, 2012

Economic recovery sending mixed signals before election

President Obama heads into the final weeks of his re-election campaign getting little support from an economy that is growing weakly and remains threatened by political turmoil at home and economic distress overseas.

September 9, 2012

Unemployment falls to 8.1 percent; jobs up 96K; 368K drop out of market

The unemployment rate last month fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent as 96,000 more people found jobs and 368,000 dropped out of the labor market, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

September 7, 2012

China’s currency reforms may make ‘get tough’ promise moot

Presidential candidates of both parties like to score points with voters by promising to get tough with China, but recent evidence suggests that currency reforms quietly adopted by the Asian giant since 2005 have come close to eliminating the biggest trade distortion and bone of contention between the two countries.

September 5, 2012