Patrice Hill

Bernanke: Spending cuts won’t boost jobs

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Wednesday rejected an argument frequently made by Republican deficit hawks that immediate, deep cuts in federal spending will help produce jobs.

June 22, 2011

Mexican has a long shot at IMF

While China and other rising economic powers insist they want more of a say in running the world economy, so far they have failed to throw their support behind the developing world's only candidate to lead the International Monetary Fund.

June 16, 2011

Greek woes hit world markets

Global markets hit a pocket of turbulence Wednesday as a year-old European bailout for Greece appeared to be unraveling, with deep and unpopular budget cuts triggering protests in Athens and threatening to topple the Greek government in a chain of events that investors fear will end in a globally destabilizing default on the nation's debt obligations.

June 15, 2011

Americans in a funk as housing, jobs stall

The economy is entering the third year of an expansion that has been marked by robust business profits and a historic revival of Detroit's automaker industry, among other boons, but most Americans don't feel satisfied, opinion polls show.

June 12, 2011

Lack of buyers may force Treasury to boost rates

The U.S. Treasury next month will go back to relying on the kindness of strangers like never before to purchase the nation's burgeoning debts — and taxpayers may have to pay higher interest rates to attract enough foreign investors, analysts say.

June 7, 2011

Bernanke sounds hopeful note on growth

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke sounded an optimistic note Tuesday that economic growth will pick up in the summer and fall after softening this spring under the weight of high gasoline prices and disruptions from the Japanese earthquake.

June 7, 2011

Job growth slows sharply; unemployment rate at 9.1 percent

The nation's job market provided more evidence of a broad slowdown in the economy in May, with a sharp deceleration of job growth sending the unemployment rate up to 9.1 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

June 3, 2011

Lack of retirement savings makes entitlements sacrosanct

Social Security and Medicare are emerging once again as seemingly untouchable third rails of politics despite their looming insolvency, and economists say the reason is obvious.

June 2, 2011

Hill fight intensifies over consumer czar

A long-simmering dispute over a powerful new consumer protection agency created in last year's landmark Wall Street reform law broke out into a full-fledged political battle last week as Senate Republicans moved to prevent the White House from installing a new czar at the agency.

May 29, 2011

European debt crisis forces tough calls

The United States is just beginning to wrestle with its massive debt problem, but in Europe the debt crisis is advancing rapidly with worries about defaults and turmoil re-emerging in global markets.

May 18, 2011

Experts forecast relief for gas pains

People planning their summer vacations will be relieved to know that top energy experts think regular gas prices have peaked for the year a hair above $4 a gallon.

May 12, 2011

U.S. policy hastens China’s ascent

When leaders of the world's No. 1 and No. 2 economies get together as they did in Washington this week, people increasingly ask which one is which.

May 10, 2011

Unemployment jumps to 9 percent despite greater job growth

The nation's unemployment rate ticked up to 9 percent last month despite strong growth of 244,000 in new jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

May 6, 2011

Oil price drop cuts drivers a break

Oil prices plunged 10 percent to below $100 a barrel in New York on Thursday — the biggest drop since the 2008 financial crash — after a government report shook market confidence by showing a big jump in layoffs last week.

May 5, 2011

Killing boosts Obama’s budget clout

The death of Osama bin Laden improved President Obama's re-election prospects and strengthened his hand in negotiations with congressional Republicans, raising hopes in financial markets that it will be easier to cut defense spending and make progress tackling the budget deficit in coming weeks.

May 3, 2011

High gas, food costs grind back growth

Growth in the U.S. economy slowed sharply to a 1.8 percent pace in the winter quarter from 3.1 percent at the end of last year, as budget cuts at all levels of government and a surge in oil prices weighed on the economy, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

April 28, 2011

Fed sees mounting debt as biggest challenge

Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Wednesday called the mounting federal debt the biggest economic challenge facing the country and said the threat that it will tarnish the nation's top credit rating should prompt Congress to address it.

April 27, 2011

Fed likely to quit buying bonds, putting Congress in debt corner

The Federal Reserve likely will make life more difficult for Congress this week by affirming the June end of its controversial $900 billion bond-buying program that has financed a large part of the government's record $1.6 trillion budget deficit this year.

April 26, 2011

Confidence in U.S. bonds slipped well before threat of downgrade

The threat of the first downgrade of U.S. government debt - for decades considered the safest investment in the world - came as a jolt to some in Washington last week, but financial markets foreshadowed the move for months.

April 24, 2011

Debts threaten U.S. credit rating, S&P says

Standard & Poor's Corp., one of Wall Street's top ratings agencies, put the United States on notice Monday that it may lose its gold-plated AAA rating if it does not act quickly to pare down deficits ranging over $1 trillion for years to come.

April 18, 2011