White House officials and some members of Congress reacted strongly Sunday to news that insurance giant AIG had intended to pay out $165 million in bonuses and compensation. The company has received at least $170 billion in federal bailout money.
Under pressure from the Treasury, AIG scaled back the bonus plans and pledged to reduce 2009 bonuses — or “retention payments” — by at least 30 percent. That did little to temper outrage at the initial plan, however.
“There are a lot of terrible things that have happened in the last 18 months, but what’s happened at AIG is the most outrageous,” Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council, told ABC’s “This Week.”
NEW YORK, March 10 - The dollar slid against most major currencies on Tuesday as comments by Citigroup’s chief executive that the bank was profitable in the first two months of 2009 boosted stocks and prompted investors to pare back safe-haven bids on the greenback.
The improvement in risk appetite spurred a bounce in the euro, which rose to two-week highs versus the dollar. But analysts cautioned the euro’s gains could be fleeting as the global macroeconomic environment and worries about banking systems worldwide remain supportive of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
The yen rose and fell against the dollar over the session, with doubts about the Japanese currency’s status as a safe haven keeping trading in tight ranges, traders said.
The global economy is likely to shrink for the first time since World War II, and trade will decline by the most in 80 years, the World Bank said today.
The World Bank’s assessment is more pessimistic than an International Monetary Fund report in January predicting 0.5 percent global growth this year. The Washington-based World Bank didn’t provide a specific estimate in its report.
World growth will be 5 percent below its potential, the bank said. Developing nations will bear the brunt of the contraction. They will face a shortfall of between $270 billion and $700 billion to pay for imports and service debts, the bank said.
“We need to react in real time to a growing crisis that is hurting people in developing countries,” said World Bank President Robert Zoellick in a statement. Action is needed by governments and multilateral lenders “to avoid social and political unrest.”
East Asia will be hit the hardest by the decline in global commerce, the bank said. Global industrial production is expected to be as much as 15 percent lower than in 2008.
The World Bank said that a surge of debt issuance by rich nations risks “crowding out many developing country borrowers, both private and public.” Emerging nations that can access capital markets will be forced to pay higher rates of interest.
The report said that 94 out of 116 developing countries had experienced a slowdown in economic growth, with poverty increasing in 43. The result, the bank said, would be growing dependence on foreign aid.
Justin Lin, the bank’s chief economist, said that developed nations should funnel part of their stimulus spending to poorer countries where it would be more effective at boosting demand. Channeling infrastructure investment to the developing world can have a “bigger bang for the buck,” he said.
Commuters in The UK Love Their Commute . Here they are shown dancing on there way to work during a T-mobile commercial filming. I’m sure New Yorker’s have better moves but with the pending rate increases it will take lot’s more to get the New Yorkers dancing in the streets.
As government data revealed that 651,000 more jobs disappeared in February, a sense took hold that growing joblessness may reflect a wrenching restructuring of the American economy.
The unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent, from 7.6 percent in January, its highest level in a quarter-century. In key industries — manufacturing, financial services and retail — layoffs have accelerated so quickly in recent months as to suggest that many companies are abandoning whole areas of business.
“These jobs aren’t coming back,” said John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C. “A lot of production either isn’t going to happen at all, or it’s going to happen somewhere other than the United States. There are going to be fewer stores, fewer factories, fewer financial services operations. Firms are making strategic decisions that they don’t want to be in their businesses.”
Commodity prices, including oil, have started to bottom out and are likely to rise in the second quarter, supported by signs China’s economic stimulus plan has taken effect, investment bank Barclays Capital forecast today.
The bank predicts the price of a barrel of oil will rise to $50 in the second quarter and to $76 by the fourth, Justin Hyde, director overseeing commodities sales in Asia, said in Hong Kong. He recommends investing in commodity markets at current prices.
The nation’s unemployment rate topped 8 percent last month and the economy shed 651,000 jobs, according to government data released this morning, further evidence of the deepening recession that has devastated the stock market and home prices and triggered the largest government recovery effort since the Great Depression.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the jobless rate rose from 7.6 percent in January to 8.1 percent in February, the highest rate in more than 25 years. An estimated 12.5 million Americans were unemployed in February, the data show, an increase of 851,000 since January.
