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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Inflation took a bigger bite out of consumers' wallets over the last 12 months, with September marking the biggest rise in three years. But at the same time, monthly price increases are starting to slow. The Consumer Price Index, the government's key measure of inflation at the retail level, jumped 3.9% in September from the year before. Higher food and energy prices again were the biggest culprits, with food 4.7% more expensive than a year earlier, and energy prices jumping 19.3%. Even core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, posted a 2% gain...

Obama To Propose $1.5 Trillion In Tax Increases Tomorrow Zeke Miller Sep. 18, 2011 President Barack Obama will ask the Super Committee to double its mandate and cut $3 trillion from the federal deficit, according to White House officials, with half of the savings coming from tax increases on corporations the wealthy. Republicans have already rejected a central component of the plan — the so-called "Buffett Rule," which would set a minimum tax rate for those with incomes over $1 million. This tax increase goes well above and beyond the approximately $800 billion agreed to by Speaker of the House...

It is the most common adverb of the Obama years: “unexpectedly.” ● “Sales of U.S. previously owned homes unexpectedly dropped in July,” reported Bloomberg. ● “Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly contracted in August by the most in more than two years as orders plunged and factories shed workers,”reported Bloomberg Businessweek. ● “Consumer spending unexpectedly fell in June,” reported Reuters. ● “Dismal economic data on Thursday pointed to an unexpectedly abrupt slowdown in manufacturing and a pickup in inflation,” reported the New York Times’ business page.This is just in the past week; hundreds of articles each month note that some...

Only 26 percent of the public approves of President Obama's handling of the economy in the latest Gallup poll, conducted Aug. 11-14, while a whopping 71 percent said they disapproved. That's down from Obama's previous low point of 35 percent on this top issue. The public's growing dissatisfaction shouldn't be surprising. Going back to 1890, reports the National Bureau of Economic Research, the only U.S. president with a worse record than Obama in job creation in his first two and a half years in office, measured in terms of percentage change, was Herbert Hoover, presiding over the emergence of the...

An actual quote from today’s remarks: “There are some in Congress right now who would rather see their opponents lose than see America win.” To which Steve Hayes, irked by the sight of yet another straw man being torched, replies, “Who are they?” The answer, I can only assume, is congressional progressives: They’re the ones who refuse to budge on the ruinous Medicare spending that’s rocketing the country towards fiscal collapse, as doing so would forfeit their party’s big campaign issue next year. But in case The One’s referring to tea-party congressmen (as he surely is), what was amazing about...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday he inherited much of the country's problems with high debt and deficits when he entered the White House, sounding a theme likely to dominate his 2012 re-election campaign. Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser, Obama also defended his economic record and noted that problems in Europe were affecting the United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors fled stocks on Thursday, putting the S&P 500 into correction territory, as worries about the U.S. economy and European debt escalated. All three indexes were down 2 percent, having fallen more than 3 percent each at one point. Decliners beat advancers on the New York Stock Exchange by 14 to 1. "People are throwing in the towel because they can't find relief on any front. There are a lot of worries about the economy," said Milton Ezrati, market strategist at Lord Abbett Co. in Jersey City, New Jersey, which manages $110 billion in assets. The...

The U.S. debt ceiling crisis had an unnecessary negative impact on the economy, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday, while a congressional impasse over aviation could cost the government $1 billion in lost revenues. Obama signed legislation into law on Tuesday that would raise the U.S. debt ceiling and cut spending, averting a default hours before a deadline. "The economy is still weakened, partly because of some things we couldn't control like the Japanese earthquake and the situation in Europe as well as the Arab Spring and its effect on oil prices," Obama told reporters at the White House at...

By rights, Barack Obama should be emerging as the big political winner in the debt ceiling debate. For months, he’s positioned himself near the center of public opinion, leaving Republicans to occupy the rightward flank. Poll after poll suggests that Americans prefer the president’s call for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to the Republican Party’s anti-tax approach. Poll after poll shows that House Republicans, not Obama, would take most of the blame if the debt ceiling weren’t raised. Yet the president’s approval ratings have been sinking steadily for weeks, hitting a George W. Bush-esque low of 40...

More stores across the U.S. that offer deeply-discounted products are seeing their sales decline after years of growth amid America’s “Great Recession” — and one analyst said on Monday it’s another sign of even deeper downturn. SNIP “I think what’s going on in those stores is that we are in a depression for 80 percent of Americans,” SNIP “In other words, the economy is continuing to be worse, the Obama depression continues to explode,” he added.

