Economy began shrinking in December 2007, panel declares

WASHINGTON - The economy fell into recession late last year, according to a panel of economists that is responsible for determining the dates of business cycles.

Monday's declaration by the panel of the National Bureau of Economic Research confirms what many private economists, lawmakers and members of the general public already have assumed and puts an official date on it: A U.S. recession began in December 2007.  read more »

Bush's Final Defeat in Iraq Is Finalized

On the road for the holiday, but here's a little nugget--and it's updated below. And let's notice that this Thanksgiving, George W. Bush did not bother to visit the troops in Iraq and serve them turkey....

As George W. Bush continues his vanishing presidency act, he's not had to deal with much fallout from the agreement his administration has negotiated with the government of Iraq--an agreement that compels the U.S. to remove its forces from Iraq.  read more »

Not surprisingly, the "Seven Days of Sex" sermon that Pastor Ed Young gave his Texas congregation earlier this month has really caught on.

Young challenged his parishioners to have sex with their spouse every day for a week to see how it benefited their relationship. And although he bases his 'sexperiment,' as he calls it, on Christian ideology--that God created sex for husband and wife--it would seem that the fundamental message is resonating outside church walls: more sex is a always a good thing, even if you have to schedule it.  read more »

The Treasury and Fed added to the ever-growing confusion over various bailout plans by announcing two new multi-billion dollar efforts today. At the same time, President-elect Barack Obama urged fiscal restraint while announcing additional members for his economic team. Obama plans to push through a stimulus package that has it's own price tag of $500 billion to $700 billion over two years.

At a press conference early in the day, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson revealed an $800 billion plan to help unfreeze consumer debt, a program that he called vital.  read more »

Now that things are tight, it is time to start making the things we own last longer rather than simply throwing them out and replacing them. It is not as easy as it used to be; things used to be designed to be repaired, you could dismantle them relatively easily and they were made in this country so it was easier to get parts. Things were also a bit more solid before everything started getting made out of plastic.  read more »

Many march to remember, others to forget. But for those who truly know war, no parade is necessary to help us remember, as the memories of war are with us every day of our lives, haunting our existences. Nor does marching in a parade help us put to rest the turmoil of a life interrupted and impacted by war, or forget the dying and the killing. Parades accomplish nothing other than to allow those who make war easily or who ignore completely its reality and horror to feign support and appreciation and to relieve their collective guilt for immoral war. Marching in a parade neither educates nor informs about the realities of war. "  read more »

The ninth wind farm in South Australia just opened on the Barunga Ranges near Snowtown. Its 47 turbines, installed by Trust Power of New Zealand, (who already operate that countries largest wind farm at Tararua), are said to have a capacity to deliver over 98MW. The company reckon this renewable energy should provide sufficient power for 70,000 Australian households.  read more »

Feature - More numbers about the 2008 presidential campaign are surfacing: Join us for a look at the web audience, fundraising, cost and young voter turnout surrounding a billion dollar election.

Internet audience

- Nielsen Netratings estimates that the U.S. audience following major news coverage on the ten largest Internet properties in this category was 60.5 million people on November 4, compared to just under 40 million the week before. The estimated number of unique users on November 4 was 42.4 million; pageviews jumped by 103% to 868.3 million. President-elect Senator Barack Obama was mentioned in nearly 20% of all blog discussions on Wednesday. In comparison, Senator John McCain was referenced by just 6.3% of all blog entries posted the same day.  read more »

Obama wonEven if your candidate didn't win tonight, you have reason to celebrate. We all do.

Ten months ago, when Obama won in Iowa, we had a glimpse of what was possible and what became real tonight. What I wrote then about one state is now true for the whole country:

Barack Obama's impressive victory says a lot about America, and also about the current mindset of the American voter.

Because tonight voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to step into the future -- as if a country exhausted by the last seven-plus years wanted to recapture its youth.  read more »

The Night Barack Obama Was Elected
(Rex Alpha)  read more »

The American economy can take a lot of abuse, but no economy is invincible. Illustration: by Edward Sorel.The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.

When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this page.

I can hear an irritated counterthrust already. The president has not driven the United States into a recession during his almost seven years in office. Unemployment stands at a respectable 4.6 percent. Well, fine. But the other side of the ledger groans with distress: a tax code that has become hideously biased in favor of the rich; a national debt that will probably have grown 70 percent by the time this president leaves Washington; a swelling cascade of mortgage defaults; a record near-$850 billion trade deficit; oil prices that are higher than they have ever been; and a dollar so weak that for an American to buy a cup of coffee in London or Paris—or even the Yukon—becomes a venture in high finance.  read more »

As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging in the United States. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy.  read more »

Baby boomers Delaying Retirement

WASHINGTON - Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion — or about 20 percent overall — in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday.

