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.THE WHITE HOUSE (Gray DC) - In a broadcast exclusive, President Donald Trump tells Gray Television Washington Bureau Chief Jacqueline Policastro he’s ready to step in to provide another stimulus to Americans struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. “The plague came in, and it’s not the people’s fault. So, we want to take care of them,” said Trump. The president said he wants to extend the $600 weekly benefit to unemployed Americans. -------Snip------ Jacqueline Policastro: Do you think people on unemployment should continue to get the extra $600 each week? President Trump: Yeah. I want to get them. I want to...

FED: WE MAY DO MORE Sam RoMay 1, 2013, 2:10 PMThe Federal Reserve has completed its Federal Open Market Committee meeting, and it has just published its statement. For now, the Fed is on hold with its month purchases of $85 billion worth of bonds in its efforts to keep interest rates low. However, one of line that was new this time around was this: The Committee is prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases to maintain appropriate policy accommodation as the outlook for the labor market or inflation changes. In determining the size, pace, and composition...

Ratings firm Egan-Jones cut its credit rating on the U.S. government to "AA-" from "AA," citing its opinion that quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve would hurt the U.S. economy and the country's credit quality. The Fed on Thursday said it would pump $40 billion into the U.S. economy each month until it saw a sustained upturn in the weak jobs market. In its downgrade, the firm said that issuing more currency and depressing interest rates through purchasing mortgage-backed securities does little to raise the U.S.'s real gross domestic product, but reduces the value of the dollar. In turn, this...

Thursday’s meeting of the governing body of the European Central Bank (ECB) will happen as calls for the central bank to take further action to solve the euro zone debt crisis by acting as lender of last resort for troubled countries increase. The committee is expected to keep interest rates on hold at the historic low of 1 percent, and hold back on further action, despite growing calls for the bank to resort to quantitative easing – buying government bonds in primary markets, like the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve. “(Mario) Draghi (the head of the ECB) can’t...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry has been on a Bernanke-bashing binge this week, demanding on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve "open their books up." That comment comes after Perry said earlier this week that it would be "treasonous" if Chairman Ben Bernanke used Fed policy to stimulate the economy before the election. But what books exactly does Perry want opened? The Federal Reserve already publishes its balance sheet online every Thursday for the entire world to see. Not only that, it is audited regularly. Every year, an external accounting firm audits the financial statements of the Federal...

Markets react to ratings cuts in the U.S.STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Investors are weighing both the downgrade and the Investors are waiting anxiously for major world markets to open for Monday trading, following the U.S. credit rating downgrade to AA+ from the top rank of AAA. Stock futures tumbled more than 2% at the start of electronic trading Sunday, signaling a nasty investor reaction According to data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, S&P 500 futures fell 30 points, or 2.7%. Nasdaq-100 futures contracts slipped 54 points, or 2.5%. Dow Jones industrial average futures were 292 points, or 2.6%, lower. The futures...

With just over a week left to the QE2 announcement, discussion over the amount, implications and effectiveness of QE2 are almost as prevalent (and moot) as those over the imminent collapse of the MBS system. One of the amusing debates on the topic has been how much debt will the Fed print. A brand new analysis by Jan Hatzius, which performs a top down look at how much monetary stimulus is needed to fill the estimated 300 bps hole between the -7% Taylor Implied Funds Rate (of which, Hatzius believes, various other Federal interventions have already filled roughly 400 bps...

Goldman Sees "Disturbing Signs" If Government Does Not Bow Down To Krugman, Reflate Monetary And Fiscal Bubbles Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/06/2010 19:09 -0500 Last week, Goldman, in a piece unambiguously titled The Second Half Slowdown has Begun, made it all too clear that unless the US government were to succumb to yet another, and another, and another round of drunken sailor spending, the gratuitous ability of its sellside analyst to place crap companies on Conviction Buy lists may suddenly become mysteriously impaired as reality seeps through the gaps, thereby infuriating CEOs of worthless and overlevered widget makers, who...

Reviving the world's burst-bubble economy seems further away than ever In the US and in Ireland, governments have been scrambling again to support their banks. By Ian Campbell, breakingviews.com Last Updated: 6:25PM GMT 16 Jan 2009 For the economic prospects of these countries, and the world economy, that is troubling. Recession is only just beginning and yet many banks are holed. Governments are being obliged to pour in more capital, adding to the huge liabilities they now face. This vicious circle augurs poorly for recovery. /snip It's not yet the time. But monetising bad debt and devaluing paper money may...

Bush asks Congress for $700 billion for bailout WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is asking Congress to let the government buy $700 billion in bad mortgages as part of the largest financial bailout since the Great Depression.

U.S. rescues Fannie, Freddie Treasury Department raises credit line, has power to buy companies' stock. Fed will open discount-lending to two government-sponsored mortgage lenders. Paulson calls for new regulatory controls.