President Barack Obama is poised to increase the U.S. debt to a level that exceeds the value of the nation’s annual economic output, a step toward what Bill Gross called a “debt super cycle.” The CHART OF THE DAY tracks U.S. gross domestic product and the government’s total debt, which rose past $13 trillion for the first [...]

bonds, debt, dollar, Interest rates, recovery, unemployment, US Hide

Greek demonstrations against government austerity measures turned deadly when three people were killed after protesters set fire to a bank in central Athens. Fire officials at the scene said they discovered three bodies in the building, according to a fire-department statement sent by text message today. The building, located near the Greek parliament, housed a branch [...]

credit, Euro, global markets, greece, recovery, stock market, taxes, unemployment Hide

Subprime-mortgage securities are rising at an accelerating pace as the U.S. begins to encourage reductions to homeowners’ balances, which may lead to fewer foreclosures and a quicker end to the housing slump. A Markit ABX index of credit-default swaps tied to 20 subprime-loan bonds rated AAA when created in the first half of 2006 climbed 3.2 [...]

debt, recovery, subprime, US Hide

Liberty Helicopters Inc. is offering to fly weary commuters from New Jersey to Manhattan for about $200 a day, saving them 14 hours in traffic a week and signaling that Wall Street may have seen the worst of the recession. As many as six people at a time will travel above the Statue of Liberty, Governors [...]

recovery, US Hide

WASHINGTON: The US government registered a record budget deficit in February despite rising revenues, setting a record 17th consecutive month in the red, the Treasury said on Wednesday. The February budget shortfall was 220.909 billion dollars, a 14 percent rise from a year ago and the biggest monthly gap on record. The reading, however, was [...]

debt, recovery, spending, stimulus, US Hide

The worst ofGreece’s financial crisis is over and other European nations won’t follow in its path, said former European Commission President Romano Prodi. “For Greece, the problem is completely over,” said Prodi, who was also Italian prime minister, in an interview in Shanghai today. “I don’t see any other case now in Europe. I don’t think [...]

debt, Euro, Euro Zone, greece, recovery Hide

The political consensus may be that President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy has been weak. The judgment of money in all its forms has been overwhelmingly positive, and that may be the more lasting appraisal. One year after U.S stocks hit their post-financial-crisis low on March 9, 2009, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has [...]

dollar, recovery, stock market, US Hide

WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve is expected to hike benchmark interest rates within six months as the economy recovers from one of the most brutal recessions, a poll among economists showed Monday. When asked what monetary policy posture they would prefer in the next six months, 63 per cent of 203 economists of the National [...]

federal reserve, Interest rates, recovery, US Hide

LONDON: Britain, which emerged from recession in the final quarter of 2009, faces a “high” risk of relapse and below-average growth in the next two years, the British Chamber of Commerce warned on Sunday. “The UK economic outlook will remain highly uncertain for a considerable time,” the BCC said in the group’s latest economic forecast. [...]

recession, recovery, UK, unemployment Hide

NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks rallied Thursday as sentiment was lifted by an EU pledge to help Greece stave off a debt crisis and better-than-expected US labour market data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average overcame a weak start and climbed 105.81 points (1.05 percent) to close at 10,144.19, rebounding from modest losses Wednesday. The [...]

debt, Euro Zone, greece, recovery, stock market, unemployment, US Hide