Lawrence McDonald

Courtesy of DC Tripwire Major Actions This Week: White House ·         On Wednesday, President Obama is expected to give remarks on the economy during a speech in northern Virginia. Senate ·         On Wednesday, Senate and House conferees will meet to consider the payroll tax/unemployment insurance/”doc fix” extension (HR 3630). House ·         Next week, the House [...]

Article by BBC News The EU’s 27 leaders are discussing how to create jobs and growth amid calls to go beyond enforcing budget discipline. The EU has more than 23 million unemployed people and there are fears that wide-ranging budget cuts will harm enterprise and training. The eurozone crisis is dominating the EU summit in [...]

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 Lucia Mutikani, Reuters The number of Americans filing for new jobless benefits dropped to an almost four-year low last week, and factory activity in the mid-Atlantic expanded moderately, suggesting the economy carried some momentum into the new year. But the pace of growth probably will slow. Analysts cautioned the drop in jobless claims [...]

Provided By DC Tripwire  Yesterday the Federal Reserve Board of Governors issued a proposal on federal stability rules governing the nation’s largest banks and those institutions, which the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) will designate as systemically important. The impact of the proposal would govern from capital requirements to single-party credit exposures among the largest and [...]

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 Richard Cowan and Rachelle Younglai, Reuters The Senate overwhelmingly passed the legislation by a vote of 89-10. It is expected to be voted on by the House of Representatives next week, and if approved, will then go to Obama for his signature. The measure also would extend long-term unemployment benefits for another two [...]

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 Hal Weitzman, Financial Times Job creation across the world is set to slow in the first three months of next year as companies scale back hiring in response to global economic uncertainty, according to a leading survey of employers. The Employment Outlook survey, to be released on Tuesday, will be unwelcome news for [...]

Content below provided by my partner, DC Tripwire: Bernanke Facing Tough Questioning in Rare Senate Budget Committee Appearance In a rare appearance before the Senate Budget Committee on Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman will testify only one hour after the Department of Labor releases its December jobs report. Many expect the employment numbers will show a slight decrease in unemployment claims, from [...]