financial crisis

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Geithner Puts Brakes on Bank Repayments

Treasury sec reluctant to free Goldman, others from constraints

(Newser) - Tim Geithner is warning Wall Street that he will consider more than banks' individual financial fitness when deciding whether they can pay back bailout funds—and escape from the strings attached to them. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury secretary says that the whole banking system,...

Green Marketing Blossoms Despite Recession

'Eco-friendly' products are selling even as consumer spending dwindles

(Newser) - Manufacturers of eco-friendly products are finding themselves in the green despite the sputtering economy, Advertising Age reports. One research company reports 458 launches of products that claim to be sustainable or environmentally friendly in 2009, a trend that—if it holds—would triple the number of green launches last year...

Men Hit With 80% of US Layoffs
 Men Hit With 80% of US Layoffs 
Apr 20, 2009 10:33 AM CDT

Men Hit With 80% of US Layoffs

The gap between male and female unemployment is the widest on record

(Newser) - Of the 5.1 million US jobs that have evaporated since the recession began, men have lost nearly 80% of them, the Financial Times reports, resulting in the widest gap between unemployment rates for men and women since recordkeeping began a half-century ago. Layoffs have nudged the male unemployment rate...

Banks Seize Herds as Recession Hits Mongolia

Badly managed loans and overconfidence in cashmere have Mongolians in default

(Newser) - Proving the recession is truly global, banks in Mongolia are threatening to foreclose on herders’ goats, sheep, and camels, the Wall Street Journal reports. Mongolians call it a financial “zud,” a local term for unusually devastating winters. Falling cashmere prices stemming from the West’s recession—the high-end...

US May Avoid More Bailouts by Trading Loans for Equity

Conversion could stretch bailout fund by $100 billion

(Newser) - President Obama’s economic team has figured a way to keep the banks afloat without asking Congress for more money, by converting the government's existing bailout loans to common stock, the New York Times reports. The conversion plan could stretch Treasury’s fund by more than $100 billion, but it...

Debt Settlers Promise Relief, Provide Little

Cash-strapped consumers claim companies charge fees without reducing debt

(Newser) - State attorneys general are being overwhelmed with complaints about “debt settlement” companies that promise consumers relief from mounting bills but rarely deliver, the New York Times reports. The number of such companies, which often collect fees of 15% of the total debt to negotiate with creditors, has tripled in...

Bank Lending Still Down 23% 4 Months After Bailout

Journal says Treasury's tally hides damage

(Newser) - Banks that received taxpayer aid to restart lending are loaning less than they did before the bailout, a Wall Street Journal analysis finds. The most recent figures available, from February, show a 23% drop in new loans from the lending level in October, when the Treasury Department kicked off TARP,...

Fannie Mae CEO Picked as Bailout Chief

Former Merrill Lynch prez to overhaul $700B TARP program

(Newser) - Wall Street veteran and Fannie Mae CEO Herb Allison has been nominated to oversee the Treasury's $700 billion bank rescue, Bloomberg reports. If confirmed by Congress—where he's likely to be grilled on his defending of bonuses at Fannie—Allison will be tasked with deploying the second phase of the...

Economy Saps Sarkozy's Approval Ratings
Economy Saps Sarkozy's Approval Ratings
ANALYSIS
Apr 17, 2009 3:14 PM CDT

Economy Saps Sarkozy's Approval Ratings

'Action-man president' looks powerless on crisis

(Newser) - Nicolas Sarkozy should be well positioned to gain political capital from the global recession, having warned against capitalist excess years before the crisis quashed pro- deregulation argument. But the French president’s approval rating keeps dropping, the Economist reports. It fell another 2% in April, to 36%. As the crisis...

Citing Too-Low Prices, Banks Won't Sell Toxic Assets

Stress test an Obama weapon

(Newser) - Banks are proving so reluctant to part with their so-called “toxic assets” that the Obama administration may have to strong-arm them into doing so, Time reports. Banks are protesting that the prices being offered—about $70 per $100 bond by the magazine’s calculations—are too low. That’s...

Taxpayers Must Become Activist Investors: Icahn
Taxpayers Must Become Activist Investors: Icahn
OPINION
Apr 16, 2009 11:05 AM CDT

Taxpayers Must Become Activist Investors: Icahn

What the government did at GM should be a lesson: get rid of bad leadership

(Newser) - Barney Frank was right when he said a retention bonus is “a nice word, it turns out, for extortion,” writes Carl Icahn for the Huffington Post. “Very few managers are irreplaceable, especially in this economy”—so why do they get paid extra to stay with a...

Herd Mentality Moves Many to Needless Penny-Pinching

Psychology has everyone spending less, even those who don't need to

(Newser) - Amid the economic distress, many people who can spend as freely as they could before aren’t, the Washington Post reports. Such consumers, economists say, take psychological cues from friends and the media and pinching pennies needlessly—which only helps deepen the downturn. Upper-income consumers cut spending from $185 in...

New Home Construction Down 11% in March

Slow pace projects that market dive hasn't run its course

(Newser) - Housing construction plunged to the second-lowest level on record last month, providing a sobering sign that the worst housing slump in decades has not ended. Construction of new homes dropped by nearly 11% , the second-lowest construction pace in records that go back 50 years. The decline was worse than economists...

Foreclosures Rose 24% in First Quarter

Rate expected to rise through the summer

(Newser) - The number of American households threatened with losing their homes grew 24% in the first 3 months of this year and is poised to rise further as major lenders restart foreclosures after a temporary moratorium, figures out today show. Though the Obama administration has invested $75 billion to help up...

As Biz Fizzles, UK Pubs Hit Last Call

Cash-strapped Brits hit up supermarkets for cheaper booze

(Newser) - A proud British tradition is going down the drain as debt squeezes the two chains that own one-third of UK pubs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Instead of heading to their local establishments, many British drinkers pick up booze with their groceries for about half the price they'd pay at...

Jobless Japanese Work the Land

$10M government program trains new agricultural force

(Newser) - As their country struggles with its worst recession since World War II, many Japanese city slickers stymied by the job market are trying out the farming life, the Wall Street Journal reports. Aiming to rejuvenate an industry in which two-thirds of full-time workers are 65 and older, the government has...

Chilly Reception Awaits Obama at Summit

Odds are, summit will be full of awkward moments

(Newser) - President Obama got a warm welcome on his recent Europe trip, but he shouldn't expect the same from Latin America, the Washington Post reports. At the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, the new president is likely to face some tough questions, and potentially awkward moments, as...

Bernanke's PR Campaign Strips Fed Mystique

Fed chief considering press briefings as part of push for more open central bank

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke is breaking from his predecessors at the Federal Reserve by giving the public a less obstructed view of the Fed's role in the big picture, the Wall Street Journal reports. Bernanke, thrust into the spotlight by the financial crisis, has ditched the man-behind-the-curtain mystique earlier chiefs reveled in...

Feds May Reveal Which Banks Are Weakest

Results of 'stress tests' may go public

(Newser) - The administration may go public with some of its "stress test" results, which diagnose how well the country's 19 biggest banks will weather the financial crisis, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. The administration has so far been treating all banks equally, but the stronger banks could soon be...

Obama: We're Not 'Out of the Woods Just Yet'

(Newser) - President Obama said today that the US faces a long slog in finding its way out of financial tumult, but emphasized that he is seeing signs of hope, the New York Times reports. "Times are still tough," he said. "By no means are we out of the...

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