Politics, Government and Business in Southern California's Inland Empire
Sunday, April 21, 2013 – 01:00 pm.
The situation surrounding the now highly-publicized Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) heated to a boiling point this past week, when affected homeowners started receiving checks meant to help offset improper and illegal foreclosure practices leveled at them by banks.
Sunday, February 10, 2013 – 12:00 p.m.
Here’s an update and recap of news coming across the transom this past week.
Dorner manhunt update
There’s still no sign of Former LAPD Officer and Murder Suspect Christopher Dorner as of late Sunday Morning.
By Don Lee and Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
December 13, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve said it will continue aggressive measures to stimulate the economy and made a major policy shift to focus more directly on boosting the job market.
Friday, September 14, 2012 – 03:00 p.m.
Institutional ratings agency Egan Jones cut its rating on the sovereign debt of the United States to AA- from AA Friday.
Friday, September 14, 2012 – 08:00 a.m.
It was only a matter of time.
Faced with a stalling economy the U.S. Federal Reserve, led by Chairman Ben Benanke, has started the end game in trying to stave off another economic decline.
Thursday, July 12, 2012 – 12:05 p.m.
The latest growing scandal involving major money center banks, and their complete lack of respect for rules, involves allegations that Barclays, Citigroup, UBS, JPMorgan Chase and others, manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) from 2005 to 2008.
LIBOR is the rate banks charge each other for short-term loans.
Friday, July 6, 2012 – 12:01 p.m.
Four months until the Presidential election and another monthly jobs report containing more bad news on Friday.
The U.S. economy only generated 80,000 jobs in June. The expectation was for 100,000.
Thursday, June 21, 2012 – 08:45 a.m.
News coming across the transom this morning.
No healthcare ruling from Supreme Court
It looks like next week will be the week. Next Monday that is.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times
June 11, 2012, 9:06 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The typical American family lost nearly 40% of its wealth from 2007 to 2010 as the Great Recession reduced household net worth to a level not seen since the early 1990s.
The net worth of the median U.S. family — one with an equal number of families richer and poorer — fell to $77,300 in 2010 from $126,400 three years earlier, after adjusting for inflation, the Federal Reserve said in a new report Monday.
By Phil Kuntz and Bob Ivry – Dec 22, 2011 9:01 PM PT
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, talks about Bloomberg News’ response to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s letter to four senior lawmakers yesterday that said recent news articles about the central bank’s emergency lending programs contained “egregious errors.” Winkler speaks with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Thursday, December 1, 2011 – 10:00 a.m.
All the misplaced euphoria over the recent drop in weekly first-time unemployment numbers, along with the Fed loaning the European Union (EU) some $600 billion, seems a little suspect.
The Fed is doing nothing more than manipulating markets in the short-term, with money it really doesn’t have.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wall Street enjoyed a big jump Wednesday morning, after a coordinated action by central banks around the world to provide more liquidity to the global financial system.
The U.S. Federal Reserve, after a similar effort in September, will “lower the pricing on the existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points so that the new rate will be the U.S. dollar overnight index swap (OIS) rate plus 50 basis points.”
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 – 02:00 p.m.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed nearly 500 points on Wednesday on news the U.S. Federal Reserve will drop the rate foreign banks pay it to exchange the euro for the U.S. Dollar.
In other words, a promise to artificially print more money by doing nothing more than pushing buttons on a computer.
The move up, once again, brings stocks to the unchanged level for the year.
By Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz – Nov 27, 2011 4:01 PM PT
Bloomberg Markets Magazine
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
Friday, November 25, 2011 – 11:45 a.m.
U.S. stocks ended lower for the seventh trading session in row on Friday,
While investment analysts cry that “Stocks are cheap.”, “It’s a buying opportunity.”, “I like stocks here.”, and “Investors shouldn’t panic.”, the markets continue to recede.
Even the recent trading range doesn’t look too warm and fuzzy.
By Terence P. Jeffrey
November 16, 2011
Subscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey’s posts
(CNSNews.com) – At the close of business on Tuesday, the debt of the federal government exceeded $15 trillion for the first time–with the largest single owner of the publicly held portion of that debt being the Federal Reserve.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 – 09:00 a.m
Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and other institutions, who have resisted helping struggling homeowners, dumped billions in bad mortgages on the government-owned Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) in the 3rd quarter of 2011.
A practice which has been ongoing for years now.
Fannie Mae recorded a loss of $7.8 billion for the period ending September 30.
Sunday, October 16, 2011 – 07:25 p.m.
Wells Fargo dumping bad mortgages on U.S. taxpayers?
Say it isn’t so.
Martin Crutsinger and Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writers
Tuesday October 4, 2011, 6:04 pm EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Europe has a debt crisis. America has a jobs crisis. Corporate profits could be in trouble. World financial markets are in turmoil. And no one seems prepared to ride to the rescue.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned Congress on Tuesday of what most of America has sensed for some time: The economic recovery, such as it is, “is close to faltering.”
Thursday, September 22, 2011 – 12:10 p.m.
Hold the presses!
Just out: The economy isn’t going to get better anytime soon.
Money & Company
Tracking the market and economic trends that shape your finances.