The upheaval that has engulfed the financial industry and sent the stock market plummeting is devastating workers' savings, forcing people to hold off on major purchases and consider delaying their retirement, said Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office.  read more »

Traders gather at a post on the New York Stock Exchange floor, Tuesday Oct. 7, 2008. Wall Street rose moderately early Tuesday, with investors getting some encouragement that the Federal Reserve's plan to buy massive amounts of corporate debt: will help unclog the credit markets. The markets showed some signs of easing. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)NEW YORK — The misery worsened on Wall Street Tuesday, with stocks piling on losses late in the session and bringing the two-day decline in the Dow Jones industrials to more than 875 points amid escalating worries about credit markets and the financial sector.

The Dow lost more than 500 points and all the major indexes slid more than 5 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index saw its first close below 1,000 in five years.

Steps by the Federal Reserve to reinvigorate the dormant credit markets ultimately weren't enough to calm nervous investors. News about financial companies only added to their despondent mood.

"The calls I'm getting _ every money manager I deal with, and every client I talk to _ are just very emotional. This is a very, very emotional time, and most of them are taking steps to shore up their defenses, reducing exposure to stocks just to defend their portfolios," said Hugh Johnson, chairman and chief investment officer of Johnson Illington Advisors.

The magnitude of the stock market's plunge is reflected in the Dow's grim stats:  read more »

The Senate passed its version of a mammoth plan to rescue the financial services industry Wednesday night, saying changes designed to protect individual investors and small business owners could be enough to persuade reluctant House members to go along with the plan.

Senators agreed to the plan 74-25 as an amendment to an unrelated bill, which was passed shortly thereafter.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who put together the original scheme to bail out the banks after Lehman Bros. and other financial institutions collapsed on Wall Street earlier this month, welcomed the “strong bipartisan vote.”  read more »

NBC: Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.House to meet Thursday after rejecting bailout.
GOP, Democrats argue effect of Pelosi speech on $700 billion plan’s failure

BREAKING NEWS

WASHINGTON - In a stunning vote that shocked the capital and worldwide markets, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.  read more »

Bailout Talks Founder, WaMu Collapses in Deepening Financial Crisis.

The nation’s financial crisis has intensified as federal regulators seized Washington Mutual on Thursday in what is the largest bank failure in American history. Federal regulators have arranged to sell off most of the bank at a bargain rate to JPMorgan Chase. We get analysis from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and economics professor Michael Zweig."  read more »

The US will lose its role as a global financial “superpower” in the wake of the financial crisis, Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said on Thursday, blaming Washington for failing to take the regulatory steps that might have averted the crisis.

“The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system. This world will become multi­polar” with the emergence of stronger, better capitalised centres in Asia and Europe, Mr Steinbrück told the German parliament. “The world will never be the same again.”  read more »

Inside an intense White House meeting over the financial crisis on Thursday, where nearly every key player came to an agreement on the outlines of the bailout package, Sen. John McCain stuck out. The Republican candidate, according to sources with direct knowledge, sat quiet through most of the meeting, never offered specifics, and spoke only at the end to raise doubts about the rough compromise that the White House and congressional leaders were nearing.

McCain's reluctance to jump on board the bailout agreement could throw the entire week-long negotiation into a tailspin. Sen. Chris Dodd, after leaving the White House, suggested on CNN that the tenuous process could be derailed by what he viewed as McCain's political motives.  read more »

The US FDIC, the body created during the Great Depression to ensure bank deposits, may need an additional bailout of at least $150 billion. (Photo: Reuters)Deal Close on $700 Billion Financial Bailout Plan

Editor's note: As Democrats negotiate the details of the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout plan, a new report from Bloomberg News says that the US Federal Deposits Insurance Corporation - the body created during the Great Depression to ensure bank deposits - may need an additional bailout to the tune of at least $150 billion. The FDIC bailout story is included below. mr/TO

Washington - President Bush is bringing presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain into negotiations on a $700 billion rescue of Wall Street as Democrats and Republicans near agreement on a bailout plan with more protections for taxpayers and new help for distressed homeowners.  read more »