EconomicCrisis.US

Central bank chief Ben Bernanke once criticized Japan for dithering with its economic crisis. Now he tells the world he needs time to think.

U.S. employment data due on Friday could make the clock tick very loudly for the Federal Reserve chairman.

Bernanke disappointed some financial market participants last week when he declined to give details on how the Fed could lift a U.S. economy moving ahead at stall speed.

Most economists expected his widely anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, would at least give a tour of his monetary toolkit.
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The Federal Reserved reached into public funds — about $1.2 trillion — to help bail out banks during the 2008 financial crisis, a new report reveals.

A Freedom of Information Act request put together by Bloomberg has allowed for the hard numbers to finally be made available to the public about the loans the Fed dished out to keep financial firms afloat in the midst of an economic collapse.

The Federal Reserve has refrained from disclosing info on the loans, which began in August 2007, and as one economics professor told Bloomberg, “was supposed to be secret and never revealed.” The Fed argued in court for two years that revealing the names and terms of borrowers and their loans would damage stocks, and some of the biggest banks involved asked the US Supreme Court last year to withhold some of the information. The Fed attested that revealing the secretive loans to the public, or even being disclosed to the Government Accountability Office, would expose the weakness of the American economy. Nonetheless, their appeal was declined and data released, at nearly 30,000 pages, shows 21,000 transactions occurring over the course of three years.
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Actually, the news from the AP’s survey of economists isn’t quite as pessimistic as JP Morgan’s long-term predictions earlier this month. The global financier’s projections showed a US growth rate for 2011 of just 1.5% and 1.3% in 2012, with unemployment increasing to 9.5%. AP’s survey predicts something closer to the mid-2s for the next two quarters and all of next year, with weak consumer spending being the main problem:

— The likelihood of a recession within the next 12 months is 26 percent. In June, the economists had put the likelihood at 15 percent.
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Businesses in the U.S. unexpectedly expanded at a faster pace in June and consumer confidence reached a 10-week high, signs that economic growth may pick up in the second half of the year.

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc.’s business barometer climbed to 61.1, exceeding the highest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, from 56.6 in May. Readings greater than 50 signal expansion. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to minus 43.9 from minus 44.9.

Stocks climbed for a fourth day as the Chicago group’s figures indicated manufacturing is rebounding after a lull brought on by parts shortages tied to the March earthquake in Japan. The data underscore the view of Federal Reserve policy makers that the first-half slowdown will prove “temporary,” as fuel prices become less of a burden for companies and consumers.
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