The government also revised sharply upward the number of jobs the economy lost in December and January to show a total of nearly 2 million jobs disappearing in the last three months. December saw the most job losses, according to the revised figures, with 681,000, significantly more than the previous estimate of 524,000. The number of jobs lost in January rose to 655,000, up from a prior estimate of 598,000.
I just prefer to call it the new Shea. In my eye’s it will never be CITI FIELD because SHEA was built on the love of the game not big corporate sponsors.In fact if big business did not get involved in baseball maybe it would of kept the players honest instead, greed just took over like a bat out of Heck and things just don’t seem the same but one thing remains I will not be calling it CITI FIELD. What happens if CITI goes under the METS will have the CHITI curse. So if your a Met fan and you see another Met fan just ask them are you going to the New Shea. Lets keep the legacy alive not erased by nuances and gimmick’s.
WASHINGTON — President Obama vowed Thursday to end a decades-long stalemate on overhauling the health care system, and he indicated for the first time that he was open to compromise on details of the proposal he put forth in the 2008 campaign.
Mr. Obama spoke at a White House forum on health care, where he bluntly warned lobbyists and “special interests” not to stand in the way of efforts to rein in costs and guarantee coverage for all Americans. He said he intended to achieve those goals this year.
“During the campaign,” Mr. Obama said, “I put forward a plan for health care reform. I thought it was an excellent plan. But I don’t presume that it was a perfect plan or that it was the best possible plan.”
As a candidate, Mr. Obama said he would establish a public insurance program to compete with private insurers and would require employers to contribute to the cost of coverage for their employees or to the cost of the public plan. Insurers oppose the idea of a new public plan. Click Here To Continue Reading Obama Says He Is Open to Altering Health Plan
The trouble is, unlike recessions, which are easy to define, there are no firm rules for what makes a depression. Everyone at least seems to agree there hasn’t been one since the epic hardship of the 1930s.
A Depression doesn’t have to be Great — bread lines, rampant unemployment, a wipeout in the stock market. The economy can sink into a milder depression, the kind spelled with a lowercase “d.”
And it may be happening now.
The trouble is, unlike recessions, which are easy to define, there are no firm rules for what makes a depression. Everyone at least seems to agree there hasn’t been one since the epic hardship of the 1930s.
But with each new hard-times headline, most recently an alarming economic contraction of 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter, it seems more likely that the next depression is on its way.
“We’re probably in a depression now. But it’s not going to be acknowledged until years go by. Because you have to see it behind you,” said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland.
Aaron Hill and Vernon Wells each hit two-run homers and the Toronto Blue Jays spoiled Alex Rodriguez's return to the New York lineup, beating the Yankees 7-3 on Sunday to halt their eight-game winning streak.
Armed with multiple dressing rooms and costume changes, Gaga makes a memorable debut.By Mawuse Ziegbe Lady Gaga performs at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards Photo: Getty Images After the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Lady Gaga was no longer just another face in the pantheon of rising pop stars who occasionally hit the red carpet in a zany getup. She […]
Russ-Kat's backstage interactions are broken down in 'The VMAs: Revealed'By Mawuse Ziegbe Katy Perry and Russell Brand Photo: Jeff Vespa/ Getty Images MTV Video Music Award nominee and California Gurl Katy Perry has summed up the main reason why fans tune in to the madness every year: "The VMAs are always the best show to watch […]
The George Clooney thriller breaks away from the pack on the holiday weekend.By Mawuse Ziegbe George Clooney in "The American" Photo: Focus Features The Box-Office Top Five #1 "The American" ($12.9 million) #2 "Takers" ($11.4 million) #3"Machete" ($11.3 million) #4 "The Last Exorcism" ($7.5 milli […]
Economy
White House officials and some members of Congress reacted strongly Sunday to news that insurance giant AIG had intended to pay out $165 million in bonuses and compensation. The company has received at least $170 billion in federal bailout money.
Commodity prices, including oil, have started to bottom out and are likely to rise in the second quarter, supported by signs China’s economic stimulus plan has taken effect, investment bank Barclays Capital forecast today.
WASHINGTON — President Obama vowed Thursday to end a decades-long stalemate on overhauling the health care system, and he indicated for the first time that he was open to compromise on details of the proposal he put forth in the 2008 campaign.
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