WASHINGTON - Legislation proposed this week by U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd could result in big changes in the way financial institutions do business.  Dodd, the Democratic Party chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, says the bill expands the Federal Reserve’s role in policing large financial institutions and creates a new consumer protection agency.  But some […]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has announced a new strategy aimed at boosting U.S. exports, saying his administration will work to level the playing field around the world for U.S. businesses and workers.
Linking America’s economic recovery with its ability to expand exports, the president used a speech to the U.S. Export-Import Bank in Washington to […]

WASHINGTON - The United States says it will debut a new design to the hundred-dollar bill next month.
In a statement Friday, the Treasury Department said it makes decisions about currency redesigns by evaluating “ongoing counterfeit threats.”
The department said the new look will help protect against fraud.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent in February. Fewer jobs were lost than many economists had feared, but the statistics show that many companies don’t have enough faith in an economic recovery to start hiring now.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the economy lost 36,000 more jobs last month […]

WASHINGTON - Several of President Barack Obama’s strongest supporters in the U.S. Congress say a big loophole in the economic stimulus bill they passed last year is helping foreign companies.
The problem is with the portion of the economic stimulus bill used to fund alternative energy projects.
If a project is being constructed by the government, all […]

WASHINGTON - New U.S. government figures show the world’s biggest economy grew faster and stronger than first thought at the end of last year.
The U.S. Commerce Department Friday said the nation’s gross domestic product expanded at a 5.9 percent annual rate for the last three months of 2009, boosted by increased business spending.  That is […]

WASHINGTON - The head of the U.S. central bank has warned that the country’s economic recovery still needs help to overcome key obstacles, including a high unemployment rate.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday that efforts to spark the economy have helped increase demand for products and consumer spending.  But […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama says the massive economic stimulus bill he signed one year ago has prevented another Great Depression and kept millions of Americans working. The president is celebrating the anniversary of the bill’s signing.
President Obama says the $787 billion Recovery Act is working.  “It is one of the main reasons the […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a law that will allow the U.S. to borrow nearly $2 trillion more than before.
The president signed the bill Friday night at the White House with little public fanfare.
The maximum debt the U.S. can carry is now $14.3 trillion. The U.S. was already poised to exceed the […]

WASHINGTON - The number of newly-laid off Americans rose unexpectedly last month. The government’s overall unemployment figure is due out Friday, and economists do not expect any improvement in the number.
The latest snapshot of the U.S. labor market shows employers squeezing more production out of existing workers rather than hiring additional help. The number of […]

WASHINGTON - As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his first State of the Union Address, he faces some bleak economic predictions from congressional budget analysts.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday projected slow improvements in employment and warned of an unsustainable longer-term fiscal situation against a background of rising debt.
The CBO projections came […]

WASHINGTON - Asian stock prices have dropped in line with markets in the United States after President Obama announced plans for new limits on how banks invest.
Benchmark indexes in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Seoul fell up to two and a half percent Friday. Some markets sank nearly three percent in early trading, but the […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for tighter regulation of America’s largest banks and lending institutions. The president’s plan would let regulators limit the size of big banks and rein in their risk-taking activities. 
President Obama says he wants to avoid a repeat of last year’s failure of several banks and other financial firms, […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is using his weekly address to once again call on the country’s top banks to take responsibility for their role in the global financial crisis and repay the financial industry bailout in full.
The president this week proposed a “financial crisis responsibility fee” for about 50 of the country’s largest […]

WASHINGTON - New reports issued Thursday show key sectors of the United States economy are still struggling, despite some indications a modest recovery is starting to take hold.
The U.S. Commerce Department said retail sales fell 0.3 percent in December, capping a record decline for retail sales last year.
Consumer spending is a key driver of the […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. central bank made a record profit in 2009 due to earnings it accrued through emergency measures aimed at saving the economy from crisis.
In a preliminary report released Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will turn over $46.1 billion to the federal government.  That money comes from income the central bank […]

WASHINGTON - A White House economic advisor says there is an “overwhelming” need to do more to spur U.S. job creation and solidify a fragile economic recovery.  The comment follows a disappointing monthly unemployment report that showed continuing job losses in the United States.
Less than a year after President Barack Obama signed into law the […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy lost 85,000 jobs last month while the unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent.
The Labor Department released the disappointing figures in its worse-than-expected December report Friday.  IG Markets senior market analyst Dan Cook explains how the financial community is responding.
“The reaction is definitely negative,” said Dan Cook. “Although I don’t […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is taking a controlling stake in GMAC Financial Services by providing $3.8 billion in fresh aid to the company, which is the former financing arm of U.S. auto maker General Motors.
The Treasury Department Wednesday said the new aid, which comes from a taxpayer-financed bailout fund, is less than the roughly […]

WASHINGTON - New figures released Monday show that holiday shoppers in the U.S. spent a little more compared to last year.  Mastercard, which compiled the data, says retail sales rose 3.6 percent from November until Christmas day, up sharply from a 2.3 percent drop for the same time last year. 
A winter storm that slammed the […]

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans signing up for unemployment compensation rose slightly, as the nation’s economic recovery proceeds on a bumpy and uneven pace.
While jobless claims mostly have been declining in recent months, a report Thursday from the Labor Department shows an increase of 7,000 to 480,000. 
The U.S. jobless rate is at 10 percent, […]

WASHINGTON - As his first year in office nears an end, U.S. President Barack Obama is gearing up for his second.  The nation’s economy, the war in Afghanistan and November’s congressional elections may determine whether the president is able to advance his agenda. 
President Obama spent much of 2009 trying to heal a sick economy and […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is proposing a series of initiatives intended to put more Americans to work.  The president’s plan focuses on small businesses, energy and the nation’s highways and bridges.
President Obama says his administration has steered the U.S. economy away from what could have been a depression.  But he says seven-million Americans […]

WASHINGTON - As the Climate Change talks get underway in Copenhagen this week, there is much attention focused on alternative energy sources that produce little or no greenhouse gas pollution.  Some of these energy sources - like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal - are also attractive because they are renewable and offset the need for […]