August 21, 2011 | 5:52 pm
One of the Federal Reserve’s primary roles is to be the lender of last resort to banks. It played that role to the tune of stunning $1.2 trillion during the financial-system crisis that began in 2007, according to data compiled for the first time by Bloomberg News.
Planet Wes
Wesley G. Hughes, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/14/2011 04:46:33 PM PDT
The “experts” keep talking about a double-dip recession.
That’s all wrong. You can’t dip back into something you never got out of.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Neil Irwin
Published: August 14
Barely two years after the financial crisis ended, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke were back at it about a week ago. They were working the weekend phones with their counterparts in Europe, urging them to use overwhelming force to contain the continent’s spreading debt crisis, which was unnerving markets on both sides of the Atlantic.
By Rita Nazareth – Aug 8, 2011 1:08 PM PT
U.S. stocks tumbled, extending the biggest slump for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since 2008’s bear market, amid concern that a downgrade of the nation’s credit rating by S&P may worsen an economic slowdown.
Monday, August 8, 2011 – 10:00 a.m.
Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the sovereign credit rating of the United States was a long time coming.
Friday, August 5, 2011 – 06:00 p.m.
As expected, rating agency Standard and Poors lowered the soverign credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA+ late Friday afternoon.
Money & Company
Tracking the market and economic trends that shape your finances.
July 26, 2011 | 6:00 pm
The strongest sign of worry about the U.S. debt drama may be showing up in the dollar, which is on track for its third straight weekly decline.
Sunday, July 17, 2011 – 06:00 p.m.
If it doesn’t alarm you it should.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is holding $2.6 trillion in U.S. Government-issued bonds and bank-issued mortgage-backed securities on its balance sheet.
Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
Monday July 4, 2011, 4:34 pm EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — This is one anniversary few feel like celebrating.
Two years after economists say the Great Recession ended, the recovery has been the weakest and most lopsided of any since the 1930s.
Martin Crutsinger and Derek Kravitz, AP Business Writers
Thursday June 23, 2011, 12:28 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sour reports Thursday on the number of people who sought unemployment benefits and buyers of new homes illustrate what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged Wednesday: Many factors weighing on the economy are proving to be more chronic than first imagined.
Published: Friday, 10 Jun 2011 | 2:58 PM ET
By: Reuters
The flood of Federal Reserve money that has supported Wall Street and the rest of the U.S. economy for two and a half years will shrink to a trickle with the conclusion of the Fed’s bond purchases announced Friday.
Sunday, May 29, 2011 – 09:30 p.m.
The situation for Americans in general isn’t so hot these days, and it’s likely to worsen.
Williams
Money & Company
Tracking the market and economic trends that shape your finances.
May 4, 2011 | 5:51 pm
The Federal Reserve’s new top official in the West, in his first public speech, defended the central bank’s policy course and said that fears of serious inflation erupting from Fed stimulus programs were unrealistic.
14 lenders and 2 servicers to reimburse homeowners who were incorrectly foreclosed upon
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government on Wednesday ordered 16 of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders and servicers to reimburse homeowners who were improperly foreclosed upon.
Tokyo may need to raise money to rebuild after the earthquake, but selling their U.S. Treasury bonds could create problems of its own. The nuclear power shutdown will affect production throughout Japan and boost demand for oil.
By Don Lee and Tom Petruno, Los Angeles Times
March 14, 2011, 6:12 p.m.
Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles –
Japan’s need to raise huge amounts of money for reconstruction after the disastrous earthquake raises the prospect of higher U.S. costs to finance its own budget deficit and ultimately higher costs to American consumers on financing everything from houses and cars to credit card debt.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 – 09:30 a.m.
Don’t be fooled! It’s not working.
Efforts by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to prop up investment markets, known as QE2 (Quantitative Easing – 2nd phase), doesn’t appear to be working.
Why you ask?
Though few have paid attention, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s conclusions clearly point out the failures by regulators — and the (un)regulated — to rein in excesses that predictably led to ruin.
By Michael Hiltzik
February 6, 2011
The public reaction to major man-made disasters always follows the same life cycle: First come shock and outrage, then demands for investigation and retribution against the guilty, and finally resignation about God’s mysterious ways, fatigue and ennui.
Published: Friday, 21 Jan 2011 | 4:58 PM ET
Concerns that the Federal Reserve could suffer losses on its massive bond holdings may have driven the central bank to adopt a little-noticed accounting change with huge implications: it makes insolvency much less likely.
By James Politi
Published: January 13 2011 22:15 | Last updated: January 13 2011 22:15
It was the most startling of warnings. If the US does not get its finances in order “we will have a European situation on our hands, and possibly worse”, claimed Paul Ryan, the new Republican chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee.
By Tom Raum, Associated Press – January 15, 2011
WASHINGTON – The United States just passed a dubious milestone: Government debt surged to an all-time high, more than $14 trillion.
That means Congress soon will have to lift the legal debt limit to give the nearly maxed-out government an even higher credit limit or dramatically cut spending to stay within the current cap. Either way, a fight is ahead on Capitol Hill, inflamed by the passions of tea party activists and deficit hawks.
