Latest Economic history Stories

U.S. markets advanced Friday after the Federal Reserve said household wealth grew in the second quarter for the first time in nearly two years. The biggest boost to household wealth was a 21.7 percent rise in stock values between April and July, the Fed said. By close, the Dow Jones industrial average added 36.28 points, 0.37 percent, to 9,820.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 added 2.81 points, 0.26 percent, to 1,068.30. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.29 percent, 6.11 points, to...

Financial regulators in Washington appear close to a pay policy that could put them deep into banks' boardrooms, and have also proposed a ban on flash trading. Using logic that extends the idea that its role is to keep financial firms from stumbling, the U.S. Federal Reserve is working on a policy that would allow it to review the rationale, if not exactly the level of pay, that bank boardrooms use in deciding compensation packages, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The proposal...

Global markets were given mixed messages Wednesday, but headed up, cheered by the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman's assessment of the recession winding down. Technically, a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but one quarter of positive growth is enough to call a halt to one. In prepared remarks Tuesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the financial crisis sparked a deep global recession, from which we are only now beginning to emerge. Later, in a question-and-answer...

A historic year on Wall Street has a likely capstone event with Monday's presidential address from the Federal Hall in New York. U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at 26 Wall Street Monday at the site of George Washington's inauguration in 1789 and the birthplace of the Bill of Rights. Obama will be charging, it could be said, into the lion's den 364 days after the sudden failure of Lehman Brothers, a collapse that has come to symbolize the catastrophic financial year in which...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the House Oversight Panel that an economic recovery needed more time, but an outright meltdown had been avoided. We still have a long way to go before true recovery takes hold, Geithner told the congressional panel charged with monitoring the nation's recovery effort. "September 2009 is a far cry from the crippling fear and panic of September 2008, Geithner said. Forceful interventions sidestepped a catastrophic systemic meltdown, he said,...

Outstanding consumer credit fell by $26.1 billion in July, far greater than economists predicted, the U.S. Federal Reserve said Tuesday. Revolving credit, including credit card loans, fell $6.1 billion, while non-revolving credit dropped $15.4 billion. On an annual basis, credit plunged 10.5 percent, as banks increased lending restrictions and consumers cut spending. Consumer credit fell for the sixth consecutive month. In June, outstanding credit dropped by $15.5 billion, the Fed said....

Economic analysts said the $787 billion economic stimulus package was beginning to show up in the U.S. gross domestic product.In a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden said the Recovery Act had a significant role in changing the trajectory of our economy. Instead of talking about the beginning of a depression, we are talking about the end of a recession, he said.It's a gigantic amount of fiscal stimulus and anyone who tells you it has had no impact, you...

Hong Kong's economy posted positive numbers in the second quarter compared to the first, an indication that the recession in Asia was in retreat. Hong Kong's economy grew 3.3 percent in the second quarter, although it shrank 3.8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2008, The New York Times reported Friday. Singapore also reported growth in the second quarter, as did South Korea. China, the world's third largest economy, is aiming for growth of 8 percent this year. Economists predict...

U.S. markets turned higher Wednesday, following a two-day skid that showed the economic recovery is more tentative than some experts expected. The Bureau of Economic Analysis said the U.S. trade gap rose in June to $27 billion, up from May's $25.9 billion, but not as high as the $28.4 billion economists had predicted. By close, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 120.16 points, 1.3 percent, to 9,361.61. The S&P 500 added 11.46 points, 1.15 percent, to 1,005.81. The Nasdaq index rose...

University of Maryland economist Peter Morici said the Great Recession will return once stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is spent. The reason, he said, is the size of the U.S. trade deficit. The deficit is currently 2.2 percent of gross domestic product, he said. At that size, the trade deficit subtracts about more from demand for U.S.-made goods and services than President Obama's stimulus package adds, said Morici, a former chief economist of the U.S....