President Barack Obama is expected to call for a new infrastructure plan on Monday as he bids to find ways to jump-start the spluttering US economy.
The plan will invest about $50bn (£32.5bn) in roads, railways and airports as well as high-speed rail and the creation of an infrastructure bank.
US infrastructure has long been considered underfunded and receives poor grades from government agencies.
The move comes amid signs that the US economy is faltering.
On Friday, the US Labor Department announced that the US economy had lost a further 54,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate rose to 9.6%, from 9.5% in July.
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Right now, we are in the middle of deflation. The Global Depression we are experiencing has squeezed both aggregate demand levels and aggregate asset prices as never before. Since the credit crunch of September 2008, the U.S. and world economies have been slowly circling the deflationary drain.
To counter this, the U.S. government has been running [...]
In a recent editorial in the New York Times, former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, writes that this Labor Day promises to be one of the worst in decades. Organized labor, he notes, is down to a mere seven per cent of the private work force; unemployment remains high; and the prospects for a further recovery [...]
If you’re like me and reluctant to join the stock market frenzy with open arms, then consider buying reverse index funds that bet against Treasury bonds.
This strategy offers a high value alternative to joining a 50%-plus stock market rally since March as long-term interest rates rise on most days when the stock market climbs.
As stocks [...]
There are three main views of the financial crisis and the most recent recession. In the first two views, the debate over the fiscal deficit is quite separate from what happened in the crisis. But in the third view, the financial crisis and likelihood of fiscal austerity are closely linked.
The first is that something [...]
The estimated rise in gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced, for the period between April and June was revised down from 2.4pc to just 1.6pc, as companies reined in inventories and the trade deficit widened.
The revision – despite beating economists’ estimates of a 1.4pc rise – would appear to provide further [...]
With the housing market retreating, unemployment lingering and top officials at the Federal Reserve in open disagreement over what to do, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is under rising pressure to offer solutions in an address Friday that is likely to be his most important since the end of the financial crisis.
The central bank’s policy [...]
High unemployment and sluggish growth is causing the US economy to lose any momentum it had in terms of a recovery, Pimco’s Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC on Thursday.
“Today’s numbers (jobless claims) are better than last week’s,” said El-Erian, CEO of the world’s largest bond fund. “But it’s not a good overall. What this tells us [...]
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