Patrice Hill

Economy loses 85K jobs; unemployment rate steady

UPDATED: The unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent last month as businesses laid off another 85,000 workers, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

January 8, 2010

Nations in the red threaten stability

The world economic crisis has entered a new stage where the overstretched finances of the United States and other national governments have become the biggest threat to economic stability.

January 7, 2010

Congress takes aim at Fed’s autonomy

Investors are increasingly worried by threats in Congress to delay the reappointment of Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and meddle in the Federal Reserve's decisions on interest rates, fearing a politicization of the agency with the greatest reach over the economy and markets.

December 30, 2009

Instead of lending, banks focus on covering losses

President Obama has been demanding that banks start lending again, but the unstated secret is that banks are not lending much because they are busy paying back their government aid and covering losses of $1 trillion or more on defaulting loans.

December 21, 2009

European financial woes gives boost to dollar’s strength

Souring economic prospects in Europe have helped halt the dollar's months-long decline, enabling the greenback to rise to unexpected heights against the euro this week in line with signs of strength in the U.S. economy.

December 18, 2009

Fed sees economy improving

The Federal Reserve provided a more upbeat assessment on the economy Wednesday, noting that steep job losses appear to be on the wane and consumers are starting to spend again.

December 17, 2009

Fed pledges to keep interest rates low

The Federal Reserve provided a more upbeat assessment of the economy Wednesday, noting that steep job losses appear to be on the wane and consumers are starting to spend again.

December 16, 2009

Fed’s withdrawal from housing threatens growth

The housing market has shown some encouraging signs of strength in recent months, but analysts caution that the market is mostly responding to powerful government stimulus measures and is not healthy enough to keep growing on its own after the withdrawal of federal aid.

November 30, 2009

Health, climate bills seen to stifle hiring

While President Obama and congressional leaders say they would like to do more to spur job creation, economists and business executives warn that their plans to impose new health care and climate-change costs on corporations would have the opposite effect.

November 27, 2009

Green energy stimulus growing few jobs

"Green energy" is proving to be no miracle solution to the nation's monumental unemployment problems, and it is doing little to help the economy emerge from its deepest recession in decades, economists say.

November 23, 2009

Despite public boost, dollar keeps sliding

The dollar fell to its lowest level in nearly 15 months Monday despite efforts by top U.S. and Asian officials to talk up the American currency.

November 17, 2009

Natural gas surge, Is it a pipe dream?

Climate change legislation in Congress appears to be based in part on the optimistic view that the United States has a plentiful supply of natural gas and would push businesses to switch to gas from coal, critics say, even before the supply has been secured.

November 13, 2009

Sinking dollar fuels new gold rush

With the dollar on a 15-month slide, more central banks are putting their faith in gold instead of greenbacks.

November 10, 2009

Federal Reserve opposed as big bank savior by odd allies

An unusual alliance of conservatives and liberals is pushing to break up or downsize banks deemed "too big to fail," rather than create a new regulatory regime led by the Federal Reserve to try to keep them from getting into trouble again.

November 9, 2009

Jobless rate surges past 10 percent

The nation's unemployment rate broke the 10 percent barrier last month as employers continued to slash jobs in an effort to lower their costs and stay in business.

November 7, 2009

Unemployment rate breaks through 10%

The nation's unemployment rate soared to 10.2 percent last month as the economy lost another 190,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

November 6, 2009

Bankrupt CIT unlikely to get 2nd bailout

CIT Group Inc., the nation's largest lender to small businesses, filed for bankruptcy reorganization Sunday in the biggest financial failure this year and first major test of the administration's resolve not to bail out every struggling institution that asks for help.

November 2, 2009

Economic growth boosted by small U.S. programs

Economic growth roared back at a 3.5 percent pace in the summer quarter, thanks to two powerful but relatively inexpensive stimulus measures targeted at consumers. But the vast majority of the $787 billion stimulus that went toward funding government programs had a more muted impact, according to economic figures released Thursday.

October 30, 2009

Economic growth spikes to 3.5% in 3Q

UPDATED: Economic growth came roaring back in the summer quarter, registering at a 3.5 percent pace and raising hopes that the economy is entering a recovery after the longest recession since World War II, the Commerce Department reported Thursday morning.

October 29, 2009

Congress fears risk of economic relapse

Fear that the economy might fall back into recession is compelling Congress to extend unemployment benefits and incentives for homebuying that lawmakers hope will help sustain growth.

October 28, 2009