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January 31, 2009 Steep Slide in U.S. Economy as Unsold Goods Pile Up By LOUIS UCHITELLE The economy shrank at an accelerating pace late last year, the government reported on Friday, adding to the urgency of a stimulus package capable of bringing the country back from a recession that appears to be deepening. The actual decline in the gross domestic product — at a 3.8 percent annual rate — fell short of the 5 to 6 percent that most economists had expected for the fourth quarter. But that was because consumption collapsed so quickly that goods piled up in inventory,...

U.S. GDP unrevised at a 0.5% fall for third quarter By Greg Robb, MarketWatch Last update: 8:46 a.m. EST Dec. 23, 2008 Comments: 173 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the third quarter, declining at a 0.5% annual rate, unrevised from last month's estimate, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. It's the weakest quarterly growth rate since the first quarter of 2001. The economy grew 2.8% in the second quarter. Economists now say that a recession began December 2007, based on data showing declining employment, incomes and industrial production. But it didn't really sink in until the July-September...

China's economy shrinks Beijing, Dec 1: The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector dropped to 38.8 percent in November, down 5.8 percentage points from October, indicating that the country's economy has further contracted, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said Monday. It was the index's lowest point since the CFLP initiated the survey with China's National Bureau of Statistics in 2005. It was also the fourth time China's PMI declined below 50 percent within this year, which reflected the country's economy had further contracted, analysts said. The PMI included a package of indices used to measure...

Employers Slashed 80,000 Jobs in March Friday April 4, 10:10 am ET By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer Employers Chopped 80,000 Jobs Last Month; Unemployment Rate Rose to 5.1 Percent WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses. At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking. The new snapshot of the job market, released by the Labor Department Friday, underscored the damage that a...

North Korea's Economy Shrank in 2006 Thursday August 16, 4:36 am ET By Kelly Olsen, AP Business Writer North Korea's Economy Shrank in 2006 Amid Nuclear Tensions SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea's economy shrank for the first time in eight years in 2006 amid an international nuclear standoff, energy shortages and falling farm output, South Korea's central bank said Thursday. The contraction represented a sharp turnaround from 2005 when the North's gross domestic product was estimated to have risen 3.8 percent, the Bank of Korea said in a report. "Difficulties are presumed to have persisted in North Korea's...

Bud Selig's buddiesEven good writers are doing bad stories on the issues behind the looming baseball strike. Why is the media peddling the owners' line? - - - - - - - - - - - -By Allen BarraJuly 18, 2002  | I've been covering sports business -- which by definition means mostly baseball business -- for 22 years now. There have been times when I've been amused, surprised, peeved and angered by the coverage of labor problems in the sports press, but 2002 is the first time I've ever felt disgusted. A collective insanity seems to have spread into nearly...

Thu Jul 18, 9:52 PM ET By BEN WALKER and RONALD BLUM NEW YORK (AP) - The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, said to be having cash-flow problems earlier this year, were more than two weeks late before making nearly $1 million in deferred payments to Steve Trachsel and Gerald Williams, several baseball officials told The Associated Press. AP Photo Trachsel, now pitching for the New York Mets, was due $428,571.43 on June 30 under a contract he signed with Tampa Bay two years ago. But the Devil Rays did not direct deposit that amount until Wednesday, according to four management...

Labor talks to resume ThursdayNEW YORK -- As baseball prepared to resume labor negotiations following an All-Star break dominated by talk of strike, steroids and stalemate, commissioner Bud Selig claimed a team may not be able to make payroll Monday. Selig made the comment during an interview Wednesday in Milwaukee with the Houston Chronicle and other papers, saying during the session that a second team had so much debt that it might not finish the season. Selig did not identify the teams he was referring to, and there was no way to corroborate his claims. The Houston Chronicle reported in...

JULY 10, 22:10 ET Selig: Team Might Not Make Payroll AP/Morry Gash [24K] NEW YORK (AP) As baseball prepared to resume labor negotiations following an All-Star break dominated by talk of strike, steroids and stalemate, commissioner Bud Selig claimed a team may not be able to make payroll Monday. Selig made the comment during an interview Wednesday in Milwaukee with the Houston Chronicle and other papers, saying during the session that a second team had so much debt that it might not finish the season. Selig did not identify the teams he was referring to, and there was no way...

Only 35 years old, the new owner of the Brewers, living a dream come true, Allan H. (Bud) Selig went to New York in April 1970 to attend his first owners' meeting. "I was excited," he says, especially when the commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, seated him between two of the game's old lions, the Cubs' Phil Wrigley and the Cardinals' Gussie Busch. "Now, that was heady stuff for a kid from Milwaukee," Selig says. Then the meeting started. "It was all about labor." Uh-oh. "Mr. Busch was slamming a cane down on the floor. He was very angry. Mr. Wrigley was...