Someone returning to Earth from a yearlong sojourn in outer space could be excused for feeling disoriented. After all, when said space traveler departed our fair planet, the U.S. economy was buckling under the weight of the burst housing bubble. ...

Tagged with: credit economy Federal Reserve housing bubble

If you want to make some big money, buy a chunk of those toxic mortgage-backed assets dragging down banks. You might harvest a bundle. Money is there to be made because investors, spooked by the bursting of the housing bubble, ...

Tagged with: banks Christopher D. Carroll economy Johns Hopkins University mortgage-backed assets toxic

Even with all of the hoopla around Barack Obama’s inauguration last week, did you still get the gnawing feeling that the retirement cushion you had built up is now little more than a throw pillow? After so much wealth disappeared ...

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President Barack Obama said he is confident that the economy can be reinvigorated, starting with the passage of a stimulus package, after meeting with the chief executive officers of some of the nation’s biggest companies. “It was a sober meeting ...

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The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is off to its second-worst start, shattering the biggest rally since World War II, as analysts cut earnings estimates by a record 83 percentage points and companies signal worse to come. The benchmark index ...

Tagged with: Alcoa Inc. analysts economy index Standard & Poor Time Warner Inc. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Barack Obama begins his term as 44th president of the United States with an ambitious agenda in addition to the pressing problems posed by an economic and financial crisis. Before he can get to either, the new president needs to ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama Ben Bernanke economy Federal Reserve Henry Paulson Troubled Asset Relief Program

My senses and spirit tingled with the pure energy of possibility when I was in Chicago on Election Day on Nov. 4, 2008. So much history was being made. Hope was in the air, shared by millions. That golden moment ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama economy foreclosure income-tax rebate jobs stimulus

It’s one thing for Barack Obama to begin his presidency with a call to rebuild the economy. It’s another to get the bulldozers moving. About $30 billion of Obama’s $825 billion economic stimulus plan is being set aside for highways ...

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A tough economy and the prospect of Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar may moderate the Obama administration’s wholesale elimination of President George W. Bush’s last-minute rules and the direction of U.S. health and safety policy. Transition officials and congressional Democrats ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama Cass Sunstein Congressional Budget Office economy George W. Bush jobs Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag

In an effort to spur the local economy and create jobs, St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann is proposing a “local stimulus package” aimed at spending $130 million of taxpayer money already allocated to cities for road improvement projects. But ...

Tagged with: career center Don Holt economy jobs St. Charles County Department of Workforce Development St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann stimulus package

This column has no working title, in part because the task of beginning a new year is daunting. This is especially true in the current economic environment, but I think the phrase “put your money where your mouth is” might ...

Tagged with: Bernie Madoff economy Wall Street