Obama: I Underestimated Magnitude Of The Recession        Advertisements [?]   Source: Talking Points Memo President Obama openly acknowledged underestimating the length and magnitude of the worst recession since the Great Depression in a response to a question during his Twitter town hall. Always a tough question to answer, Obama was asked what mistakes he made in handling the economic crisis and what he would have done differently looking back on his first months in office. Obama freely admitted that he would have tried to do a better job explaining "to the American people it was going to take a...

Wednesday’s so-called Twitter town hall meeting conducted by President Barack Obama was certainly unprecedented. But was it a sign of trouble at Obama reelection headquarters in Chicago? Over the past few weeks, Democrats in Washington, D.C., have been driving the message of “shared sacrificed” as it pertains to the federal government’s fiscal policy going forward in dealing with record deficit and debt issues. But in an appearance on Wednesday’s “The Laura Ingraham Show,” National Journal congressional correspondent Major Garrett explained there were some unresolved questions, especially when it comes to the question of what Americans are getting for their sacrifice....

It is well documented that Wall Street was deeply offended by Obama's "fat cat" comments after he was elected President, so much so, that longtime Democratic supporters have shifted their support to the GOP for the next election. In fact, some Wall Streeters even alleged that at an even more basic level, Obama just doesn't like rich people. But apparently the disdain for Bam on the Street may be mostly appearances. According to Andrew Ross Sorkin at Dealbook, While many of the biggest name financiers feel that they can’t publicly support Mr. Obama through campaign contributions the way they did...

June brings us much more centrally planned stagflation. CPI increased 0.2% in May, higher than expected 0.1%, and up 3.6% Y/Y. This is the 11th consecutive increase in inflation. And so much for the CPI ex-Food and Energy which came at +0.3% on expectations of 0.2%, up from 0.2% in April: "The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.3 percent in May, its largest increase since July 2008. The indexes for apparel, shelter, new vehicles, and recreation all contributed to the acceleration, rising more in May than in April. These increases more than offset declines in the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks skidded on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq off 1 percent as more weak economic data cemented fears of a slowdown and prompted big Wall Street players to slash their forecasts ahead of the closely watched payrolls report on Friday.

Economic Policy: Today's choppy economic growth conjures up memories of the '70s, when another Democrat presidency reigned over a similar period of stagnation, dubbed the era of "malaise." Like the Carter years, the Obama years so far are marked by anti-business policies and anemic business activity. This week's raft of gloomy economic reports confirm the zombie Obama recovery has hit another dangerous soft patch. Among the bad news: • Businesses last month slashed orders for autos and other durable goods by the largest amount in six months. • Industrial output dropped the most in April for any month since the...

Kenya says it is surprised and shocked by reported comments about the country contained in leaked U.S. diplomatic memos. The German magazine Der Spiegel says the cables depict Kenya as a "swamp of corruption." Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua says that if the report is true, the comments are malicious and a total misrepresentation of Kenya and its leaders.

It is a war of words, because words stand for ideas. Winston Churchill said that history would be kind to him, because he would write it. Inflation is not coming, it is here. Perhaps calling debasement of the currency “Quantitative Easing” has allowed the government hand of inflation slip into our pockets a little bit less noticed than in the 1970’s. The dirty secret, however, is not what the Fed has been calling it. The Consumer Price Index, used almost universally to measure inflation, does not recognize inflation when packages have been “Obamasized”: That’s because of how the CPI—the Consumer...

Election 2010: Nine days before Americans go to the polls, CBS' "60 Minutes" tells the true story of just how many of them are in the unemployment line. Brother, can you spare a vote? Back in the day when President Reagan was trying to right the ship of state after the malaise and economic wreckage left by Jimmy Carter, the phrase "stay the course" was in vogue. These days, when even the mainstream media can see we've hit the iceberg, maybe it's time to change course. Then the promise of across-the-board tax cuts would bear fruit. All the Democrats are...

The talk of the town for the next few days will be this big piece by Peter Baker in the NYT on President Obama. The piece paints a picture of a despondent administration: Yet even if the White House saw it coming, this is an administration that feels shellshocked. Many officials worry, they say, that the best days of the Obama presidency are behind them. They talk about whether it is time to move on. While not in the 30s, Obama’s approval rating in surveys conducted by The New York Times and CBS News had fallen to 45 percent last...