The JPMorgan $2-billion-trading-loss story is nearly a week old, and the news has predictably gone through the various spin cycles of the political right and left. Initially, progressives pounced on the loss as reason to strengthen the yet-to-be-fully-implemented Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Conservatives then pushed back on that conclusion arguing that the loss was not [...]
Any way you cut it, the Labor Department’s announcement that the U.S. economy added just 115,000 jobs in April is a disappointment. Economists had been expecting 160,000 new jobs, and even that number is far below the kind of growth our economy needs to get back to full strength in the near term. At the same time, the unemployment rate [...]
Market-observers are worrying about a new obstacle in the path of economic recovery: America’s impending “fiscal cliff.” Economists from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to Alan Blinder have been warning of the $600 billion that will be sucked out of the U.S. economy – through a combination of tax increases and spending cuts – at the end of 2012 if [...]
It’s been a long slog, but government officials and representatives from major U.S. banks have reportedly come to terms on a settlement that would put an end to federal and state investigations into alleged foreclosure abuses by financial institutions. The White House will announce the official details early this afternoon, but several reports paint a picture of [...]
