Bowles Says Deficits Will Make U.S. ‘Second-Rate’

Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the commission on U.S. deficit reduction, said entitlement programs such as Social Security will turn the nation into a “second- rate power” if their costs aren’t reduced. “We’re going to mess with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security because if you take those off the table, you can’t get there,” Bowles said today in a speech to North Carolina bankers... [Read more]

German bankruptcies up 15.5 pct in December

German corporate bankruptcies rose in 2009 for the first time in six years, with filings up 15.5 percent on the year in December in the wake of recession, government data showed Tuesday. The Federal Statistical Office said 2,583 companies filed for bankruptcy protection in the last month of 2009. The year-on-year increase compared with a smaller 6.9 percent rise in November, but was in line with big... [Read more]

Fed’s Evans Says Labor Market Weakness Pervasive

Weak U.S. labor markets are likely to justify easy money policies for quite a while longer, a top Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday. “Labor market issues … lead me to think this accommodation will likely be appropriate for some time,” Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said in remarks to the National Association for Business Economics. Given a sluggish economic... [Read more]

Fears of a Greek bank run

In the middle of the 2001 debt crisis, Argentines stormed their nation’s banks to get their money out. To stop the stampede, the government imposed controls that allowed them to take out only $250 at a time and limited withdrawals for overseas trips to $1,000. Greece, in the middle of its own financial crisis, is teetering on the brink of a default. Many of its wealthier citizens are also uneasy... [Read more]

Regulators shut 3 more banks to bring total this year to 25 failures

Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois and Maryland, boosting to 25 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Sun American Bank, based in Boca Raton, Fla., with $535.7 million in assets and $443.5 million in deposits. Also seized were Bank... [Read more]

US Fiscal Path Unsustainable: Senior Budget Analyst

U.S. fiscal policy is on an unsustainable path that cannot be rectified by minor tinkering, a senior budget policy analyst said Monday. Read More: – Reuters  Read More →

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