Lawrence McDonald

Article by Jody Shenn, Lorraine Woellert and Prashant Gopal, Bloomberg President Barack Obama answered Ben S. Bernanke’s appeal for more action to fix the U.S. housing market that’s restraining the economic recovery by proposing a plan to help borrowers reduce their monthly mortgage payments. Obama is sending Congress legislation that would allow homeowners to tap record-low borrowing costs, potentially boosting [...]

Article by JoAnne Ellen, Reuters A record 84 percent of Americans say they disapprove of the way the Congress is doing its job compared with just 13 percent who approve of how things are going, according to a Washington Post/ABC News public opinion poll published on Monday. The disapproval rating for Congress inched up two [...]

Courtesy of DC Tripwire Major Actions This Week: White House On Wednesday, President Obama announced the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Also on Wednesday, the President announced three recess appointment to fill the remaining seats of the five-person National Labor Relations Board. On Thursday, President Obama and Defense [...]

Article By Yalman Onaran, Bloomberg U.S. regulators, required by Congress to remove credit ratings from banking rules, have devised a plan anchored in a Paris-based group’s rankings that assign zero risk to most European government debt. The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed rules last [...]

Newedge Senior Director Larry McDonald and Euro Pacific Capital Senior Market Strategist John Browne on efforts to boost the housing market and the close economic and cultural ties between the U.K. and U.S. Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com

Article By Richard Rubin, Bloomberg The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a two-month extension of an expiring payroll tax cut, escalating a clash with the Senate and President Barack Obama that may result in smaller paychecks for workers in January. In a 229-193 vote, the House requested formal negotiations on a payroll tax cut extension [...]

Article By Zeke Faux and John Detrixhe, Bloomberg Four months after Standard & Poor’s stripped the U.S. of its AAA credit rating and said the world’s biggest economy was no longer the safest of borrowers, dollar- denominated financial assets are doing nothing but appreciating. Government bonds have returned 4.4 percent, the dollar has gained 8.6 percent [...]

Article By Laura Litvan, Bloomberg Congress is ending what may be its least productive year on record after government shutdown threats, the collapse of debt-reduction talks and little action to fix the worst U.S. economy since the Great Depression. Just 62 bills were signed into law through November this year, meaning that 2011 may fall short of [...]

Article By Hope Yen, Associated Press Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net [...]

Article By Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan, Reuters The United States on Wednesday faced the prospect of an imminent government shutdown for the third time this year as a year-end fight between Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress over taxes and spending turned nastier. Democrats, led by President Barack Obama, are refusing to sign off [...]