Americans should feel some relief that President Barack Obama, Congress and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner are moving aggressively to confront the nation’s mounting economic crisis. The Senate yesterday passed its version of an economic stimulus bill designed to pump $838 billion into the economy, and Mr. Geithner laid out a sweeping plan to invest up to $1.5 trillion to rescue the nation’s banking system, provide credit to consumers and small businesses and help homeowners facing foreclosure.
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Archive for February, 2009
Economic hope
February - 12 - 2009
Senate approves $838-billion economic-stimulus bill
February - 11 - 2009
President Barack Obama hailed the passage of a massive economic-stimulus bill in the U.S. Senate yesterday, saying it’s a good start for House and Senate negotiators to hammer out a final version later this week.
Senators approved the $838-billion bill by a vote of 61 to 37, handing the president a legislative victory on a measure that he says will save or create as many as 4 million jobs and help the economy recover from the recession.
The Senate bill is a mixture of tax cuts, targeted spending on infrastructure projects and money infusions for cash-strapped states.
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Foreclosure Issues Still A Major Hurdle
February - 11 - 2009
It was the anticlimax of the new year.
After weeks of anticipation, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday outlined a plan to deliver as much as $2 trillion in public and private funds to the beleaguered financial system. But the plan landed with a thud on Wall Street, where stock markets dived as traders decided the proposal simply did not deliver the details and direction needed.
The reception was not much better on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers complaining that Geithner gave them too few specifics and failed to craft a promised companion plan to slow record home foreclosures, which President Obama has called critical to any economic recovery.
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The Tricky Question of Whether to Spend or Save
February - 10 - 2009
It’s your fault. Part of it is, anyway. You, the American consumer, spent too much money. You bought too much house, took on too much debt and generally lived beyond your means. Your free-spending ways helped cause the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
And now you’re going to have to do your part to end the crisis. How? By spending. Enough already with the saving that many of you have suddenly begun doing. This very moment, Congress and President Obama are preparing to send you a tax rebate, to inspire you to stimulate the economy. So go out and stimulate. Spend as if the future of your country depended on it.
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