Fed Chief Says State and Local Governments Shouldn’t Expect Federal Loans
JANUARY 8, 2011
By JON HILSENRATH And NEIL KING JR.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday ruled out a central bank bailout of state and local governments strapped with big municipal debt burdens, saying the Fed had limited legal authority to help and little will to use that authority.
Although the unemployment rate dropped dramatically to 9.4% in December, the government reported, employers added only 103,000 jobs, below many analysts’ expectations. The report on average weekly work hours was also disappointing.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times
January 8, 2011
Reporting from Washington —
The nation’s unemployment rate dipped last month to the lowest level since the spring of 2009. Still, the economy created substantially fewer new jobs than had been expected – a painful reminder of just how slow the jobs recovery may continue to be.
By Jeannine Aversa, Ap Economics Writer – 30 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sketched a more optimistic view of the economy Friday but said the Fed’s $600 billion bond-buying program is needed because unemployment will likely stay elevated for up to five more years.
Sunday, December 12, 2010 – 09:00 p.m.
Economic conditions counterproductive to growth continue to emerge in opposition to what government officials keep telling all of us.
While holiday sales trend slightly ahead of a dismal 2009, interest rates continue a steady march higher. Even as the U.S. Federal Reserve Board embarks on its second so called ‘quantitative easing’ process.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 – 10:40 a.m.
Interest rates on U.S. Treasury securities continued climbing today with the rate on the 10-year treasury bond now hitting 3.13% this morning.
The 10-year treasury instrument remains the benchmark for mortgage loans.
Friday, December 3, 2010 – 10:30 a.m.
This mornings grim news on the economy was no surprise here.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor the national unemployment rate climbed to 9.8% in November. Up from 9.6% in October.
The net number of jobs added? A paltry 39,000, of which, most were temporary positions likely to leave the workforce after the holiday season ends.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 3, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalPERS was among the big winners in an obscure Federal Reserve loan program aimed at rescuing the nation’s troubled credit markets last year.
The state’s other big pension fund, CalSTRS, also participated in the program, but to a much smaller degree, according to records released this week by the Federal Reserve.
By Robin Harding in Washington
Published: November 21 2010 20:07 | Last updated: November 21 2010 20:07
The US Federal Reserve will slash its growth forecasts and predict higher unemployment when it releases updated economic projections this week.
The Fed will release the latest forecasts made by members of its rate-setting open market committee on Tuesday, alongside the minutes of their November meeting, giving a complete picture of why they launched a new $600bn round of asset purchases.
Monday, November 1, 2010 – 11:30 a.m.
President Barack Obama and congressional democrats can place a major portion of the blame for their pending gutting at the polls tomorrow squarely at the feet of the banking industry.
There are several factors in-play here.
Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics speaks at the opening session “Rebalancing the Global Economy” at the Global Financial Forum in New York April 26, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Segar
On Friday October 29, 2010, 3:31 am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is a “fiscal train wreck” waiting to happen that risks ushering in a period of stagnation featuring by minimal growth, high unemployment and deflationary pressure, U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini wrote on Friday.
In a commentary for the Financial Times, Roubini — one of the first economists to predict the housing crash in the United States and known as ‘Dr Doom’ for his pessimistic forecasts — said fiscal and monetary stimulus had prevented another depression.
Sunday, August 29, 2010 – 12:30 pm
Updated: August 29, 2010 – 08:50 pm
It’s baffling to hear the rhetoric, chatter, and the denials regarding the condition of the state and local economy.
Yes, it’s going to get worse. A situation that’s bad for everyone. Politicians, businesses, and everyday folk. Denial is still in full swing.
By Robin Harding in Jackson Hole and Helen Thomas in New York
Published: August 29 2010 19:57 | Last updated: August 29 2010 19:57
Investors are braced for a week of crucial economic data that could decide the Federal Reserve’s next move after chairman Ben Bernanke said it would ease policy if the outlook deteriorated “significantly”.
Bernanke
By Jim Puzzanghera
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 27, 2010|7:45 a.m.
Reporting from Washington —
The Commerce Department on Friday downgraded the nation’s economic growth in the second quarter, providing the most important evidence yet that the recovery has stalled.
The anemic annualized growth rate of 1.6% was down from last month’s estimate of 2.4%. The drop was slightly less than many economists had predicted, but the report still put an exclamation point on a week of bad economic news that has raised fears the nation could plunge into another recession.
By James Politi in Washington
Published: August 8 2010 19:15 | Last updated: August 8 2010 19:15
The Federal Reserve is set to downgrade its assessment of US economic prospects when it meets on Tuesday to discuss ways to reboot the flagging recovery.
Faced with weak economic data and rising fears of a double-dip recession, the Federal Open Market Committee is likely to ensure its policy is not constraining growth and to use its statement to signal greater concern about the economy. It is, however, unlikely to agree big new steps to boost growth.
The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 9:33PM BST 04 Jul 2010
“The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession,” said Robert Reich, former US labour secretary. “All the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing.”
“Home sales are down. Retail sales are down. Factory orders in May suffered their biggest tumble since March of last year. So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing,” he said.
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