Via the WSJ Real Time Economics Blog:
European Central Bank board member Mario Draghi Friday called on governments to bolster demand by boosting spending or cutting taxes, the first such exhortation from an ECB official during the current crisis. It’s far more typical to hear ECB officials, including President Jean-Claude Trichet, admonishing governments to adhere to [...]
The NYT has a story about the Treasury Department’s plan to help homeowners facing foreclosure:
As the Treasury Department prepares a $40 billion program to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure, it confronts a difficult challenge: not making the plan too tempting to people like Todd Lawrence.
An airline pilot who lives outside Norwich, Conn., Mr. Lawrence has [...]
Chuck Schumer has asked the Treasury Department to justify a tax change that makes bank mergers more attractive (via WaPo):
“I am concerned that the Notice, which was never debated by Congress, could end up costing taxpayers tens of billions of more dollars on top of the hundreds of billions of dollars already approved by Congress [...]
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis and its monthly report on Personal Income/Spending, in the past few months, US consumers have cut back on big-ticket purchases and expenses and started saving for a change. Nominal consumer spending decreased 0.3% for the month of September, after a flat August. This was inline with economists estimates, as a loss was [...]
